Happy respill everyone. I’m heading off to watch the disaster that is Australian politics unfold. Personally, I’m glad/not surprised it’s all happening. Truth must find its way out. It can only fester below the surface of consciousness so long before the pressure builds up. The boil must be lanced. And we are at a point, I think, where non-truths are simply intolerable. They can’t be muzzled.

We’ve evolved. It’s just taken a while for politics to catch up.

It is no surprise, either, that the media and finance industries (as opposed to say, education and garbage collecting) have been so shaken up recently. The deceit of greed and power had festered in those two industries too long, unchecked, unquestioned. And so it all exploded (or imploded). Media and finance specifically needed it.

The truth of former Prime Minister KRudd’s bad behaviour and Machiavellian tactics MUST come out. The ALP need to speak plainly and bear the consequences. I truly believe, though, that as they do, the Australian public will smell the shift. They’ll like it. They might not understand it. But they’ll feel it and smell it.

This implosion is perfect.

I loved this Annabel Crabb column on the relief of getting the truth out.

This read by Michael Gawenda is also very truth exposing – about the real role the media played in all this (you can see why Prime Minister JuliaGillard et al were frothing at journalists…they should’ve told the truth instead of keeping up with the  “you’re creating a beat-up” accusation).

But meantime, here’s something fluffier for your entertainment…I was on The Morning Show last week chatting, yes, sugar.

I’d had 30 minutes sleep the night before (and the night before) due to my thyroid doing its agitated thing…so was only JUST getting my message across. To all you insomniacs out there: respect. I share not to make any kind of excuses, but because I know I like learning of other insomniacs out there…it feels less lonely, retrospectively, somehow. (And is there anything more lonely that lying awake at 4.30am?).

Finally a reminder: Tonight is our final I Quit Sugar webinar, at 8pm.  Sign up here. And post your questions below or on the I Quit Sugar Facebook page. If it weren’t a virtual affair, I’d share some scones or cupcakes and we could stand awkwardly around the photocopier like an end-of-course farewell. Feel free to bring your own along tonight in front of your screen!

So you’ve reached the end of eight weeks of sugar-free life. Here’s to a new, calm, life – free of sugar (!)

To that end, this week I’m giving away

five x premium memberships to Science of Stillness, each valued at $297

to help you kick off your new life.

image via maui yoga

Tom Cronin (who I met in Bondi a few years back) and Nick Broadhurst have created the Science of Stillness , an online personal transformation program that teaches you meditation.

My assistant Jo has been testing it out for the past few weeks and I asked her to share the gist:

Jo: I was keen to check out the Stillness Sessions as I’ve been wanting to try this meditation style for a while now. The Science of Stillness program is a seven module online video program. Once you’re logged in, you have a personalised dashboard, which you can edit and update, and use to search posts, comments, and the forums. Easy, clean to navigate. No angst!

Detox holidays. Everyone’s doing them, right? I call them “poo holidays”…you know.. the ones where people dart off to Bali or India or Thailand to detox and clean out their insides…if you know what I mean.

photo via chicksandbikes.blogspot.com

From what I hear they entail drinking clay (to grab’n’drag whatever’s clinging to their guts) and pumping all manner of things (coffee, herbs) up their you-know-whats. Oh, and then pooing everything back out again.  It’s Operation Eliminate…sitting by a pool. My friend Deb goes twice a year. “I come back scrubbed out and recalibrated,” she says.

I’ve never done such a retreat. I mean, you would’ve read about it if I had.

I guess I cling to the idea that our bodies have their own divine way of sorting out our (I promise this is the last mention) shit. I realize I’m about to sound like my Mum when she’d offer me a celery stick when I complained of being hungry. But I think a far better way to detox is to do stuff.  Stuck? Move a little. Eaten badly? Eat a stack of good stuff. We are dynamic beings, not passive vessels in need of a hose out.

Me. I prefer to keep things clean and simple. I do bike riding holidays. I always have. I’ve seen New Zealand, Spain, California, The Netherlands, Vietnam, Tasmania, vast tracts of NSW and Victoria by bike as well as the 3000km stretch of coast running from Brisbane to Cairns stopping off at all possible gaudy Big Edible Items en route.

Recently I was invited to ride around the Hawke’s Bay region in New Zealand. It came at a time when I needed to get clean and clear (just after I decided to abort my book project). It was perfect.

[Disclaimer: I was invited as a guest of Tourism New Zealand to experience their new Cycle Trails, a project of 18 new trails that zig-zag across both islands. They know I've ridden quite a bit of the country before and thought I'd like to check it out.]

Five reasons to detox on a bike

1. Head down and watching spokes spin, you have a lot of time to think. Actually, it’s more a purging of thoughts. After up to nine hours in the saddle, the toxic thoughts eventually peter out. They just do. And then sweet, Zen-like emptiness. Previously I’ve reinvented my career, had insights into my future, had emotional purgings…the lot! All atop a saddle.
2. The pedaling motion is also great for lymphatic drainage. So is the sweating. So is the sun.