my sugar-free raspberry ripe!

I made this a while back and shared the recipe with my friend Renee. In passing.

jpeg my sugar-free raspberry ripe!

It’s the kind of recipe I’m packing my forthcoming I Quit Sugar Cookbook with. Simple, moorish, minimal-ingredients-required “assemblages”, brimful of nutrients and wholesome sweetness. Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing some sneak peaks…on Instagram, my IQS Facebook page and Twitter. And to be sure:

The I Quit Sugar Cookbook is out next month.

To receive an early-bird discount and a gift, feel free to sign up here.

Meantime, back to the Raspberry Ripe.trans my sugar-free raspberry ripe!

During the week I got this text from Renee:

wDtpzthN1Q6HAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg== my sugar-free raspberry ripe!

And this….

20120427 my sugar-free raspberry ripe!

It’s seductive stuff. But I’ll tell you the interesting thing. If you ever find yourself indulging in this kind of sugar-free

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try this: two commitment weekends

Far too many of us get our weekends wrong. We don’t rest. We try to catch up. Catch up on emails, chores, with people.

02islandweek try this: two commitment weekends
Image by Christoph Niemann

As I’ve said soooo many times before, the biggest challenge we face now is pushing back commitments. Life used to be about chasing and finding and accumulating information and ideas and commitments.

Now, the true art of living a good, full life lies in pushing back.

Creating boundaries, preserving your energy, keeping a piece of yourself for yourself. I’ve been concertedly practicing this art for a few years. It takes bravery and boldness. But as I start to master it I can see the benefits.

You might like to read this musing on the need for space, and this one on the need for rest, and this one on email boundaries.

And so it was I came across this idea of a “two commitment weekend”. I have a friend who mentioned this idea to me recently. He says yes to two things only on a weekend. The rest of the weekend has to free-flow. Years ago, my beauty editor at Cosmopolitan would not take on commitments on a Sunday.

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going gluten-free? some hiccups you need to know about

Gluten’s got a grimy name just now. I’ve previously outlined my thoughts on going gluten-free (who should, why it’s not a “fad” etc). It’s worth a read if you’re a little unsure about the whole debate. If you’ve already made the move, or have contemplated it, then you might learn a lot from this rundown of the tricky things that might stump you in your tracks along the way.

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image via food delights

Steph Osfield is a great freelance writer who used to write for me at Cosmopolitan eons ago and she sung out recently to say she’d had all kinds of dramas going GF and offered to share her thoughts. She and her family went GF due to broad-based health issues, not due to celiacs per se.  I very much appreciate what she outlines here. It’s clear, concise and has helped me with my own dance around the pesky little protein:

I was prepared to become a Lego Grand Master and tadpole wrangler when I became a mother, but I didn’t count on becoming a medical expert too. My gorgeous kids (son 12 and twin girls aged 10), have been sick so often over their young lives that our doctor says they are working their way through the medical dictionary. Whole terms often pass with only a week where they are all at school.

Our household ailments read like a medical dictionary; anaphylaxis to peanut, vulvadynia (stinging, sore vulva), multiple food sensitivities, a virus called molloscum contagiosum (four years and counting) and the last two years – nocturnal epilepsy and a sleep issue called periodic limb movement disorder. But in their younger years it was the eczema, glue ear and diagnosis of asthma that led me to take the quantum diet leap to a gluten free diet. Out went the rye bread and porridge and wholemeal pasta and in came the big surprise – we didn’t then live happily every after. Several weeks into eating gluten-free, health issues like their eczema got worse. So I become a foodie super sleuth and here’s what I learned about going gluten-free:

1. It’s not just gluten…

Corn, corn, corn – when you’re swearing off gluten, corn-based options like polenta and tacos shells and corn tortillas are usually on high rotation. Bear in mind that people sensitive to gluten are often sensitive to corn as well. If you do have this issue then increasing your corn intake may ramp up your health symptoms, which will then counter any benefits you might be getting from eating gluten free. This was the case with my kids.

