Spring has sprung Down Under. Time to really think about taking up bike riding, yeah? Each year I like to agitate you all to get on your wheels. I try all kind of tacks. This time, I’m posting this fetching image (below) and sharing some inspiring cycling Spring outfits. I’m appealing to our collective sense of vanity here. Be under no illusions!
A while back I read an interview with legendary chef and owner of ElBulli (once the most exclusive restaurant in the world until it closed in 2011), Ferran Adrià. There was a bit that struck me. This bit, about how little he owns (basically, one small bag)…
Image via Favim
“This suitcase [pictured below] is my home. I live out of it. I was born in L’Hospitalet [a working-class district of Barcelona] but I’ve never bought a house, or lived anywhere very long. I just have a small studio that’s home at the moment. My wife and I never had children, and that is a very important fact, because it enabled me to work from 9am until 2am at elBulli. And I’m not at all materialistic. I don’t have a car, or a watch. My wife bought me some pyjamas, which are great, but I’m not interested in clothes or goods.”
In 2011 – a looonnnngggg time ago now – I did the Institute for Integrative Nutrition course out of New York. I did so for personal education reasons.
I will flag very clearly, I did not do the course to become a “health coach”, but to be steered toward the latest ideas, research and thinkers. I was hungry for satiating information about wellness and couldn’t find an appropriate course here that tapped into the really contemporary approaches.
Of course, the IIN teachings certainly played a part in the evolution of my I Quit Sugar ebooks, books and business. And, as my business grew, thousands of folk out there have been keen to follow a similar educational trajectory. And so, I get questions. A lot. Mostly along the same lines. To this end, I’ve answered all the common ones here in this video below.
Update: Before you hit play, though, please take note… I’ve contemplated pulling the video down because more recently I’ve felt uncomfortable about “plugging” this course. Especially when I take an affiliates fee for it, which I am very transparent about (FYI I take the affiliate fee somewhat comfortably as it contributes to me being able to run this blog). Over time I’ve come to feel the “health coach” phenomenon has become problematic. A lot of people have done this or other similar courses and are selling themselves as wellness professionals, when, honestly, the course does not qualify them to the extent that their self-promotion suggests. This self-promotion issue stems from the course itself. As I mention in the video, part of the course targets marketing yourself as a “health coach”. I did not do this part of the course due to my discomfort around such self-promotion tactics. My point remains, however. The course very much helped me with my own personal and professional endeavours, but only as an adjunct to what I was doing.
I’ve left this post, and the video up, however, for now, as I do get asked so many questions about the course. I feel my response is important for people seeking a balanced view.
The video covers off:
That I’m an affiliate for the course*
How does the course work?
How long is the course?
How many hours per week?
Is it business-focused (as opposed to straight nutritional information)?
Will I get a job out of it?
Is the course accredited?
How scientifically valid is it?
How did the course help me?
A couple of other points I’ll also flag:
In no way does the course qualify anyone to become a nutritionist.
Yes, you study nutritional theories, but certainly not in the same way you would if completing a university nutrition degree. Some have found the fact that IIN describes itself as a “nutrition school” misleading. I tend to agree, given the common understanding of a nutrition school is understood to entail a three-year university degree. That said, the course materials very clearly delineate their teachings and outcomes from such degrees.
I don’t recommend IIN as a first or only tertiary course.
I probably stand a little apart when I say this: The IIN course is best for those who are either interested from a personal education perspective (as I was) or want to supplement another degree or career path. I don’t recommend it to 18-year-olds fresh out of school wanting to launch a career.
So what is a health coach exactly?
I put it thus: A health coach is to a nutritionist what a personal trainer is to a physiotherapist. Or, a health coach is to a
When I first started writing opinion columns for newspapers – about 16 years ago, for the Herald Sun in Melbourne, sharing a page with The Human Bolt (Andrew) – I idolised the writing of Zoe Williams and studied her prose to grow my own style.
Image via hellogiggles.com
She wrote a smart column for the Guardian on Saturdays called “Things you only know if you’re not at work”. It chronicled the minutiae of the banal of our small existence. But her slant was entirely captivating.
Zoe still writes for the Guardian. Yesterday’s column “The genius of Kate Bush in an age of Subjugation” is particularly gold. I’d love you to read it. It’s a review of Bush’s sold-out concert. She finds herself comparing the sublime experience with her conflicted thoughts about contemporary female music artists, which she often tries to analyse through a feminist lens. “(Kate) is what music sounds like when it’s the authentic creation of its author, and there are no strings being pulled by marketing guys,” she writes.
