2013 - Page 2 of 14 - Sarah Wilson

24 ways to have a sustainable christmas

August 10, 2018November 21, 2013 by Sarah Wilson

Allow me to climb upon my favourite soapbox once again. Food waste. It’s a terrible thing.

Let me bullet it out…

* Food wastage is the biggest environmental issue facing the planet today.

* We consumers are responsible for 50 per cent of all food wastage.

* The average Australian tosses out 20 per cent of their weekly shop, and Australians waste $8 billion worth of food annually… from households alone.

* The waste kills me. The claim that many of us can’t afford good food also kills me when the painfully obvious thing to do is to cut costs by cutting waste. See my simple drift? You can catch up here.

This Christmas I’m on a sustainability mission, so I’ve put together A Little Listicle to hopefully help us all minimise waste and eat more sustainably. Here you go my friends:

1. Use leftover pumpkin or sweet potato from your roast to sweeten sauces, soups and casseroles. Puree your leftover pumpkin or sweet potato and add it to red sauces (chilli dishes and curries) and “yellow” cheesy dishes.

2. Make smoothie green ice cubes. Puree leftover green veggies – from salads or sides – and freeze in ice-cube trays. Pop a few in your morning smoothie.

3. Use leftover wine to make homemade vinegar. This is a clever tip from Jamie Oliver. He suggests decanting your wine dregs into a bottle (1/2 full) and then wrapping it in cling wrap and a tea towel. Leave it in your car boot (yes) for a month and you’re left with lovely acidic vinegar you can use for dressings and sauces.

4. Freeze your leftover egg whites. Perhaps you use a few yolks in your nog…freeze the whites in an ice cube tray. Then transfer to a freezer container to store. (Make sure you thaw them completely before using – they’ll beat better at room temperature.)

5. Use your chicken or turkey carcass to make up a stock. There’s also a recipe here for my mum’s chicken soup!

6. Got leftover cauliflower? Here’s some of my favourite cauliflower recipes to try.

7. Invite your neighbours for a post Chrissy bubble and squeak – celebrate twice! Valentina from New Romantic says: You can also whip up a turkey stir fry or roast vegetable salad. If you have made a roast beef, dry it out and make some jerky.

8. Got leftover lemons and limes? Juice and freeze in ice-cube trays ready to add to smoothies.

9. Freeze things in a thin layer in zip-lock bags, so you can “snap off” what you need as you go…

10. Dice and freeze leftover onions, celery, capsicum and tomato ready for soups and casseroles.

11. Turn your sliced ham leftovers into Ham Croquettes. Tim Elwin from Urban Food Market recommends this for your leftover

is it OK to kill cyclists?

October 23, 2018November 20, 2013 by Sarah Wilson

Apparently so.

Did you happen to read about the recent cyclist killing in San Francisco where a woman was killed by a motorist, sparking a protest when the driver wasn’t prosecuted due to police not finding any surveillance footage of the incident? Phew. That was a sentence! And how the police officer in charge parked his squad car in the exact same bike lane where the killing happened when he came to berate the protesters? Which then led to the protesters digging up the footage themselves in less than 10 minutes that showed the driver was in the wrong?

Well, it sparked a lot of discourse in the US about cyclists’ rights, highlighting this extraordinary fact:

there’s not been a single prosecution of a driver for killing a cyclist in the US to date, outside of cases where the driver was DUI or did a hit and run.

In other words, where a driver was in the wrong, but wasn’t drunk and didn’t flee, but killed a cyclist, they got off with – at worst – a $42 ticket for an unsafe lane change. Seriously. How can this be?

The bad blood with cyclists is so ingrained that police don’t want to investigate the crimes, juries don’t want to convict and the general population want the whole issue to go away…and to just blame the cyclist and deem us all a bunch of righteous granola-chewing pains in the asses.

Which is just plain dumb. As I tell anti-bike people, why are you complaining? Every cyclist on the road is one less car holding you up at traffic lights! Cities can’t sustain any more car traffic. Bikes are the future. They have to be. As a New York Times columnist wrote last week,

“Cycling isn’t sky diving. It’s not just thrill-seeking or self-indulgence.
It’s a sensible response to a changing transportation environment with a clear social upside in terms of better public health, less traffic and lower emissions.”