Tip: Make up your own mix of flours for baking with tapioca, brown rice and buckwheat flour to avoid corn.

Here’s some other foods. You may also have a problem with:

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how to ferment vegetables

So, I ferment my roots. And I activate my nuts.

IMG 0339 how to ferment vegetables
One of my mish mash lunches with sauerkraut (and bone broth)

And my guts love me for it. If there is one kooky, “witchy” thing you should try right now, it’s fermenting, or pickling. I’ve been playing around for a few months, making sauerkraut, pickled daikon, and the most lush beetroot relish. I eat a tablespoon or two with as many meals as I can…see some of my suggestions below…and I’ve noticed a tangible benefit with my digestion. Which, for those of you who are interested to know, is crap.

Anyone with auto immune issues, IBS, bloating, sugar cravings or any kind of digestive or allergy issue should truly try fermenting.

Before you start: you might like to make whey. Why whey? It really makes the best fermented veggies. Trust me.  It’s simple, too. Just make my homemade cream cheese. It produces whey on the side, which you can freeze until you’re ready to use.

What is fermenting?

Lacto-fermentation has been around for eons as a health trick – all cultures have a history of fermenting veggies, dairy, nuts, grains etc for medicinal and digestion purposes. The nerdy stuff: it’s a biological process by which sugars – glucose, fructose, and sucrose – are converted into cellular energy and a metabolic byproduct – lactic acid. When the acidity rises due to lactic acid-fermenting organisms, many harmful micro-organisms are killed – so it’s often been used as a preserving technique.

Why the good health rap?

Let’s do this in dot points:

* lactic acid enhances a food’s digestibility and increases vitamin C and vitamin A levels.

* it produces a stack of helpful enzymes as well as antibiotic substances.

* lactic acid promotes the growth of healthy flora in the intestine

* fermented foods are rich in vitamin K2 – a known cancer fighter

* it cuts the sugar content of foods quite dramatically (the same process sees wine end up as pretty much fructose-free)

* plus all you IQS kids:  it helps you beat sugar cravings!

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marilyn’s bizzare (paleo) eating

I love learning what other people’s eating routines look like. I love routines. I love learning anything about Marilyn’s short life.

shape 1 marilyn's bizzare (paleo) eating
Via Glamornet.com

Whacko! An article from the 1952 issue of Pageant that outlines Marilyn’s eating routine…and beyond. It’s intriguingly Paleo, you’ll note: milk, eggs, liver, lamb chops. Remember, up until quite recently a grain-based diet was seen as fattening (ie farmers fed their pigs grains to fatten them up). It was roughly the 1950s when cereal companies started changing the dietary messaging.

Screen Shot 2012 04 12 at 3.26.28 PM marilyn's bizzare (paleo) eating

Below is her approach to exercise, which I really rather like (“I couldn’t stand exercise if I had to feel regimented about it”):

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try this: be innocent, faint and effortless

If your life is feeling a little like you’re forcing shit up hill right now (and I think some of us have so far this year),  you might like to reflect on this: Sukshma.

20110623 winter sun try this: be innocent, faint and effortless
Photo by Aquabumps

In Sanskrit it means “subtle”. Actually, it means more than that…it’s to touch life “innocently, faintly and effortlessly”. It softens. It allows compassion.

Like when a child touches your arm when they come out at night to tell you they can’t sleep.

I was taught this term when I first learned to meditate. Sometimes, when you meditate, you can go at it aggressively, forcing yourself (with internal berating) back to your mantra or third eye or candle flame or whatever when your mind wanders. And you get grumpy with yourself for “not doing it right” and not being able to stay focused. But this is highly unuseful in meditation. It kinda ruins the vibe.

My teacher taught me to try instead to return to focus with sukshma. Sukshma is a gentle steering, like we’re merely turning our head gently from the action over there to the left of us, back to centre. Gently and kindly.With no expectation of outcome. It’s feather light.

Lately I’ve been applying sukshma beyond meditation. And this, of course, is the point of meditation – to take the consciousness you foster in meditation out into the world. Who wants to stay in the cave on the bloody mountain, I ask you?! (Indeed, I asked the Dalai Lama the same and he agreed as much.)

