Month: February 2010

sunday life: in which a girl falls in love with a single-speed bike

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This week I go streamlined on a single-speed bike

possibly the prettiest thing a girl can have between her legs
quite possibly the prettiest thing a girl can have between her legs

You might’ve noticed everyone’s into “simplifying”. It’s very recessional chic right now. People from all walks are chucking stuff out and packing up what’s left to go live in Bali. Or on a goat farm. Luxury car manufacturers and banks are flogging simplicity in their advertising slogans and a new self-help genre has spawned showing us how to consolidate our remote controls and live without a waffle-maker.

Admittedly, I’ve previously ridden this altruistic bandwagon myself, decluttering my books and hosing out my email inbox. But I’m now wondering if “streamlining” isn’t a better way to go. “Simplifying” tends to have a certain The Good Life vibe to it, don’t you think – a bit grubby, earnest and requiring a fulltime commitment to composting. When, let’s face it, most of us could relate to Penelope Keith when she’d look over the fence in despair at her neighbours’ muddy mess.

Simplifying is about reversing our erroneous ways, uprooting our lives and ridding ourselves of things. Which is kind of sad and harsh and really hard to achieve. Streamlining, however, is gentle. It’s about shaving off excess, and perhaps steering the boat a little to the left, for a more flow-y ride. It’s a smooth, glide-y ethos for life, and an elegant aesthetic. No gumboots required. Yes, streamlining makes life better. Of that I’m sure.

This thinking started a month ago when I looked over at my dual-suspension, knobbly-tyred mountain bike in the hall and thought, what a cluttery, clumpy contraption you are!

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healing auto-immune disease, by someone who’s been there #1

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If I had a dollar for every time I’ve been asked how I manage my autoimmune disease I could buy a small island. I’m happy with my two-bed flat, so I’ll share my experience and tips and philosophies on it all here for free.*

healing auto-immune disease: wear good red socks for this long journey!
healing auto-immune disease: wear good red socks for this long journey!

I’ve been promising this for ages: a rundown of what I’ve done to get on top of my Hashimoto’s (hypoactive thyroid disease), and to throw in some advice from practitioners I’ve turned to for help (check out naturapth Angela Hywood’s healing eating tips here).

A few things first:

* If you don’t have auto-immune disease, you’ll still find this interesting. IMO, auto-immune suffereers are the proverbial canaries down the mineshaft. Our symptoms are signals of what our lifestyles are doing to all of us, a reflection of the over-toxic, hyper-adrenal, sugary, sleep-deprived, anxious lives we’re living. Again, IMO, Auto-immune disease types have particularly sensitive systems – for a whole range of reasons (hereditary, trauma-related) – and so we tip over the edge more easily.  The rest of the world should see us as nifty warning beacons and heed our lifestyle tips!

* The below is advice I’d give to myself, if I could go back two years, to avoid the very bumpy journey I’ve had to ride toward a better understanding of the disease. I’m not giving advice to anyone else. Really, I aim only to inspire you to ask questions and find what works for you. And that’s the thing – there is no one cause or fix. Also – and this is the blessing – in the searching for your own answers, you come to learn a lot of really important stuff about yourself…that you’ve wanted to find out for a long time. Which is why you got sick…. More on this below. Finally, I refer directly to Hashimotos, but much of the thinking applies equally to other AI diseases.

* Feel free to send me your tips and I’ll post them as well.

OK, so here goes. I’ll do it as a Q and A for ease.

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enjoy the smugness of not drinking (Australian Woman’s Weekly editor-in-chief Helen McCabe shares her thinking)

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The other night I was having dinner with my mate Helen. We met about 16 years ago in Canberra, when she was starting out as a Channel 7 news reporter; I served her coffee at the this place in the city and was doing a political internship at the time. We then crossed paths briefly when she was deputy editor at The Sunday Telegraph and I was on Sunday Magazine. But we’ve mostly dined together, rather than work together.

The other night we were talking about not drinking. I’m obviously doing FebFast.

it was hard to miss, really...
it was hard to miss, really…

Helen’s not drinking because it’s a ritual she does each year. At dinner we almost fell off our stools we were so chuffed to be able to go out and not drink. We were beaming from our livers. Anyway, she had these thoughts on the matter….

Three years ago I decided to give up the booze in January for six weeks.

The decision followed a particularly busy few months socialising in the lead up to Christmas and the start of a very busy new year. So I decided to test myself and check out the life of a non-drinker which I have always suspected was rather dull.

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