my remedy kit (for thyroidy/crappy days)

So, below is my insta-fix for my thyroidy days. But, really, it’s a remedy for crap days in general – if you’re premenstrual, toxic, hungover, over-worked or got another type of auto-immune disease or illness I reckon it will be of use, too.

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HAPPILY, after three years of trying EVERY trick in the book, I’ve got my auto-immune disease under some kind of control. But I’ve got to this point by managing it day-to-day with little tricks and techniques. Some days I’m great. The next I’m dead thyroidy.

Which can only be described as a cross between a hangover and being pre-menstrual, with a dose of food poisoning thrown in. And a sprinkling of a rash (enough to make everything feel like its burning).

In the past, when I felt this flat I’d push harder. Cummon ya lazy beast, fire up! Now, on these days I stop. And correct. It’s taken me ages to work out that I can actually steer things back to normal in about 48 hours. It’s a gentle steering. Nothing too violent, because that would just tip the boat.

Sooooo, this is how I do it:

  • Abort what I’m doing. This sometimes means dropping work or cancelling dinner with friends. Yep, people get the shits. And, nope, they don’t really understand (because the next time they see you, you look fine). I say, so what. This is what I have to do to cope. End of story.* Then I turn inwards (stay home, turn the lights low, go slow).
  • Drink dandelion tea. Loads of it. Then move on to some calming teas in the afternoon. One way or another I try to get as much warm water into me as possible. It soothes. It calms.
  • Take a teaspoon of licorice root and rehmannia (practitioner dispensed). This tonic calms the adrenals pretty much instantly and also reduces the damn inflammation I get.

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Celebrating the ordinary things…by political writer Tony Wright

Did you read this on the weekend? A column by Fairfax national affairs writer Tony Wright on celebrating the ordinary things.

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It’s not your usual “feel/think nice things” pap that circulate the web. It’s a frank reminder of how we respond to the news cycle. And how the media and politicians have to rely on sensationalism to get our attention and make a headline. While the ordinary things never make the cut. I’ve run the whole thing below. A REALLY important way to look at the immigration debate.

But I also like this about it: it’s an example of a hard news journalist taking a gentle approach. I hope we’ll see more and more of this over time. I think the world is shifting. I think, soon, we’ll crave this kind of gentle, ordinary approach to the news cycle. And we’ll seek the true evolution happening behind the sensationalist headline.

Celebrate the ordinary things

The apparently mundane doesn’t impress us, whether it’s a successful plane journey, hot water on tap or a successful immigrant.

THE shower threw steaming water into the dawn at the twist of a tap, just as it does every morning; a flick of the light switch rolled away the dark, as always.

The kettle boiled and there was tea; toast leapt from the toaster .

Outside, the car awaited. The engine turned over at the first touch of the key and I rolled into the day, rain falling onto the weather-tight windscreen.

Things work. Little things that we hardly take the time to think about. Oh, there are traffic jams and demands upon time, mortgages to pay and all manner of frustrations and niggles.

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sunday life: how I eat

This week I eat close to the source

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I have a robust disdain for banana bread. Wrapped as it often is in rustic sandwich paper, all brown and chunky-looking, the stuff poses as an innocuously wholesome breakfast food. Banana. And bread. So breakfasty! But what a slippery sell-in. One slice of the stuff contains up to 2339kj. You have yours with butter? Hold onto your digestive juices for this: this tasty package comprises a whopping one-third of your recommended daily dietary intake and contains up to 44g of sugar. Or, to keep things tangible, 10 teaspoons.

Disdainful much?

Slippery sell-ins are the reason why we’re getting fat. We’re bludgeoned with competing diet tricks and plans. And food is confusing; it’s rarely what it says it is. The net result: we have no bloody idea what we’re meant to eat anymore. We have food fatigue. And so we eat banana bread.

It’s not that we don’t know the information – the most read item in the home is the back of a cereal box. And yet, how many of us know that those little-flakes-of-corn-consumed-at-breakfast, for instance, are drenched with more salt than potato chips. One pasta sauce I found in the back of my pantry contains more sugar than chocolate topping.  And plain old orange juice…jamful with as much sugar as a can of Coke, about 10 teaspoons. True!

In my studies to become a health counselor I’ve weighed up more than 100 different diets. None work. The human condition is not made for restriction (we’re forward-moving beasts) and so our bodies rebel against diets at some point, in most cases putting on more weight than might have been lost (the evolutionary purpose of which might just be to teach us not to try such a stupid stunt again?).

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Friday: it’s a wrap!

Hey, it’s Friday. I had a great week.

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A baby rabbit. Just because.

(For more baby animal cuteness check out this indulgent mid-Term angst antidote Salon link).

* So, this week the astute, “give it to me, I’ll do it” Jo Foster started with me in my office on Monday as a writing assistant and general life helperer. I’m beyond grateful and happy and even getting used to her singing. Check out her thoughtful, kind blog The World Is Your Oyster.

* I filmed Good News Week. Much more relaxed this time. Akmal was on my team. The guy is stupendously bright. It’s on the telly this Monday night.

* And on Sunday, the official announcement about the new show I’m filming goes out. I can say this much for now: it’s a nutrition show, I’m the host and it will screen on Lifestyle YOU next year. More to come. Much more.

But to some great stuff you guys shared (thanks for the ideas!):

This week’s ‘Tuesday Eats: a guide to grains’ yielded some great comments on grains and gluten.

Mia Watson outlined the deal with oats (gluten or not; it’s always very vague): “Gliadin – is a protein in oats that is nearly identical to the gluten protein in wheat, and some people who are sensitive to gluten can be sensitive to this too. So, even specially prepared gluten-free oats (grown in non-gluten-contaminated fields, etc) can still cause problems for some. Something like 25 percent of celiacs are also allergic to gliadin”.

