Sarah’s journey into nutrition wasn’t a straightforward one. After spending years working in HR, including at Hotel Chocolat, her own fertility journey sparked a deep curiosity about how nutrition, lifestyle and hormonal health intersect. That curiosity eventually led her to retrain and build a business dedicated to helping women better understand their bodies and support their health through food and lifestyle changes.

More recently, Sarah has also been supporting me on my own gut health and hormone journey, and I can honestly say she is one of the most knowledgeable people I’ve ever met when it comes to understanding how food affects the female body.

What I love about Sarah’s approach is that she never starts with a quick fix.

She starts with curiosity…

• Why is your body doing what it’s doing?

• What is it trying to tell you?

• And are you listening?

As you’ll hear in this conversation, we end up exploring far more than just nutrition.

We talk about the gaps in sex education and how little many of us were taught about our hormones growing up. We talk about periods, PMS, fertility, stress, contraception, perimenopause, and the reality that so many women spend years feeling disconnected from their own bodies.

One of the things Sarah is particularly passionate about is helping women reconnect with their natural rhythms. We discuss the idea that women are often expected to function at the same level every single day of the month, despite our hormones naturally fluctuating throughout our cycles.

Where to Find Sarah

Sarah's Website

Root2Health on Instagram

Root2Health on Facebook

Root2Health on Pinterest

If you’d like to support independent conversations around holistic health, women’s wellbeing and becoming your own health advocate, you can subscribe to the JamJarGill Podcast for less than the price of a coffee each month.

Your support helps me continue creating these conversations and bringing incredible guests, experts and lived experiences to this growing community.

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I first met Lisa through the wonderful Instagram community a few years ago, when she was co-hosting the Radiant Warrior Podcast alongside fellow yoga teacher Aimee Pruitt. Their podcast explored how yoga and Ayurveda, the holistic philosophy behind yoga, helped them heal from anxiety, burnout, and life’s challenges in a deeply honest and relatable way.

At the time I discovered the podcast, I had already been practising yoga myself for around 20 years, but mostly from the physical side of things. I had never really explored the deeper philosophy behind yoga or understood how much the nervous system, breath, emotions, and mind-body connection all intertwine. What immediately drew me into their work was how conversational and human it felt. Every episode genuinely felt like listening to two close friends having a heartfelt phone call, whilst also teaching you something profound along the way.

I also related so strongly to Lisa’s story because she originally worked in radio broadcasting before experiencing severe anxiety and panic attacks. During my own university years, I studied media production, volunteered at a BBC radio station, and later hosted my own show on MK Hospital Radio for around a year and a half. Broadcasting always felt like the dream for me, too.

What fascinates me now is how both of us probably appeared extroverted on the outside because we love communication, storytelling, and connecting with people, whilst privately carrying anxiety, sensitivity, and self-consciousness underneath. I think so many people will relate to that contradiction.

One of the things I admire most about Lisa is how she transformed her own struggles into something that now supports others. As she beautifully says in this episode, “wounds can become wisdom.”

This conversation also felt very personal for me because my own experiences with anxiety and insomnia really intensified after becoming a mother. Although this episode was originally recorded back in 2020, when my boys were younger, so much of what we discuss still feels incredibly relevant to me now.

Before motherhood, I think I simply considered myself “a worrier from a family of worriers.” Since then, I’ve become far more aware of my nervous system, my triggers, and the importance of holistic approaches to mental wellbeing. After being prescribed sleep medication for 18 months and briefly taking antidepressants during a particularly difficult period, I eventually found myself exploring more natural and supportive approaches to healing during the pandemic.

I am still very much a work in progress, and I think that is one of the biggest messages I want this podcast to hold space for. Healing is not perfection. It is not about becoming endlessly calm, productive, or “fixed.” It is about understanding ourselves more deeply, building supportive tools, and realising we are not alone in what we experience.

I hope this episode helps anyone who has ever struggled with anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia, overwhelm, burnout, or emotional exhaustion feel seen, understood, and a little less alone.

What do we discuss in this episode?

