Your favourite posts of 2014

Hanging at Mum and Dad’s listening to Mitch Miller carols on the turntables? Sitting through Frozen with the kids….again? You might like a bit of distracted reading. Here’s the countdown. Ten posts that floated boats in this wonderful community throughout the year. Can you guess which was number 1, according to the whizzy Google algorithms?

8f99554a07a127365e4d18a448b9614d e1400041134469 Your favourite posts of 2014
Image via Going Home To Roost

And while I have you, thank you to every one of you for being part of this community this year. It’s been a big, bodacious, fast one. And your comments and interaction has been so heartening and life purpose-creating for me.

See you in 2015….

10.  300 “typical” thyroid symptoms (yep, that many!)
A super comprehensive, whole-body list of symptoms associated with having a dodgy thyroid.

9. Why introverts just can’t handle you… sometimes

8. Fermented turmeric tonic recipe

7.  Could female self hatred be the real cause of AI

6. A Comforting note to single people. From me

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It’s National Leftovers Day

Each year, Australians throw out $8 billion of edible food. National Leftovers Day is an initiative of FoodWise, DoSomething’s national campaign to reduce the environmental impact of Australia’s food consumption aims to change this for the better.

Image from Pinterest
Image from Pinterest

I LOVE coming up with clever ways to use up leftover food. I get pleasure from finding novel ways to stretch a chicken further. So here are some ideas I’ve come up with for your Christmas leftovers:

  • Bundle up leftovers and send care packages home with your Christmas guests.
  • Freeze single servings for when you just don’t feel like cooking (and celebrate Christmas all over again!).
  • Strip the leftover meat from your chicken or turkey carcass and freeze it in 100gm portions for sandwiches or snacks. Or, make stock from the carcasses (add leftover onions, garlic, carrot, celery and herbs) and use the flesh and some fresh veggies to make Chicken soup.
  • Use leftover greens in smoothies to curb your post Christmas food hangover.

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My Christmas travel guides round up

Heading yonder this Christmas? I thought I’d put together a handy little travel guide compilation. You’ll see that many of my posts are ‘slow food and hiking guides‘. I like to eat and hike, both mindfully.

Screen Shot 2014 10 09 at 12.34.26 PM My Christmas travel guides round up
A favourite dawn shot, climbing Mount Amos.

From my point of view, if I get 100 people to leave their comfort zone and get out of the city to move and eat real food in regional areas…well, I will die in peace knowing my job is done. If you’re planning some bush hikes this Christmas, here is my advice for planning a great hike

And so, a round up of some of my trips. Hopefully they inspire you to get out and explore new destinations.

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The ultimate wellness gift: an 8 week program voucher!

Thought I’d grab you as gift-buying tension hits fever pitch and suggest a smooth idea. The next round of the I Quit Sugar 8 Week Program kicks off January 22… and gift vouchers are now available! I’m betting Uncle Bob is gagging for a trimmer waistline. Maybe your sister is after a fresh start to … Read more

Why I wore the same pair of green shorts for 8 years

My green shorts have become A Thing. I didn’t intend it this way. It kind of evolved.

My green shorts and I climbed Icelandic volcanoes together in 2012...
My green shorts and I climbed Icelandic volcanoes together in 2012…

I bought my first pair of green shorts eight years ago from American Apparel during a trip to the US. They were on sale. I wore them for four years, every day, until the holes in the groin (from inner-thigh rub) became obscene. They become a grease rag for my bike. I then bought a replacement pair. Actually, my assistant Jo remembers buying them when she started working for me. Ergo, this pair is at least four years old. Same size, same colour, no need to try them on.  I’ve worn these ones virtually every day since – hiking, at yoga, at the gym, to the pool.

The other day, on a bush walk with friends, my mate and business partner Zoe (walking behind me as we climbed up the rocky face of a gorge) commented that there was probably only three hours of wear left in the shorts before they hurt her eyes.

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The Sarah Wilson mindful xmas gift guide. ‘Cos you asked for it.

My family doesn’t do Christmas gifts. Each year we pitch in for a crappy, wood-veneered, chenille-bedspreaded holiday house down the coast. We wrestle, eat, attempt to play board games (none of us are good at sitting very still), go for bike rides and try not to step on each other’s toes (especially those of the crew sleeping on the floor in the lounge). I accept my family is in the minority, but will never accept that this time of year should be a time of rampant, crass consumerism. And to this end will continue to offer up some sustainable gift options, as I do each year. You can find my previous posts here, here, here and here. But to my latest round of ideas, collated from the wares of wonderful folk who’ve spun into my orbit throughout 2014…

christmas tree plantar boxes boy Fresh Prince
Planter boxes by Fresh Prince made festive.

