Year: 2010

Tuesday eats: a gluten free recipe from Cannelle et Vanille

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Know this, Cannelle et Vanille is one of the most beautiful food blogs out there. Not just visually, but….spiritually, too (Gwyneth Paltrow is a fan, too). You can feel the love and care and whimsy from the pages of her blog. And Aran Goyoaga, a Basque food stylist now based in the US…well, she’s become a bit of an e-soul sister. We connected via our blogs and because we both have hashimotos (thyroid disease). We ask each other if we’re ok from time to time.

Anyway I thought she’d have a thought or two to share on healthy eating… and could give us a gluten-free recipe.

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Aran's gluten-free purple corn and banana muffins

Everyone meet Aran, Aran meet everyone:

How the auto-immune thing started for me:

But things changed for me when I became a mother. During the course of both pregnancies, I developed autoimmune conditions (Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and autoimmune inner ear disorder) that left me exhausted, depressed, tired and even experienced debilitating vertigo attacks. I could barely function and I was adamant to find a doctor that was willing to look beyond mere symptoms. And so I did.

This is what throws me off balance the most:

I’m still trying to figure it out, really. I know that diet is number one right now. Any little bit of gluten and it’s vertigo a couple of days later (just happened recently when I had something with hidden gluten in it). But also when I’m not creative or I feel tied down, then I go into downward spiral for a few days. I just don’t know how to control those things as easily.

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monday awakening: the best reason I’ve ever found for backing the f*ck off. Yeah!

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Sometimes you hear something that makes a penny drop.

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You see, yesterday I was listening to an podcast about longevity and the point was made that a lot of us will live to well over 100. 120, 130…seriously. This factoid changed my day. I’m still carrying with me the tingle off the bouncing coin.

Three things:

1.     Given I have, potentially, 90 years left to go, then WHAT’S THE BLOODY RUSH? Why not back off a little? Take my time. My God! Yes! I don’t have to achieve it all by 40. I’ll need to save some fun for when I’m 80. You can’t begin to understand what a load off my being this is. Or perhaps you can? Most of my pain and discord comes from rushing…and feeling time is slipping past me. There is another way to look at this. Quelle relief, hey!?

2.     If the secret to living longer is to be well and to eliminate stress as much as possible (and it is – Dan Buettner’s work on centenarians proves this), then Point 1 applies doubly so…back the fork off!!! Let’s pace ourselves. It’s kind of perfectly ironic, isn’t it. To live longer so we can justify stressing less, we need to stress less.

The clear message: just choose to start stressing less. Be gentle. Choose wellness.

Because, of course, not everyone will live to 130. In fact, the world is likely to be quite starkly divided into those who die young (obesity, heart disease etc) and those who don’t.

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Sunday life: screw it, let’s just do it… and tap-dance out of a plane with Richard Branson

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This week Richard Branson tells me shows me how to jump into life.

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I can’t profess to know Richard Branson intimately. That said, we have shared two plane trips and a chicken sandwich together. And tap-danced, hand-in-hand, down the stairs of one of his Virgin Blue Boeing 737-800 in front of a bunch of TV cameras and journalists. Based on this I feel I can say with some (OK, shaky) authority that Sir Richard is no Anthony Robbins. He doesn’t talk in sound bites. He doesn’t do motivational bootcamps, instead requesting a Q &A format when he does find himself plonked at the front of a large auditorium. And he doesn’t look you in the eye when he talks; I’d describe him as quite shy.

Instead, what he does do – rather famously – is divert attention from this shyness by doing bodacious, OTT things – like fly a balloon around the world and jump off the Palms Casino Resort in Vegas in a dinner suit. For that particularly expectant subset of the community who flock to motivational “summits”, donning notebooks, Toastmaster memberships and bags of power within-unleashing DVDs bought at the desk on the way in, this might be disappointing to learn. But me, I find it refreshing. We expect a lot from our business entrepreneurs – spiels, chiselled jawlines and, oh yes, success secrets that come packaged in new (!) and inspiring (!) ways.