In this conversation, we explore:

• Anxiety and panic attacks

• Physical symptoms of stress and nervous system overwhelm

• Insomnia and sleep struggles

• Motherhood and emotional vulnerability

• Yoga therapy and nervous system regulation

• Breathwork, movement, Yoga Nidra, and grounding tools

• Emotional healing and inner child work

• Why holistic healing is not about perfection

• Learning self-compassion instead of self-criticism

A few things I hope you take from this conversation

• You are not broken for struggling with anxiety or overwhelm

• Healing is rarely linear

• Rest, softness, and support matter more than perfection

Read more

Firstly, this was recorded a couple of months ago for clarity, but it is the next part of my review of iQoro. It was still very early days, but I was rapidly learning that healing, especially with conditions like reflux and globas, is by no means a linear journey. If you are yet to read/ watch part 1, you can find it here.

Where I’m at now – 2 weeks into iQoro

Today marks Day 14 of using iQoro, and for context, I’m also on Day 33 of taking Lansoprazole, so just over four and a half weeks in total with this medication (having tried 3 other PPIs before, which didn’t work for me).

Overall, I’d describe things as gently shifting, rather than dramatically improving.

Some symptoms feel a little more settled at times, and my digestion does seem slightly calmer. But the lump-in-the-throat sensation, the globus, is still very much there, even if it has reduced marginally.

One of the most noticeable changes, though, has been where I feel it.

It used to sit higher up on the left-hand side of my throat, and over the past week, it has shifted lower down and more central.

I don’t know exactly what that means yet, but it did feel like something was changing, which I’ve taken as a small positive sign.

The reality of symptoms – not linear, and influenced by anxiety

One thing that’s becoming very clear is that this isn’t a linear process.

Some days feel better.

Some days don’t.

And that unpredictability can be quite challenging to navigate.

I’ve also become much more aware of how closely anxiety is linked to the globus sensation.

On days when I feel more stressed or overwhelmed, it’s definitely more noticeable.

So part of this process is not just physical, it’s also about:

• noticing patterns

• managing stress where I can

• and being a bit kinder to myself on the harder days

What I’m learning about food triggers

This is an area where I feel like I’m starting to make progress, even if I don’t fully understand the “why” yet.

I’ve been able to reintroduce a few foods:

• eggs

• red meat

And those have been okay so far.

But there are still clear triggers.

For me at the moment, those seem to be:

• dairy, especially cream and cheese

• raw fruit, particularly apples

I tried having an apple last week when I was feeling quite positive, and ended up with about two hours of stomach cramps afterwards.

So that was a very clear signal.

At this stage, it feels like I’m learning what my body reacts to, even if I don’t yet fully understand why.

Understanding Lansoprazole and why I’m taking it

Lansoprazole is a type of medication called a proton pump inhibitor, or PPI.

It works by reducing the amount of acid your stomach produces, which can help relieve symptoms like acid reflux and irritation in the oesophagus.

At the moment, I’m taking it twice a day:

• once before breakfast

• once before lunch

It has helped to take the edge off some of the symptoms, particularly in the earlier weeks.

However, I’ve become increasingly aware of the conversation around the long-term use of PPIs.

A BBC article I came across highlights that while PPIs can be very effective, there are concerns around prolonged use, including potential links to nutrient deficiencies and other health risks. You can read that here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-36049288

This isn’t about fear, but about being informed.

For me, it reinforces why I’m interested in exploring complementary approaches like iQoro, which may support the body more naturally over time.

Tracking symptoms and patterns

One thing that has been incredibly helpful during this process is keeping a symptom diary.

Each day, I log everything into a fresh calendar entry, including:

• What I’ve eaten

• Bowel movements

• Supplements or support I’m using

• Symptoms and how they feel

I’ve been using ChatGPT to help me look for patterns across multiple days, weeks, and months, which has been surprisingly useful.

When you’re dealing with something like this, where symptoms fluctuate and triggers aren’t always obvious, having that data makes a huge difference.

It also means that when you’re on waiting lists or speaking to different health professionals, you can clearly see where you were at any given point in the process.

I honestly think this is one of the most important things you can do when trying to understand a condition like this.

