Entries from July 2007 ↓

I do volunteer work once a fortnight with the outreach and friendship service for the homeless, Rosies.

Rosies is a really great organisation. Their main aim is to provide friendship to the marginalised, homeless, houseless and abandoned within our community. My “work” involves heading into the Brisbane CBD with the van for a couple of hours one night a fortnight and spending time with whoever wants to come and chat with us. We provide drinks (coffee, tea and milo) as a way of making everyone feel welcome. It’s also a really good way to warm up since it’s been so cold these last few weeks!

I feel really lucky to have been given the opportunity to talk directly to a group of people that I normally wouldn’t be able to. I have learnt a lot about people and circumstance and what makes people homeless and why they might choose to be that way.

Probably the most important lesson I’ve learnt so far was last Monday night during a debrief by our team leader. He talked about poverty and circumstance and how the lowest form of poverty is not a lack of money or roof over our heads, it’s more to do with not having any close friends or family. He was talking about loneliness. A lot of people that come and spend time with us on the street aren’t homeless, they live in a hostel. They come and chat to us because they’re lonely. This makes me so sad every time I think about it.

Think about your own friendships, whether you’ve got one close friend or 150, make sure you let them know somehow just how much you appreciate them. Friends and family are SO incredibly important to our wellbeing. I don’t have a lot of close friends but I have a few that are very special to me and I feel so lucky to have these beautiful, loving people in my life. I also have an amazingly supportive family which I value very much.

Send your close friends an email and let them know how much you care. They may think you’re a bit weird but hey, they’ll also probably really appreciate it too.

Oh yeah, and I know the image is crazy. I just thought it was too cute not to post.

Frances Kerr

I need to start listening to my own advice. I’ve been a bit stressed today and my skin is looking great so when I dropped into the health store this afternoon after work I bought myself a pack of organic choc chip cookies. I’ve just eaten half the packet and I tell you what, the nausea and guilt is so not worth it.

I’ve been getting back into eating sugar almost every day so it’s going to have to stop. I’m only allowing sugar now on weekends, which means Monday to Friday are sugar free days. I can’t trust myself keeping it in the house either.

My stomach hurts. The rest of those cookies are being handed out in the office tomorrow!

Frances Kerr

I like to avoid chemicals in foods as much as possible, but there are two chemicals in particular that I steer clear of. 951 and 950 are artificial sweeteners found in chewing gum, soft drink and diet foods. 951 is aspartame and 950 is acesulphame potassium. It’s been recently suggested that acesulphame potassium is even more dangerous than aspartame. There is no way I’m putting these chemicals into my body. I can’t stress enough how important is it to check the ingredient labels on foods!!

DORway.com is a non-profit organisation founded by David Oliver with a focus on spreading the word about the dangers of aspartame. Sadly David passed away in November of 2003. It’s fantastic to see his dedication and life’s mission is still alive with DORway.com and DORway.org.

I’ve provided a couple of links to flyers from DORway.com. The information is extensive and very informative, definitely worth a read. It includes information on the dangers of aspartame and what you can do to help spread the word and prevent the production of foodstuffs with the added chemical. I like Dave’s idea of sending the products back to the point of sale instead of throwing them out. What a great message to send. Let people know why you refuse to consume that product!

NUTRASWEET Disease is a World Plague! (mpflyer.pdf, 48k)

Aspartame Information (aspartame.pdf, 28k)

Frances Kerr

My sister’s been a vegetarian for at least ten years now, which I find really impressive. She was telling me the other day about two new grains she’s found – Amaranth and Quinoa which are great for vegetarians and the health conscious. So, I asked her to write an article for my blog about them …

Frances Kerr

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Quite by chance I recently stumbled across mention of two complete protein grains, Amaranth and Quinoa. Being a vegetarian and conscious of getting my daily fix of vitamins and minerals, you can imagine I was pretty excited at this discovery.

Amaranth seeds are available “puffed” from health food stores. With a taste that reminds me of puffed wheat cereal, these little amaranth puffs can be sprinkled on or mixed with just about anything from muesli to ice-cream, yoghurt and salads. With a total of 17g protein per 100g, I regularly mix a couple of spoonfuls into my muesli and have been feeling the better for it.

Amaranth seeds can also be ground to produce a flour or cooked and used as you would other whole grains. Amaranth contains more fibre and iron than wheat and two times the calcium as milk. It also contains potassium, phosphorous and vitamins A and C.

Quinoa (pronounced keen-wa) is another versatile little seed high in protein. Currently there is a worldwide shortage of quinoa so it can be a little expensive but one small packet will last you awhile. Quinoa can be cooked and used just like couscous or rice by bringing 1 cup of quinoa to 2 cups of water to the boil and simmering for 10-15mins until al dente. Quinoa has a coating of bitter-tasting saponins so it is best to soak the seeds in water for two hours prior to use. Most commercially available quinoa however only needs a good rinse. Quinoa flour is available for gluten-free baking as is quinoa milk for those wanting a dairy free alternative. Not only does quinoa contain all essential amino acids, but also manganese, magnesium, iron, copper and phosphorous.

If you are interested in experimenting with these wonderful seeds, there are a plethora of recipes on the Internet - enjoy!

Gillian Kerr

I’ve never been a big drinker but have always lived with people who like to drink on a regular basis. Alcohol was always around the house so I’d have a drink or two, usually a glass of wine or an imported beer every night. It became a habit and one I didn’t think much of because my parents drank, my boyfriend drank and everyone around me seemed to drink daily. When the weekends came I drank a little more, with anywhere between two drinks or five on my biggest nights out.

When my relationship ended I moved in with my parents briefly and the drinking stopped. I was quite sick emotionally at the time so couldn’t stomach food let alone alcohol. Shortly after I moved into my own place and made a conscious decision not to keep alcohol in the house. I was surprised at how easy it was to kick the habit, I didn’t miss my daily drink at all, not even a little bit. Moving into my new place also coincided with making a couple of new friends who by choice didn’t drink alcohol at all. I liked going to dinner and hanging out with them and not having to visit a bottle shop or check the venue was licensed. I also liked their energy and enthusiasm. By now I was only having around one drink a week when I visited my parents or went to a pub or club.

The problem with having only one drink a week is it goes straight to your head. I guess this is why I was never a really big drinker, I don’t like the feeling of being tipsy too much, I don’t feel like I’m in control. To make matters worse, the more I drink the flirtier I get which is always really embarrassing the day after. So I started getting hesitant with this one drink a week. I’d drink really slowly and wasn’t enjoying it a lot which seemed completely pointless.

I then started to consider giving up alcohol completely. Strangely, the actual thought of making it official was a scary one. Could I really give up alcohol completely? I was barely drinking at all by now and not really enjoying it so it’s interesting how the actual thought of giving it up completely was more difficult than the action.

When I stopped drinking regularly I missed it only a couple of times. And that was on a warm Friday afternoon spending time with friends who were drinking beer. Now four months down the track I don’t miss it at all, it actually doesn’t even cross my mind. I’m so surprised at how quick and easy it was to kick the habit. Much easier than sugar anyway

Not drinking at all has giving me a lot more energy, clarity and a feeling of general health. It also means my sugar and fat intake has been greatly reduced. I’m all for having a glass of red wine every day for health (I think it’s all those antioxidants in the grapes and a reducing stress thing right?) but for me I feel a lot better without it. I found one glass of wine a day led to five on the weekend which is a habit I’m glad I’ve kicked.

Frances Kerr