What I Learned When Life Hit Pause — Again

How the foundations of wellness helped me walk through one of the hardest seasons of my life

Yes, I’ve been quiet for a while. Life had other plans.

After a challenging health diagnosis, one surgery turned into three, and then five. In the span of 18 months, I faced eight anesthetics and a season that forced me to slow down. Healing became my full-time job.

But in the stillness and the discomfort, I saw something beautiful: the very health principles I’d built my life around—my mindset, my gut health, my food choices, my gentle routines, my relationships—became my lifeline. They didn’t just work in theory; they became my reality. And I’m more convinced than ever: true wellness is body, mind, and soul.

Mindset: The Starting Line

If there’s one thing I learned quickly, it’s this—how I thought about my situation shaped how I walked through it.

I could either see my body as failing me or see it as fighting to heal. I could spiral into fr...

“You only need motivation until a habit is formed. After that, the routine will take care of itself” 

 - Mel Robbins 2018 

Being prepared and having a daily routine helps you to maintain a healthy lifestyle, and helps your body to relax and develop a comfortable and predictable rhythm. The effect of this on your wellbeing is amazing.

Having a routine provides structure and familiarity

The structure is a way of organising your life so that it makes sense to you. When you have established a routine for yourself, you wake up with a sense of ownership, order, and organisation in your life which is empowering and gives you what you need to get everything done. Things may not go as planned every day but certain elements of your routine will keep you grounded in the unexpected times. 

Having a routine reduces anxiety

With the many forms of anxiety and mental health issues in the world today, the best way to counter some of them in life is to get organised with some very practical steps. ...

You’re made differently to every other person, and there will never be another you in the history of time. Even in cultural similarities we might have with other people, we each carry a unique worldview, set of skills, identity and purpose. The purpose you carry can only be outworked by you, the world needs you! Below we explore how to live out your unique purpose, and a few things that might be holding you back.

It starts with understanding who you are and appreciating what you carry. You need to be comfortable in your own skin, no matter who is standing next to you. It’s about skipping the comparison trap and moving into a world of peaceful acceptance. Valuing yourself is not overindulgent, greedy and selfish… it’s about discovering your true self so that you can serve with love and humility.

Read these 53 Bible verses about your identity in Christ

When you start to realise the wonder of your uniqueness, you start to value yourself. It's when you truly value what makes you differe...

Clean eating comes in many forms, through the plethora of information on food and wellness. Thankfully, real clean eating is simple, practical and possible for everyone. Below are 7 gut-conscious tips to eat clean everyday.

The idea is to ultimately eat as many wholesome foods as you can. Plants are power and contribute to a healthy gut microbiome and too much of some other good things (such as salt) in your diet can cause issues down the line. It's important to find the right balance, and make sure that your body is nourished properly from top to bottom with all the nutrients it needs to function. 

Many diets on the market these days will advocate for cutting out entire food groups to lose weight. Juice diets are also a go-to for many people who just need to lose that last stubborn 5kgs. These are not necessarily good! Read our blogs on yo-yo dieting and why diets don't work for more.

1. Eat more fruits and vegetables

It's a fact that many of us struggle to get as many fruits and ...

Many of us were brought up loving certain foods because the supermarkets do a great job of selling them to us, and we don’t even realise that some of these foods cause harm. In this blog, we’ll give you some practical tips to eliminate toxins from your diet so that you can live the life of freedom and vitality you long for.

You may be wondering how there could be toxins in food. The truth is that toxins are hidden in some of the most unsuspecting places. Did you know that the toxins found in certain foods can upset hormones and cause weight gain and cost you energy for life? If you’ve been feeling like you just can’t shake that last 2kgs or 5kgs or you’re exhausted at the best of times, then toxins and an imbalance in your hormonal structure could be the culprits. 

At YOUnique Life, our core focus is on helping our community to take small, practical steps toward food and lifestyle freedom. You were created to live a life of wholeness and vitality, from the inside out. We believe that...

A yo-yo dieting mindset is something we never intend when we start a diet. When we first sign up to the latest and greatest dieting plan, it really is with all of our best intentions. We also genuinely believe in the results we’ve witnessed others achieve and find ourselves spending a lot of money on supplements (depending on the diet plan).