Williams realises she’s been wasting her time with the very fatiguing questioning – as a wizened old third-waver – of whether Beyonce’s lyrics are anti-feminist or Miley’s antics are destructive to the sisterhood (or are they reflective of what feminists fought for – freedom to express what you want?).
She concludes that the more important issue is that the mass marketing of culture has meant we lose the creative contributions of people like Kate Bush.
I want to add to this.
I feel that this mass, commercial approach means we’ve stopped wanting or expecting or craving what I think is a very female contribution to life – the female insight and voice.
To me, this is free and slightly wild and maybe slightly mad at times and loose and geared at digging under layers,
I was prompted to jot down some thoughts on this subject when I recently found myself once again causing a stir among those around me for there I was, a 40-year-old woman in a restaurant very happily dining on her own. Oh, the sideways glances!
Dinner for one at Bells at Killcare recently: a meal like I mean it (snapper), a modified side and a glass of red.
I was up at Bells at Killcare, a little over an hour north of Sydney having a “Think Week”, or more accurately a “Writing Three Days”. It’s something I do when I start on one of my books (which I’ve just done). It’s an indulgence, but it does the job – I go somewhere where I can have an early morning exercise explosion, be in beautiful sunny surrounds and have food covered*.
So there I was dining solo, in a full dining room of couples and… more couples. I’m so undeterred by this seemingly renegade culinary situation that it’s not until I get the glances that I realize many folk just don’t find it as blissful as I do. I genuinely love it; I find it nourishing and opening and I think I’ve felt most “me” at such times I find myself sitting in a bustling restaurant or café with a glass of wine and a full meal and my thoughts.
For those who are not so sure how it all works, here’s how I do it:
Sit at the bar. Or somewhere with high traffic and your back against a wall. Good feng shui.
To this end, reflect upon the fact that some of life’s most erudite philosophers came up with their most poignant utterances dining in restaurants and cafes alone, their backs against walls to be able to purvey life.
Have a glass of wine. Red is good for getting into the right reflective frame of mind.
Order like you mean it. A proper meal. Not just the salad. You are here to nourish (after years of living alone, I do the same at home…I never resort to a tin of tuna on a rice cake!).
Befriend a waiter. I’ve learned more about humanity from my chats at bars with waiters than anywhere else. There’s
You read it first here: The next chapter in my health explorations is the microbiome. Yep, I’m all about healing the gut right now. I’ll touch on this in more detail shortly; meantime I’m just working on recipes that get my gut gunning with gas (or without it, as preferred case may be). Kvass is one such ammunition in my holster.
My Beet and Turmeric Kvass tonic, recipe below
A traditional Ukrainian drink, beet kvass is fermented with Lactobacillus bacteria and is a pink probiotic powerhouse punch with a slightly rustic, earthy flavour. As my gutsiest guru Sally Fallon says:
“One 4-ounce glass, morning and night, is an excellent blood tonic, cleanses the liver and is a good treatment for kidney stones and other ailments.”
She also says that beet kvass is widely used in cancer therapy in Europe and in the treatment of chronic fatigue, chemical sensitivities, allergies and digestive problems.
I’ve added turmeric, because I recently read that turmeric needs to be fermented for the full benefits of this little root to be experienced. If you can’t find turmeric, simply make it with straight beetroot.
Beetroot and Turmeric Kvass
2 large beetroots, scrubbed and coarsely chopped
10 cm turmeric scrubbed or peeled (depending on how rough and gritty the skin is), chopped
Turmeric is a sweet salve for an inflamed, auto-immune, gut-compromised soul, or so say the studies. But a bunch of other studies show it has poor bioavailability and requires pretty good gut health from the get-go to be able to convert the active ingredient (the yellow pigment, curcurmin) into a form that kicks into gear all the good guff. Sad sigh.
My fermented turmeric tonic
ALL OF THAT SAID, a study published in the International Journal of Food Science and Technology found the bioavailability increased when it was fermented.
It works like this: Curcumin is transformed through digestion into different forms known as metabolites. And it’s these metabolites that are the anti-inflammatory and cancer-preventing agent. And the bit that I find interesting: According to a Japanese study, fermentation prior to eating can replicate this transformation, ie create metabolites.
Music. To my witchy ears.
I decided to play around with turmeric fermentation myself this week. My wonderful friend David grows the stuff and brought in a boot-load (literally) for me to muck about with. For those of you who don’t know a David With A Bootload of Roots, you’ll be glad to know turmeric is in season right now (in the Southern hemisphere) and pretty easy to get hold of. Buy up big. I’ll be posting a few more recipes to come.
