Now. You might have noticed (and politely not commented): I’m am THE crappiest food photographer going around.

Cooking? I’m in my element. Dreaming up flavour combinations? Few can rival my boundless creativity (hyperbole alert). But I just seem to descend into an impatient numbskullness when it comes to capturing it in a pretty pic.

photo by Aran Goyoaga, Cannelle et Vanille

I’ve been meaning to ask a few friends of this site for a while to share their tricks. They most gracefully agreed to share theirs here with us all. And all of them are indeed graceful…their pictures speak more than my words can…

Aran Goyoaga, food stylist, writer + photographer

Her blog: Cannelle et Vanille, a basque-inspired mix of food, life, and photography.

Her story: a gorgeous Basque ex-pat living in the US since 1998. We connected online and share auto-immune love (Aran also has thyroid issues)…there’s a little community of us who’ve connected in this way and we plan to unite on a project one day, don’t we Aran!? Aran runs food styling workshops around the country and her first cookbook will be published later this year.

1. Lighting is everything. Shoot in natural light when possible. Find a bright space, but try to avoid direct sunlight as it casts harsh shadows on subject. If sun is right on top, diffuse the light with a diffuser, a sheer curtain or even a sheet of parchment paper taped to the window. Manipulate light using white or black foam board. White will reflect even more light into the subject and black will take away. Play with these elements until you find the bright/darkness balance that speaks to you and the mood you want to evoke.

photo by Aran Goyoaga, Cannelle et Vanille

2. Determine what the focus of your image will be. Then think about what depth of field suits this image that you want to create. You will have to think about the lens you want to use. Once I have determined the lens I will use, I examine the light available. I set my aperture and ISO according to the light. The aperture I select will also affect the depth of field so I take that into account. I always shoot in manual mode so I control all the settings and I shoot RAW.

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.

I’m coming to terms with coconut flour. I wrote about the stuff a few weeks back and have been experimenting since. It’s tricky stuff. But once you get it…it gets you. Since a few of you asked…here are some more recipes I’ve been playing with.

These biscuits (above) were an experiment…that worked. They’re (good) fat ‘n’ protein bombs. And as with everything I make, you can’t stuff them up. I just throw in ingredients until they’re the right consistency…so don’t fret about exacts.

I made a batch and froze them. This week I’ve been taking out two for breakfast and heating in the microwave (I know, I know…I haven’t parted with it yet; you can also reheat in a medium oven for a few minutes…but the energy to heat up an oven for a few minutes concerns me…ergo microwave). Great for putting in lunch boxes or for work.

But be warned: they’re super filling and nourishing. You won’t have cravings for hours. (Some of you have been asking about craving busters…).

PS. They taste like something between a cheese cracker and a scone…but denser, like a crumpet.

So, the recipe.

coconut and cheese biscuits

• ½ cup almond flour or LSA (or other nut flour)
• 3 eggs
• ¼ cup butter, melted
• Salt, a good grind or two
• 2 cups cheddar cheese, grated
• a generous shake of chilli flakes or paprika
• 1/2 – 3/4 cup sifted coconut flour

Blend the almond flour, eggs, butter, salt, chilli and cheese.

Add the coconut flour and kneed the dough until a moist play dough consistency (1/2 cup of coconut flour might be enough…just see…you don’t want it too dry because it will continue to soak up the eggs…if your dough seems too dry, add another egg or extra butter).

Form dough into balls and put on a tray lined with baking paper. Flatten to either a thin cracker or a thicker (1cm) biscuit.

Two months. No sugar. It’s out of your system. Hoorah! Now it’s over to you. Do you feel you want to stay off sugar, or do you want to go back to the way things were? Do you want to reintroduce a bit of fructose or be a nah-a-skerrick-pass-thy-lips proponent?

Personally, I say do what you like. The point being, of course, now you’re in a position to choose. And THAT has been my point all along. We can’t choose when we eat too much of it because we’re hooked on it. We can choose when we’re clean, we can moderate when we’re clean, we can back off and recalibrate quickly when we’re clean.

image via Food and Other Kitchen Obsessions

Some quick housekeeping

• my final IQS webinar is on Monday 27th February, at 8pm (requests for a later start noted!).  Sign up here. And BIG apologies for losing the recording of the last one…a “fumble with the right button” malfunction.
  
• I’m the keynote speaker at The Conscious Club THIS Wednesday night in Sydney. I’m talking about Stuff I Learned From Chats with The Dalai Lama, Sir Richard Branson et al. We meditate, chat and then eat food by Madam Char Char. Basically, it’s about doing something a bit different…and consciously so. I’ve written about it here…I’d love to meet people from this blog there. Come! A few tickets left.
• I’ll be continuing with the giveaways, offers and information geared at no-sugar eaters. To have a limb in the running, make sure you’re signed up to the I Quit Sugar newsletter and I Quit Sugar Facebook page.
  
• I promised a chocolate post as well as a post on whether it’s good to quit grains/carbs after quitting sugar. Oh, and a post with a rundown of what I eat most days. These are coming…

And a video…

Did you see this on Friday on Seven’s Today Tonight? I feature in it…and have a very tabloid moment where I gaze out to the distance, pensively. Please try not to laugh…And WHAT’S with my lisp? It’s a shame they didn’t quite get the fructose explanation right. And the nutritionist dude didn’t quite explain that our brains need glucose not “sugar” (the kind he’s referring to). But…

A final note from me….

You’ve probably noticed of late…quitting sugar has attracted a lot of attention…and flak. I explain why I think this happens in the book. As you know. It’s also a VERY politically charged issue. And commercially charged. [I'm doing a podcast with David Gillespie on this in a few days.]

Plus, I admit, there are some extremists out there who ruin it for the rest of us. They scare the nutritionists and the columnists into thinking this is some militant diet.