Sweet Poison

Hello everyone, my name is Faye and I am an addict.

I have been consuming the sweet poison on a regular basis for the past forty years and the thought of going cold turkey fills me with fear and dread. I believe I may be beyond help.

I AM A SUGAR ADDICT…and there is a very good chance that you are too.

 

 

 

Following on from my last post, the whole sugar thing has been weighing heavy on my mind, (no pun intended) I have heard the whisperings, the reference to quite impossible quantities of sugar consumed daily (7tsp in a glass of tonic water!! WHAT..but it’s water???) and have come across the odd evangelical rant of an ex-addict, but pulling my head out of the sugar bowl and really facing up to the extent of my (and your) addiction is a frightening experience on numerous levels.

Why does the idea of quitting sugar fill me with such horror? I have given up plenty of things over the years…time, freedom, cigarettes, all night parties… to name but a few, all things which I enjoyed greatly at the time, but I knew, for various reasons (children, health, sanity) I had to say goodbye to.

I am quite partial to a bit of dietary restriction (think meat, dairy, extreme calorie restriction, juice detoxes) yet sugar, sugar is different.  Instead of seeing it as a dietary challenge with HUGE health benefits I find the thought quite terrifying… a world without sugar seems grey and bleak, it brings to mind rationing and deprivation…and not only for me.

Friday night in our house is treat-night which in light of recent discoveries may have to be renamed, because if I am a sugar addict (considering my relatively healthy diet) my kids are tenfold. So, it seems we are not only poisoning ourselves but our kiddies too! And that is a rather BITTER pill to swallow.

 

 

 

Poison? Does that sound slightly alarmist? Yet, how else would you describe something whose claims to fame include promoting cancer, diabetes, liver disease and premature ageing?  The WHO is now comparing the sweet stuff to alcohol and tobacco in terms of addiction and adverse health effects, with The UK’s Chief Health Officer even suggesting a sugar tax may be necessary to help control the nations soaring obesity (addiction) rates. Sugar it seems is the new Sat-Fat.

 

 

 

 

Now at this point you may be, saying to yourself well, I’m OK I don’t have sugar in my tea and I don’t really have a sweet tooth, how much sugar could I possibly be eating?? Well apparently we are virtually inhaling the stuff with the average Australian consuming 25 – 35tsp a day, give or take a latte. The WHO has just halved their recommended daily allowance to 6tsp (not even a glass of tonic – no gin!) So I think it quite safe to say we are all consuming WAY TOO MUCH.

THE GOOD NEWS

OK,  I get that this sounds quite depressing,  for me personally it was my glass of bubbly that kept popping into my head rather than my bar of organic dark chocolate ( I was under the impression that was a health food!! ) So, the good news is...all the ex-sugar addicts seem quite pleased with themselves and have no regrets about giving up the sweet stuff.  In true addict style they rave about their post-sugar adventures, wafting past the confectionary aisle (which apparently they can now smell from 100m) dropping kg’s as they go.

Can I still have wine is apparently one of the most frequently asked questions when going sugar free is being considered and that just about sums it up. Does giving up sugar mean giving up the good times too? Maybe not, apparently vodka and soda is acceptable and I hear the sugar free chocolate is really quite good.

Maybe my sugar-free vegan days are closer than I thought.

Sugar: The Facts

The Ex-Addict Files

David Gillespie: Sweet Poison

Sarah Wilson: I Quit Sugar

John Yudkin: The man who tried to warn us about sugar

Till next time my fellow addicts

Love, light and all things good

The Would-Be Wellness Guru

 

Let Food Be Thy Medicine

Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food a man a lot wiser than me once said and it sounds simple enough. Eat healthy food for a healthy body, and everyone knows what’s healthy… right? Just ask a vegetarian, they’re a healthy lot, or maybe someone following the paleo diet, because surely we need a BIT of meat? Then again, there is a lot of interesting research around intermittent fasting, loose weight and protect yourself against disease? That sounds pretty good to me. Just as long as there is NO SUGAR, sugar is POISON!!! And the green juice, you cannot forget the quite amazing health benefits of juicing. Did I mention to be wary of dairy and steer clear of all diet products? Confused? You should be.

 

 

It’s getting crowded out there in wellness land, one man’s meat is quite literally another man’s poison and for those of us trying to sort the crap from the credible, it’s not always easy to keep up. So much information, so little time! Every week a different expert has a new piece of contradictory research for us. STOP drinking so much water! NO!! Drink MORE water. Coffee is good!! Coffee is bad (except in the mornings before 6, if it’s organic and drunk under the morning sun standing on one leg) – Of course!

