Year: 2015

The Ayurvedic reason you might be craving sugar

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I’ve shared on oodles of occasions how Ayurvedic healing is, in my opinion, the most grounded wellness approach around. You can catch up on my previous posts here and find out which dosha you are here. And if you’ve followed this blog for a while, you’ll know my dosha is, yeah, vata. I’m a poster child for the category!

If you’re not vata yourself read on anyway, because vata energy actually controls all the doshas – if your vata is out of whack, all the doshas become unbalanced.

Photo by Ceppas Photography
Photo by Ceppas Photography

The thing is, Vatas need “sweet” foods

Vata energy actually needs sweetness to balance and pacify. This is because the energy in vata comes in bursts, so calls for energy stabilisation after a burst. Which is why vata types crave sugar. Because it’s sweet, yes, but also because it’s a stimulant. And for vata types – which sees energy move through our bodies and minds like wind through a tunnel – we feel we need those stimulants to replace the lost energy.

Where does this leave things? We need “sweet” foods, but sugar is surely an issue? I asked Ayurvedic consultant Nadia Marshall to share some of her tips and tricks on the topic. Nadia is director of The Mudita Institute near Byron Bay. She lives and breathes this stuff. 

So what does Ayurveda have to say about sugar?

Nadia deals it straight: From an Ayurvedic perspective, refined sugars are considered both stale and over-stimulating. They are difficult to digest so can create disturbance and waste in the body (known as “Ama” in Ayurveda and considered to be the root cause of all disease). Refined sugars actually aggravate vata but also kapha, leading to fluid retention, weight gain, mental agitation or dullness (or both… swinging between the two) and physical exhaustion. They also weaken the pancreas and the liver, which in turn can aggravate pitta in the body.

Refined sugars produce the disease-causing agents in the body and mind, simultaneously weakening the immune system.

So what to eat to pacify vata if you don’t eat sugar?

Set us straight Nadia:

1. Go for warm and slightly oily foods. Eating foods cooked with warming spices (turmeric,

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18 of my favourite microadventures you might like to try

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Last week I shared why a microadventure will make your life better. Lovely-ishly, some of you were prompted to give one a crack that day. Some of you, however, asked for some inspiration, to get you going… so I figured I should give you a few adventure starters…

Image via treasuresandtravelsblog.com
Image via treasuresandtravelsblog.com

1. Do a train-hike-train on the outskirts of town. In Sydney I sometimes catch the train out to Mt Ku-Ring-Gai station, hike down to Berowra Waters and back up again to Cowan station, before catching the train home. In Melbourne I catch a train down to the Mornington Peninsula, and then hike the cliffs above Sorrento, finish up with a swim in the ocean before heading back to the city. It’s an easy day trip.

Here’s how I plan my hikes, if you’re keen to know.

2. Take a foodie road trip to a regional area. I’ve done one from Canberra to Byron Bay and one from Melbourne to Daylesford. Mudgee really knows how to showcase their local food and wines, too.  Hobart is totally do-able from much of Australia, as a weekend jaunt. You can find my other foodie trips here.

3. Close your eyes, spin around and point at a map. It’s what my Dad did with us as kids. We had a map of NSW; wherever my little brother or sister (it was always the youngest used for such fun) pointed, that’s where we went camping for

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The joy of catching others in a vulnerable, unaware moment

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I derive very happy jolts from glimpsing someone in the middle of a moment. An unawares moment.

Image via ladyslider.com
Image via ladyslider.com

Some examples: A bike courier singing as he rides through traffic; the woman in the pencil skirt who does a little excited skip to herself as she walks down the street; the power walker at the beach who has to tap the end of the promenade three times before turning around and heading back.

Then there are the more subtle moments. The flickers in the eyes. Glimpsing a thought flicker across a stranger’s face, like a floater across your eye. Apparently there’s a word for this:

Fata organa n. a flash of real emotion glimpsed in someone sitting across the room…

…idly locked in the middle of some group conversation, their eyes glinting with vulnerability or quiet anticipation or cosmic boredom.

