If you’ve done yoga you might know the frog pose. Ooooh, yes, the frog pose! When people do the frog – on their stomach with their bent legs splayed out at each side, stretching at a right angle to the torso – they cry. I’ve been in classes where the whole room is weeping, all sweaty and snotty, hoping no one’s noticing. Not from pain, but from a deep, sad emotional release as the pelvis slowly opens.
This is because, as I learnt during this week’s journey to stand up straight, the pelvis is the body’s brain, and like our brain it stores a stack of emotion in its dark recesses. The frog, then, is The Notebook for the groin, the “Hallelujah” (Jeff Buckley’s moving version) for the hip-flexer. And the pelvis, my friends, is a joint in serious need of a good hug.
I don’t know about you, but everyone around me these days is in hip/back/neck pain, sees their osteo/physio/chiro more often than their own mother and is constantly “getting back into” pilates/yoga/Core Attack classes. Surely this isn’t right. Surely there’s a better way. As they say in the NatGeo docos, I decided to find out.
Me, I come from a long line of women with dowager’s humps and men with tilted gaits. Add to this a career behind a computer and a very fat brother (well, he was fat as a baby; I was eight when he was born – at a hefty 12 pounds – and I’d carry him on my hip; it’s thrown my spine out to the right) and I now resemble a Twistie. A stale, soggy one.
This week, the contorted pain of being a Twistie finally had me see Anna-Louise Bouvier author of The Feel Good Body (who developed the Physiocise technique for posture) and the bubbly mood expert on ABC’s recent Making Australia Happy series. She calls me a “floppy”. I have super flexible joints that I struggle to keep vertically aligned, which is affecting my energy levels.
But she also says the way I slouch is making me sad, it’s dragging me down.
OK. So this is where it gets interesting and a little bit tricky. As in, good tricky.
Today I’m going to cover off two key issues. Yesterday I said I’m eating more (good) fat and protein as a way of getting me through this quit sugar business. This is in part cos fat and protein satiate. They fill me up. So I don’t crave sugar. Or anything else for that matter. Oooh, but they’re fattening, you say!? Actually, no. Sugar is. Let me explain.
But first, know two things to kick off with:
sugar doesn’t fill you up. it makes you want to eat more and more (thus making you put on weight)
and
the real issue here is FRUCTOSE…
not sugar per se. Sugar is half fructose and half glucose. But it’s fructose that causes the issues.
fat doesn’t make us fat, sugar does
I’m going to dot-point this part because it is tough to follow. I’m going to leave out most of the fancy scientific language. If you want to know more (and it’s really worth learning more) can I highly recommend David Gillespie’s Sweet Poison?. It’s the full, glorified biological breakdown of the deal. But for now:
* every substance we ingest has a corresponding appetite hormone that tells our brain (the hypothalamus) that we’re full. It’s like a little detector/messengar. It finds the protein or the fat or the carb and goes, “Hello! Better tell the brain we have a visitor”. It is also able to tell the brain when we’ve had enough. The brain then issues the edict: “Time to shut down appetite”. You’ve probably noticed when you eat cheese or nuts it gets rid of hunger straight away. Yeah?
* every substance, that is, except for fructose. Fructose is a sugar found in fruit and honey and in table sugar (sugar contains 50% fructose, 50% glucose). When we eat fructose, it’s like our body doesn’t notice it. It goes undetected. And so we can eat and eat and eat it, but our bodies don’t feel full.
* people often say fructose is good because it doesn’t cause insulin spikes (as glucose does). This is actually a bad thing…for a host of reasons…but in part because insulin is an appetite control hormone.
I posted on Monday to say I’m quitting sugar. Well, it’s been three days. And I’m going great. Although you have to be so careful…I ordered a chai tea at a shoot on Tuesday and it came with honey already in it. So far, no withdrawals… because I’ve been upping my fat intake. I shall … Read more
I’ve introduced you to Joyce from online store CycleStyle before. She is kooky as all get-up and is one of my favourite bike kids. AND, her baby is due this week! Blessings to her. I’ve asked her to share a few of her favourite bike accessories with you…
Go for it Joyce:
My bike is my primary mode of transport – I go to work on it, to the markets, to meet friends, to the movies and to restaurants. I love riding my bike every day because it’s the quickest and most convenient way for me to get from A to B – and it makes me feel happy and healthy.
In the course of doing research for CycleStyle’s range, I’ve come across a myriad of pretty bike accessories. These items are for the kind of cyclist like me – people who want to look stylish riding their bikes.
1. The Basil Beauty Shopper
Every cute bike deserves a wicker basket. I like the gentle pot-bellied shape of Basil’s Beauty Shopper and the lid is handy for keeping your shopping in check. When you’re off your bike you can remove the shopper and take it straight into the farmers’ market with you.
I’m shifting my eating a little at the moment. I’ll post more on this shortly. But in a nutshell: I’m on a protein mission. When I eat a solid portion of protein at lunch, I’m not hungry until dinner. Again, I’ll explain soon.