I tend to internally berate and bludgeon myself with all kinds of silent but violent verbal abuse. It’s pretty non-stop. You’re either a carrot or a stick person. I’m a stick person. It’s got me places with my career. But at a cost. Part of that cost is a friction.

I’m always banging my little square self into round holes. The friction hurts.

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some very clever sugar-free snacks (2 ingredients or less)

Some might not call this cooking. Some, of course, might.

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Regardless, I do like to challenge myself to prepare food with the least number of steps and ingredients as possible, and using everyday things around the supermarket aisle. Life is smoother with less. And with ingenuity.

I thought these might inspire you to come up with your own. In the spirit of simplicity, I’ve reduced the instructions to a haiku poem (remember these are the haiku rules: three lines of up to 17 syllables and use of a season word). Feel free to supply yours below…

1. Cheesy poppadums

* poppadums

* Parmesan cheese, grated

A chickpea ‘dum

cheese flutters like snow flakes

hit microwave for twenty

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Jump. and *then* you get your wings.

Some of you have asked me about how I’ve made my (many, many) transitions in life. How I’ve changed careers, towns, life approaches.

86906 7 468 Jump. and *then* you get your wings.

I’ve been asked, variously: how do you know when it’s time to move on? How do you pick that delicate juncture between opportunity lost and opportunity ready to be gained? How do you know what’s right? How do you… know?

Often it looks like I just jump, often from a grand height. I guess I do. But in the past few years it’s been to the beat of some pretty cool imagery I was given a few years back. I thought I’d share it.

You see, I used to see a “spiritual coach” (called, appropriately, Sky) years ago.  I was editing Cosmopolitan at the time and I charged Sky with “grounding me” and keeping me real in a world that I really didn’t want to get lost in. We had a weekly appointment on a Thursday.

When it came time, four years in, to leave the job I had a really tough time making the decision. Not that anyone knew.

I was really unwell (I had adrenal collapse and hashimotos, but didn’t realise) and struggling, but it was a friggen great job. Should I dump everything – quit my job and enter the unknown? Surely it has to be better than the quagmire I was dragging my limbs around in. Or do I persevere? After all, most people just have to. They have kids and mortgages and dropping out of a job just isn’t an option they can consider. I envied their lack of choice. Was I being indulgent?

It was the unknown bit that daunted me. The lack of guarantees.

And the fear that I was being unnecessary. That the starving children in Africa didn’t fret they were living an existential lie.

I remember thrashing it out with Sky: What if it’s just me and not the circumstances…and I quit my job and things only get worse? Because what if I had this wrong? What if life really was about getting a secure footing on the conveyorbelt and neatly passing from school to job to partner to holidays in Port Macquarie? What if this is as meaningful as it gets?

What if I’d overcomplicated things and when I do pursue the unknown, it’s no better? Wherever I go, there I am. A cloud of over-thinking and deliberation in my wake.

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cycling in winter

It’s not quite winter but it’s already getting chilly. Time to get set up on your bike. We asked Joyce from Cycle Style to give us some tips:

Screen Shot 2012 04 10 at 4.02.49 PM cycling in winter

The mornings and nights are getting darker, windier and colder – but that’s not a reason to hibernate with your bike. If Dottie can ride through the frigid Chicago winters, so can we! (This bike blogger is my winter cycling hero, check out her beautiful Flickr stream)

In my view, cycling through winter is the best fun – the air is exhilarating, pedalling warms you up in a jiffy, there are fewer cyclists on the road and let’s face it, winter fashions are more chic. All that incidental exercise also helps keep off the winter weight when you indulge in another helping of molten chocolate pudding.

Here are my top 5 tips for how to cycle your way stylishly through winter:

  • Wear layers. The key to stylish winter cycling is to layer up in fabrics that breathe. My favourite base layers are garments made of merino wool and bamboo – they are thin, wick sweat, don’t smell and feel great against the skin. Check out the range from New Zealand’s Icebreaker.

