Month: December 2011

failures + healings: the year that was

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This post has been updated.

Every year since starting this blog I’ve done a NYE post (give or take a few days) that outlines my resolutions for the coming year. Last year I wrote a bunch of “intentions” for 2011.

be48f1c82eaa11e1abb01231381b65e3 7 failures + healings: the year that was
My brother Nick and me – 17 years and 7 inches between us

Below I outline which ones I stuck to. And the other events that emerged, with intention, too. And then where I want to head in 2012.

But first I want to discuss “failure”.

My “failures” in 2011 have been observable by many due to the nature of this blog – in real time, with commentary and opinion from virtual strangers (very much literally). Which has been an interesting process to be a part of. But good. Definitely good.

Failure. I’ve had some this year. I observe many of us have. Or rather many of us have had plans that went awry. Complications. False starts. Steps backwards. Recalibrations that involved dismantling a few things in the interim.

But then – and tell me if it was this way for you, too? – the year has somehow ended with some resolution or settling or forgiveness or landing.

This has been the theme this year. It was a massive year. A hard year.

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Q: whose advice do you *actually* still follow, two years on?

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Since I quit my Sunday Life column I’ve been asked by many of you what tricks and techniques acquired along the way are still part of my life repertoire. As in, the things that actually worked and stuck. Last week I posted some techniques. Here’s some advice that’s stuck really firmly…I do all three techniques … Read more

Yes, Sarah wore frog shoes out to lunch. With me.

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For this post I’ve handed reins over to Jo… to choose some favourites from the year that was. Jo, go for your life!

It’s not an easy gig, picking (only) three of my favourite posts/thoughts/memories to share on the blog. I’m usually attached to each post, for all sorts of reasons on any given day. So I decided to go with posts I had been a little more intimately involved in the behind-the-scenes “The Making Of” earlier this year…
Here’s my (current!) favourite three.

Picture 118 Yes, Sarah wore frog shoes out to lunch. With me.

1. Breakfast sausages with Louise Hay.

Sarah was invited to interview Louise Hay earlier this year, and I was lucky enough to have been there on the day – enjoying cups of peppermint tea and breakfast sausages, listening to Louise, amazed by her vitality (at age 85!) and her wisdom. She was wonderfully generous to both Sarah and I, and meeting her was a highlight for me. This is one of my favourite ‘Louise tips’, from Sarah’s interview with Louise:

“Answer the phone and open the mail. She says this a bit. And what she means is, don’t look for outcomes or success. Simply go about your day, doing your job and watch what happens next. Don’t fret. She also says the right things come slowly. Indeed!”

Read the full article here.

2.Getting real, with Brene Brown.

Sarah interviewed Brene after a lecture she gave in North Sydney earlier this year. Again, I was lucky enough to have been invited to the lecture (Brene made us all dance!) and I got to sit in on the interview as well. The three of us sat in a little semi circle, and talked about the nitty gritty of getting real and authentic with LIFE. I adore Brene, and what she stands for, and what she tries to share with the world, and I loved this post.

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Quit Sugar New Year Program giveaway: Organic Acai powder

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Note: This post has been updated! The offer closes Tuesday 27 December 5pm AEST

In January I’m launching an 8-week I Quit Sugar Program – everyone is welcome to join in. What a stupendous time to get off the white poison, no? And just for added incentive we’re giving away:

200 x packs of Riolife organic acai powder, worth $20 each.

Foil Pack Shot HIGH res 50g Quit Sugar New Year Program giveaway: Organic Acai powder

 

This stuff is seriously great (and, so you know, it’s pronounced ah-sigh-ee). The bonus: RioLife’s pure Organic Acai Berry Powder is sustainably sourced and wild harvested from the Amazon rainforests of Brazil, it’s rich in antioxidants, good essential fatty acids omega 3, 6 and 9 and plenty of fibre.

And three more things of note for sugar detoxers:

1. Acai berries contain pretty much no sugar.

2. They’re one of the most anti-oxidising things going around….great for dealing with the toxins as they release over the next few weeks.

3. sprinkled on a range of different “treats” they make for a great dessert (see below) and are a KEY ingredient in my sugar-free pantry.

RioLife add absolutely nothing to their powder, they’re certified organic and the Australian boys behind the brand donate part of the sales to ACAIMU, a project of the Amazon Friendly Program to help build and fund schools in the areas where their Acai berries are sourced.

To try out the berries:

* Simply buy a copy of The I Quit Sugar ebook, $15, here. The first 200 buyers will receive a 50g pack of RioLife’s pure Organic Acai Berry Powder (although, sadly, this giveaway is only available to Australian buyers).

*  Since a few of you have inquired: we will email all giveaway winners and get postal addresses. Look out for Andrew’s note soon.

* Riolife founder Andrew will send your pack out in the New Year, in time for your reboot!

To gear you up, I’ve written before on some ways to use the acai powder here and here. I’m also loving this recipe:

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Q: what techniques do you *actually* still use, two years on?