Which is like expecting barely pubescent men who herd a leather ball around an allotment of grass for a living to be mentors to our children.

Admittedly, when I meet with Sir Richard, I front up with a notebook and eagerly expect wise motivational words about overcoming fear.

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is everything going to be ok?

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It is, you know. Because everything is OK right now. Not in five minutes. Not in five seconds. Right now, as you read the message on the steps, it is. OK. Right?

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This picture was taken in the lobby of the Ace Hotel when I was in New York a few months back. I found it on my iphone just now.

The wonderful Eckhart Tolle instructs, as an exercise in seeing the beauty of the present, to ask yourself, “what’s the issue right now?”. Not tomorrow, not in 30 minutes, not in 1 minute, not in one second from now. What’s the issue right now. Of course, you find yourself realising that there is no issue in the present. You just can’t conjure one. Only in the past and the future are there issues.

Try it. Um, like, now.

I think one of the kindest gestures you can proffer someone is to ask if they’re OK. I say this today, because it’s National RUOK Day. The premise, from watching Hugh below, is to simply reach out to someone and ask, “Are you OK?”. It’s geared at staving off suicide, and helping out someone struggling on their own.

I went through a rough patch about three years ago and my friend KJ would call me almost every day just to see if I was OK. I always said I was. Because in the instant that she asked me, I would be. That’s often how it works.

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ride to work, smell the roses

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Oh dear. I’m on the cover of Central Magazine this week spruiking Ride to Work Day Oct 13. The “Oh dear” refers to that high-octane sunny expression on my face…and the largeness of the picture.

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Fortunately, my bike’s look spick. And the campaign – I’m totally up for it. If you don’t want to read the full story, the highlight of my eloquent rant about why it’s good to ride to work, is this:

You experience more of life on a bike. You feel it, you smell it, you are totally engaged with the day and your surroundings. You have to be, to remain safe. So you notice great stuff – expressions on people’s faces, the smell of jasmine as evening approaches, great shop signage.

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Tuesday eats: millet

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Millet is great. Have you eaten millet? It’s a super grain.
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It’s kind of like quinoa (high in protein, gluten-free, substitute for rice/couscous/flour), but is crunchier and is also:

* high in silica, which is great for bones

* soothing, especially for indigestion or morning sickness

* anti-fungal; helps ease Candida symptoms

* improves breath

This week I invited Melbourne acupuncturist and fertility specialist Natalie Kringoudis (visit her blog and her site The Pagoda Tree for her details) to share her love of the stuff. And a recipe.

But before I hand things over to her: a cheat sheet for you:
* Uses Millet can be used in porridges, cereal, soups and dense breads. It’s a great wheat-free substitution for couscous, as it has a similar consistency.

* Storing Look for yellow colored, raw millet in health food stores. Store in an airtight jar or glass container for 6-9 months.

* Preparation Rinse millet before cooking, and use one part millet to two parts liquid.

* Basic Millet
Prep Time: 2 minutes Cooking Time: 30 minutes Serves 4

Rinse 1 cup of millet in a grain strainer.  Place in 2 cups of water with a pinch of salt in  a pot with a tight fitting lid. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low.   Simmer 30 minutes.
More water may be added to make the millet a softer consistency.

*** I toast my millet  lightly  before cooking to give it a nutty flavor. No oil, just in a dry pan.

***An update. The generous reader “millet head” gave me this helpful advice regarding my issue with millet being a touch too crunchy (I boil the crap out of it and 45 min later it’s still snappy-of-mouth):

White French millets are impossibly resistant to softening, Isprout them instead.
If you are using the yellow millets, rinse, then soak in cold water overnight – and leave on your counter top with a gauze or muslin to keep any bugs out etc. Discard soaking water and cook with fresh water as usual. I like to add butter or ghee and sea salt once mushy ( consistency kinda like polenta).