Screen Shot 2012 04 10 at 4.05.18 PM cycling in winter

  • Accessorise with panache. Scarves and gloves will be your best friend in the cold, as they keep you warm during the initial chill and can be easily taken off on the bike at the lights as you warm up. We stock lovely scarves and gloves by one of Australia’s last remaining knitting factories, Otto & Spike and crochet

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3 killer recipes to alkalise your body

Heard of the alkalising diet? It’s not really a diet… it’s a way of eating. It entails leaning towards foods that help to alkalise your body. I like to lean. As opposed to doing a violent about-face with my eating. Essentially, diseases – like cancer and AI – can’t exist in a fully alkalised system. The closer you can get to this utopic state, the better you’ll be. Simple.

untitled 5797 3 killer recipes to alkalise your body
Alkaline Sisters’ kale salad, recipe below

I’ve done this before, when I was 21. I had Grave’s disease at the time. After three months of eating acid-free (nothing from a can, no deadly night shades – mushrooms, potatoes, tomatoes – etc), I was healed. Seriously. I avoided radioactive iodine treatment, put on weight again and got on with my life.

This post has been updated:

Where does this sit with my eating today? And where does it fit with Paleo eating? As per my post last week, my take on Paleo eating is this: I eat a stack of vegetables – mostly greens – dairy in moderation, and eggs and meat in moderation as well. This still fits with an alkaline mentality, but is not strictly an alkaline diet. But I don’t stick to any diet, I choose my own way. The main thing I take from the alkaline diet is lots of vegetables, especially green ones, no sugar, no processed foods, no trans fats. Which is also Paleo in it’s thinking.

I thought I’d get The Alkaline Sisters to share a bit of a 101 and some recipes. Jo grilled Julie recently:

Why should we be alkalising our bodies?

Alkalizing or ‘balancing the pH of your body’ will provide your body with a level of nutrition that it can use to maintain optimal health.

it is vital for our survival to maintain a blood pH of 7.365

There are other varying pH levels within our body that also need to be maintained, but have greater fluctuation, like our urine. They reflect quite directly the food we consume.  A poor diet is very taxing on your body as it has to constantly maintain homeostasis, which it undergoes at all times, struggling to obtain alkalizing nutrients from organs and bones thus depleting their necessary stores.

What does too much acid do to our bodies?

A prolonged acidic diet will eventually make small incremental changes to our blood, making it more acidic. Even the smallest variation in our blood = big problems. An overly acidic body provides a perfect breeding ground for bacteria & disease.

bacteria & disease, especially cancer cells, cannot thrive in an alkaline body 

Immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis – which is an acid build up in the joints, an imbalance of the pH of the blood – can be relieved if not resolved.

How to eat alkaline – in a nutshell?

Enjoy lots of alkaline foods and minimize acidic ones.

80% alkaline, 20% acidic foods each day is ideal

unless you already suffer from disease, then one needs to super alkalize until you resolve the issue.  Our bodies were designed to heal themselves, but can only do so when they are provided with wholesome nutrients that will nuture this process.

Is it more than just food?

Those of us who eat incredibly healthy may still lead very stressful lives, which constantly leaves our bodies in a fight or flight mode of stress. This hormonal response was designed for us to deal with sudden short occasions of stress as in our ancestors when they encountered dangerour situtations ie a bear or a tiger to tackle or run from.  This fear also causes our bodies to secrete acidic fluids that then need to be balanced.  Getting a handle on your stress will make a huge difference to your health.

Activities like yoga, meditation, long walks, pampering baths, quiet reading and healthy relationships is the other half of the battle in maintaining a healthy body for a life of longevity, free of disease

What are your top five tips for alkalising?

  • Veggies, veggies and more veggies!  Veggies are whole foods minus the extreme sugars that feed disease, and are packed with the nutrients from the soil- that are meant to be transferred to our bodies via our crops.  Choose organic to be sure that you get the maximum nutrients possible, as organics pack 25% more nutrients

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