Anxiety: fight it or ride with it?

Every few months or so I get stuck. I get wobbly or, as was the case this time, I get so thoroughly sick of myself I can’t move forward without offloading some of the spinning thoughts somewhere. In the absence of a pillow talk companion, and to save my friends the tedium of discussing my ground-hog day dramas, I call on Kristine, a psychic I’ve known for years now. She’s not a purple-haired, woo-woo type. Her feet are firmly planted.

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Image via Favim.com

I’m happy to share a little of what she covered with me. It’s great insight in these busy, non-present times. She Skype-messaged me afterwards with these words I share below.

The theme of our chat was my confronting my fear (of relaxing more and caring a little less and getting in touch with what nourishes me during a time that sees me caught up in the outside world so much). I keep going to the ledge, but backing away again. Over and over. I’m ready to jump, to connect with myself and to become a more care-free person, then I baulk because it’s so…. alien. I’ve lived so many decades in the “external” that I’m uncomfortable with the idea of sitting at ease with myself. Kristine reminded me:

“When one is really ready to approach their fear, it does require real commitment. It will require the commitment to truly act and not “react”.” You know, to actually go in deep and think about where I want to head next.

She then reiterated that we’re ready when we don’t have a choice. When the discomfort is more painful than the pain of confronting the fear, we have no choice but to jump. Anything is better than the discomfort!

So how do we get to this point? Well, by simply sitting in it. And embracing the discomfort. Not fleeing from it or fighting it. Saying “yes” to the discomfort, not having judgement, and “loving the stress” and anxiety, even if it’s extremely painful. The discomfort can

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Why do we write? Tweet? Blog?

Anyone who blogs, or finds themselves really quite glued to their social media feed, asks this of themselves intermittently. I do. I have my answer now. I blog because I need to. It’s my dharma.

Image by Arno Rafael Minkkinen
Image by Arno Rafael Minkkinen

The way I experience things is to pull apart the elements, to break them down, to cluster and to organise and to entertain meta theories and note interesting patterns of behaviour or phenomena. It’s a sport for me. Some people do cryptic crosswords. I spot patterns in life.

I spot that middle-aged Jewish men like to power walk in pairs.

That people born and raised in Sydney often have raspy voices.

That our idiosyncrasies spawn from a need to escape loneliness.

That Liberal MPs are all starting to speak in the same stilted, hesitating, lip-licking way as Tony Abbott.

Then I have to record them. I’m reminded of something Arthur Miller wrote. Scrap that. Sarah, get real!? I never remember quotes. Rather, this quote popped up somewhere, I saved it, and I found it again just now:

“The very impulse to write springs from an inner chaos crying for order – for meaning.”

Writers, bloggers, we all have the need to spot patterns. I think we tend towards the obsessive end of the behavioural spectrum, with an impulse to create patterns and order.

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The breakfast cereal breakdown

Unfortunately most breakfast cereals are loaded with added sugar and not much else. My Coco-Nutty Granola is a great sugar-free option for those looking for some crunch in their breakfast, but if you find yourself short on time and need to grab something from the supermarket, take this list with you. “Eating a Heart Foundation-approved … Read more

I was wrong about sugar…

Just kidding.

Although today I want to take a moment to emphasise and clarify a really crucial issue that a few unmentionables in the comments insist on challenging: that my focus on fructose is misguided. Or, more specifically, that substituting fructose with glucose as a sweetener is misguided (which I don’t actually do, but more in a second…).

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Photography by Angie Gassner & Thomas Mailer

I’m responding to you lot (calm and reasonable readers; not Mr Unmentionable) in the event that you might be wondering if I care about the issue at all.

I do. And to be honest, I’ve had to double-check my position. Just to get clear myself. And for this, I’m grateful to the Mr Unmentionables out there who like to go after me for encouraging people to get real with their sugar intake. As I emphasise throughout my books and other materials, I’m constantly exploring and researching this area and am open to tweaking my thinking as I go. Then sharing it with anyone (calm and reasonable) in my orbit who cares to read on.

So, let’s break it down.