Why I’ve got further investigations booked

After months of waiting, I finally got through my endoscopy referral, and I am ever hopeful that this might give me a few more answers about what is going on inside, or at least confirm whether there is anything underlying.

That’s essentially a camera down the throat to get a better look at what’s going on internally. I am more than a bit nervous to go through this procedure, but I have chosen the full sedation path, and it feels like an important next step overall.

It’s one thing managing symptoms and testing approaches like iQoro, but I also want to understand what’s actually happening underneath it all. At the end of the day, all information is good information to progress or narrow down the why behind a condition like this, and that’s what I am trying to focus on when I feel the nerves creeping in.

The exercises in real life

The exercises themselves are still very straightforward.

They take about 30 seconds, and I do them consistently 3 times a day.

The short pause between rounds, around 5 seconds, is part of the routine and helps it feel manageable.

It’s one of those habits that’s easy enough to stick to, which I think is key with something like this.

Keeping the device clean

Because the device goes in the mouth, keeping it clean is really important.

From the start, I’ve been mindful of that, but I realised I hadn’t actually shared how I’ve been doing it.

My routine is simple:

• a toothbrush

• a small amount of toothpaste

• a good scrub on both sides

• then a thorough rinse under the tap

Quick, easy, and it feels like the most practical way to keep it hygienic between uses.

Where I’m at with it all

Right now, I’d describe this stage as:

• early

• slightly encouraging

• still uncertain

I don’t feel like I have answers yet.

But I do feel like I’m beginning to understand my body a bit more.

And for now, that feels like progress.

If you’re on a similar journey

If any of this resonates with you, whether it’s reflux, globus, or navigating long-term medication, feel free to share your experience in the comments or reach out.

If you’re curious about trying iQoro

If you’re curious about iQoro yourself, I have an affiliate discount code for the JamJarGill community.

You can get 10% off using the code:

JJG10

You can explore the device here:

https://www.iqoro.com/

If you found this update helpful, you can subscribe to follow the journey as it unfolds. I’ll be sharing the next update soon, including what comes out of the endoscopy and how things continue to progress.

Brands looking for product testing and reviews

If you are a brand interested in having your product independently tested and reviewed, you can learn more about my product testing and eco-influencer services here:

https://jamjargill.com/eco-influencer-educator/eco-product-testing-reviews/

I work with brands whose products align with conscious living, holistic wellbeing, and sustainable lifestyles.

In 2025, I started taking NSAIDs for severe monthly cramps. I took them regularly for around six months, and unfortunately, I wasn’t taking them with a stomach protector.

I was getting the medication from the pharmacist rather than directly through my doctor, and I simply didn’t know that a stomach protector should normally be taken alongside NSAIDs if you’re using them long term. Unfortunately, I wasn’t warned about the possible side effects of taking them on their own.

Then, in September 2025, I caught Covid.

About two weeks after recovering, I suddenly started experiencing acid reflux symptoms. They appeared quite abruptly and have been incredibly uncomfortable.

The symptoms included:

• persistent acid reflux

• bloating

• acid rising into my throat

• a constant lump-in-the-throat sensation

Since then, my diet has become extremely restricted.

Many foods now trigger symptoms, so at the moment my meals are mostly things like:

• plain chicken or white fish

• rice

• coconut-based sauces

• stewed fruit

• low-acid fruits such as melon

Anything acidic, including many fresh fruits, can set things off. Cheese has also been a trigger.

If you love food as much as I do, you can imagine how frustrating that has been. The healing journey hasn’t been linear either. Some days are fine, some days the symptoms flare again.

At the moment I’m also taking Lansoprazole twice a day, which is a proton pump inhibitor (PPI) designed to reduce stomach acid production.

It has helped somewhat, but it hasn’t solved the problem entirely.

One thing I’ve already started learning is that long-term use of PPIs is generally advised against where possible. I’ll go into this much more in future articles as I continue researching and speaking with specialists.

For now, what interests me most is the idea of complementary approaches that may help address the root cause.

How the iQoro device came into my life

The device was introduced to me by my dear friend Beth, who is a Respiratory Specialist Physiotherapist.

