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Radical Self

Using Parsley to Induce Menstruation – Results

August 25, 2019 by Issa Waters 40 Comments

Like many of us, I have a love/hate relationship with my period.

Using a Diva Cup solves most of my menstrual annoyances from my life.

But periods CAN still be annoying, including coming early sometimes and late at other times.

I once planned to use parsley to induce menstruation. Here’s the step-by-step information, process, and results.

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Issa Waters

Issa is a wild and rebellious mama who wants to live a carefree life where that little anxious voice is put on mute. How about you? As a writer she feels successful if just one other person feels any comfort or inspiration from what she’s written.

https://lovelivegrow.com/author/admin
Everything Else

7 Step Keto Quick Start and Troubleshooting Guide

August 19, 2018 by Issa Waters No Comments

It’s been 4 years since the keto diet cured my back pain. Then it went ahead and cured my sleep habits, my migraines, my reflux, my plantar fasciitis, my menstrual cycle, and my depression. Suffice it to say, keto changed my life.

I’ve written a keto quick start guide that is the least you need to know to get started eating keto. If you just want to jump right in and get started without a lot of extra details this keto quick start guide is for you. Additionally, at the end I’ve included a troubleshooting checklist for if you have any problems along the way.

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Issa Waters

Issa is a wild and rebellious mama who wants to live a carefree life where that little anxious voice is put on mute. How about you? As a writer she feels successful if just one other person feels any comfort or inspiration from what she’s written.

https://lovelivegrow.com/author/admin
Radical Self

The Diva Cup – Solve All Your Menstrual Problems

October 31, 2017 by Issa Waters 9 Comments

I’m gonna tell you everything you need to know about the Diva Cup. Because it’s an unfortunate fact that many women are bothered and inconvenienced by their monthly menstruation. It’s no surprise, though. Periods are expensive, require a lot of contraptions, are wasteful, smell bad, and are just generally annoying.

Or are they? 

I used to get annoyed at all the aspects of menstruation. There’s a high cost associated with buying the needed products, and then you have to make sure to have those products on hand when you need them and in great quantity. I despaired at creating so much trash to throw out every month. The smell of menstruation on a tampon or pad was yucky to me. The sticky material of pads and the scraping material of tampons was more annoyance piled on.

Then I found the Diva Cup. Well, technically, I found the Keeper first, but it smelled even worse, and then my dog ate it. When I went to replace it, I found the Diva Cup, and I’m in menstruation heaven with it.

I’ve been using the Diva Cup for over 15 years. I’ve never looked back!

The Diva Cup - solve ALL of your menstrual problems forever

What Is The Diva Cup?

The Diva Cup is a small container made of non-absorbent health grade silicone that you insert into you vagina to sits near the bottom and collect menstrual blood. When it’s full you dump it out, rinse it off, and stick it back in. It’s so simple.

The benefits of the Diva Cup are almost too many to list, but here are a few of my favorites. I feel like an infomercial, but the truth is that I honestly love this product to death.

Comfort: Since the Diva Cup is made of a soft, smooth material, it’s not uncomfortable to insert or wear. Tampons used to scrape up my insides, and the plastic material on the top of pads made my outer labia raw. The Diva Cup is completely unnoticeable when I’m wearing it, and goes in and out easily.

TSS Risk: The Diva Cup doesn’t absorb or block your flow. Rather, it simply collects it in the cup. This means you can wear it for extended periods of time with no risk of TSS.

Environmental Impact: The Diva Cup is reusable and lasts nearly forever. This means that there’s nothing else to buy and no landfill waste is generated month after month.

Financial Cost: You can get a Diva Cup for less than $30. And then that’s it. No more trips to the store at the last minute to stock up. I’ve purchased three cups for around $65 total over 15 years. That means I’ve spent about 42 cents a period, and that cost is always going down.

Smell: Blood begins to smell bad when it hits the air. The blood on pads? Ick. Even the blood on tampons can begin to smell. With the cup, though, the blood is not exposed to the air until you take the cup out, meaning it smells like menstrual blood, of course, but not menstrual blood that’s “going bad”.

