Does your hair fall out when you quit sugar?

While I was riding a mountain bike in Sardinia’s barren hills last week a sugary fuss was hitting fans Down Under. Did you read the fuss?

Image via Favim
Image via Favim

The upshot of the fuss, if you missed it, is that a Sydney nutritionist is putting out a book that counters I Quit Sugar. It’s called Don’t Quit Sugar. I don’t think I’m flattering myself when I say it’s geared as a direct attack on my work.

(As an aside, I always feared “I Quit Sugar” was a negative title… but this whole thing started as a personal experience and blog post. The name was from this initial blog post and it kinda stuck. The double negative title of this new book would kill me. Ditto the didactic tone of it all. I like to say “I quit sugar, it worked for me, you might like to try it too.” An invitation, not an edict.)

Now, normally I prefer to let fuss fly by. There is plenty of room on the planet for all opinions and approaches. And retaliation and negativity and getting all didactic is generally not a great way to make a point. Or a pleasant way to cohabit with other human beings who are also just trying to do their thing.

But there were questions from so many of you, I felt a blog post was the most efficient way to respond, especially when one is meant to be having a holiday. Of sorts.

I first came across the forthcoming book’s author Cassie Platt a few months ago when she had a blog by the very similar name – I Didn’t Quit Sugar – which she shared with her friend Kate Skinner. I had a bit of a flick. At the time, a few things struck me as odd:

1. The message was the same as mine. Which confounded me. They weren’t not quitting sugar. They

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i ate sugar

It was two chocolate croissants that undid me. I’d like to share how and why. I feel I need to, given that today marks DAY ONE of the new 8-Week Program that I spent ten months developing with Jo (and then Zoe, Jordanna, Stef, Jenn, Kate, Martyna, Shayne, Tom, Steve, and now Jane and another new Kate). I’d be a stinkin’ fat fraud if I didn’t. And, of course, I share only because I hope it Contributes Something Helpful.

Image by Greg Guillemin
Image by Greg Guillemin

So yesterday I ate two chocolate croissants. Let’s be sure: they weren’t even good ones. They were stodgy and filled with PUFA-drenched Nutella-like goo. And I’d already eaten a full breakfast. And ate them with extra butter. It’s not a big deal, of course. In the schema. Which is the point I want to make with you all, in case you’re making a big deal of “lapsing”. I really didn’t quit sugar to get all rigid. Nor to suggest that anyone else should.

Please note: this post has been updated a little to refine a few of the answers to queries in the comments below.

I ate two crappy croissants because I was having a flap. And the flap took me straight back to a well-grooved rut that I spent, ooohhhh, a good twenty years chiselling into my being. It’s the rut that I used to go to almost daily when I got hurt, uncertain, uncomfortable, wobbly. Stodgy, PUFA-drenched pastries were what I would drown myself in when the panic and anxiety in my gut got too much. The stodge was like a suffocating pillow I could jam down on top of the anxiety. It would work. For five seconds. Until vile guilt overwhelmed me. And the anxiety – now carrying the weight of a gluten-y, sugary pillow – would flare up again.

After I ate the two chocolate croissants, the same pillowy panic took over. I know some of you can feel like this when you “lapse”.

The rest of the day I felt incredibly ill. My thyroid symptoms kicked in. Sugar AND gluten in the one injection (gluten flares up my auto immune disease – I swell up in my joints, get foggy and weak). I should emphasise – the pain I was feeling was due to my auto immune reaction. When I was younger it was all about guilt and being caught in an emotional food cycle that I mention above. Although, to be honest, I know it will always be there, that pillowy panic, lurking in the groove. And sugar will often trigger it. However I now manage it, mostly with a way of eating and living that allows more freedom and gentleness. I should also emphasise – having a thyroid condition can cause unstable blood sugar levels and unstable moods…so you can see the cycle I can get caught in.

So maturity saw me get a grip. I now know what to do when I get off balance like this with my thyroid, and what to do when I “lapse”. I go for a walk. Get out! Move! So I hiked along some cliff tops and concentrated on calming down. I also sank into the ocean for a bit. I was not as emotionally open and grateful as I am normally with such experiences. I was aware of this. I witnessed how shitty I was with

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The number one reason to do yoga

Back in Australia I go to a yoga school (Power Living in Bondi Junction) and there’s a wonderful teacher there (Jason) who shares (during his class) that yoga is like life (excuse the woo-woo launch to this…it improves). You start off in child’s position and you end in corpse pose. And in between is the opportunity to….

practice finding the ease amidst the strain.

Image via Favim
Image via Favim

Bam. Wisdom, right there.

In yoga, each pose is about using strength, while at the same time giving in, allowing. It’s strong, but gentle, all at once. This is what we practice. When it’s all strain and grunt, it doesn’t work. You never quite get to that oozie stage where you can glide into poses effortlessly.

