posted 17th September, 2012 under Food for Thought,Nutrition and Health Cabinet.
Bad Eggs
Or eggs from unhappy chickens. If we are adamant about change and creating a livestock industry that is ethical and humane we need to start embracing our own buying power. Further to the point pasture raised, free range chicken have as much as 2/3rds more vitamin A, 3 times more vitamin E and 7 times more beta carotene than their conventional counterpart. Since organic butchers are a rare find, build report with a butcher you trust and who can tell you where your meat has come from. If you have to travel a little further than buy in bulk and freeze for later!
Margarine
Even if it apparently ‘lowers cholesterol’ it is often filled with genetically modified trans fat, fat that is highly unstable, oxidizes easily in the body and causes free radical damage. If you live in the city, you are already exposed to enough free radicals as it is. Stick to the real stuff and embrace butter please!
Fizzy Drinks
Fizzy drinks are without a doubt a top offender on the modern food chain; a highly processed, sugar water that acidifies the body and interrupts mineral balance. Improper mineral balance is what leads to a host of problems prevalent in old age – particularly osteoporosis. For the sake of good bones and healthy teeth, drink water!
Processed Meats
Don’t get me wrong – I am all for a nice piece of bacon with my eggs, but give me a hunk of good quality bacon from an Australian free range pork any day over the suspect pink fillets vacuumed packed from the supermarket. Minus the numbers, guar gums and weird additives, REAL PORK with a little fat attached has up to 2800 IU of Vitamin D per 100 grams. Given that we are so deficient in Vitamin D…perhaps it is time to put a bit of pork on your fork?
Low Fat Yoghurt
Once again, low fat yoghurt is actually so tasty because of the amount of sugar in it. Also, with the amount of fat removed to make it 99% fat free, several guar gums and thickening agents, often that are very difficult to digest, are added back in to give the ‘liquid goop’ apparent thickness. It goes without saying- buy the real yoghurt and enjoy the feel of real fat and taste in your mouth. WARNING your waistline will not be affected.
Vegetarian Mock Meat
Now before you think I am slaying into vegetarians, think again. I am all for implementing more plant foods into ones diet, and am happy to indulge in a vegetarian meal or two throughout the day, but for goodness sake vegetarian mock meats are exactly what they lay claim to be. FAKE! Filled with endocrine disrupting soy (lay off the soy if you have any hormonal problems) gluten and genetically modified wheat, most vegetarian meats are as bad for you as processed deli meat, if not worse. If you want plant protein, stick to soy foods in their natural state (like Tempeh) and try to include a wide variety of vegetables.
Conventional Milk
If you want milk, support happy cows that have been reared humanely and with the proper nourishment required. Organic milk from pasture raised cows has as much as 2/3rd’s more Omega 3’s than the conventional counterpart.
The extra money you pay for organic milk is marginal. Knowing you are contributing to a farmer who is committed to feeding and nourishing their cows at a cellular level is priceless.
Anything that you find hard to portion control
For me it is ice cream. Hence despite my desire to cut back on my packaged goods, if I buy ice cream, I buy it in individual tubs. No need to double dip then. 
Any food that tempts you to eat more is always going to be unhealthy. Whether it’s a 1kg of apples, a jar of almond butter or block of chocolate- none of them are good for you, if you can’t stop at one serving.
If you can easily have a block of chocolate in your cupboard and restrain yourself to only one row (better yet, just a piece) then go ahead and enjoy it. While your in heaven, have pity on us weaker souls. Anyone who has self control around chocolate is truly a god amongst (wo)men. I bow to your strength.
posted 10th September, 2012 under Beauty.
We all saw the shots of Miranda Kerr and her colleagues, strutting their stuff at the David Jones Swimwear launch recently.
And with the spate of warm weather hitting our shores it is hard not to get a little bit worried about the pending swimming cossie season that is upon us!
Rather than letting these photos intimidate you – relish the fact that in this day and age- the beauty products available to the wealthy elite are just as accessible and affordable for the average Australian women who wants it all and by 5pm today. If you have a 24 hour deadline to feel sexy in your LBD, it can be done and without stress.
So, for your own sake, take a look at the guide below and reap the benefits of a shiny happy body inside and out!
- Drink lots of water. Water can also come in the form of herbal tea and coconut water. Creating an all round glow begins with hydrating your skin at a cellular level. Stimulating your body’s lymphatic system with water is the cheapest, most effective way of ‘detoxing’ and will encourage your body’s process of skin renewal. And new is always so much better than old!
- On the topic of drinks please steer clear of fizzy drinks. Apart from the obvious suspect origins, soft drinks are often to blame for that blown up tummy you so often complain about.
- Exfoliate, paying particular attention to those rough patches around your ankles, knees and elbows. Hypoxi LOVES Model Co’s Tan Prep Body Polish. This is another way of stimulating your body’s skin renewal process. Something which is halted when you start baking in the sun for too long.
- Get a spray tan or use an easy fake tan. We also LOVE Model Co’s TAN Air Brush in a Can And if you want to further cheat the system, once your base coat is applied, create muscle contour by going over areas such as your triceps. Drawing a line from your elbow to your shoulder will create fake toned muscle! Free muscle without so much as lifting a dumbbell is always a welcome addition to my body!
