Lina and Matt Ryan have a healthy conversation.
Matt – So am I right in saying that this whole Arbonne thing started as you were using some of their products?
Lina – Yes, correct. Well actually, I was online looking for a vegan collagen builder and the only thing that I could find was the Arbonne one.
Matt – So how did we go from you surfing the net looking for vegan collagen builders to me becoming an Arbonne consultant and us maxing out on their 30 day detox programme?
Lina – If you remember earlier this year I was suffering from that really bad skin rash…
Matt – Ah, I completely forgot about that. The bloody doctors were useless as I remember and all they could give you was that super toxic steroid cream that never worked.
Lina – You don’t remember that!?! It was 3 months of hell!
(Matt goes to sit in the naughty corner for not remembering the 3 months of hell)
Lina – To be honest at that point I would have tried anything. I watched an Instagram video by a friend who talked about how gut health has such a big effect on your skin. She also talked about how the 30 day detox programme, which is vegan, soy and gluten free, is a gut cleansing detox – and that was it – BAM!
And I managed to get you to do it with me! Haha! Sucker
Matt – I only agreed to do the detox as you agreed to watch Seinfeld with me every night forever and ever- which you’ve since reneged on. Actually the gut thing was a massive eye opener for me – maybe I’m a bit stupid for not knowing that a large percentage of the body’s serotonin is contained in the gut and if you have an unhealthy gut then you have an unhappy bunny. Did you know about this too?
Lina – Do you mean you have an unhappy bunny? Or you are an unhappy bunny? Either way, no I didn’t know that.
Matt – If you’ve got an unhealthy gut for whatever reason, usually diet, then the body doesn’t get much serotonin. Let me just check in with Mahatma Google for a complete explanation of what Serotonin does ..
Serotonin s a monoamine neurotransmitter. It has a popular image as a contributor to feelings of well-being and happiness, though its actual biological function is complex and multifaceted, modulating cognition, reward, learning, memory, and numerous physiological processes.
So there you go if you’re feeling sluggish a bit glum and can’t remember shit (which sounds like me on a good day) the chances are your gut needs a good ol fashion detox!
Ok back to detox – so we went on our detox journey – at what point did you start to notice a difference?
Lina – After a week I’d say. I was a BIG coffee drinker so I thought going without was going to kill me – but I was actually coping with that part ok. My rash was reducing and after 7-10 days it was complete gone! Felt like I’d won the lottery! Not only that – I started waking up feeling full of energy, so much happier and focused!
Matt – it took slightly longer for me as I remember – which apparently can happen. It wasn’t until we got back from Sweden and I started to do some yoga practice that I really noticed a big big difference. As you know at the back end of last year I was run down and was sick for maybe 2-3 months and my yoga practice fell off a cliff massively. I never really got back into my daily routine as I never really had the energy. I turned 50 in February and put my sluggishness aches and pains down to the fact I was getting old ha ha. Then 4 maybe 5 weeks into the detox and wow – it was pretty much night and day. I’ve not done the 2nd and 3rd series of Ashtanga Yoga for over a year and I’m right back into it now. I feel like I’m bloody 10 years younger.
I know we are so pleased with our own detox results but can you say a little about how much it has helped your mum and her partner?
Lina – My mum (65) and partner Jan-Olof (63) just completed their first 30 day detox. My mum has struggled with her weight for at least 10 years and suffers from high blood pressure and osteoarthritis, so I was really excited when she decided to try this out! To be honest I thought she’d hit a brick wall looking for any kind of pharmaceutical medicines to help alleviate the pain. For the first 2 weeks on the detox all I got from her were complaints of wind (haha) bad breath and feeling tired. And then one morning I woke up with a message from her saying that she felt amazing! She said her knees and wrists were no longer hurting, she slept better and felt more energetic than ever! Honestly, I cried with happiness…
Matt – And I and the rest of your Instagram followers can vouch for your tears when you did that live Instagram post and ended up blubbing into your phone hashtag teargate.
(Lina pinches Matt)
Matt – Owwww – only kidding my love! It was actually very sweet watching it in real time. Can we get back to your Mum now please?
Lina – So now they’ve completed the 30 days they got so much out of it they have decided to continue for a second month. Between them they have lost 32lbs (14kg) in weight and both feel amazing!
Matt – that is pretty amazing. In fact there are quite a few incredible stories from people on the detox programme, no?
Lina – There are so, so many feel good stories around the detox. People coming off anti-depressants with it, acute acne problems clearing up – there was one mother who put her young son on the programme. He had severe autism and after just a couple of weeks into the detox she noticed a massive difference in his behaviour.
Matt – I remember that autism story – that is pretty incredible really.
Right the kids need feeding, last question before I lock them in the cupboard. I saw on Social Media today about some of the leading high street skin care / beauty brands including Avon and Estee Lauder were resuming animal testing on their products apparently so they can sell in the Far East. Your thoughts?
Lina – absolutely disgusting. Can we talk about that tomorrow as it’s too much to go into right now?
Part two of this conversation will be posted next week.
Contact Matt for any further information on the above.
We filmed the above conversation so we could put it out on Social Media and YouTube but the kids made so much bloody noise whilst we were filming that we decided to just write it all down and put it out as a blog.