The Hippie Aspects of the Diva Cup

Some women worry about the mess with using a cup. The Diva Cup website claims you can insert it and remove it with no mess, and I mostly agree. However, it may happen now and then that you get blood on your fingers This happens for me most when I’m having a heavy flow, usually in the first 2 days of my cycle. I’m a big hippie, and touching my own menstrual flow is hardly a concern, but other women might be more bothered.

The other awesome hippie thing about the Diva Cup is how much you learn about your menstrual flow when using it. You can see how much fluid you’re producing. You can see the changes in the color of the flow over the course of your period. I’ve noticed that sometimes my flow is very thick and dark red and other times it’s almost watery. I find this knowledge fascinating.

Overall Convenience

For overall menstruation convenience, the Diva Cup can’t be beat. It’s soooo much cheaper and soooo much easier on your body. I’ve found it easy to always keep my cup in my purse, so it’s always there when I need it. If you know when you’re about to start, you can even go ahead and put it in, so there’s never a risk of leaking.

The ParadoxThe Diva Cup

The Diva Cup has changed my experience of menstruating in an almost paradoxical way. On one hand, my period is almost an afterthought now. It doesn’t concern me or bother me much. On the other hand, I’m almost more focused on it when it’s happening, because I’m paying more attention to the details of my flow, rather than trying to wish them away. It’s a good paradox, in stark contrast to the experience of so many other women: hating and loathing their periods while spending so much money and effort on them.

Buy a Diva Cup!

Go get your own Diva Cup! You won’t regret it. Here are a couple of links (disclosure: these are affiliate links) for you:

  • Diva Cup, #1 Pre-Childbirth Cup – for women under 30 or women who have NOT given birth vaginally
  • Diva Cup, #2 Post Childbirth Cup – for women over 30 or women who have given birth vaginally.

Enjoy!

Have you tried the Diva Cup yourself or some other reusable menstrual product?

Issa Waters

Issa is a wild and rebellious mama who wants to live a carefree life where that little anxious voice is put on mute. How about you? As a writer she feels successful if just one other person feels any comfort or inspiration from what she’s written.

https://lovelivegrow.com/author/admin
Radical Self

What’s the Difference Between Thinspo and Fitspo? Aboslutely Nothing.

August 1, 2013 by Issa Waters 11 Comments

Warning: This post contains thinspo/fitspo images and fat hate statements.

Thinspo or thinspiration is typically seen as harmful - but what about fitspo - is it any better? No, not really.

Thinspiration

Thinspiration or thinspo is images of skinny women collected or posted to motivate oneself or others to lose weight. It is strongly associated with eating disorders and specifically with groups and people who promote eating disorders. The images feature thigh gaps and visible hip and collarbones.

I did a quick Pinterest search for some examples:

Thinspo images often accompany details of diet plans which involve eating a certain amount of calories per day in a certain order.

People who support and encourage eating disorders have come under a lot of scrutiny online. Pinterest agreed to remove images that actively promote harm, although I don’t know the specifics of their criteria for removing an image.

When I searched Pinterest for “thinspo”, I got a warning at the top of my search page, telling me, “Eating disorders are not lifestyle choices, they are mental disorders that if left untreated can cause serious health problems or could even be life-threatening,” and referring me to treatment and support options.

Fitspiration

On the other hand, fitness is becoming more and more popular to rally around online. I have seen the slogan, “Fit is the new skinny,” apparently meant to highlight that thinness isn’t the goal.

Fitspiration or fitspo is images of skinny women collected or posted to motivate oneself or others to “get fit”. These images feature things like people in workout clothes, visible ab muscles, sweat, and motivational statements.

When I searched Pinterest for “fitspo” I was not warned about the dangers of eating disorders. I was treated to search results like these:


Fitspo images often accompany details of workout plans that involve specific exercises to be done a certain number of times in a certain order.

People who are interested in fitness and fitspo would probably cringe to be lumped in with the people who are sad if they net more than 300 calories a day.

[pullquote]#Thinspo images and #Fitspo images are exactly the same thing: the fetishization of thinness. {Tweet this}[/pullquote]But thinspo images and fitspo images are exactly the same thing: the fetishization of thinness.

When you scratch the surface of the fitspo images, you can find the fat-hate lurking nearby.

While the text in these examples reveal the demonization of weight and fat, no extra text is needed to reveal that fitspo is the same fetishization of thinness that thinspo is.

All you have to do is look at the body types shown.

