Before Midnight.

Quick!

It’s almost midnight!!

Check these out!

Quiet morning in the shop.

Quick catch up with The Motivator.

Hot day. No swim.

Ready to sleep.

Nite all.

Repairing and Regenerating

The human body is an amazing thing.

I saved this four years ago and tonight, I have messaged the researcher who originally shared it to find out if she has any further information. If I hear back, I’ll put the info here.

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Upward of 90% of our genes may be influenced by the foods we eat.

Holy cow.

The existence of epigenetics has been known for some time - the fact that environmental factors such as diet, stress, activity, sleep, and even our microbiome can influence which genes are turned on or turned off. But, new science published a couple of days ago shows just how profound the effect is. 

I'm seriously more excited about this than I am about the measurement of gravitational waves (not that Einstein being correct in his predictions isn't crazy awesome).

The research was performed in yeast, a very common model for measurement of genetic research because its entire genome has been mapped for quite some time, measurement and manipulation is quite straightforward, and many of yeast's important genes and fundamental cellular mechanisms are the same as or very similar to those in animals and humans.

The researchers manipulated the levels of important metabolites in the yeast cells, mimicking the products of metabolic reactions produced when we feed our bodies different foods.

Then, the researchers examined how this affected the behavior of the genes and the molecules they produced. Almost 90% of the genes and their products were affected by changes in cellular metabolism.

We're used to thinking about how our genetics influence how our bodies use nutrients, but this research shows the relationship goes both ways: what nutrients we feed our bodies determines our genetics.
This is just the beginning of what will likely be a whole new field of research and the applications, from development of individualized therapeutic diets for everything from cancer to obesity, to understanding the best medication choices for an individual when warranted.

Maybe even more importantly, this research may help explain contradictory results from different laboratories investigating similar questions related to diet and nutrition. If we can understand the genetic effects on metabolism, we can control for these factors, and design experiments to conclusively answer so many questions that remain controversial within nutritional sciences and complementary medicine.

I also find a lot of optimism in this research. Yes, there's still a ton to learn, but it tells us that our genetics are far more pliable that previously thought, which means there's a lot more power in our hands to take control of our health.

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Original article:

Alam MT, et al “The metabolic background is a global player in Saccharomyces gene expression epistasis”. Nature Microbiology, 2016; 15030 DOI: 10.1038/nmicrobiol.2015.30

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As far as I can tell, this means that your diet, designed specifically for you and your genetic composition, could potentially repair any damage caused by medical conditions and diseases that you’ve had in the past or are currently enduring.

That will be a game changer.

In the meantime, doing simple things like removing damaging refined sugar from your diet and drinking lots of filtered water to keep your body and organs hydrated and help your body clear toxins is an excellent way to start because those things have already proven to work.

What have you got to lose?

Had a quiet day at the shop.

Created a story for the newsletter about last weeks art class. Paid another bill that arrived today. The day passed surprisingly fast because I was shocked when Adoring Husband arrived to pick me up.

Im pretty sure some of you can relate to this ...

Nite all.

Storm Free

Finally.

A storm free afternoon so that I could go for a swim!

Because of all the recent rain, the pool is extremely full with a crispy cool edge to the water. Just the way I like it!

I swam for about 30 minutes and then sat under the Bali hut for another 30 minutes.

I tested out some new insect repellant candles that I bought online from Settlers. They worked a treat! No midgie bites and I was outside until 5pm! Impressive!

Here is the website if you’re interested. Settlers

Look who turned 9 today!! She called ME at work this morning with FaceTime and even though there was a customer in the shop, I sang happy birthday very loudly and very badly. God I miss her so much and it has been FOREVER since I got to hug her.

Happy birthday to my amazing Chicklet 🥰😍🥳

It was a slow and steady day in the shop. I paid a bill and created the three ads for the newsletter - it’s been a while since I actually sent the ads through on time so I’m kind of waiting for the walls to crash in!

I filled my belly with healthful delicious food all day. Food diary:

Breakfast: 1/2 sml tub plain coconut yoghurt with chopped banana and 6 raspberries. Coffee.

Lunch: 6 baby cos lettuce leaves filled with 1 avocado smashed with tuna, onion, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Dinner: 1/2 Peking duck breast with 1/2 head of broccoli (steamed and tossed in grass fed butter), grilled mushroom and a hash brown. Coconut ice cream for dessert.