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three ways i deal with the vile, judgey voice in my head (and be a slightly nicer person)

Do you do this? I ask because I really want to know.

slutDo you find yourself walking along and two blokes in front are walking super slow, oblivious to the fact they’re blocking the path, and you have to shift your pace and it all feels really inconvenient and you get – uggh – irritated

…and then it pipes up…

…the vile, judgey voice in your head. “You wouldn’t be so fat if you walked a bit faster, mate!” or “I bet you’re like this at work – taking over things like you own them”.

When I’m driving it really gets loud and stereotyping. And when I’m in the city trying to get to a meeting and I’m surrounded by office workers on their lunch breaks (“Lemmings!”). But the poor unsuspecting soul doesn’t even have to be inconveniencing me to cop a lashing from my vile inner voice. They might just be engaged in conversation nearby. Or it might just be a dog doing its thing. And my head makes snap judgments about the kind of person (or dog) they are and where they might be going wrong in life and why they need to read a newspaper every now and then and GOSH could people stop talking in mindless cliches.

These are really ugly things to admit. And apologies if I offend. But I’ve mentioned my vile, judgey voice to others over the past few days and they’ve TOTALLY got it. They have one too. Which is why I felt brave enough raising it here.

And, besides, I think these kind of blogs can get a bit Pollyanna-ish at times….just as an important aside.

I’ve been grappling with the voice for a while now. It horrifies me. But it’s suddenly got louder and uglier.

That’s what happens when you need to shift something – it becomes more apparent and more intolerable. Louder. Uglier. So that you can see it. And be pushed to change.

I’ve realised in the past few days that we voice these things when we’re feeling separate. When we’re feeling removed from our fellow humans it makes everyone else seem like they’re working in opposition to us. “YOU over there are doing THAT to ME over here”.

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Tuesday eats: a guide to grains (and my good news!)

A few weeks back I got some tests back saying my immune antibodies have chilled out and are back to normal after three years of being off-the-scale-crazy. My body is no longer eating itself…and is slowly repairing!

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The doctor was impressed. How did I do it? It was a bunch of things, most of which I’ve documented on this blog…but if I had to narrow it down to One. Main. Factor. It would be:

I cut out gluten.

I’m going to post on this again soon. But for now, some tips on how to cook other grains…and a guide to which are gluten-free. Feel free to print out and magnetise to your fridge.

1 cup grains

Water

Cooking Time

Contains Gluten?

Common grains:
Brown rice

2 cups

45-60 minutes

no

Buckwheat (aka kasha)*

2 cups

20-30  minutes

no

Oats (whole groats)

3 cups

75-90 minutes

questionable due to content, contact, or contamination

Oatmeal (rolled oats)

2 cups

20-30 minutes

questionable due to content, contact, or contamination

Alternative grains:
Amaranth

3 cups

30 minutes

no

Barley (pearled)

2-3 cups

60 minutes

yes

Barley (hulled)

2-3 cups

90 minutes

yes

Bulgur (cracked wheat)

2 cups

20 minutes

yes

Cornmeal (aka polenta)

3 cups

20 minutes

no

Couscous**

1 cup

5 minutes

yes

Kamut

3 cups

90 minutes

yes

Millet

2 cups

30 minutes

no

Quinoa

2 cups

15-20 minutes

no

Rye berries

3 cups

2 hours

yes

Spelt

3 cups

2 hours

yes

Wheat berries

3 cups

60 minutes

yes

Wild rice

4 cups

60 minutes

no

Some little extra tricks:

*ALWAYS rinse quinoa before cooking. Here’s why.

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sunday life: try this self-control trick

This week I delay gratification

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To be honest, I just don’t trust people who can keep an open packet of TimTams in the fridge for two weeks.  Are you one of these? Can you take one biscuit and leave the rest, and not think about them incessantly until you’ve demolished the lot (rationalising that, hey, they have to be eaten some time.)?

Yes?

Well, I don’t trust you.

I mean, I’d trust you with my biscuits, should I ever require someone to mind a packet for me. It’s just I don’t trust that you are fully human, in the messy, unrestrainable way I am.

My brother Ben’s one of these types. At Easter we used to get two small, hollow eggs each (hidden in the lavender bush…yours too?). He’d be able to nibble at his Charlie Bucket-style, until June. My friend Zoe’s the same. Every spring she cuts all crap from her diet so she can shed her winter cushioning. Just like that. No fuss, no distress. “I just decide to do it…what’s the big deal?!” she says wide-eyed when I ask for her secret.

Self-controlled types are certainly oddities. They’ve also, of late, become a quirky source of scientific enquiry. Little wonder. A lack of will power – our inability to curb our over-eating, over-spending and overly-addicted-to-email ways – is killing us. Finding out what makes the self-restrained tick is only going to get hotter in academic circles, I tell you.

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really not much too much at all.

I don’t have much to say. It’s early. I’m getting my hair and makeup done in my sunroom, ready to go sky-diving in Picton. I’m drinking this amazing Miessence antioxidant “Berry Radical” drink – a chocolaty “superfood” hot drink. Like a hot chocolate, but it only contains superfoods. You can add coconut milk, or have … Read more

taking it away with you

At the yoga school I’ve been going to since the first day (literally) I arrived in Bondi seven years ago, the instructor Rick, at the end of each class, invites us to “take it away” with us. We’ve slogged our way through our nervous tension, our annoyance with the heavy breathing dude next to us, … Read more