She had been looking into the device for some of her patients and suggested it might be something worth exploring in my case as well.

The company very kindly sent me a device to product test and review, and I decided to document the journey honestly.

This article and video are the first in what will likely become a series where I share what happens over time as I try using the device consistently.

If you’re interested in natural and practical approaches to health like this, you can subscribe here to follow the experiment as it unfolds.

Subscribe now

What the iQoro device actually does

The concept behind the device is surprisingly simple.

iQoro is designed to strengthen the muscles involved in swallowing and reflux control, particularly the muscles in the throat and the sphincter at the top of the stomach.

Instead of only suppressing stomach acid with medication, the idea is to train the body’s own muscle system so that it functions more effectively.

The device is designed to help with several conditions linked to weak or dysfunctional swallowing muscles, including:

• acid reflux – where stomach acid flows back into the oesophagus and throat

• hiatal hernia – when part of the stomach pushes up through the diaphragm

• a lump-in-the-throat sensation when swallowing

• snoring

• sleep apnoea

• swallowing difficulties

The exercise itself takes about 30 seconds.

The instructions are straightforward:

1. Place the device inside your lips, but in front of your teeth

2. Pull straight outward for 10 seconds while holding it with your lips

3. Relax for 3 seconds

4. Repeat this three times

That’s one session.

The recommended routine is three sessions per day.

I’m planning to build it into my daily routine around breakfast, lunch, and dinner so it becomes a habit.

What the research says

One of the things that made me curious about iQoro is that there is state-funded research behind it.

According to the company, several internationally published studies have investigated the device's effects. In those studies, 97% of participants showed improvement after training with iQoro.

The research has been conducted by multidisciplinary research teams at Swedish universities and funded through government grants and research foundations.

You can read more about the device and the research here:

https://www.iqoro.com/

As someone who is very interested in holistic and rehabilitative approaches to health, the idea of strengthening muscles rather than relying solely on medication is really appealing.

What happens next

This video marks Day 1 of the experiment, recorded on January 27th, 2026.

From what I’ve read so far, muscle strengthening can take several months. In some cases, it may take up to six months, depending on the underlying cause of the problem.

So this will be a longer-term experiment.

Over the coming weeks and months, I’ll be sharing updates about what happens, including any changes in symptoms, whether my diet begins to expand again, and what I learn along the way from research and conversations with specialists.

If it works, that’s fantastic. If it doesn’t, that’s useful information too.

Either way, I want this series to be honest and helpful for anyone navigating reflux or similar digestive issues.

If you’re curious about iQoro yourself, I have an affiliate discount code for the JamJarGill community.

You can get 10% off using the code:

JJG10

You can explore the device here:

https://www.iqoro.com/

If you found this article interesting or helpful, please consider subscribing to my Substack so you don’t miss the next update in the series.

Subscribe now

Brands looking for product testing and reviews

If you are a brand interested in having your product independently tested and reviewed, you can learn more about my product testing and eco-influencer services here:

https://jamjargill.com/eco-influencer-educator/eco-product-testing-reviews/

I work with brands whose products align with conscious living, holistic wellbeing, and sustainable lifestyles.

A few weeks ago, I was honoured to be invited to take part in a roundtable discussion as part of Great Big Green Week, the UK’s biggest celebration of community action to tackle climate change and protect nature. It happens every year, and in 2025 it ran from Saturday, 7 June to Sunday, 15 June. The theme for this year was “Let’s swap together for good”, which is such a beautiful reminder that the small everyday swaps we make can have a huge collective impact on our planet.

If you’d like to see what’s still going on locally or want to get involved next year, have a look at greatbiggreenweek.com. It’s packed with ideas and local events, from litter picks and repair cafes to community festivals and skill swaps.

I’m based in Bedfordshire and was kindly invited onto the panel by the lovely Laura 🏘️, who runs Leighton Buzzard Local. She does so much to shine a light on local businesses and community connections in her town, and I was so happy to join her and the other brilliant panellists for this honest, hopeful chat about what it really takes to build a business that puts people and the planet first.