For today, a tonic that’s bound to pacify pain and cool the angry inflammation based on my Ginger-ade recipe.
Fermented Turmeric Tonic
1 cup thinly sliced turmeric, unpeeled (if you come up a little short, a bit of ginger in the mix is fine, too)
When I don’t know stuff about stuff that I care about, I like to call a “friend” and have a bit of an audio interview with them. When I do, I get you guys to take part and invite you to post questions to ask on your behalf. My latest such friendly chat about stuff was with Dr Terry Wahls.
Image via Favim.com
Dr Wahls is a reckon-able force. A physician, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and ended up in a wheelchair. Which saw her – like many of us with autoimmune disease – to obsessively research the foggy area of AI and brain biology for herself. Her conclusion: to ditch the pills and supplements and to get her required vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and essential fatty acids from real food, specifically from a Paleo protocol.
Today she’s out of the wheelchair, walking and cycling every day. She shared the details of her recovery in a TEDx talk that went viral in 2011. And you can follow her tips and tricks for disease reversal via her book The Wahls Protocol. One thing you might like to take straight up:
Dr Wahls puts much of her wellness down to eating nine cups of vegetables every day.
A point she covers off in our podcast, which you can listen to here:
As an FYI, I asked Dr Wahls questions on behalf of many of you. We cover off:
* The VERY surprising breakfast Dr Wahls eats each day. Since chatting to her I’ve been eating the same.
Today, I’ll touch on a few tips for cleaning up your cleaning products… for toxicity and environmental purposes. Plus, the kind folk at ENJO (a planet-friendly cleaning product company that makes microfibre products requiring only water) are kicking in to give away
an ENJO Essential Pack of cleaning gloves, cloths, paste, detergents and floor cleaners – everything you need to clean your floors, bathroom and living areas – valued at $950
Keen? See the details below.
And just so you know, this is a sponsored post, but as always views are all my own. You’ll find my very particular position on sponsored posts and advertising here and further thoughts below.*
How to clean up your cleaning habits
1. Check for eco labels by independent accreditors. Try programs like Good Environmental Choice Australia (GECA), Planet Ark, Australian Certified Organics and National Asthma Council Australia’s Sensitive Choice. You can read more at Green Lifestyle Mag.
2. Read your labels. Detergents have two major ingredient categories: “builders” to reduce water hardness and “surfactants” to lower the surface tension of water.
Avoid the bad “builders”, namely any kind of phosphates, which contribute to the deoxygenation of marine environments, and EDTA, (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid), which can bind to heavy metals and cause damage to both people and aquatic animals.
Instead, go for products that use safe builders such as sodium citrate.
Avoid these “surfactants”: butyl or 2-butoxyethanol, which are toxic when inhaled, and oxalates, which can interfere with hormonal regulation above certain concentrations.
Instead, choose surfactants like alkyl polyglycoside, isopropanol and glycerol.
3. Use cleaning cloths that go straight in the wash. I’m not a fan of wastage. Disposal Chux wipes drive me mental. And don’t get me started on paper towels! I’ve found this clever all-purpose cloth that does the day-to-day work, and this Kitchen Glove designed with two different sides to remove grease, grime and food residue from your rangehood, bench-tops, splash back area, tiles, stove top, inside your oven and microwave. Once you’ve finished, just pop in the wash. I’ve come across ENJO a few times in my quest for toxin-free cleaning products. Founder and CEO Barb had a son who was struggling
Have you encountered George Monbiot? He’s my favourite columnist in the whole wide world. He delves in under the wounds, undeterred by the defensive scab. Then he goes in another layer, and another, and finds the root cause of the pain.
I won’t break things down fully. I don’t need to when George does it so perfectly. But I want to touch on the fundamental message behind his call to emotional arms: The domineering neoliberalist celebration of unrestricted competition and self-interest has left us feeling wholly uncertain about our most fundamental of human values. And this is a travesty.
I’ve been trying to put my finger on my beef with this phenomenon for a while.
I’ve been observing the way parents around me who are focused on finding the best private school for their kids, at all costs, grapple with the grubby feeling that in doing so they’re not supporting a fair go for all.
I read about how the woman who screamed racist abuse on a bus the other week repented when fronting court a few days later, admitting she was astonished by her own behavior.
I see us all consuming, buying into the Cult of the New, but desperately wanting less.
I’ve looked on as the current Government here in Australia has tried to pull apart policies that formed the ethical fibre of this country, the roughage that has made me feel proud and safe when I’ve traveled overseas or reflected on my belonging.
and microwave. Once you’ve finished, just pop in the wash. I’ve come across 