The blind-sidedness of our culture is illustrated by this, too. New York cyclist Casey Neistat was recently fined $50 for not riding in a bike lane. He made the point that the bike lane was clogged, but the policeman told him he “ALWAYS” needed to be in the bike lane. His point was ignored. So he made this incredibly powerful video.

This is kind of what cyclists are having to do – make their point, so that the atmosphere can shift. We have to do it ourselves because the rest of our community is moving too slow.

This means building a good impression, too. This video by Sydney Cycleways inviting us to cycle graciously is right on. Cyclists can’t be expected to be taken seriously if they don’t play the car game.

I also do this thing. It’s possibly a bit naughty. But a point needs to be made in the absence of a police force or culture that’s happy to support me. When I get cut off in a bike lane or by (invariably) a cab turning left, I bang the car with my fist. Loud and hard, although not enough to cause damage. From inside the car it sounds like I’ve been hit. Ostensibly I’m alerting the driver, “back off”. But I know I’m

Switch off data roaming

November 14, 2013 by Sarah Wilson

I used to jump through all kinds of telecommunications hoops to get internet coverage when I travelled (avoiding the $2398472987 bill from leaving my Australian phone plan connected). Now I give in.

I turn off data roaming and I simply go without coverage for most of the time, connecting to a hotel lobby or cafe’s wifi a few times a day. I did this during my trip to New York and unraveled in the freedom it afforded me. In queues, I just stood there enjoying the vacant time, instead of Instagram-fiddling. And I did emails in batches, thus reducing the influx of superfluous to-ing and fro-ing that happens when you respond to every request as they come in.

I’ve written about etoxing before, and this “space” it brings to life.

But this is the main observation I took from my roamless-data week: it enforced a certain kind of consideration – from myself and others – that I haven’t witnessed in years.

Being disconnected forced everyone to connect with me more mindfully.

Since everyone knew I didn’t have full coverage, we all made more concrete plans. 2pm at Cafe Blah Blah. Be there or be square. Everyone knew they couldn’t email to say they were running late or couldn’t make it. Sure, they could text. And on one occasion someone did – to say they had to cancel, 15 minutes before we were due at dinner. But such was the non-communication groove that I was in, I pretended I didn’t see it and – what do you know – my friend pulled out his finger and got there anyway. And on time. He’d assumed I hadn’t seen his message and actually got considerate and committed. We had a great night, too.

Have you seen this video? My friend Kristine sent it to me. It’s pretty bodgy and the grammar is appalling (clearly the kid’s tech hiatus meant he didn’t have access to spell check). But I like how he got his mates into a more organic, committed, considered way of communicating – leaving notes outlaying concrete plans, for instance. This is how it used to be in my day. You made a plan, you stuck to it, if you were late you got really anxious that the other person would leave without you (I think this was a motivating factor…and, imagine! not having Instagram to fiddle with when you find yourself when your mate gives up on you and leaves you stranded at the bus interchange).

Back then, communication was finite. You wrote a note, or a letter, and it ended there. With email and IM and SMS and Skype chat, it remains open-ended, open to being amended, changed aborted.

Well, if I had a wife…

October 23, 2018November 13, 2013 by Sarah Wilson

This post has been updated to include the Weekend Sunrise segment from Saturday November 23.

I’m sitting on a plane from LA to Sydney writing this. The 9238749823th person has just pointed out to me that I’m clearly very busy (it came out, since I was on my computer the whole way, that I have three book deadlines this week) and that “no wonder you don’t have kids” (it came out after I asked if my plane neighbour had kids of his own).

I get this a lot: theories on why I’m single and childless. I’m acutely aware there is a stigma attached and that I flag a disruption in the universal flow (what, a woman not procreating!? And not devastated about it?!). People want to stake the idea, give it a reason, a conclusion, because we generally like conclusions when something disturbs us.

The general conclusion most arrive at is that obviously I can’t have both (great, world-roaming career and family and kids), but at least I’ve got one of the two things a modern woman seeks. “You can’t have it all,” comes the next platitude. I don’t mind this line of thinking. Because it’s largely correct.

Seriously, five minutes after my neighbour shared his thoughts, I read New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd’s op-ed about her recent chat with comedian Sarah Silverman (who I love). Silverman gets taunted all the time for being childless and in her forties. It’s the gag other comedians level at her. She tells Dowd: “Maybe I would have had kids if I had a wife. I have a lot of guy comic friends who have families because they have wives (who) raise the kids.”

And ain’t this the truth.