And, yes, it’s a practice. In yoga we practice for real life.

Meditation is the same. We practice finding that delicate nexus where we can put in effort and care and strive and push, but do it in a way that’s joyful and soft and gentle and flowing. It’s in that delicate juncture between hard and soft, effort and acquiesce, force and release – in that weightless space – that we find the kind of peace that can really get us through life. When I hit it, that nexus, my spine disappears. I become light and happy. The more I steer myself to this delicate point, the more I can emulate

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What’s your food ritual? (PS it’s making you love food more)

This study by the University of Minnesota and Harvard University reveals that when we ritualise food – even in the most bizarre ways – it enhances the food experience.

Image via lovelightsupyourlife.tumblr.com
Image via lovelightsupyourlife.tumblr.com

I rather agree with this, as someone who has both a ritual for almost every food she eats and who loves food more than words can express. And so it has always been.

I pull apart all food into separate components. Then I eat the separate components, on their own. Then I eat them in different combinations. I think this is how I come up with recipes – from trying new flavour combinations.

When I was a kid, Mum would give us peanuts and sultanas in a plastic camping mug. I would eat them as “hamburgers” – one sultana squished between two peanuts.

I had to eat the hair off the “Gollywog” biscuit. After that I wasn’t all that interested in the rest.

I ALWAYS save the best thing on the plate until last.

I eat lemon garnishes. I use a wedge of lemon to scoop up the last of the sauce on a plate.

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last chance to sign up for the I Quit Sugar 8-Week Program!

Our very first I Quit Sugar 8-Week Program starts Monday August 26, and over at I Quit Sugar HQ we are finally ready to host you all. If you were planning on being involved, now’s your (last) chance for this year. Sign ups for this round of the Program close Wednesday August 21 so make sure you’ve … Read more

Writing places in New York

I do my best work on planes in economy seats. I do my best thinking waiting in the line at the post office. We all Get More Done in unexpected places, where the contrast flicks us into inspired action.

My writing room at The Library hotel.
My writing room at The Library hotel.

Which is why it was pretty cool to be in New York for two weeks finishing my next book. Which, by the way, is a follow-up to I Quit Sugar – let’s call it IQS#2 for now.  I was in New York, by the way, to sign a book deal with an American publisher – let’s say it will be coming out in May 2014 for now.

I didn’t shop, I didn’t sight-see. Most days – when I wasn’t shlepping between publishing houses with my agent Laurie – I was in my hotel writing. I kind of loved that right outside there was so much going on that I was missing out on. The contrast spurred me on. It’s like being in Paris when all your belongings have been stolen. Or in the best croissant bakery in the world with a gluten intolerance. (I’ve done both.)

I found the rhythms of the hotel comforting. I felt like The Major in Faulty Towers. And I got work done, happily and calmly.

New York – in fact, most big cities – are places where working solo in public places is a really comforting and comfortable thing to do. Paris has a legacy of it with the existentialist philosophers doing all their best work in cafes. Have you read JPS’s The Waiter? British writers went to Milan at various points in history and sat in the aperitivo bars to work. The focus can quieten the freneticness. The absorption can bring you in closer to yourself. For in big cities it’s very easy to lose yourself. Again, contrasts.

Anyway, I thought I’d share some of the places where I wrote and got close.

A Writer’s Guide to NYC

* The HighlineThis is a great writing hotel. But also a great eco hotel. And a quiet hotel. Oh, and a great slow foodie hotel. Thus ticking off the four points I look for in a joint.

On my recent New York trip to do pre-publicity for the US edition of I Quit Sugar I stayed here for almost a week. The building is epic – taking up an entire block in a quiet pocket in the meat packing district…just under the High Line, which in Summer is one of the best places

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Tara Stiles gives me something to do

One of my favourite things to do when travelling is try out yoga classes. Especially in big cities. And especially when I’m frazzled. And one of my favourite I’ve tried is yoga teacher to the stars Tara Stiles’ vinyasa class at her Soho studio Strala. I was there last Wednesday.

Yoga at Tara's studio.
Yoga at Tara’s studio. In my green shorts.

Tara’s class is a dance. And a wholly impressive exercise in gentleness.

There I was in crow pose to the strains of Red Hot Chilli Pepper. There I was holding Warrior #2 for five minutes to Run DMC. And there was Tara purring her encouragement in her mesmerising lilt, skipping around the class to adjust and touch us on the ankles, chuckling like a little girl. She chuckles the whole time.

But this is what is truly lovely. Throughout the class, when inviting us to take a pose further, she repeats this:

“It’s just something to do”

You know, no other purpose. No big aim. No mandate. Just to try it.