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Since I quit my Sunday Life column I’ve been asked by many of you what tricks and techniques acquired along the way are still part of my life repertoire. As in, the things that actually worked and stuck. In all fairness, I’ve stuck to about 1/3 of the concepts I played with. Which is not a bad stat, really. I mean, there’s only so many techniques you can take on in a day! In a lifetime!

Picture 15 Q: what techniques do you *actually* still use, two years on?
photo via trendhunter

Here are some of my favourites, which I reckon you might like to try…a new year on it’s way and all.

1. I go Pomodoro

Developed in the 90s by an Italian efficiency enthusiast, it’s recently experienced a surge of popularity. It’s stupidly simple. You pick a task and take one of those kitschly 90s red tomato kitchen timers and set it to 25 minutes. Next, churn through your task, ignoring distractions, not stopping to make tea or stare at the ceiling. Rest for 5 minutes and repeat the cycle three more times, after which you rest for a good half hour and grab lunch or read emails. The aim is to work to these 30-minute cycles daily, building up the self-discipline muscle. Read more here.

2. I use a virtual assistant

A VA is someone you hire online to help you with stuff you’re, quite frankly, over doing.

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Announcing my New Year *I Quit Sugar* program – all welcome!

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Join my 8-week I QUIT SUGAR reboot program kicking off January!

It’ll be easy + not-boring-at-all + it WILL work

 

I get a sense that a few of you are thinking they’d like clean up their insides after the year that was. And, of course, the indulgent I-can’t-cope-with-being-discplined-right-now-I’m-too-exhausted Christmas and New Year we’re about to give in to.

Picture 4 14 55 50 Announcing my New Year *I Quit Sugar* program - all welcome!
photo via Ellieblog

2011 was harrrrrd. And lots of stuff built up, don’t you think? We were also so very harsh on ourselves this year, frantically trying to cope and not really being mindful of how we were treating our bodies. So, we’re a little gunked up, addicted, heavy, stuck.

If this sounds like you, what do you reckon of this:

In January we’ll be kicking off a program for everyone keen to start the I Quit Sugar program as a New Year commitment. If you’ve been procrastinating about getting on board, now might be a good time.

This is how it will work:

* Simply buy the I Quit Sugar ebook for $15 here.

* Start any time in the first week or so of January. No stress. Once you’re ready.

* Each week I’ll answer your questions as they come up. Ask dumb ones. Smart ones. All cool.

* I’ll also be holding a webinar where you can fire off your wonderings at me. Anyone who’s already bought the book or started the program is free to join in, too.

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my best-ever recipes #1

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Perhaps you’ve finished off at work? Perhaps you’ve done the shlepp back “home” to the parents and are a little bored? (Raining much in your neck?) Perhaps you’re dreading the mince pie/pudding/platters of lollies and Jatz onslaught and want to contribute a few edibles of your own…These might provided some inspiration. Jo and I have compiled a few All-Timers:

 

Picture 26 my best-ever recipes #1
image via Scandi Foodie

pumpkin chia muffins

Oh, it’s just snacks, snacks and more snacks…whip up a batch of these for those “anyone want another Iced Vo Vo” moments. The full recipe is here.

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this is how my Christmas goes (boxing bags and bob-sleds). yours?

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This week in Sunday Life I anti-Christmas

Picture 1 13 47 59 this is how my Christmas goes (boxing bags and bob-sleds). yours?
Photo via twistedvintage.blogspot.com

Christmas is like cheap pizza – all cheesy, intoxicating promise, but somehow (so disappointingly!) winds up tasting like cardboard.

Actually, correction. Christmas is like cheap pizza to the violently lactose and gluten-intolerant – something everyone else seems to enjoy, while you get…tofu.

Why all the bah humbuggery? At the core of my festive deflation is the mass, crass, exhausting, relationship-compromising ritual of buying presents. Did you see that Black Friday footage from the US? The whole notion of massly, crassly buying up stuff for “loved ones” seems to send human nature to its most depraved base. And the fact that it’s such a far cry from the original premise of festive giving just deepens my malaise. As, I think, it does for so many.

Admittedly my family as a whole is particularly and notoriously awkward with the ritual of gift-giving. We always keep our receipts; invariably our Kris Kringle recipient feels guilty accepting anything isn’t wholly functional and necessary. Um, I just don’t think I’ll get maximum salad-making use out of the hand-carved bowl you paddled three days through shark-infested waters to some Solomon archipelago to purchase. I know, why don’t you just keep it?

Over the years, we’ve tried all kinds of consumerist-dodging approaches, but none have really hit the right tone. We’ve done Kris Kringle with an upper price limit of $20 (which pretty much gets you a Led Zeppelin CD from the discount bin). We went through a giving-a-goat-to-a-third-world-village phase. We spent lunch wondering whether said village ever got said goat, which was a bit of a cracker fizzler.  One year we all got a boxing bag from Mum and Dad. Not each. One to share between six. The next year it was one-sixth of a ping-pong table. The idea was to generate less “stuff”, a commons approach. Which would have been sound if we weren’t all adults living in different states.

So what’s the nourishing, satisfying, happy way to navigate one’s way through this? The thing is we humans actually do like giving. A bunch of studies show that one of the most effective way to get a happiness hit is to give away your money,

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