Should we be fasting 2 days a week or eating 5 meals a day? If Dairy is evil what about calcium? Do we really need to soak our veggies in vinegar and water for an hour to remove all the pesticides? (Yes my friend did that this week and made me feel completely inferior with my quick wash under the tap!)

The research into what makes a healthy diet is huge and ever changing and I feel like I have read most of it and retained very little. Is it OK to eat red meat? Can I eat carbs after 6pm? HOW many eggs a week? Who the hell knows? There are a thousand different answers to the same questions, what’s a Would-Be Wellness Guru to do?

 

 

 Personally in my ideal (dream world) I would be a sugar-free vegan, I would have a veggie garden overflowing with colour, variety and veggies grown with mindful intention. But I have not quite gotten around to that yet… so for now I stick to a few veggie meals a week.  And my sugar problem… well, that’s a whole other blog (coming soon).

So, not being a dietician, a Dr, a nutritionist or any other expert in anything really, I have searched my memory banks and scoured the net to present you with The Would-Be Wellness Gurus Easy Guide to Healthy Eating. I am leaving meat and dairy and SUGAR off the menu for now as I am still pretty conflicted about all these things…if you are interested, do some research yourself and then you too can be conflicted.

 

 

But I do like a list and making this list made me realise we can’t go too far wrong if we stick to some basic principles, keep it simple and don’t buy too much into the latest fad diets.

The Would-be Wellness Gurus top 10 tips for a Healthy Diet

1.      Hot lemon water. (and lots of normal water  - of course!!)

10 reasons to drink hot lemon water in the morning

2.      Whole foods

Why you should stay away from processed foods

3.      Buy organic (since most of us can’t afford to do our weekly shop at the lovely organic deli down the road check out the link below for the most important organic buys)

Most important foods to buy organic

4.      Eat more fat!

Good  fats v bad fats

5.      Eat more plants

Top 50 superfoods

6.      Get juicy

www.thejuicemaster.com

www.rebootwithjoe.com

 

       7.      Low GI foods

What is low GI?

 

       8.      Stay away from the white stuff (I’m talking about BREAD people!)

 

Good Carbs v Bad Carbs

 

        9.      Mindful Eating

 

What is Mindful Eating?

         10.  Get nutty

 Healthiest nuts

 Lastly and most importantly never, ever forget that eating delicious food is one of the great joys of life. I honestly do not trust people who don’t get excited about food and some of my favourite conversations of all time start with “So, what did you have?”

ENJOY!! Eat Drink and Be Bloody Merry! Be moderate, except of course when you are not after all…as one of my most favourite crazy ladies once said…

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” Virginia Woolf

Till next time

With love and light and all things good

The Would-Be-Wellness Guru

The Highs and The Lows

I have been remiss. It has been too long between posts, I believe I have committed the cardinal sin of blogging (how unlike me to get so distracted!)

I would like to say I have been consumed by a wave of creativity which has seen me achieving great creative “things” or that my exercise regime had completely taken over my life leaving only time for resting (looking after a husband and three kids!?) and small high protein meals or perhaps that I had transcended all technological pursuits having suddenly (and quite surprisingly) reached the much sought after State of Enlightenment.

 

Alas, nothing quite so inspiring or unbelievable.  Days have turned to weeks, weeks to months, winter to spring and somewhere along the way I found myself wandering, quite unexpectedly, through The Tunnel of Doom. It started with a very sad story and some dark thoughts which called earnestly to more dark thoughts (as they do) and before I could say, “I’M HEALTHY I’M HAPPY, I’M LUCKY I’M WEALTHY!!!” (20 X) I was feeling a bit..well, miserable.

Now, I am not referring to soul crushing, Sylvia Platt like depression here (another thing entirely) but rather the ebb to the flow, the low to the high. You know the one. (Unless you are one of those annoying slightly deranged happy 100% of the time people – sorry but I find this to be a completely unnatural human state!)

 

 

 I spent years glibly telling anyone with the slightest interest in my mental condition that it was my biorhythms. I still have absolutely no idea what that means. It sounded vaguely like it had something to do with the moon and the tides and was therefore conveniently out of my control. It probably had more to do with erratic serotonin levels and marijuana deprivation. Then I had kids and with them came a whole plethora of new excuses for my dark days.