Over to Nat:

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Millet makes you fertile.

At my clinic, I specialise in fertility.

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two lessons I took from Eat Pray love (the movie)

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Everyone is going to see the movie, right. Even if you’re one of those people who says Elizabeth Gilbert should build a bridge. Grab her baggage. And trundle over it.

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I saw an advanced preview of the film about two months ago. I really enjoyed it. It would be easy for me, with my scathing journalistic hat on, to go to town on the premise (when life gets tough, indulgently rack off for a year), but I’ll leave that to others…in particular the English who just LOVE to get snarky about anything self-helpy and American and sunny.

OK, so two things I took away from the movie that made me feel enrichened (which are just enactments of bits in the book…but it was good to see them played out again):

1. Smile in your liver

There’s a bit where Ketut (the Balinese guru) instructs Liz on her meditation, and suggests she backs off from the mantras and the strictures:

You make serious face like this, you scare away good energy. To meditate, only you must smile. Smile with face, smile with mind, and good energy will come to you and clear away dirty energy. Even smile in your liver.

Yes, yes, yes! This works. Keep it simple and just smile. When you walk, when you’re driving and when you meditate (or, if you don’t meditate, when you rest a moment). I’d advise not worrying about good or bad energy. Just smile with every bit of yourself. I find smiling with my eyes when I’m meditating works all kinds of magic.

Try it.

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sunday life: how to really have a holiday

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This week I have the holiday you have when you’re not having a holiday

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On Friday, there I am, in Bali, on holiday, having a pedicure. Which is kind of the bourgeois equivalent of getting Bo Derek braids. Two hours and 15 minutes later, there I still(!!) am, having a pedicure. Sujatmi, the all-smiles Balinese girl attending my toes, couldn’t have gone slower without going backwards.

Being the Bourgeois, Uptight Westerner with A Week Off (a BUWWO?) that I am, such a protracted scenario would normally see me commit hari kari. I’d be a mess, fretting about all the nasi gorengs I could be eating and the white beaches I could be strolling. Everyone else is having The Perfect Holiday, is what I’d be thinking, while I’m bloody-well having my calluses scraped at glacial speed.

But on this occasion I remain calm. So much so that three hours later when the polish smears everywhere and sand granules get mooshed into the tacky mix I laugh. Why? Because this holiday I’m having the holiday you have when you stop trying to have a holiday.

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my 10 things

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mnmlist just posted a list of 10 essential things. It’s his take on those lists they do in magazine with famous personage where they get them to list consumerables they just can’t live without.

just a cute picture of a happy sheep, really
just a cute picture of a happy sheep, really

I avoid these kind of lists (the consumerable ones) as I don’t so much like consuming. This is probably disappointing for the reader. That said, I’ve got one coming up: “what’s inside my beautyf bag”…but I’m doing it so I can highlight organic options…does this make it OK? In my head it does.

My list. I had to make it a 13-pointer:

1. What I wear: the same thing over and over. I have a pair of green American Apparel shorts I’ve had for six years and I’ve wear them 4-5 times a week – for sport stuff, but also pretty much all weekend. I like the simplicity of having a ‘thing’ that works.

2. What I eat: kale… in juice, for breakfast (with a poached egg on top), in soups. If I’ve been a bit off-kilter, the green stuff gives me my energy back.

3. How I hydrate: Tea. In the morning I drink a stack of green tea (I make one pot and keep topping it up with hot water). Then I move to herbal. I make my own concoctions from herbs I buy at the health food shop and make it up in big coffee plungers and sip on it all day. My favourite right now: dandelion root (unroasted), cinnamon buds, licorice root, ginger root. When I’m feeling toxic I drink a lot of dandelion root (both roasted and unroasted; unroasted is better for you). The bad stuff just flushes out. Literally. (The French call the root pis en lit…piss in bed cos it makes you just want to go and go).

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