Why do I target fructose specifically (and not sugar as a whole, or glucose)?

Sugar is 50:50 fructose and glucose. It’s the fructose bit that I say is problematic. This is because:

1. Fructose is metabolised by our liver (while glucose is metabolised by all our cells). This taxes the liver BIG TIME: it spends so much energy turning fructose into other molecules that it may not have much energy left for all its other functions. Leading to the production of uric acid, which also promotes insulin resistance and is linked to a whole bunch of metabolic diseases.

2. This liver dumpage also causes it to store the fructose as fat, especially in the liver, and triglycerides, leading to a fatty liver and insulin resistance.

3. Fructose stuffs our appetite mechanisms. Our bodies strictly regulate the amount of glucose in the blood. Glucose stimulates the pancreas to

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A bunch of IQS recipes

A handful of IQS recipe favourites, just for you! You can find these and more recipes like them here.   Flower Power Eggs Makes: 4 Preparation time: 3 minutes Cooking time: 5 minutes For a pop of colour, try this recipe with orange, yellow and green capsicums. The kids will love it. coconut oil, butter … Read more

The Sugar Science

The Science. We try to stay on top of all the latest research on what sugar does to our health. It’s an ever-evolving area and some of the research is super new, requiring more time to prove the strong hypotheses. Below, however, are the latest studies that draw on the highest standards of proof (meta-analysis … Read more

How to heal autoimmune disease: the most insightful cure I’ve found (so far)

Last week I shared some bits I found interesting in writer Meghan O’Rourke’s essay “What’s Wrong With Me” in New Yorker magazine. She has the same disease as me: hashimotos, with a side order of several other (possibly) related vague autoimmune (AI) conditions. And her insights touched me – and you guys – big time.

Photo by Edun
Photo by Edun

But I saved the bit that REALLY grabbed me in the guts for this post.

Have you ever thought you knew Everything about Something, but then you read something that really stopped you in your tracks? It stops you so abruptly because it’s so blindingly obvious. How could I have missed this? A total A-ha! Moment.

In her essay, O’Rourke shares her frustrations about how no one really knows what causes AI, nor what will fix it. It’s “shadowy”, she says. For some it can be a matter of taking the drugs, and off they go to live normal lives. I know lots of folk like this. I’m happy for them. But if, like me and O’Rourke, you let the disease tangle for too long before getting help your clusterf*ck of symptoms  won’t be unraveled with one pill. And, so, like me and O’Rourke, you can develop a domino-ed set of other AI conditions.

And so the “morass of uncertainties” twists tighter.

Like me, O’Rourke reaches a point where she’s largely able to manage her disease through diet – no gluten, no sugar, meditation, kefir, avoiding nightshades, etc. etc. I’ve tried it all. And it’s all required to maintain something resembling a normal life when you have a tricky AI.

But, and this is the two points of note:

  1. She hasn’t been cured as such. The “flares” and cycles continue.
  2. Her focus on trying to find a cure, and on controlling the AI, has seen her AI control her.

Her A-ha moment comes, however, when her endo delivers blunt news after a  “lapse”. Despite her best efforts to control things with her lifestyle habits, she seems to go backwards, causing her to lament, again, that no one knows what the hell is going on. Says the endo

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Sardines for World Food Day

Happy World Food Day! I hope you celebrate by eating your leftovers, choosing a secondary cut of meat, getting smart with your food scraps and using up all your leftover herbs.

Food sustainability is my number one passion right now. And, just to give you a sneaky head’s up (hopefully my publisher’s not reading this!) my next book, out in March, is pretty much a vehicle for weaving this message into things. In a fun, colourful, nourishing way.

Photo by thirschfeld, recipe below
Sardines, avocado and radish salad – recipe below. Photo by Thirschfeld.

But for today, let’s turn to my love of sardines. Sardines are the best fish. Period. They’re super high in DHA, their edible bones are brimful of minerals, they are low in mercury and, this is the relevant bit right now:

Sardines are the most sustainable option at the monger.