1. Fresh Prince Desk-top Planter boxes
Bondi boy Richie, aka Fresh Prince, is the delightful dude who created our rooftop garden at IQS HQ, and recently snuck in to the office to deliver a stack of his pen holder planter boxes for the team. The little pen holder bits are lined with fake grass. Sweet. You can buy them here.

Screen Shot 2014-12-09 at 5.09.15 pm2. A six-pack of Blind Corner Field Blend wine
Buy a six pack of their Blind Corner Field Blend and save yourself and your family from certain toxic  hangover this Christmas lunch. I love these guys. Ben and his wife produce stunning, hand (and foot)-crafted wines with minimal, if any additives. The vineyard is organic, dry grown and utilises biodynamic

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How to organise a weekend away with mates

Country Road catalogues depict them on beaches in varying shades of chambray blue. Kinfolk magazine captures them as a bunch of hands reaching across a picnic table dressed with native flowers. Weekends away with a crew of best pals is definitely an aspirational thing. The reality can be a little less sepia-toned. Trust me. Among my crew, I’m the organiser of such things. The task generally befalls trans How to organise a weekend away with matesto female, eldest siblings with no kids of their own. Would you agree? So here’s how I do it, as illustrated by my recent weekend away to the Calabash Bay Lodge on the Hawkesbury River.

This. Calabash Bay Lodge. With three mates.
This. Calabash Bay Lodge. With three mates.

Please note: I was a guest of Calabash Bay Lodge, however, as always, views are all my own and I communicate this clearly to anyone wishing to host me. You’ll find my position on sponsored posts and advertising here.

1. Commit to a concrete date and plan. I’ve written about how the world responds to committed action before. Send a proper invite with set dates and details. If you keep it vague(“Hey, was thinking I might go camping in March, who wants to come?) the response will be vague.

2. Find a rippa house. Make sure there’s a decent kitchen and a deck or sunny slouch area that’s not awkward to get to. Flow

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Giveaway: 6 x Wool and the Gang knitting kits

This competition has now ended.
Congratulations to prize winners Mel, Kate, Chantel, Kirsten, Nicole and Rachel.

So, I knit. If you follow my blog, you’ll have read this post about my new thing for taking up Real Life Hobbies. I believe it’s making me a more interesting human. Keen to give it a go, too? You’re in fabulous luck, because today I’m giving away…

6 x Wool and the Gang knitting kits, total value $410

Screen Shot 2014-12-09 at 11.10.33 AM
The Cocoon jumper…which you can win ‘n’ knit, below

As a novice, I figured a “everything included” kit was the way to go. I scoured for a good one and found Wool and the Gang, a sustainable and ethical company with cool designs. No twin sets. No matinee jackets. This is the bit I like: the company supports small Peruvian villages (you can opt to have someone in Peru make it for you at a very reasonable rate if you don’t want to knit the thing yourself), plus the company is committed to reducing and recycling in a very innovative way – they re-purpose old T-shirt

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If you could invite any ten people to a dinner party, who would they be?

I was recently listed in a top ten dinner party wish list with quite the bevy of top women, including Quentin Bryce, Julia Gillard and Cate Blanchett. Yep, flattered. A lot. And kind of boasting a little right here and now.

Image via The Entertaining Business
Image via The Entertaining Business

That said, it saw a number of people ask me who I’d invite if I could share a meal with anyone, from any era. Here’s my dinner party list, in no particular order (not to be invited at the same time; note #3 and #5):

1. My great grandmother who died in the same hospital in which I was born just an hour beforehand.
2. Russell Brand. But only if he’d meditated beforehand.
3. David Walsh, owner of Mona in Hobart. His mind is dead quirky. He ventures out to the farthest branches.
4. A nun under 30.

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How to use your coffee-pod machine without the eco guilt

A few weeks ago I wrote about mindful coffee consumption. I bleated on about the massive issue of waste from plastic coffee pods – the chemical-leeching, the landfill issues and so on.

Image via Favim.com
Image via Favim.com

But I understand plenty of you have these pod-reliant coffee machines, including some of my best mates who promptly called to ask what they should to remedy their freshly discovered dirty footprint (for those close to me, I’m annoying like that!).  I certainly don’t suggest tossing the hardware. That’s not the solution.

So I looked into things a little more and came upon a crew that make environmentally sound coffee pods. Eco Caffe capsules are made from vegetable fibre and starch, which means the entire capsule (and all the wrapping!) biodegrades within six months.  Eco Caffe decided they’d like to advertise their product on I Quit Sugar, where you can get more details. But I figured

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