The thing is, men at the top of their game can be outrageously busy and have families because in the main they have a loved one happy (?) to follow them around the world, supporting their income-earning ability. They have someone to pick up the kids, get the dry cleaning, be at home when the plumber has to be let in, book the motel for the Easter holidays, buy the meat for dinner before the shop shuts. I can’t

a story of my favourite meal ever

October 23, 2018November 5, 2013 by Sarah Wilson

The best meal I’ve ever eaten? I’m reminded of this travelling again, and eating new flavours in fun places (I’m in New York right now, doing publicity for my book which comes out here in April). Also, I’ve been asked this question so many times, but the story behind the answer is often too long for most. And deep. And definitely too gross. But I feel I can tell all of you here. Plus it has a point.

There she is...Vietnamese chicken curry...and another favourite pic of me me and brother Ben as kids (I was always feeding myself or a sibling!) — There she is…Vietnamese chicken curry…and another favourite pic of me and another brother, Ben, as kids (I was always feeding myself or a sibling!).

The story of my favourite meal is also the story of one of my favourite, and yet physically harshest, experiences. About seven years ago I rode across Vietnam, up to the town of Dalat, with my brother Pete. Pete and I had set off at 5am on our bikes. Dalat is way, way above sea level and we had to climb for nine hours, lugging two panniers of gear. Now this could be deemed a little too familiar – I’m not always so good at gauging such things – but let it be said:

I had food poisoning from an ice cream I’d eaten the day before. And I had my period. In Vietnam you can’t buy tampons, only pads. Have you ever ridden a bike in a gusseted pair of bike shorts with a pad? It’s somewhat “princess atop all those mattresses” in effect. Until it becomes dislodged. When you’re riding in supreme humidity, the thing just won’t stay in place. And so…

But first… back to the food poisoning. By 9am we’d stopped eight times for me to dash to some little hut or behind a roadside stall to use a toilet. Or more accurately, a hole in the ground. Pete was getting antsy. We had to get to Dalat by sunset. It was illegal to sleep in unapproved villages; stopping before Dalat wasn’t an option.

And so… I had to abort all civilised ablutative practices and let nature take its course. No stopping, no pads. We just rode and the sweat washed everything away, down my legs. Marathon runner-style. Got the picture?

Pre-order your copy of the (updated!) I Quit Sugar Christmas Cookbook today!

November 4, 2013 by Sarah Wilson

With the festive season just around the block, I’m excited to join in the build-up with the release of this year’s I Quit Sugar Christmas Cookbook, a revised version of our original, designed specifically to help you enjoy a simple, joyful, and healthy, sugar-free Christmas. Plus I’ve chucked in a bonus Thanksgiving meal plan, perfect for a dinner party with friends, family or housemates.

RASBERRY SWIRL 028 Pre-order your copy of the (updated!) I Quit Sugar Christmas Cookbook today! — Christmas Berry Swirl Cheesecake, photography by Marija Ivkovic

Here’s a taste of what’s included:

six unique meal plan styles (to follow strictly or mix and match): Let’s Do Brunch, The Summer Barbeque, Traditional with a Twist, A Very Veggie Christmas, Kid-friendly Feeds and The Thanksgiving Banquet.
more than 65 sugar-free Christmas-inspired recipes
gluten and grain free, Paleo and vegan options
a bonus Thanksgiving meal plan
recipes designed to be pre-prepared for a hassle-free Christmas day
shopping lists (that add up all your ingredients in one nifty run-down), conversion charts and more!

All for the sweet price of $19. Simply click on the button below to pre-order your copy today.

The I Quit Sugar Christmas Cookbook also includes:

A “Using Your Leftovers” plan: a quick guide of genius ways to use leftovers for Boxing Day. And beyond.
Read more

7 signs of sugar withdrawal (and exactly what to do about them)

November 2, 2018November 2, 2013 by Sarah Wilson

Given the addictive nature of sugar, this isn’t completely surprising. But to help you deal with the seven most common symptoms of sugar withdrawal we spoke to Keri Maas, a cardiac physiologist and 8-Week Program expert, for some scientific advice on how to ease the pain. Headaches. While the damaging effects of fructose are … Read more

Anxiety: fight it or ride with it?

November 14, 2014October 31, 2013 by Sarah Wilson

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.

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

The breakfast cereal breakdown

October 24, 2018October 24, 2013 by Sarah Wilson

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