I experienced this the other day. I was staring at a table of old ladies opposite me in a café. One of them had tuned out from the chatter. You could tell. And then a mischievous look came over her face and she looked like she was 15, not 70 or so. And I

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Diet doesn’t cure disease. And it’s irresponsible to say otherwise.

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The past fortnight has seen two young women who’ve treated their chronic disease with very particular diets hit mainstream headlines. It’s been astonishing stuff.

xxx
Image via FoodWear

News of wellness blogger Jess Ainscough’s tragic death tore through the media two weeks ago. Jess had a rare cancer (epithelioid sarcoma) and after undergoing chemotherapy, had declined the only treatment her doctors could offer her (amputation of her arm at the shoulder blade), instead deciding to treat herself with the controversial Gerson Therapy. This therapy – when applied to cancer patients – is based on a fully plant-based diet and involves drinking one glass of fresh raw juice every hour for 13 hours and taking up to 5 coffee enemas a day.

Then this week The Australian newspaper did an expose of mega-blogger and cult Instagrammer Belle Gibson who has claimed to be healing her own brain cancer (and more recently, liver, uterus, spleen and blood cancers, too) via alternative therapies and a healthy diet. The report claimed there is no proof Belle has ever had any form of cancer. Belle apparently admits she may have been misdiagnosed and subsequent news stories reveal a history of unusual and contradictory claims of terminal illness (and identities).

I’m not going to wade in on the ins and outs of the various reports (except to say I’m left very concerned about Belle’s welfare,

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Why a microadventure will make your life better

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I believe that doing many small things make life better. Like having a morning routine and exercising every day. Less, more often is my mantra, as it’s all about building a muscle, little by little.

Image via lordskate
Image via Lordskate

I recently came across National Geographic Adventurer of the Year Alistair Humphreys. He pioneered the concept of microadventures in an effort to encourage people to get outside and out of their comfort zone and has set up a business travelling and speaking about adventuring. Bravo to him. Here’s why I reckon you should seriously give one a crack…

A microadventure is an adventure close to home, cheap and short. It’s simple. When they’re simple, they happen. You don’t procrastinate.

Me, I do flanneries.

Or I do simple weekend excursions. I catch a train, do a hike, stay somewhere overnight and then train back to work the following morning. I also like doing short mini-breaks to regional areas where I can do a few hikes and check out local food.

* Try this: Sleep in your garden. On a work night.

It’s about stretching yourself, mentally, physically or culturally. It is about doing what you don’t normally do, pushing yourself hard and doing it to the best of your ability, says Alistair. I’ve written about the benefit of simply doing what

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The best advice to creatives ever: you have to go through a volume of work

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When I lived in Byron (writing my first book) I used to drive to my friend Annie’s house in the hills for dinner on Sundays. I timed it to listen to Ira Glass on This American Life. I’d time it so I could pull over in the really mind-expanding, precipace-thinking bits. Not listened to one of Ira’s meandering, whimsical interviews about life? You should.

Image via Skipholt.
Image via Skipholt.

I love Ira. And I don’t think I’ve come across better advice than this for anyone who hurts, frets, doubts doing creative work. Which is most of us, really.

The gist is this:

1. Creatives know they have taste. They know they have a vision, an idea that could be special. It burns in them.

2. But when they start out in their respective realms, their output doesn’t match up to their vision. There’s a gap. They know their work isn’t special enough… and so…

3. Creatives hurt, fret and doubt… and then often quit.

But Ira shares:

4. This is normal.

5. The most important thing you can do is… more work. The only way to close the gap is to “go through a volume of work”.

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Sonder

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The best words are the ones with no English equivalent. They invariably describe moments in the human experience that we find exotically ungraspable. Unpindownable. Fleeting. Ephemeral. Often they’re concepts that Anglo culture has – simply – failed to grasp. Some of my favourites include hygge, haimish, mamihlapinatapai and suadade.

Image via tumblr
Image via tumblr

Today I present you with sonder.

sonder, n. the realisation that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own.

This is a translation that comes from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows and appears to derive from some very old French word.

My new e-mate Hazel alerted me to such a dictionary. She gets my affinity with melancholy. Thanks Hazel.