1 litre of water all day. I need to improve on that.

So this is how I’m going to be accountable for my food intake - you have no choice but to tolerate the addition of my food diary to each blog post.

It’s almost 11pm and I’m in bed, but now it’s time to sleep 💤

Nite all.

Woeful Five

Our trivia team is called the Fab Five.

Tonight we were the woeful five!

I believe we came second last. This is the second time we’ve done that. Even last place wins some chocolate!

For many reasons, none of us were really on point tonight.

Ah well, perhaps next month will be a better one for us.

I woke at 6am and lay in bed considering whether to attend meditation or not. In the end I decided that the benefits were worth making the effort. I was right and I’m glad I went.

Afterwards, I grabbed a coffee before sitting, very briefly, with some of the meditation ladies while they finished their coffees and while I waited for Adoring Husband to pick me up.

With a trip into The Bay on the cards, we stopped for me to have a quick change into some presentable clothes and off we went.

First stop, Office Works. I 💕 love 💕 Office Works. You know that.

Second stop, Tinkerbells. I 💕 love 💕 Tinkerbells. My Goddesses of Fortune had JUST been delivered that morning, so even though I was only stopping by to pay a deposit, I was actually able to pay for them and take them home!!

I also bought this beautiful pendant ...

And put this one on layby.

I had made enquires about this one way back in August last year, so I was pleased that it was still in the shop. It was obviously meant to be! It’s an Aqua Aura Quartz.

Third stop, Aquavue for a delicious lunch of garlic prawns and a watermelon frappe.

Fourth stop, Stocklands, for a small grocery shop.

Fifth stop, Craignish to pick up our FROG box (organic fruit and veg that we order every week).

Arrived home at 2.30pm. Took forever to unpack everything because of course I had to slowly browse through all of my lovely purchases and soak it all in.

Then I remembered trivia, so the race was on to prepare dinner and make ourselves presentable for a night out.

Tomorrow is a work day and it’s already 11.30pm so I’d best get some sleep.

Nite all.

Recovery

I was feeling well enough to enjoy Tuesday morning coffee with the girls.

Before that, Adoring Husband and I cleared the training room at the shop in preparation for meditation on Wednesday morning and I packed away all the washed art tools that were piled high on the kitchen sink.

Even though the weather was warm and steamy, coffee with the girls was enjoyable and lasted til about 11am. Aggie was kind enough to give me a lift home so AH was surprised to see me walk through the door.

I made myself a smoothie with cucumber, celery, apple and baby spinach whichtided me over for lunch.

Truth be told, I was too nervous to put real food in my tender tummy for fear those dreaded cramps returning!

At 3.30pm I attempted 6 rice crackers with avocado mashed with lemon.

It had been almost 48 hours since I’d eaten solid food and thankfully it did not result in any pain.

I made myself a small meal of chicken, mushroom and spinach cooked in my bone broth. I only ate half of it and all was calm on the belly front.

I think I’m in the clear!

Chicklet’s dragon finally got finished today. Unfortunately, due to my illness, I didn’t finish it in time for her to receive it before or on her birthday, but better late than never. It isn’t as good as I’d planned and in the end it was quite rushed, but I think she’ll like it.

If I want to attend meditation in the morning, I’d best get some sleep!

Nite all.

Bug Off!

This is the second tummy bug I’ve had in less than seven weeks.

This one was worse and really took a lot out of me. I’ve slept the second day away and still feeling pretty weak. I can’t get enough fluids into me and my tummy protests when I try.

I gotta focus more on my diet and health. I’ve been very lazy and neglectful in that regard.

Time to start loving myself like my life depends on it! Which is also the name of a book that I read before the tummy bug hit me!

I missed out on lunch with the girls today too and I was really looking forward to that. Only four of the six of us ended up going for lunch and shopping.

The art class on Saturday was a big success. I forgot to get a group photo, but here are some of the work they all did ...

Obviously my body knew that something was coming on because I went to bed early on Saturday night and stayed in bed all day Sunday until all the action started during Sunday night. I was so sick I didn’t once look at the clock, so I don’t know when it started, but the action finished at about 8am this morning. I know that time because Adoring Husband left for golf then.

So rather than give you any more juicy details, obviously there is nothing else to talk about except the beautiful rain that has been falling heavily in patches every day.

I hope that tomorrow I will be well enough to meet the girls for Tuesday morning coffee. Wish me luck.

Nite all.