But should we need excuses, there is this pressure to be happy all the time and yes I believe strongly we should be grateful, thankful and seek out the positive but I now realise it is OK to go with the flow, acknowledge the downer, accept it get on with it. Realise it won’t last, for if we know only one thing we know things change. Soon enough, you will feel the light on your face again and pop out the other side. So I think we should give each other a break, have patience, give more hugs, really listen and judge less.

 

This Would Be Wellness Guru now has her mojo back, good things are happening all around me and I am truly amazed and inspired to be seeing the laws of the Universe in ACTION, I look forward to sharing more of this with you…  SOON.

Till next time

Love and Light

The Would Be Wellness Guru

Get Your ZEN on!

I need to be calmer; I am growing concerned about the lunatic women that keeps sneaking in the house and frightening the children. To be honest she seems slightly unhinged, it’s time for her to go.

 

We are all more stressed than ever. We stress about the kids, work, world news, relationships, MONEY, time…and if you are like me you even stress about being stressed! We love telling each other how stressed we are, and equally we love telling each other not to stress about it! It seems modern life for many of us, is all about the STRESS.

 

 

 

So, in line with my wellness quest I believe I can no longer afford to ignore the many stress relieving benefits of meditating! It’s time to STOP…SIT…and … BREATHE

I have dabbled before. I tried guided group meditation, exploring misty mountains and lush green fields. (I think this appealed to my inherently lazy nature) and I liked it. But I left the group, as you do, and although I  tried to guide myself up the mountain, it didn’t last long, I would fall asleep, start planning my weekend or end up overanalysing the day’s events moving from relaxed to anxious in one easy step.

Years later, when I had learnt what real anxiety actually was, I believed a guided stroll up a misty mountain to confront my, rather absent, spirit guide could be just the thing, so I joined another group. But there was no misty mountain walks here. In a dusty front room in Surrey I had encountered meditation of the Cooler Shaker variety and had found my very own Would-Be GURU. I enjoyed the melodic chanting and appreciated The Would-BE GURU's finesse on the guitar, but the anaemic looking Polish crew, the Gurus over enthusiasm (GURU complex) and the slightly dazed looking wife was enough to put me off my mantra. So, I stashed my mala beads, and added meditation to my ever growing “must do” list.

More recently I have been focusing on mindful meditation, which concerns itself with being present, centring on the now and establishing awareness. It’s a nifty trick. We spend so much time in the past and in the future, to find oneself actually present can at first be quite alarming, yet without getting all POWER OF NOW on you – it is quite literally all that we have.

 

 

I don’t know why meditation is one habit I struggle to form; I am usually so good at habit forming activities. For most of us Westerners of a certain generation there is still a whiff of new age self-indulgence when mention is made of having a medi (medi? What?...is that something like a pedi??) Although along with many things so called New Age, it seems meditation is going mainstream.

Maybe it is The Age of Awakening or maybe it is the ever increasing body of quite astonishing evidence which is causing more and more people to realise what our prehistoric ancestors even knew. It’s time to get your Zen on! I don't believe we can't all find even an extra 10 minutes in our day to just sit quietly - get up earlier, go to bed later, turn off the TV, leave the room, go outside - MAKE IT HAPPEN!!! I know we can do it <3 <3 <3

My favourite reasons why you should start meditating today:

1.      drastically reduces our chronological age (up to an amazing 26 years!!)  

2.      makes you happier

3.      reduces stress

4.      increases creativity

5.      improves your sexlife

6.      reduces blood pressure

7.      boosts our immune systems

8.      helps us handle pain

9.      improves our sleep

1       prevents heart disease

and many, many more…

Till next time…

 

Love and Light

The Would-Be Wellness Guru

“oooooooommmmmmmmmmmmm”

 

"It did to my mind what going to the gym did to my body — it made it both stronger and more flexible,” said Dr. Hedy Kober, a neuroscientist who who studies the effects of mindfulness meditation, which she has practiced for 10 years, at her lab at Yale University. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/30/meditation-health-benefits_n_3178731.html)

The Attitude of Gratitude

Gratitude!! It’s all the rage! You can’t squeeze in a bit of fb voyeurism these days without someone instructing you to BE GRATEFUL! BE THANKFUL or APPRECIATE WHAT YOU HAVE!!!!! Yet I do believe that the benefits of GENUINE gratitude really do live up to the hype and the simple act of giving thanks might be the most powerful weapon I have on my wellness quest.