She follows with something a few of my yoga and meditation teachers have shared over the years:

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The Twitter guide to (Paleo) New York

So many of you have been asking me for a rundown of How to Eat Well in New York. I’ve just been there for two weeks and I ate health-fully every meal. It’s supremely easy to do so in a big city – there’s so much choice. Actually, too much. A few pointers from me, and then a rundown of places drawn from advice pinged my way on Twitter, Instagram and on this blog. Plus my own finds. Feel free to cut ‘n’ keep.

First meal in New York last week: a green "stalks" juice.
First meal in New York last week: a green “stalks” juice.

FYI: I mostly eat Paleo when I travel. By avoiding all grains, I avoid sugar and it steers me to denser nutrients. Also, the Paleo community are great sharers of information.

How to eat well in New York:

* Eat at “classic” breakfast joints. They do good portions of eggs. But just avoid the grits and hashes and toasts. And add kale.

* Add kale. Did I mention add kale. Every menu seems to have it as a side. Just order it wherever you go, for added fibre and nutrients. Failing that, Brussels sprouts. They’re the cruciferous rage here right now.

* Avoid vegan and raw joints for breakfast. I know, I know…it sounds healthy. And at dinner time these places can be great for a mindful vegetable fix. But the sugar content in most of the breakfasts is out of control. Even if it’s re-labelled coconut sugar or maple syrup or…agave!

* New York is obsessed with paddock/farm-to-table/plate. There are countless places doing this style of eating. And if they do, you can mostly count on it being clean and green and good.

* Salad bars: they’re pretty good these days and there are so many pertaining to be “natural”…even if they’re not

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the best tweak I’ve made to my exercise routine

Yesterday I ranted about biking around New York. Today I share my #1 trick for staying fit at home and when travelling. I walk. And I walk. And I walk.

Photo by Eugene Tan, Aquabumps
Photo by Eugene Tan, Aquabumps

I used to be a runner. I’d run ten kilometres to and from work each day. I’d run on the beach, and in the bush. I’d compete in soft sand races and go for 3-hour bush runs on weekends. But it all began to take its toll. I got injuries, hip complaints and, in general, the rushed, harried nature of running felt wrong. We’re not meant to push ourselves. We are meant to move, and be energised, yes. But, like New York Times writer Gretchen Reynolds says,

Humans are born to stroll.

I’ve since tweaked my exercise routine. I’m softer and gentler on myself these days. I still exercise daily, and I’ve shared how I exercise recently.
But to walking: It does all the stuff running does – strengthens the heart and lungs, increasing overall fitness, help with weight loss and tone up muscles (people who live in walkable neighbourhoods are 2.7-4.5kg lighter), is great for your bones and, done the right way, it burns as many calories as running without the high impact injuries. It is also the best cure for anyone (me!) who gets inflammation and water build up – it helps to drain the lower legs of excess fluid, and helps prevent varicose veins by the pumping action of the calf muscles.

And because you end up walking at a more consistent speed than running, it’s a more beneficial form of tissue-cleansing:

Walking pumps out toxins.

And the benefits go on.

But, says the science and my own experience, the trick is…do it every day. Every day. Several times a day.

And here’s how to get more walking into your day.

1. Walk to work. And parties. Don’t use excuses. Everyone can walk at least part of the way – park 20 minutes from

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How I travel: New York on a bike

I don’t like flying. Or driving. I’ve always ridden. I think I’ve mentioned before that I’ve owned a car for seven years  of my life only. The rest of my adult life, I’ve ridden a bike to get around. Indeed, just three weeks ago I became car-less again. I really do prefer it. My tendency to attract parking tickets means it’s a particularly expensive habit. In fact, cars have always felt like way tooooo much collateral.

Screen Shot 2013-08-05 at 2.08.21 PM
Hot New York chic on bike. LOVE the saddlebag. Which sounds weird, I know.

I landed here in New York a week ago (boy, it feels longer!), jetlagged to …Frankston (or some other end-of-the-line zone), and a waitress with leg tattoos said to me,

“We are not meant to travel faster than horseback.” 

Or pushbike. The Ayurvedic tradition teaches this. Our cells are meant to move at a gentlemanly pace. At a pace that our breath can keep up with, I think.

My first day here I signed up for the Citibike scheme. I did the same in Paris last year. And Copenhagen. Do you know how it works? You insert your card. It costs $25 for a week for unlimited peddlies. You can pick up a bike pretty much every second block. You dart from spot to spot. It’s all above ground with fresh air in your hair. I don’t have wifi here (the dumb expense! the dumb expense!). So I look up my destinations for the day on Google Maps using the hotel wifi (or Starbucks’). Using the “bike” icon I get an exact map of where to go, timed to the minute, and download it on my phone. And on I ride, door to door.

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