They are invariably very thin.

Fat and Fit

If your inspiration was truly fitness, it would be acceptable to show a variety of fit bodies.

For example, these images are ALSO of athletic, very fit people:

Ragen Chastain, championship ballroom dancer

Anna Guest-Jelley, yoga instructor

Pat Gallant-Charette, long-distance, open-ocean swimmer

Lisa Fisco, training for the 2012 Olympics in women’s weightlifting

If you cannot look at these women and be inspired in your fitness, then you aren’t looking for fitness inspiration.

If you can only look at one thin exact body type for your inspiration, then what you’re seeking is that body.

It’s disingenuous to try to dress up your thinspiration as having anything to do with fitness.

And frankly, it’s fat-hate.

When the fitspo images don’t include varying body types, they say, quite definitively, “Thin is fit. Thin is healthy. Nothing else is.”

That idea hurts fat people.

If you are seeking weight-loss inspiration, I challenge you to broaden your view of what an acceptable body looks like, both for yourself and for the people around you.

If you are seeking fitness inspiration, I encourage you to find your inspiration in the wide variety of athletes who excel at their activities.

Comment reminder: There is nothing wrong with the bodies of any of the people in this post. This post is about dressing up thin-worship as a pursuit of fitness. It is not about the bodies of particular women, what they eat, or how much they do or do not exercise. No comments will be allowed that insult anyone’s body or that compare their worth to other people’s bodies.



Want to read something about being healthy and pursuing greater health without obsessing over your size or the number on the scale? Enter Linda Bacon, a pioneer in research that challenges the anti-fat status quo. Health At Every Size uses scientific research to point you towards a more intuitive relationship with food and movement. It’s possible to improve your health and your self-esteem without trying to make yourself smaller. Health At Every Size is kind of revolutionary while also being utterly simple.


Issa Waters

Issa is a wild and rebellious mama who wants to live a carefree life where that little anxious voice is put on mute. How about you? As a writer she feels successful if just one other person feels any comfort or inspiration from what she’s written.

https://lovelivegrow.com/author/admin
Radical Self

Using Parsley to Start Menstruation

August 24, 2009 by Issa Waters 2 Comments

I have some mixed feelings about it, but I’m going to use parsley this week to attempt to bring an early onset to my menstrual cycle. I’m currently on schedule to start bleeding at Burning Man, which wouldn’t be the end of the world, but wouldn’t be perfectly ideal. I’ve got plans to get laid as much as possible at Burning Man this year, and while menstruation rarely causes me any consternation since I use the Diva Cup, it does get in the way of sex, especially with new partners.

From a being-a-hippie perspective, I’m hesitant to mess with my cycle. I know that you can take hormones now to not have periods at all, and that creeps me right the fuck out. Regardless of what the doctors say, I think there’s a reason my body does what it does every month, and I’m not interested in avoiding it.

Then there’s the other side of the being-a-hippie perspective: There are lots of plants that are emmenagogues – herbs that stimulate menstrual blood flow. Knowing what they are and utilizing them to tailor my experience of my body seems very in tune with the possibilities that nature offers me.

Consider the way I use drugs, for instance. I usually avoid drugs that remove an aspect of my self. I rarely take pain medication, for instance, because I want to be alert to my body’s signals. I rarely take cold medication, because I figure my body is doing its thing and will work it all out. I take recreational drugs, however, because I feel they add something to my experience of myself, rather than taking something away.

Using Parsley to Induce Menstruation // LoveLiveGrowI’m following a similar logic with my period this month. I wouldn’t take drugs to remove my period entirely. However, taking something to slightly speed up the process, in order to create more joy in my life, for a specific experience, seems in line with my other philosophies.

Looking around online, parsley seems the way to go. The relevant agent in parsley is fairly mild; it’s not considered an abortifacient. Starting today, I will make some parsley tea, and drink 3-4 cups, followed by more the next day if my cycle hasn’t started. Some users of this method report that their period started within the next day.

I’ll keep you updated on how it goes!

See here for the results!

Issa Waters

Issa is a wild and rebellious mama who wants to live a carefree life where that little anxious voice is put on mute. How about you? As a writer she feels successful if just one other person feels any comfort or inspiration from what she’s written.

https://lovelivegrow.com/author/admin

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