- Make sure your hands are natural, clean and orderly. A manicure isn’t necessary but sexy, moisturised hands are a must for looking the part. (And as my grandmother always told me cleanliness is next to godliness)
- Meditate – a better frame of mind is going to make you feel more giving and centered. Always sexy traits in my opinion.
So there you have it.
Quite often, ‘looking hot’ is more about knowing rather than doing. Apart from the obvious amazing tan or gorgeous nails, being ‘hot’ and having people notice how ‘hot you are’ is so much about what you bring to the table. A smile, a genuine level of engagement and interest in others will have you being the belle of the ball in no time!
posted 27th August, 2012 under Food for Thought.
Compromise is seen as one of the strong pillars of most relationships. Indeed, it is particularly wonderful in the first stages of the ‘honeymoon’ period when you are both indulging your day light hours with thoughts of him/her, waxing lyrical to anyone who will listen and come close to hyperventilating when you finally see each other after what seemed like hours of separation. “Yes sweetie, we will live happily ever after and our lives will be as one”. Kiss, hug, etc etc….
This super state of utter bliss can exist for an age- providing you don’t decide to move in together. Moving in causes the wheels of apparent monotony to set in motion. But this is inevitable and I am somewhat ok with its ability to fade. If we prolonged this zealous form of love for too long, we’d be too ensconced in our own blissful thoughts, make love all day and life as we know it, would cease to a halt. Moreover, obsessive thoughts are never healthy and the resting point we achieve post honeymoon is what love is all about.
This is where relationships become tricky. “You know how I said that I didn’t care you were messy…well, maybe now I am here, things can change a little”. How do you stay happy and function in a potentially amazing relationship when two adults have different requirements? Where is the referee in these situations? This is where compromise shoots up as the bastion for healthy relationships.
Compromise, in its many guises however, ends up manifesting itself as resentment. “I’ll basically get what I want, but hold a little grudge for what I missed out on. You will get a little of what you want and hold a little grudge for what you didn’t get.”
Compromise means that one or both parties will surrender their needs to maintain the peace.
Compromise, can work but it is hard if you harbor this resentment. Indeed, probably what works best for all is to look outside the box to find your answer, rather than being so black and white about the division of who get’s what they want/need.
While I am not here to proffer an answer, I do feel that compromise is an inevitable part of a relationship. Compromise done well serves the people in the relationship. A less healthy form of compromise involves either party changing to meet the needs of the other. In these cases, the compromise betters the relationship, which is wrong.
At the end of the day, the relationship should better the persons in it. A healthy relationship will allow you to achieve goals you would never achieve on your own, and you cannot achieve any goals, if you have forfeited a part of yourself for the sake of your relationship.
posted 13th August, 2012 under Food for Thought.
For the last five days I have been residing on the tropical paradise island known as Gili Trawangan and my body has thanked me for the well-deserved break.
To be honest I did not deserve this break because I have been living in Indonesia for the last seven months and my life has been one long holiday.
But my skin, body and soul finally get to enjoy the sun and all of its benefits.
If you look at a map of Indonesia, I previously lived on the Island of East Java which is home to one of the largest amounts of Muslim people throughout the world.
Keeping this in mind throughout my stay I never got to soak up the sun because I was constantly covered up in respect of the religion.
If you are still looking at the map I have now moved to a part of Indonesia off the coast of Bali.
And we all know that Bali is full of Hindus-who do not mind a bit of flesh!
So on this tropical secluded island, us women walk around with barely any clothes on because it is the national uniform here.
I have not taken off my bathers in the last couple of days and I have odd tan lines where my bottoms have slid up my arse and I have been too lazy to pick them out.
After only a day or two on the island my two girlfriends explained to me that they felt healthy and their skin looked fresher.
They have travelled over here from Melbourne and Perth so neither of them were enjoying any nice weather previously.
When I eventually made it into the bathroom to shower I noticed my drastically large pores had shrunk so much I could barely find them.
My eyes looked whiter and my hair shined brighter.
Despite all of the alcohol intake it seemed the sun was making me healthier.
So I did some research and I now have a very strong appreciation for the biggest burning atom in the world.
- Vitamin D can not be replenished through a supplement. You need to get that face and body in the sun and soak it up.
- You become so limber and flexible sex is ten times better. Safe sun exposure helps with muscle pain and awakes your sleepy body.
- You can try those tricky sex positions that your cold fragile bones usually can’t handle because sun exposure can help strengthen bones.
- I constantly have the sun-kissed complexion of a goddess? Pregnant person.
- My metabolism is running faster-up a hill with heels on to be exact, my white blood cells are pumping techno music and my nerves have come to a haltering stop.
But before you book your plane ticket to anywhere else in the world right now remember Donatella Versace- the apricot left in the sun too long.
If she could walk past me on the beach right now she would hiss in my ear: “Wear sun block Louise and what were you thinking with that bikini”.
Louise Jeckells
Parading my youthful skin around.
