Well, my I Quit Sugar ebook has been on sale now for 3 weeks. So, there’s a bunch of you who’ve already seen results.

Here’s some of what you’ve been saying:

“I can’t believe how many tasty foods there are that don’t have any sugar!” Kerry

“I’m in week 3 of I Quit Sugar – feeling really good and skin is clearer and brighter, whoo!” Jasmine

“I have been sugar free for five days now. I am starting to experience that clarity that you and so many others have talked about, and it is a nice place to be – instead of thinking about chocolate and biscuits all the time!” Sally

One of the main tricks I share for quitting sugar is to get used to using other sweeteners (but only healthy ones). In I Quit Sugar, I share recipes and supply a shopping list of things to keep in your cupboard. Funnily, Huffington Post recently ran a list of simiilar sweeteners, some of which I’ve included here…

• crushed berries…instead of jam. Crush some fresh or frozen berries (perhaps with a little stevia; I find frozen ones work) and spread on toast.
  
• vanilla powder… with yoghurt instead of icecream. In my ebook I share other tips, including where to buy the stuff.
• cinnamon…instead of sugar in your coffee. Try adding a dash of it to coffee as it brews. Toss it into the french press or coffee maker and let it infuse into the grinds.
• coconut flesh and flakes...to sweeten porridge.
• licorice root tea…in chocolate treats and baked things. A small teaspoon of the root (ie not after it’s made up into tea) adds instant sweetness.

This week my body travels, I stay home

Sometimes, in the course of writing this column, I come across a breed of self-helper I can only describe as disenchantingly full of it. Edward de Bono is one such (sorry to be so frank, Lateral Thinking fans). Then there are those who, well, I just can’t seem to put a finger on them – are they the real deal or do they simply have a book/webcast /workshop to flog?

Deepak Chopra, possibly the most well known mind-body and spirituality guru in the world, is one such.

I met Chopra during his recent Australian visit. He was running ludicrously on time. In fact two minutes early. And so, as I stood waiting to be greeted, he filled the 120 seconds tap-tapping wildly on his phone. When done, he immediately pointed out we’d spoken before. We had 18 months ago. How the hell did he remember? And what a bugger he did. Because back then I also struggled to get a grip of the guy, and so never wrote up the interview. I got the feeling he knew this, too.

I’d followed Chopra on Twitter, but had to unfollow him after a week – his updates were relentless and mind-boggling frenetic, passionate sprays at critics interspersed with conscious-raising inspira-bombs. Which, to my mind, jarred with his calm, centred, non-attached Perfect Health messages that I’ve always found so compelling in his books.

And I guess this is at the knobby kernel of my un-ease: how can the dude preach one thing and seem to live by another?

You’ve heard of The Story of Stuff Project? I’ve mentioned it a bit here, especially in regards to the story of stuff in cosmetics.

It’s a movement helping us all to consume less stuff. Because we don’t need it, it makes us unhappy and, frankly, it’s killing us. I grew up with these messages from my parents and then was exposed to the opposite extreme during me time editing Cosmopolitan magazine. I went from a niaive lack of engagement in consumption… to total abhorrence of it. Our eternal grasping for stuff is upsetting. It upsets us.

Anyway. If you haven’t seen The Story of Stuff, here it is below OR, come see Annie Leonard, the chick in the video and behind the project, in person. She’s in Australia next week. I’ve posted the dates below.

Good and important… stuff. Book in to hear her talk!

Wednesday, October 26th
Time: 6.00 PM for 7.00 PM
Location: Mullum Civic Hall – Dalley Street,  Mullumbimby
Cost: $10/12 at the Door, food and drink available
RSVP to info@ntn.org.au
Hosted by the National Toxics Network

This is an ad for a global sneaker brand, I know. And it’s been, no doubt, developed by a team of brand psychologists who conspire to manipulate the human mind for consumerist outcome.

But.

Gosh, it’s good and touching.

We need to hear from other people – especially people we regard as successful  – about how they failed more than they succeeded. For two reasons.

So we know success isn’t something magical and based on luck. That it’s about hard work. And we can all do hard work, right?

And also to remind us that we ONLY succeed by going DOWN into failure. Going down means we then build up “success strength” in the grapple back out. Going down buys us the time to know what we’re doing. Going down cements what we really want (because you have to have something to aim for when you grapple back out). Going down means when we succeed, we’re the real deal, not just a fluke.

To really get the message, you need to see this, too:

This week in Sunday Life I remove comments from my blog. Just for a bit.

Illo by Geoff McFetridge

When I’m feeling a tad on the smug side of my life situation, I find a little visit to the comments section of my blog sets me straight. In the main, comments on my blog are helpful sharings of tips and links. But every now and then a snarky interloper pipes up, like a foul air bubble in the lower intestine, to pull apart the most banal detritus of my existence.

Such as whether I Photoshop out a gap in my teeth.

Or how many times I say “um” in a podcast.

I find it a practice in mindful ego control, mostly. I observe the snarkiness bubble to the surface. Smile. And accept that I put myself out on a limb by having a public blog, ergo I must accept some flack. And then I let the stinky snark float on past, ignoring the urge to pop it with well-crafted comeback. It’s a bit like handling a toddler: acknowledge good behaviour, ignore bad behaviour. With time, I’ve developed a lovely Teflon calm from the process.

I’m lucky, though. I’ve only had to remove two comments in almost two-and-half years of running my blog. But this is not the norm. Monitoring comments has become a laborious chore for many (some bloggers I know remove 40 per cent of contributions daily). So much so, a growing number of the big blogging names have dropped their comments sections altogether, despite the commercial reality that comments are traffic drivers, which, in turn, are monetisation drivers.

This is no trifle issue. It’s dictating news agendas, hurting people in humiliating and irreversible ways and driving some to suicide. Nasty comments can be hate-bombed into the interweb by cowards who hide behind pseudonyms and there’s nothing that can be done to discipline or control them. Unlike a hand-posted letter to the editor of yore, these comments are not carefully and mindfully prepared. And social media commentators argue commenting contradicts the original notion of the social media “conversation”. They’re more akin to an impulsive heckle at a footy match – unaccountable and mostly about me too-ism. As a result, the Australian Press Council last month called for a discussion on online reader comments as part of their broader enquiry into media standards.

Apropos of something, I love the Swedes. They’re so often the first to buck the system, mostly in the nude and incorporating a community garden. Last month they led the way once more when three of the nation’s four newspapers banned anonymous online comments.

All of which has got me thinking: should I take a stand and drop comments on my blog?