Let me introduce you to the inspiring line-up:

🌿 Heni at The Refill runs a wonderful plastic-free grocery shop that started as a market stall and has grown into a community hub for sustainable shopping and connection.

🧸 Charlotte at Loved Before is the creative force behind a brilliant soft toy adoption agency, saving millions of cuddly toys from landfill and giving them new life. You might even spot her rescued teddies in Selfridges or Bloomingdale’s.

🏘️ Laura of Leighton Buzzard Local is the heart behind our event. She works so hard to help people find community on their doorstep, whether that’s discovering local businesses, events or charities.

🌍 And me, Gill at JamJarGill.com. I’m an Eco Influencer, Holistic Health Podcaster, and Conscious Creative Business Support, here to help you make conscious, realistic swaps that feel good and never feel guilty.

We covered a lot, and I mean a lot, in our conversation. We talked about the seeds of our eco journeys: how family values, grief, lockdowns and moments of deep frustration with the status quo inspired each of us to do things differently. We dug into the big tension of balancing sustainability with profitability (and all the packaging guilt, supply chain puzzles and landlord woes that come with it).

What really stuck with me was the collective honesty. No one sugar-coated how tricky it can be to build a business that genuinely tries to do better by the earth. From the compromises we make behind the scenes to the mental toll of staying visible and authentic online, we shared the messy bits as well as the milestones.

One thing we all agreed on was the power of community. Whether it’s the loyal customers who bring their jars to refill every week, the folks who re-home a preloved teddy and share the story far and wide, or the readers and listeners who show up to celebrate those small wins with me, it’s you lot who keep this going.

We wrapped up by talking about how our government could better support businesses like ours, and how self-doubt is pretty much baked into doing things differently. But if there’s one thing I hope you take away from our chat, it’s this: sustainable business doesn’t have to be perfect to be powerful. It just needs to stay human, keep evolving and root itself in values that go deeper than profit alone.

So, thank you for being here, for reading, listening, sharing and showing up for your local green businesses. The video is posted above for anyone who wants to listen to our discussion in full. We’d all love your support and to hear what you did for Green Week, or any week, for that matter. These themed weeks are wonderful reminders, but what really counts is each of us making small, mindful changes to our consumer habits day by day, wherever our budgets allow.

This is the kind of guilt-free, loving community I’m trying to build with you. Please share any green tips on a budget in the comments, whether for business or personal life, and tell me what your biggest takeaway was from our conversation. Check out everyone’s links and give us a follow wherever you hang out; we’d all love to connect with you.

Big Green Week might be over for this year, but the community we’re building is here to stay. Let’s keep making those small, imperfect, beautiful changes together.

Big Love,
Gill 🌱✨🫙💞

Well, where do I begin here?

I have been JamJarGill for the past 15 years and a blogger before that, starting with Gill’s Recipe Journal, off the back of being fully inspired by the film Julie & Julia (a must-watch if you haven’t), which tracks Julie (in 2001) working her way through Julia Child’s (in the 1950s) Art of French Cooking – the book which brought French cooking to America – as a creative outlet to get out of her depressing government job, answering calls after the Twin Towers.

It so resonated with me at the time. I have always been a creative at my core, and having completed a Media Degree, with a bit of a naive notion that I would work in broadcasting, but without any desire to commute to London every day. So, I had ended up working in admin and customer service jobs for a variety of different companies and sectors (I refer to this as my “Goldilocks era”).

I remember my big sister giving me a pep talk around this time and saying, “Well, sometimes a job is just to pay the bills – you don’t need to get all your joy out of your job.” So, I started blogging and loved it instantly. A little corner of the internet to call my own, write about what I loved, and build a community, with no restrictions, no one telling me what to do or think. What a joy.

Around this time, Adam and I were renting our house in Milton Keynes, and an uninvited visitor started making regular trips to our food cupboard through a tiny gap between our garage and kitchen. Yes – we had a mouse in the kitchen, and it prompted me to start putting all our food into storage jars to keep everything protected. I started picking them up in charity shops, slowly building a bit of a collection, and it turned out I absolutely loved the look of them. I fell down the rabbit hole of beautiful, practical storage.

