Sarah Wilson

do what you’re not doing

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There’s a long story behind how I came across this poem, written by a second grader*. Social media…it’s a curious thing. The poem, however, is just so perfect and a Thing to Reflect On.

cLvmNKu6 do what you're not doing

So much depends on

busy people in cities

rammin’ on rickety computers

gettin’ really really tired.

I was walking through the city last week, between a few appointments in and around lunch hour, and I felt the weariness of the people upon which life depends. It most certainly is the ricketiness of the computers… and the buzzy hum of the air conditioning and the frenzied anger of the cars that tires us. It grates at us. And, when we tire, we ram even harder. Pushing and pressing. That’s what we do in cities; we falter, we try harder.

For an alien, or a kid, it must look like insanity. Who was it that said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result? Einstein? Yes, I think so.

When we get tired, we have to pull back and ask if we’re rammin’. If we’re being insane. I have to do it all the time. I ram so much that my whole body crunches forward and I do my neck in so that I can ram no more…then I’m forced to rest up a bit.

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5 ways to use whey

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OK. I need to share my new “whey” of making lunch. It’s the simplest and healthiest trick doing the laps.

Screen Shot 2012 12 03 at 2.57.03 PM 5 ways to use whey
Yesterday’s lunch…topped with fermented cabbage, carrot and beetroot

I steam or fry (in coconut oil) some chopped vegetables and throw in a combination of the following:  tinned tuna (remember to buy the most sustainable, safest tuna in the supermarket), feta cheese, avocado, an egg, Parmesan cheese, leftover chicken, chopped anchovy fillets, capers, olives, dulce flakes, and mix to heat through, then pour in a bowl.

Then – and this is the bit that counts – I top with some fermented vegetables, which are made by sitting a bunch of veggies in whey to activate the lacto-fermentation process. Why?

  • It is the best thing you can do ON THE PLANET for restoring and maintaining the health of your gut. Forget probiotics. Fermented vegetables are the bomb.
  • It’s great for your metabolism. Fermented vegetables are full of enzymes that will help break down your lunch, so you don’t get lunch hangover and absorb every bit of goodness in your bowl.
  • The sharp taste takes the place of dressing or extra flavouring.

It’s super easy to make your own fermented vegetables. It starts with making your own whey  a process that requires straining one litre of yoghurt to produce about 1/3 cup of whey. The whey can then be kept in a jar in the fridge for up to six months.

Or you can buy some pre-made sauerkraut (just make sure you don’t buy the ones with vinegar!).

What to do with the leftover whey? Why, I’m glad you asked. Here’s a few things I’ve been trying:

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A Christmas gift idea! The I Quit Sugar Gift Coupon!

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Looking for a nifty Christmas gift for your friend/boss/colleague/Dad/grandmother/goldfish? Refuse to traipse around a mall? Scared you’ll wind up resorting to a novelty tie and a 2013 horse calendar after the effort? Why not give the gift of an I Quit Sugar Gift Coupon – the I Quit Sugar 8-week Program, and the I Quit … Read more

My Titanic theory on changing direction

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Wanting to create change in your life just now? You might like today’s musing. I’d like to say the theory is mine. But I picked it up from the 92-year-old Russian Chinese man who taught me to hypnotise myself when I was 21.

Marcel Dzama Untitled 2003 317 42 My Titanic theory on changing direction
Image by Marcel Dzama

Eugene Veshner was a former civil engineer who was told at age 40 he had only a year or two to live. He had diabetes. So had his mother and sister who both died at 40. He’d already lost part of his eyesight. To deal with the pain of such news he used his scientific brain to develop his own method of self-hypnosis to shift his outlook, which then, to everyone’s surprise, transformed his health.

The guy kept on living… another 50-plus years. And he got back most of his eyesight. And his carefully developed theory became the basis of the Nursing Mother’s Association huff ‘n’ puff classes.

I was Eugene’s last patient. He’d retired the year before, but he took me on because, he said, “You’re messy”.  I’d been working in a womb-ish, burgundy-curtained feminist café (it was the ’90s in Canberra and such things did in fact exist)

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Soul-selling: my position on sponsored posts + advertising

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It’s important I explain clearly my blog monetising position. I’ve been operating with a policy of “as much transparency as possible” and have trusted that only authentic opportunities and partnerships would come my way, and that readers would know my position just from joining me on my journey.

Please note: This post was updated a little February 14, 2018

tumblr m7s8jxUfcN1rcqg5zo1 1280 1 Soul-selling: my position on sponsored posts + advertising
Image by jacksondickie

That’s the thing about operating online: like attracts like. Authenticity attracts authenticity. And if you start to get sneaky and greedy and grimy, everyone will smell it immediately.

Play dirty and your stink wafts.

But I feel it’s a good time to spell things out as media – both old and new – are going through lots of changes and folk are getting caught out (note the Kangaroo Island social media brouhaha). I come from an old media newspaper background where the divide between “church and state” is instilled during our cadetship training. At newspapers, you develop a visceral fear of being found out on ABC’s Media Watch. Newspapers tend to have policies in place dictating that journos can’t accept “gifts” over a certain amount and must disclose where, say, a travel trip is paid for by a third party.

I then moved into the world of magazines, as editor of Cosmopolitan, where such boundaries are flouted in truly horrific ways. Radio is much the same (observe various cash-for-comment scandals over the years).

I’ve seen both sides of the old media equation and know which side I prefer to stand on. Now, firmly ensconced in new media, I’m seeing the importance of taking a stance on all this and owning the situation in a fitting way.