In the meantime. I just ate this for lunch, prepared in my office kitchen (a microwave…which isn’t ideal…but…): two eggs and some Parmesan cheese shavings whisked with a fork in a bowl with a nob of butter, microwaved for a minute or so. I sprinkled basil leaves (chopped), cherry tomatoes, witlof leaves (chopped) and olives on top and stirred through the “omelette”. Then poured anchovy oil (I keep the jar of oil after I’ve eaten the fish) over the top. Holy yum!
Another trick I’m into: taking in ziplock bags of frozen par-cooked broccoli (I do in bulk when it’s cheap at my organic veggie shop) and leaving in the office fridge. Then I bring in a quarter of a roast chook (from dinner the night before). I heat a little. With salt and pepper. Plus quarter of an avocado. Happy.
I asked a few of my nutritionist mates for their favourite lunches. My gorgeous e-pal Aran at cannelle et vanille provided this one:
Mushroom, Walnut Quinoa with Fried Egg and Watercress Salad
2 Tbs olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup mushrooms (shiitake, oyster and baby bella)
1 cup quinoa, rinsed
2 cups chicken stock
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbs mascarpone
1 Tbs walnuts, chopped
1 Tbs fresh parsley, chopped
1 Tbs chives, chopped
Eggs, to fry
Watercress to garnish
Salt and pepper to taste
In a medium pot, heat the olive oil and saute the garlic and mushrooms on medium heat for about 2-3 minutes. Add the quinoa and stir for about a minute. Add the chicken stock and salt and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover and cook for about 15 minutes.
Remove the pot from the heat and add the mascarpone, walnuts, parsley and chives. Adjust seasoning.
Gently cook the eggs in a little bit of olive oil and serve on top of the quinoa. Dress the watercress with olive oil and place on top of the egg.
I’m a sugar addict. Not merely partial to the sweet stuff. I’m adddddddicted. No bones about it.
It started when, as a teenager, I moved into town from the country (where we ate subsistently and very naturally). A cocktail of girl hormones, new-found access to malls and corner shops, as well as a kid-in-candy-store delight with foods I’d been previously denied, brought it on. I went sugar crazy. And was soon riding the rollercoaster of highs and lows and battling the desperate, distracted, overwhelming urges to down a cinnamon scroll or some apricot delights or a bakery-issue apple pie. Later, as in nowadays, it’s dark chocolate. And honey.
But I’m quitting sugar. Yes, yes I am. All of it.
I’m going to write a five-part series on it here, outlining what I’ve learned, the best techniques and how I’m tackling it. I really, really care about this issue – and my studies as a health coach have heightened my awareness of the fact that:
sugar is poison
we were not designed to eat sugar
fat doesn’t make us fat – sugar does
You might like to join me. I’m starting today. The last day of January is a good day, I think!
First up, I’ll tell you why I’m doing it and share some factoids to get you interested.
1. I’m tired of being addicted
It’s really got boring being fixated and controlled by my sugar cravings and my energy highs and lows. I’m a particularly sensitive type, which is why I think sugar affects me so strongly. More so than most. As does caffeine and pharmaceuticals. Some people can eat sugar in moderation. I don’t seem to be able to. I get a taste of it and my body, sensitive as it is to biological cues, says “quick, store energy fast”. Because it’s such an unstable form of energy release I crash and burn abruptly, needing another energy hit…fast! I’ll explain this all better shortly. One 2007 French study shows sugar addiction is more gripping than cocaine addiction. The effect on our dopamine levels is insane. It grips, it keeps us bound.
I should say: I don’t eat massive amounts at all. I don’t eat gluten – so that cuts out biscuits and cakes and muffins. I’ve never liked soft drink or lollies. But when I have it in front of me, something primitive takes over and I can’t stop at one row of chocolate or a small serve of orange almond cake. I gorge. And I’m forced to do as Miranda did on Sex and The City (when she poured water on the cake she’d put in the bin but was still eating).
I’m bored of living like this. It ain’t cool or dignified. I’m ready for a new energetic way.
2. Autoimmune disease + adrenal issues + an excitable personality + sugar = bad story
AI types like me cannot afford to have our stress hormones (adrenaline and cortisol), nor our neurotransmitter levels (dopamine), nor our insulin levels mucked around with. When they are, they flare up our conditions. So does the whack of acid that sugar injects into our system. We need to keep our bodies alkalized as much as possible to combat the inflammation at the heart of AI.
Finally, sugar totally disrupts the bacteria count in the gut – massively so. It leads to leaky gut syndrome, which then causes undigested amino acids to pass through the gut wall, which causes antibodies to come out on the attack…which, of course, leads to AI. Sugar has to go if I’m to ever fully heal my thyroid disease. If you’ve got AI you know how it is – you think you’re on the mend, then – bang – you crash again. It’s up and down constantly, with layers of interchanging symptoms. I have a sneaking suspicions it’s sugar that’s a big part of this.
3. I want to live true.
Fact is we’re not meant to be eating sugar. Again, I’ll detail this further, but for now – our bodies are NOT designed to eat sugar. Until recently (about 200 years ago) sugar was such a rarity in nature (only found in fruit or honey…which were both hard to access) that our bodies were designed without an “I’m full” switch for it so that when we did stumble upon it we could gorge on the stuff and store the energy fast.