Then, we bought our house in 2010, and I needed to expand my topics from food. So, I created a new blog, PracticalBeautiful, which, in name, really does encompass the way I look to purchase most things in my life and kind of stems from this very famous quote by William Morris:

(Source: Etsy—side note, I really should purchase this—it’s lovely! ;))

And so, blogging started following the trajectory of my life. But I was not at all strategic with it – a million ideas in my head (no change there then – ha!) but not really any frequency.

This was back in the early days of blogging when Blogspot was the place, and people wrote lengthy posts without any thought of SEO – just like a journal of their current stream of consciousness – and it was such a joy. I loved blogs like Pinch My Salt and Adventures in Babywearing – anyone remember those?

Then disaster struck.

I had a phone that was playing up (can’t remember how now) at the time, and the suggested best solution was to factory reset it… which I did. Once I did, I went back into the gallery, and there were still photos there. Odd, I thought, so I figured, hmm, that clearly didn’t work, and opted to clear the gallery manually. A little message popped up:

“Are you sure?”

“Yes,” I thought flippantly and clicked the button without another thought.

Until the next day… when I went onto my website and discovered, to my absolute horror, that each of my images had been replaced with a rather nasty black box with an “X” in the middle.

WTF!!

So, after I recovered from this (it took a few weeks to get my head back in the game, as you could imagine), I thought, this could be an opportunity. I discussed it with my dear friend Christina at the time, who worked in PR, and she advised, if you actually want to do this blogging thing for real and turn it into a side hustle, you need to amalgamate your two blogs into one anyway and post regularly on subjects that link together.

This coincided with the invention of the Lifestyle Blogger, and I thought to myself, I could dip my toe in that pool, and this blog could be all the things that mean something to me in my life. It could carry on following the trajectory of my life as it unfolds.

Now all I needed was a name…

And that, too, came organically.

At that time, I was working in Key Accounts at BSI – a company that (rather stingily) didn’t provide any tea or coffee – so I decided to bring mine in old jam jars, which sat on my desk and always sparked conversation when people saw them. Then, one day, my work friend Kendra started calling me “JamJarGill”, and that became my work nickname. She would even sign my birthday card “My Darling JJG”, which I always loved.

And I thought, this could be my brand name.

It can be shortened. It is really me. It’s sweet without being too twee.

“Yes! That is it!”

And so, I started again, with a new WordPress blog entitled “So They Call Me JamJarGill…”

As my content built, I decided to look for a niche and found that the thread which ran through everything was conscious consumerism and reconnection with nature.

And 15 years later, here I am – still JamJarGill – with a multifaceted brand that has grown into something I’m really proud of.

Here’s what I do now:

💡 JJG Creative – Content & Communication Specialist
I help small businesses and purpose-led brands communicate online with clarity and authenticity. That includes writing brand-aligned content, designing email newsletters, building Instagram 6-grid landing pages, and offering flexible content support that makes it easy for business owners to show up and share what matters.

🌿 JamJarGill – Eco Influencer & Educator
I work with sustainable brands to amplify their message and reach conscious consumers. I share real-world eco swaps, product reviews, lifestyle tips, and also offer my Eco Edit service – helping individuals and businesses find more sustainable alternatives in their daily lives and operations.

🎙 JamJarGill Podcast – Holistic Health Podcaster
I educate, inform, and empower people to connect with their own health and their own bodies in a more natural way. This includes interviews with wellness experts, thought leaders, and everyday people on a journey back to self. Through my Substack and community offerings, I also host a holistic networking group and occasional events.

Through all these strands, I aim to tell stories that matter. My own, and others’. Always with a focus on community, connection, and a values-led way of living and working.

I’m so glad you’re here. I hope to connect with:

• Fellow creatives

• Fellow conscious consumers

• Fellow people who are getting more and more of the ick with social media and the numbers game

I just want quality content about quality things with quality people – spoken from the heart.

Sharing our knowledge and creativity in an authentic way.

I hope you will join me on this journey, and if so, I’d be delighted to meet you.

Love and Light,
Gill x