Polar Bears

Just a quickie. We still have visitors, but I wanted to share some photos with you. On Monday, we went to the zoo to see the polar bears. Particularly the baby. He's a few months old, so is as big as Poppet but still very cute. It was a pretty hot day, so he was playing in the pool. As was one his mother next door.

Gorgeous creatures. 

Sugar-Free

So, I tried this 'thing' a few weeks back and I thought I'd share. Plus, I have a few friends who've been wanting to know more. Firstly, let's introduce a good friend of mine...

image via here

When I get stressed I get constipated. Enough said. Obviously the whole moving overseas/waiting a crazy-long time for the paperwork thing was stressful. I started using good old Metamucil daily around that time. The thing is, after the stress was gone and I'd changed my diet to include an enormous amount of fibre and water and increased my exercise dramatically, I was still constipated. I still needed the Metamucil to 'go'.

I'd been reading and talking to people about sugar and what it can do to your digestion for a while and I just had a hunch that my problem might lie in this area.

I didn't think I was a big sugar eater, my cravings lie in the crunchy carby direction. But when I stopped eating all sugar and fructose my system underwent a complete transformation. I lost that puffy, bloated feeling almost immediately. I STOPPED using Metamucil straight away. And another biggy, brain fog was gone! That's another big thing for me, the cranky feeling that you're wading your way through a cloud inside your head. I get so frustrated with that.

So, I did a little experiment. I found Sarah Wilson's blog and Ebook and followed her 8 week programme.

Sarah is a big anti-sugar gal in Australia but she is more accessible than most. She talks about 'experimenting', not 'dieting', she is very clear on being gentle with yourself and on acknowledging that you alone, and not a single other entity on this planet, are responsible for what goes into your mouth. You have to own that, no blaming it on stress, laziness, no time. No blame at all, just acceptance. If you have a chocolate bar that is because you CHOSE to have a chocolate bar. And it's ok to have a chocolate bar, as long as you do it consciously. Full stop. I like that approach, and it was exactly what I needed to hear.

For the first few weeks I slowed down my sugar intake (removing all processed and hidden sugars) and then I gave up fructose too. Yup, no fruit. Ok, fruit is lovely and full of fibre, but it's also full of sugar. I found that I was turning to vegetables (remember them?) to snack on and get my daily fibre intake. And for me, no sugar was actually a walk in the park. If you truly accept that your body doesn't NEED that chocolate, or even that punnet of strawberries. If you replace your snacks with fatty ones, proteiny ones or carby ones, the afternoon slump is gone. Gone I tell you!

And you actually feel like exercising because you feel so damn good and want to continue that way.

After about 6 weeks, I started eating a little fruit again (you see, it's an experiment not a 'cleanse' or a 'diet') to see how my body would cope. Two things. If I have too much I am most definitely in need of my friend Metamucil again. But more importantly, I could actually TASTE the sweetness, the amazing deliciousness of fruit which I had complete taken for granted. It was, and is a sheer delight to eat some apple or banana. Watermelon is just insanely decadent and sweet. And that's actually enough for me, I don't want to complicate my newly found pallette with cake and cookies and chocolate. Of course, I'll eat those from time to time but no more than that. Which is exactly how it's meant to be, isn't it?

So, I didn't want to bog this post down with science and information (though there's plenty of that available!) just share my own experience. This low-sugar way of life is just the bomb and I have no intention of going back.

Sarah's blog can be found here. David Gillespie's book info is here. This is a very interesting article at the Guardian. This is one about sugar addiction. Robert Lustig's incredible lecture is here (long but this is where the science is at). And Alec Baldwin (who is now sugar-free and dropped 30 pounds!) interviews the Dr here.

So, there's your linkage. Take it or leave it, but it's enough for me that my relationship with Metamucil is on the out. The other health benefits are huge and I'm going to continue on this path for the forseeable future. I'm not interested in preaching, just wanted to share. You can keep eating those M&Ms if you want to, but I'm choosing not to.