Our genetic makeup has not changed in 130,000 years; we are still not designed to eat much sugar. And so when we do we go against our nature, our natural balance, the way we’re meant to be.
I know this viscerally. Sugar doesn’t feel right. I don’t want to live against the grain any longer.
4. And finally, truth be known, I want to lose weight.
I put on weight (12kg) from thyroid disease a few years back and haven’t been able to shift it all since, despite getting my TSH levels under control. It’s not a core issue for me (although it did take a lot of centering to come to terms with!).
This week I try self-tracking with a bunch of iphone apps
A few years ago in New York I interviewed a bunch of women who’d taken it upon themselves to track their entire lives – via video cameras attached to their heads – so that you and I could follow online their every move. Ablutionary and otherwise. And in real-time. Wow!
These “life casters” – glossy, 20-something self-marketing machines with indulgent shoe collections – told me, like, this is the future, babe. I was perturbed and put it down to a ghastly fad. But I’ve been proven wrong. In the past few months the “self-tracking movement” has indeed gained momentum.
I swear, any moment now you’ll be bludgeoned by this 2.0 phenomenon of using various apps, sites and gadgets to log, track and analyse the minutiae of one’s life. Tim Ferriss, he of The 4-Hour Workweek mega-fame, is a self-tracker and has just published a new book, The 4-Hour Body, all about it. It went straight to #1 on the New York Times bestseller list last month (Dec). Ferriss has tracked his every workout and blood test for the past decade and used this data to develop his extreme weightloss theories. The QuantifiedSelf.com, an online community that shares the latest tracker developments, launched an Australian chapter last year, and newer, shinier apps are being launched daily.
Now I concede my tone thus far into this week’s exploration has a distinctly skeptical flavour to it. I’ll henceforth try to be more Swiss vanilla as I outline the benefits of self-tracking. Some self-tracking is out and out (over)sharing. Daytum.com and DataLogger allow you to upload what you ate for breakfast, the streets you passed or (in one case) a list of your irrational fears (in said case: 136). The data is then displayed in glorious graphs for others to check out. Dailymugshot.com sees more than 1000 people a day upload shots of themselves. They then share their archives with others. Just for pervy fun. I find something quite sweet about this. It’s a moment in reaching out, of bearing witness to each other’s lives. Sometimes we do just want to know we’re not the only one who gets pimples between the eyebrows on hot days.
Thank you all of you for putting your hand up for the Same Sky bracelet from Kindred Gifts. There can only be one winner as drawn from my Tupperware lunchbox just now…this time it’s Ann Penhallow…a marriage celebrant who lives in Canberra (from what I can tell from your site, Ann). Ann shoot us an … Read more
I made all kind of generalisations about male-female behaviour – which I don’t back away from. Many of you made a lot of great comments. The topic will always fire up debate. It’s juicy and real and we don’t really have answers. So we speculate and dig around.
Darren Saunders on Twitter alerted me to this Slate article – The Eligible Bachelor Paradox – which adds another crusty layer to the debate. It answers a few of the point some of you raised. It uses game theory to explain why there are more hot single smart women in their 30s than hot single smart men. As the writer says….
The problem of the eligible bachelor is one of the great riddles of social life. Shouldn’t there be about as many highly eligible and appealing men as there are attractive, eligible women?
He concludes, no. Here’s why:
He explains it in terms of auction bargaining power – “Consider the classic version of the marriage proposal: A woman makes it known that she is open to a proposal, the man proposes, and the woman chooses to say yes or no. The structure of the proposal is not, “I choose you.” It is, “Will you choose me?” A woman chooses to receive the question and chooses again once the question is asked…
You can think of this traditional concept of the search for marriage partners as a kind of an auction. In this auction, some women will be more confident of their prospects, others less so. In game-theory terms, you would call the first group “strong bidders” and the second “weak bidders.” Your first thought might be that the “strong bidders”—women who (whether because of looks, social ability, or any other reason) are conventionally deemed more of a catch—would consistently win this kind of auction.
I’m struggling at the moment. With being given things (yeah, yeah, poor me!).
I’ll come clean with you all. I get sent some very lovely gifts by strangers daily. Some of these strangers are wanting me to promote their wares. Others are genuinely spreading their eagerness for something they really care about. Others are simply giving to say thank you.
But thing is, I’m not a big fan of things. I grew up this way. And I like living this way. Less makes me happier. It’s not a pious statement to the world. Just a preference borne from habit. Anyone who knows me knows I wear the SAME clothes over and over. And am not one for caring about handbags. Or nailpolish. Or scented candles. Or new bikinis. Or whatever. I just don’t derive joy or excitement from them. It’s a different language to me.
Which makes it hard when I’m given things. I’m grateful for the care and gesture. But feel guilty. Because sometimes the thing (not the gesture!) is just wasted on me. So. From Now On… When someone gives me something because they’re genuinely wanting to spread their eagerness…I’m going to share the love with you instead. Not in an Oprah way. More because it’s doing me a favour.
Let’s kick off with this crocheted glass bracelet…