They’re currently not over-fished, there’s little or no by-catch and you can eat the whole thing, heads, tails, bones and all (nose to tail, right there!). Oh, and they’re dirt-cheap. Sardines are the future, I tell you.

This first recipe below is a one-pan-wonder-for-one, easily expandable to serve more. I recommend solo cookers cook up a bunch and then setting aside to eat as below.

Oh, and know this: studies show oven-baking is the best way to preserve sardine’s healthy oils.

Oh, and sorry to interrupt again, you can buy sardines whole and fillet them yourself by cutting from just beneath the head down the belly and removing the gills and insides. Wash under running water and rub to remove blood and scales. Pat dry. (I personally eat the heads and

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How to heal auto immune disease: 20 weird thyroid symptoms (for your comfort)

I’m not sure if you caught Meghan O’Rourke’s essay What’s Wrong With Me in a recent issue of New Yorker? It shines a spotlight on what it’s like to live with autoimmune disease. Totally pervy stuff for us AI folk.

Image via
Image via Oyster magazine

I read it. I read it again. And I wept. You know that kind of weeping that is all about the sheer relief of having connected after not realising you felt so, so, so alone? Or of having recognised a part of yourself in another, of feeling the enormity of it all, and finding that this is somehow comforting. The bigness – and one’s own smallness and individual pain – is exponentially comforting. Oddly enough.

Of course, weeping is one of the 2938747 side effects of thyroid disease. And connecting with other sufferers is the most soothing respite we AI-ers can draw on. Ain’t that a fact. (As always, at this juncture, I ask anyone reding this who doesn’t have an AI to  a) read on regardless as any AI insights can be extrapolated out to the meta population’s health and b) pass this to any loved ones with an AI.)

For those of you without a New Yorker account, I’m going to a) suggest you subscribe even just to read this article and then b) outline the bits that I was compelled to underline for those of you who only like highlights. I’m good like that! I’ve added in my own experiences and observations, too.

1. It can feel like depression… but not. “I wondered if I was depressed. But I wanted to work,” writes O’Rourke. “I didn’t feel apathy, only a weird sense that my mind and my body weren’t synched.” Shit! I get this. Let’s break it down…

2. Work is OK. The rest is hard. Of all the commitments in my life, working is the only one I can deal with when my thyroid folds. But only when I can shut out (oh, I hate that this is so…) people and other “complications”. It’s two things. First, in times of desperation (like when I have to do TV or

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A Field Guide to dealing with Trolls and Snippities

Troll baying seems to come in waves. Is it a lunar thing?

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Image via Trey Radcliff

Lately, something has been going on. They’ve been making quite the cacophony out there in the social media zoo.

It’s not just the traditional trolls either. It’s everyday people who get all snippety about an issue and forget that online slam-downs are no different from screaming hysterically at a stranger in the street. It’s also Big Name Bloggers who feel they have license to get, well, plain mean.

Over the years I’ve truly come to weather the slings they throw from time to time on this blog, and now on my Instagram and Twitter accounts. Age helps – “sheer years on the planet” as I say quite often. Feeling comfortable with what I do does too. So does being bullied as a kid. I was ostracised most of my childhood until my intensity found a place on the planet. Again, sheer years on the planet!

I have a troll that follows me about. David Driscoll is his real name. He sets up fake Twitter accounts using pictures of cute, likeable 20-something women and goes after me for, yes, suggesting to others they might like to limit their sugar. He attacked me – for days? weeks? – for not responding to some comments from a dietician posted in response to a blog I’d written. FYI: I’d made my point already in my post (and didn’t feel I needed to say more), the dietician in question is sponsored by a major sugar-based food company (so I didn’t feel I needed to expend too much energy on her take), and – besides – I’d decided to contact the dietician direct and met her for coffee to discuss offline. Like real people do. We had a great coffee chat, didn’t agree, but kept it amicable. Like real people can.

Anyway, I’ve just done what I’m about to advise one does not do (see below).

Why am I taking time to write about this? Because I’ve been really concerned that readers here on this blog (and who follow me on social media) have been copping it from these Trolls and Snippities on my behalf recently. Some of you have – very kindly – jumped on to

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