Every now and then I answer a question that crops up a lot from you lot. This week: how do I travel so much and not fall apart at the seams?

I do travel a lot. I fly from Byron Bay to Sydney or Melbourne every week or so. Sometimes it’s a day trip. Sometimes I have to stay a few nights and I stay in air-conditioned hotels and friends spare rooms that aren’t always ventilated etc as I like. It’s really very disruptive to my health. And I DO fall apart at the seams a bit.

Don’t know about you but travel also grinds my digestive system to a halt. I don’t go to the loo. Plus, I get puffy and lethargic. And tired. Plane travel is so bad for us. Ditto air-con (which is everywhere when you travel). It’s hard to eat well on the road and we have odd timetables and sleep patterns.

And so I’ve had to learn ways to make it work for me. It’s taken some trial and error, but I have a flow now. Of sorts.

My key advice is to create routine. As much as possible.

To replicate what you do at home, on the road, as much as possible.

And lesson the toxic load at all turns.

So a list of the routines and toxic-reduction tricks that work for me:

In hotels:

* You’re going to think I’m bonkers: As soon as I arrive I go around and turn off all powerpoints in the room. All of them, including the one to the fridge. The EMF load in hotel rooms is crazy – fridges, phones, alarm clocks, internet…plus the load from surrounding rooms etc. I do what I can… (and am sure to turn them all back on when I leave…. although I do feel bad I stuff the clock radios).

* I request a room away from the lift well and away from the power room. Again to lessen the EMF load.

* I wear earplugs and an eyemask. Again, bonkers? Nah.  It’s all about minimising interruptions and stimulus wherever you can.

* I go to bed early, as much as I enjoy sitting in bed watching news channels to all hours.

Exercise:

Exercise is key. You really have to make sure you get your lymphatic system moving – to flush toxins and to help facilitate routine (bowel and otherwise).

* If there’s no gym and/or I arrive late at night: I run up and down the firestairs in the hotel. I know it seems mad. But you do what you have to do. I came across others doing the same after arriving in HongKong when we filmed MasterChef. We laughed as we passed each other. Just make sure you remember what floor you entered from and that the firedoors allow you back out.

Sometimes health needs to be explained in nonsensical, onomatopoeic language. Yuk! Goob! Stodge! If you’ve been unwell for a while, or get gut aches for no discernible reason (and you’re told you’ve got IBS), or you go around in circles with complaints, or if you have some sort of auto-immune disease, then you totally know what I mean. Health, once you’ve gone past the level of taking a pill or getting a cast put on a broken leg, is nebular.

Or fuzzy.

Melbourne naturapath Gill Stannard alerted me to this youtube link with Gil Hedley talking about The Fuzz, a case for stretching in the morning. Totally pervy and visceral. And totally geared at anyone with inflammation issues (hello, auto-immune disease!!!).

This much you need to know: if you have inflammation issues, stretch in the morning, get massages, move.

Other ways to deal with inflammation:

1. Avoid processed foods - trans-fats, high-fructose corn syrup, chemicals, additives and other “non-food” ingredients. Sugar is highly inflammatory.
2. Eat healthy fats such as extra-virgin olive oil, coconut, avocados, nuts and seeds.
3. If you drink alcohol – an occasional glass of red wine is best.
4. Eat coloured vegetables and fruit. Eat more veggies than fruit (5-6 servings of veggies, 3-4 servings of fruit).
5. Only eat non-gluten grains – quinoa, amaranth and brown rice.

6. Eat turmeric. Here’s why.

In my neck-o-woods it’s going to be a scorcher this weekend. The water here in Sydney is 23 degrees. Blimey.

Which has posed a dilemma this week. I just got my hair coloured – darker for the cooler months. But my hairdresser has asked me to stop swimming so much, because it’s making my hair dull. I ignored her, but it does make me wince a little when I look at my salty, ratty mop just now.

Therein lies my dilemma as a girl who hates beauty regimes, doesn’t brush her hair, hates shopping etc, etc etc…BUT who works in an industry where she has to look and play a certain part. Square peg, round hole?

I tell you it’s exhausting. What to do with running top tan lines when you have to wear a strapless dress? I have a scab on my nose and shoulder today from running into a wall on my bike…and have to film on Monday. Oh dear.

My first day at Cosmopolitan, I arrived on crutches.

If you’re an insomniac these images by artist Paul Davis at copyrightdavis.com will very much resonate. Not so much for the meaning in the squiggles. But the demented aesthetic.

How much do you totally get the hatred you feel for the loved one lying next to you…asleep (HATE HER SLEEP). How come it works for them? How can they be so unaware of where I’m at when I’m so damn hyper-aware of them – their every cell, their every flicker of the eye? Why does sleep work for them, and not me?

I was an insomniac for years. I went for a 6-month stint when I was in my early 20s in which I slept 1-3 hours a night. I went demented – accidentally set fire to my apartment, got pneumonia from sleeping in a puddle…etc. etc. And, to this day, if I’m to be upfront, I find it really tough sleeping next to someone else. I like the IDEA of it. But the reality hurts. Around 4.17am I get to a point where I reckon I can actually hear their cells multiplying. And feel their aura. And see their dreams. And know their fears.

healing auto-immune disease: wear good red socks for this long journey!

I’ve been promising this for ages: a rundown of what I’ve done to get on top of my Hashimoto’s (hypoactive thyroid disease), and to throw in some advice from practitioners I’ve turned to for help (check out naturapth Angela Hywood’s healing eating tips here).

A few things first:

* If you don’t have auto-immune disease, you’ll still find this interesting. IMO, auto-immune suffereers are the proverbial canaries down the mineshaft. Our symptoms are signals of what our lifestyles are doing to all of us, a reflection of the over-toxic, hyper-adrenal, sugary, sleep-deprived, anxious lives we’re living. Again, IMO, Auto-immune disease types have particularly sensitive systems – for a whole range of reasons (hereditary, trauma-related) – and so we tip over the edge more easily.  The rest of the world should see us as nifty warning beacons and heed our lifestyle tips!

* The below is advice I’d give to myself, if I could go back two years, to avoid the very bumpy journey I’ve had to ride toward a better understanding of the disease. I’m not giving advice to anyone else. Really, I aim only to inspire you to ask questions and find what works for you. And that’s the thing – there is no one cause or fix. Also – and this is the blessing – in the searching for your own answers, you come to learn a lot of really important stuff about yourself…that you’ve wanted to find out for a long time. Which is why you got sick…. More on this below. Finally, I refer directly to Hashimotos, but much of the thinking applies equally to other AI diseases.

* Feel free to send me your tips and I’ll post them as well.

OK, so here goes. I’ll do it as a Q and A for ease.

Can’t sleep? This works. It truly does, in a gentle, lasting way. Gwinganna retreat in the Gold Coast hinterland is where I did mine. I can’t recommend it enough. I learnt that you shouldn’t eat grapefruit at night and that sleep cures most things – auto-immune, cholesterol problems, weight issues. Four months later and I’m still living out the tips I learned there. Aside from anything else, the place is authentic in its commitment to wellness. Some of the best healers on site, organic food, a wise old legend who lives on the estate