8 Things You May Not Know About Me

 

I haven’t talked much here about my life and the way I live it. Please indulge me while I make it all about things you may not know about me!

• I don’t like veggies. I know I should love vegetables but I really don’t. I’ve made a lifelong story out my hatred of green peas but the honest truth is I’m not keen on many vegetables especially the green ones. I really like salad greens like lettuce, rocket, baby spinach and cucumber (all raw, not cooked) and I love tomatoes even though they don’t seem to love me unless they are in season. I’ll even eat snow peas, especially raw. So how do I manage this dilemma? I suck it up and eat them! (except for green peas, never have, never will.) I steam them and roll them in beautiful grass fed butter or creamy goats feta so I don’t have to taste them. I make sure I use loads of good Himalayan salt on them. I’ll do just about anything to disguise them. I make green smoothies, I make really highly flavoured soups using my bone broths as a base. I make meat based stews adding vegies so I can’t really taste them. I can hear those of you who are vegies lovers screaming “no, no don’t do that to those gorgeous, fresh, pulsating, rainbows of life. I’m sorry but I have too, it’s the only way I’ll eat them and I know I need to eat them. Oh the other tip I have for those of you who are grown up and don’t like vegies; hitch up with someone who does. Mr FYNG loves his vegies and that means we have them practically every night. And Ms E who is almost 8 now, doesn’t know what its’ like not to have vegies in some form with her evening meal.

• Reiki Level 1 and 2 (and now level 3 as of April 2016) – I’ve done them both. I use Reiki every day in some way. It might be helping my “bad thoughts prone” daughter off to a peaceful night’s sleep or calming my own monkey mind when I can’t drift off. I use it on my other half’s golfing injuries. In some cases, I have been able to bring him relief with Reiki that physiotherapists and chiropractors haven’t been able to. It really depends on the injury. (He has regular chiropractic care and I think that’s a good protocol for general health). It’s also amazing for dealing with stress and especially great at busy times. If you are interested in a Distance Reiki Session with me, here’s the link.

• Meditation – I try to meditate every single day and have been doing so for about 3 years now. I find it stills my monkey, keeps me calmer and more centred and helps me to make better decisions. I often incorporate Reiki into my mediation practice too. Which leads me to number 3.

• I love my chakras. I have studied at Belinda Davidson’s School of the Modern Mystic. Actually, it’s an ongoing process. I now have a greater understanding of how my body works energetically. A big part of Belinda’s teachings involves understanding each of the chakras – where they are in the body, what they do and how to keep them balanced. At the (virtual) school, we also learn about mindfulness and working with white light…..now I’m really getting out there aren’t I! The thing is; it’s been totally life changing. Working on your chakras and having them fit and in balance is like doing spiritual pilates. It strengthens your energetic core. It makes you stronger mentally and emotionally and able to call on resources that you may have hoped you had access too but couldn’t find in the past. I speak with more clarity – much less waffle, I’m a better listener, I know what I want and I’m more able to stand up for myself, I’m more disciplined in areas I want to be disciplined in, I’m more creative and able to enjoy myself in the day to day, I understand the spirit (I truly didn’t before) and, I’ve read The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle 6 times. With each reading, I learn more and have a greater understanding of his teachings. I’ve read several other books on spirituality and perhaps, if I haven’t frightened you off, that’s for another post.

• I use the cycles of the moon in my garden. It’s lovely to be in sync with the moon and it’s waxing and waning, but the fact is, it’s all to do with cold hard science, specifically physics. The tides of our oceans are governed by the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun and so is water everywhere else on the planet. This of course, includes the water in our plants. I plant according to the particular phase of the moon using this website when I need confirmation of where we are in the cycle. It’s a great way to get into a good planting and weeding discipline. If you want more information on why moon planting works, what to plant when, and where we are in the cycle have a look at the link above. You’ll find loads of planting information but it is an Australian site so the seasons need to be reversed for the Northern Hemisphere.

• I love wine. Well you may actually know this about me. I worked in the wine industry for 10 years and studied wine marketing which taught me about sensory evaluation (a fancy way of saying wine tasting). We have a fairly impressive holding of wine which should see us well into our old age. I have always maintained that I actually prefer smelling wine to drinking it as there is so much to look for once you start. I only drink decent wine – “life’s too short to drink bad wine” is an oldy but a goody! I can sit on a glass for hours and watch it change in front of me. Just in case you are wondering, I have been known to drink the stuff too but can truthfully say that I could count the number of sore heads I’ve had from over indulging on my fingers. (I know some may argue that’s 10 hangovers too many by the way.) I have recently started to write about organic and biodynamic wine which is proving very interesting. I’m really noticing a difference in the wines and at the risk of sounding obvious, they seem much cleaner to me.

• I hate exercise. I so wish I didn’t but I do. For a long time I have resisted doing anything in the way of exercising other than the

  normal day to day running around with drop offs and pickups, housework and walking the family kelpie, being happy and smug in the knowledge and firm belief that health is 80% what you eat and 20% how much you exercise. I still believe that to be the truth but I have realised that 80% is not 100% and something has been missing from my life. I also believe that too much exercise is really bad for you causing oxidative stress on your body making you old before your time. So recently I’ve started doing high intensity interval training – HIIT to those in the know. HIIT is becoming more and more popular because of its effectiveness at burning fat. For those of you not familiar with the concept, the idea is to get your heart rate to it’s maximum capacity by exercising at full throttle for anywhere up to a couple of minutes then stop and recover. Recovery can take up to 5 minutes and then off you go again. You can do as many or as few cycles as you like up to a maximum of about 20 minutes. Some even say fewer cycles are more effective but the idea is that after the massive exersion, your body burns fat and creates muscle for up to 3 days after. Believe it or not, I’ve been using my daughter’s trampoline to get in shape by doing sit drops. I used to be a gun in my childhood. I grew up with a trampoline in the backyard and could do all the tricks – even somersaults. You have no idea how much 60 sit drops in a row can get your chest burning. So anyway, I still hate exercise.

• I love alpacas. I want an alpaca. (Don’t tell Mintie the Wonder Kelpie please). I will get an alpaca one day.

• I love music. There’s another thing that you may already know about me. As a child I listened to the most popular local music station whenever possible and watched Countdown twice a week. Sunday night and then the repeat on the following Saturday. My first album was Skyhooks Living in the Seventies. For those of you not familiar with Skyhooks (and obviously not from around these parts), they were a very popular Australian rock band in the 1970’s (coincidently!) who liked to wear a touch of make-up. Anyway I listen to new music as often as I can. My grown up radio station is Double J. Get into it! Or at least get into some kind of music!

Love

Ros