Blink and You'll Miss Them

Boy. I listed a few Christmas Poppets on Etsy today and they sold in half an hour. In case you missed them, here's some photos. A couple of Rudolfs disappeared, along with two Snowmen and my new Wishing Tree. He's cute, and hangs like a decoration. Kids can write a note to Santa and place it in the pocket on the reverse side. I have some more Santas and the like to work on but we have visitors coming to stay (yay!) so I will continue on them later in July.

Happy times. Really excited about having some family to stay. We can't wait to share this fabulous city with them!

Random Shots Of Happy

Hello there. It's been a while. The last few weeks have been a little crazy. A combination of dance concerts and birthday parties and hot weather and fatigue. School finished yesterday and we begin our journey through 10 weeks of school holidays. I'm trying to embrace the concept of such a long break, we'll see how that goes.

There will be some changes to the blog eventually, nothing too major but I'm aiming for a bit more structure. I have some exciting collaborations on the boil, ever the one to have my finger in too many pies, and they will eventually come to fruition in their own way. Meanwhile, I'm working on some Xmas in July stock for my Etsy store and getting a real workspace setup so I don't have to keep putting the sewing machine away. Fingers crossed that it won't be too hot over the summer, need to work and we need to get out and enjoy the break.  We have new bicycles which we're slowing learning how to ride and some family are coming to stay with us next week. Yay!

For now, I've compiled a few photos from the last week or so which have made me smile...

I love this Family Tree they've created at school. Each child's name is on it.

Great window display at the bookshop. All made of paper.

Obligatory ice cream at the dvd library.

 

 

 

Carved out a corner for some Ikea desks. Drawers and shelves to come.

A journal for girls and their 'moms'. We are going to play with this through the summer.

I bought these gorgeous Rob Ryan plates but don't have the heart to take them out of the box and use them. Things seem to get chipped in this house. Maybe I'll hang them on the wall.

Quite happy with the way my snowmen are coming along.

Took this Grade 1 'graduate' out for pizza last night to celebrate.

And now she's driving me nuts on the crappy keyboard I bought her to play with. Keeps trying to figure out the "Here comes the bride" song, lucky me.

Finally Finished

This kid has been in Grade 1 for 18 months. Six months in Australia and a year in Canada.

She adores her Canadian teacher and is sad that she may not have her again next year. 

She's the type of teacher who focuses on scholastics but also takes time to ensure kids are working on their weaknesses. Poppet has been forced to confront tormentors (in the guise of 7 year old girls) from time to time and her teacher has gently encouraged her to stand up for herself, to articulate her feelings. We have a long way to go but my child is finally able to take things people say with a grain of salt, most of the time, and to tell them when it's not ok. We have a very feisty and quite often bossy group of ladies in that class so Poppet has had no option but to toughen up. Not a bad thing at all. But her teacher is also there with the cuddles and the support if it's needed. She strikes a great balance.

Meanwhile, my daughter is using terms like 'inference' and already starting on fractions and developing her passion for reading and writing. She has never once asked to stay home from school, regardless of what's been going on in the yard. I think that is a great testament to her teacher.

It's that time of year when everyone is rushing around buying/making gifts for their teachers and Poppet decided to write a poem. We put it together on a poster and framed it for her classroom. I think she'll love it...

The poem reads as follows...

To Mrs Nitsis,

Extra love for you!

A teacher that is nice!

Care for your students!

Help children learn!

Every one likes you!

Room 213.

After this Thursday I will have a child at home for almost 10 weeks. It will be a long haul, but we have some visitors and a couple of camps, and possibly a holiday to break it up. When it's hot, the splashpads at the playgrounds will be open to frolick in, and when it's not we will go for lazy cycles through the park on our new bikes (more on that later). I'm hoping I'll actually manage to enjoy the holidays, embrace them. It's not really one of my strong suits but I'll give it a good shot!