So, to experience sonder…it happens when you’re in a crowd and people are streaming toward you (perhaps in a train station), or perhaps you’re on a plane and have the opportunity to stare up close at the people sitting nearby (as I am just now as I write this on a plane to Melbourne).

This stream of faces, or opportunity to pause intimately and be with humanity, drags you from your own myopic, clustery thinking

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Is resistant starch the cure for chronic constipation?

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Gut health makes the world go around. This is where the wellness movement is at right now. And crucial to good gut health is sturdy, regular poo action. For many, especially those of us with an autoimmune disease, regular poo action is but a pipe dream (which sounds like an ablution entendre; so many things do!).

sack of potatoes
Does ablution have to be so arduous? Image via Flickr

I’ve written about constipation quite a bit (you can catch up here). And I am on a committed journey to finding a safe, natural, gentle solution to my own periodic struggles with stuckness. The latest theme to emerge is resistant starch. And with it comes a very simple, cheap fix that I’m about to guinea pig for you.

Please note: This post has been updated with the results of my resistant starch experiment. I reckon you’ll want to read on. The results were very positive!

What is this resistant starch when it’s not sounding so recalcitrant?

Resistant starch (RS) is a type of food starch – contained in legumes, green bananas and cooked (and cooled) potatoes – that remains whole through the stomach and small intestine, and, unlike most foods, reaches the large intestine intact. Thus, it resists digestion. For many years it was believed that all starch was completely digested and absorbed in the small intestine. But a study published in the 1980s showed that certain starches reach the large intestine as malabsorbed, fermentable guff.

What does this mean? Well, when it reaches the large intestine (colon), good bacteria attaches to it and the digestion/fermentation process begins down here. Which produces a range of side effects, mostly good…

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Why my battle to tame my wandering is a good one

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A thought. I was reading the follow-up to a wellbeing study I’d heard about ages ago that uses a phone app to track real-time moments in happiness.

Image from serialthriller.com
Image from serialthriller.com

Psychologist Matthew Killingsworth who put the project together tracked daydreaming as well. And found this:

Daydreaming is not good for well-being.

Which surprised me, and it might you. But Matt drilled down:

Minds tend to wander to dark, not whimsical, places.

This stopped me for a bit. It’s true. The majority of my meanderings aren’t rosy, unless I consciously steer them that way. This is kind of sad, but I’m sure there’s an evolutionary (or otherwise) reason for it (spending spare mental time nutting out strategies for difficult situations can keep us prepared and vigilant).

The app study covered more than 650,000 real-time reports from more than 15,000 people. Big and broad. It also found people

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Am I a hypocrite?

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There’s a horrible feeling that grips at me from behind the neck at times. It’s like a sucky monster that latches on when I do something seemingly counter to my (often vocal) ethical stance on something. And it whispers in my ear, ”Sarah, you’re a double-standard, Pollyanna-ish flake”.

Image via off-with-the-faeries.tumblr.com
Image via off-with-the-faeries.tumblr.com

Does he hang about your dowager’s hump too?

Anyway, I figured it’s a topic worth exploring…the contemporary angst that emanates from trying to keep up with modern life while retaining basic values – environmental, humanitarian, ethical and so on.

Here are a few of mine, some of which I’ve resolved via a bit of research. Some of which I’ve seductively rationalized to myself.

Perhaps you have a few solutions you can share for the others, or – better! – moments of your own in double standard Pollyanna flakishiness.

* I get my hair coloured to hide my frothing of grey hairs…but I claim to avoid cosmetic toxins (read my posts on why I ditched foundation and how to buy toxin-free cosmetics) I, frankly, don’t have a watertight solution for this. I’m getting very grey and my base colour is dark and I have to present on TV and I’m still in the dating game and trying to cling to some youthful looks so as to not come over all Mrs Robinson and….

For now, I keep things toxin-free where I can. A bit of an 80:20 thing going on.

* I get parking tickets pretty much whenever I drive a car (thankfully, not too often)…but claim to be frugal. This one was presented to me by someone on Instagram once. I have to say I have a rational answer for this. I’m into conserving

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