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Make my Christmas pumpkin spice granola! And win an “About Life” Christmas hamper!

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As you may have noticed, I’ve launched my new ebook…the I Quit Sugar Christmas Meal Plan.  One of the gift recipe ideas in the ebook is a festive take on my classic granola.  I’m sharing the recipe with you today, but I’ve also got some extra good news. The wonderfully well folk at About Life in Sydney are giving away:

3 x I Quit Sugar Christmas hampers worth $170 each

 

Each hamper is filled with all the ingredients to make this Christmas granola, plus a whole bunch of Christmassy sugar-free treats!

Screen Shot 2012 11 20 at 12.07.34 PM Make my Christmas pumpkin spice granola! And win an "About Life" Christmas hamper!
Pumpkin ginger spice granola, photography by Marija Ivkovic

For those who haven’t bought the ebook yet, the easy-to-download ebook includes three meal plans that use nutritious sugar-free ingredients.

Plus you receive more than 50 recipes to get you through Christmas sans sucre. You can download it here.

If you’ve bought the book and want to get stocked up, About Life is a fabulous one-stop for buying all of your ingredients, from organic meats and veggies, to coconut oil, activated nuts, raw cacao, stevia and rice malt syrup. They also have naturopaths on site, as well as cafes and cooking schools. They’ve got stores in Balmain, Bondi Junction, and now Cammeray. (I had a super superfood omelette breakfast there a couple of days after the opening just a few weeks ago.)

To win the About Life hamper:

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I’d like to tell you about my yearning

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I have a yearning. Let me explain.

93637 3 468 I'd like to tell you about my yearning

Sometimes I like to sit and think about the first courageous amoeba who ventured from the dank primordial soup of early life onto land. What a brave little fellow he must have been all those eons ago to have left the comfort and warmth of the soup and to venture into the open air. An uncomplex soul, he then, of course, progressed up the evolutionary tree, growing a spine, standing upright so he could reach the bananas, shedding some hair before finally becoming…us.

What went through his simple-celled mind ? What drew him from his comfortable existence flopping about in the fetid detritus towards an undoubtedly more complicated and painful life on solid ground?

I’ll tell you what it was. It was a yearning!

This yearning is a visceral need to go further, in spite of compelling evidence to suggest it would be so much nicer to stay put.

It was inexplicably at the little amoeba’s minute core.

We all yearn. We do, don’t we?

It’s always there. It’s the background soundtrack to our lives as we go through the motions of doing our tax and rushing to meet up with friends.

We yearn our way out of our mum’s womb to oxygenated life. We exist because we yearn. And our existence is characterized by our yearning. (Although granted some of are able to put on a better make of sound-blocking earphones, happy to ignore the incessant buzzing. And about three times in any given week I envy such people this most sweet aptitude.)

When I was two, I’m sure it was my yearning that saw me strop out of my room at night to stand in front of Dad and yell my first word: Nooooooo!

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Are you ready for the simplest and healthiest sugar-free Christmas ever?!

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Many of you have been asking How Will I Ever Get Through Christmas Without Sugar?? So! With the festive season just around the corner, I’m exited to share with you my I Quit Sugar Christmas Meal Plan, designed specifically to help you enjoy a simple, joyful, and healthy, sugar-free Christmas. Here’s a taste of what’s included: three unique meal plan styles (to … Read more

why coconut oil makes you lose weight

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Someone has asked me how coconut oil helps you lose weight. Good question. I had to think about it for a bit. In the meantime, I ate some more of the stuff in dishes like my raspberry ripple recipe.

photo1 why coconut oil makes you lose weight
My raspberry ripple, which Veronika M has turned into raspberry ripe crackles! Instructions below…

Anecdotally, according to a survey of one, I know it works. I eat about 2 tablespoons of coconut oil – straight from the jar, or in a sugar-free chocolaty dish like the one above – most days after lunch. And I’ve lost weight from doing so.

If you want to read more anecdotes about weight loss from eating coconut check out these forums.

How does it work? Again, anecdotally, I believe it’s because coconut oil:

a) kills sugar cravings, immediately (I don’t go reaching for more food, especially sweet food, after lunch).

b) fills you up, immediately. After 2 tablespoons I’m not hungry for about four hours. A rare state of being for me.

c) does something else…I’m not sure what…but it certainly seems to speed up metabolism.

I wanted to learn more myself about why this is so, and, so, did some research. I like dot-points, so allow me to present my findings as a series of bulletted factoids and findings:

For more coconut oil recipes like the one above, you might like to download my I Quit Sugar Cookbook.

The saturated fat deal

* Know this: saturated fats, overall, help you lose weight. Coconut oil is a saturated fat. To fatten a pig, farmers feed them polyunsaturated fats (primarily soybean and corn oil). To produce a leaner pork? The Department of Animal Science of North Carolina State University advises you stop feeding them polyunsaturated oils and start feeding them saturated fats. Can you see the picture forming?

* Consider this: we eat less saturated fat then ever before, but we’re the fattest we’ve ever been. Perhaps there’s a connection here?

* Saturated fats are required to absorb nutrients. Four vitamins—A, D, E, and K—are soluble in fat only. We need

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low carb down under

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Just a quick note to let you know I’m sharing my I Quit Sugar message at the Low Carb Down Under Sydney event this Saturday, if you’re keen to hear me harp on a little more about it all! Other speakers include David Gillespie, wholistic dentist Dr Ron Ehrlich, and Aaron MacKenzie from Origin Of Energy, who has worked … Read more