As the wisdom of middle age approaches I know enough about myself to know I can sometimes be a glass half empty type of gal, and if I’m honest my default setting would probably veer towards the …(dare I say the dreaded N word). I have to work it!

 

There is a veritable cult of positivity sweeping the globe right now, the road to enlightenment has never been so crowded… or so profitable it seems – who knew inner peace had a going rate? The point is HOW do you get from that nasty negative frame of mind we all sometimes find ourselves in (when  the urge to raise fingers to the fb platitudes of positivity is just too overwhelming) to a state of calm acceptance and positive wellbeing?

Well obviously I don’t have the exact answer for that or I would be up there with Eckhart and Deepak hanging with Oprah, but what I do know is that an ATTITUDE OF GRATTITUDE can be a game changer.

It should not take some horror story about sick children or dying mothers to make us murmur hushed words of thanks. We can all be more grateful, you don’t need a gratitude journal or an app, you just need to develop a routine and make it a habit, if it’s when you first open your eyes, when you are in the shower or driving to work, whatever works for you. Start by finding just 5 things each day that you really are thankful for. If you are struggling to find your blessings, and we can all have days like that, it’s worth remembering you slept in a warm bed last night, you are probably not suffering from hunger and most of you will have woken up in the knowledge that you are loved.  So just for starters not homeless, not hungry, not lonely…not bad…

 

 

 

 

So forget about being pissed off because the Jones next door have just bought a boat, or Mavis at the gym has killer abs and not an ounce of cellulite. There will always be the thinner, smarter, richer, to compare yourself with, sometimes you will be ahead and sometimes you will be behind, if you’re lucky you get to learn that sooner rather than later.

 

Grateful people are healthier, happier and more sympathetic, it’s official, look  here for all the latest gratitude research ( if you like that sort of thing). I can tell you it works it doesn’t matter if you choose to thank God, Krishna, Allah, The Universe (The Would-Be Wellness Guru is strictly non-denominational) as long as you put it out there. So give it a try…what are you grateful for today?

Till next time beautiful people

Love and Light and all things good

The Would-Be Wellness Guru

The Vision

I have a vision.

I sit cross legged on cool sand, my back straight and strong as the morning rays glisten off my dewy complexion. I sit silent, calm in grateful meditation. I am one, I am present, I am now.

 

The reality of course is something quite different; my early morning is usually spent in mindless repetition (not of the uplifting kind!) as I juggle three kids, breakfast, homework, lunches and elevating blood pressure. Calm, silent and grateful, like most Mums at this time of day - I am not! 

You see I am Everymum, just like you perhaps, maybe slightly less organised. I have the best intentions as we all do, but sometimes I fall off the wagon. ( Oh OK only one glass then ... is that bottle finished already??…slight panic at the thought of the empty bottle…magical appearance of bottle No 2...early morning horror at the sight of the half eaten bacon sandwich and empty packet of Doritos - YUK don't even like Doritos - Come on, we've all been there... and if you haven't you're on the wrong blog!)

But I do have a passion. I do believe. A little more meditation I know will make me calmer, a little more exercise I know will make me stronger, a little less wine, for sure will make me healthier. Maybe it is lack of time or motivation or energy that prevents me from living the life I aspire to, but I also realise I can have more of all these things with just a few small changes.

I am a would-be Wellness Guru – I know the facts, I know the statistics, I know that it works!

BUT..unlike other, maybe slightly more successful,  Wellness Gurus out there, my hair does not shine like I have just stepped out a Pantene ad, my daily menu does not consist of unheard of seeds and exotic veggies, I have coffee BEFORE my warm lemon water and sometimes, just sometimes... I do not feel like being kind to the unkind people. Like I said ...would-be!

So this is my journey, as I restart my career as a massage therapist and try to live the life I know will feed my body and my soul.

I aim to be..

Meditating for 15 minutes a day

 

Exercising for a minimum of 30 minutes a day

 

Having 2 completely TV free days a week

 

Starting  every day with a minimum of 5 things to be grateful for

 

Focusing on the positive

 

Smiling more and shouting less

 

Actively working on my new business

 

Doing more of what I love...loving more of what I do

 

 

Doing more of any of the above will be a beautiful thing so working within the realms of reality I also aim to be very kind to myself if I don't tick every box every day, after all as many wise people have said many times...it's all about the journey! 

 

Until next time,

love and light and all things good.

The Would-be Wellness Guru xxx