However, it doesn’t take long before some of our past unhealthy habits start to slowly creep in again when life gets busy. This is normally when we either decide to start again “next Monday” or we completely give up only to start a new diet fad in the following January.

Research has shown us that yo-yo dieting can do us more harm than good. When we fail miserably with one eating plan and jump into the next one, our bodies take on the pressure and strain.

What Is Yo-Yo Dieting?

The word diet is often used in conjunction with the idea of our goal weight or our perceived goal weight.

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the word literally...

You may be asking, why should I balance my blood sugar? How does this even affect me? Or you might be seriously needing some help in balancing your blood sugar! Either way, we aim to lighten your load, by making it easier for you to incorporate healthy habits into your normal lifestyle.

First of all, Blood Sugar refers to the amount of sugar or glucose in your blood at any given time. If this is not balanced or in a normal state, it can lead to fatigue, or a loss of energy, it can cause issues with your moods and emotions, as well as cause unhealthy cravings and hormone imbalances. 

Here are some of the benefits of a balanced blood sugar:

• Increased energy.
• Stable moods.
• Improved concentration. 
• Weight loss/ stable weight. 
• Reduced risk of adrenal fatigue.
• Hormone balances.
• Reduces cravings.
• Minimise risk of disease.

One might say that a balanced blood sugar can really change your life! 

Here are 7 ways you can ensure you keep your blood sugar at a regular and normal lev...

The heart of our blog is to bring the right information to your news feed so that you can make wise decisions about food for you and your family. We hope you find our blogs enlightening and interesting! Today we are jumping into what preservatives are, and why they are not good for us.

What Are Preservatives?

Preservatives are used to ‘preserve’ food items so that they remain fresh, or as fresh–looking as possible. They help to increase the shelf-life of products and they make sure that there is no loss of taste or flavour in the product over an extended period of time.

There are two types of preservatives, they are either natural, or chemical and artificial.

Natural preservatives are natural ingredients that have not been chemically altered and are not mixed with any synthetic items either.

Artificial Or Chemical Preservatives are artificially produced or synthetic in nature. Often these are also called ‘additives’ on our everyday food labels. 

In a perfect world, we would not ...

There are so many diets and eating programs that you could follow. There is so much information out there that you could read and apply to your life, and before you know it, you end up more confused than before you even started.  We thought we would simplify this.

Here are some incredibly simple tips to getting healthy and sustaining a healthy lifestyle in yours and your family’s lives.

Think about what health means to you:

1. Is it to be thin?

2. Or having enough energy to get through our busy days?

3. Maybe it is to have no illness in your body?

Define what you see health as, and write it down. Spend time recognising why you are taking a step into a journey towards good health.

Once you have a good understanding of why you are doing something it cuts out a whole lot of other “noise”, which in turn helps you to not get yourself distracted by other fad diets or other people’s experiences.

Stick To Real Food

The real foods we are talking about are the foods that come str...

Hmmmmmmmm, Christmas smells like cinnamon spices, warm summery days with pineapples, and most of all, our healthy deliciously juicy gammon!

This recipe serves 8 people, with lots of leftovers for the week after Christmas 🙂

Ingredients

You will need:

A nice big gammon, approximately 1.8kg or 2kg.
125ml of rice malt syrup.
4 tablespoons of olive oil.
1 tablespoon of paprika.
2 teaspoons of ground cloves.
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon.
1 teaspoon of sea salt and 1 teaspoon of black pepper.
Zest of 1 big orange.
3 tablespoons of orange juice.

Instructions

Prepare the following on Christmas Eve:

1. Line your baking dish with baking paper or grease the pan with coconut oil.
2. Wash your meat and pat it dry so that it is ready to cook.
3. Combine the rice malt syrup, olive oil along with 4 tablespoons of water into a jug.
4. Stir in your spices, the salt, pepper, orange juice and orange zest.
5. Pour the mixture over your gammon and rub it into the meat.
6. Place your gammon into the baking dish and cove
...