How I've been living sugarfree for nine months

It's been almost nine months now since I started a sugarfree diet in May 2011, and I thought it was about time I updated you about what's cookin' chez yaga. 

You can read my first summary after a month of going without refined sugar here.
I also wrote a more general article and guide about going sugarfree here. 

6months sugar free. Talk about smug.

 
How the decision to go sugarfree has affected my life so far
Looking back now on these days in May last year, I smile and I'm a bit tempted to give myself a pat on the back. Going sugarfree has definitely been one of the best and most lifechanging decisions I made in my life.

• As I said in my last post, I feel phisycally lighter and more energetic. I did not lose a lot of weight, but I feel I have gained flexibility and body consciousness.
• My mind feels clearer and more balanced.
• It is easier for me to handle mood swings and depressive phases, although they still occur. 
• My PMS has definitely changed character. I am still sensitive, whiny and complicated in the days before my period, but this is nothing compared to the instable, aggressive, self-destructive mess I got myself in before the switch to a sugarfree diet.
• I have almost eliminated foodcravings from my life. I used to have cravings and think about eating maybe 80% of my waking time before the switch. Now I am much less emotionally attached to food. I mostly eat when I'm hungry and if i have cravings I am more able to identify the root of them and react accordingly.
• I am able to make much more conscious and healthy food choices. My diet has improved when I met Trev and he reintroduced me to cooking actual meals and the idea of a nutritionally balanced diet (I used to live from readymeals, sandwiches and pizza delivery before that), but it again got a bazillion times better since last spring. 
• This has to do with the fact that I am now able to read my body's language of reactions when it comes to food. I learned what foods nourish my body and give me energy. I have begun to get a feeling for a balanced diet. I get immediate feedback from my body if I eat low-quality food or food that my body can't handle well (like dairy - veganism will be a topic of my next diet post).
• Oh and I almost forgot: I have not had a single migrane attack since last spring. 

When I look at this list I totally feel like it was so worth the effort!

What my diet looks like now
In the course of learning to listen to my body's likes and dislikes of certain foods and the fact that we lived with a couple of vegan and dairy intolerant people, as well as my ongoing research about food production has led me to the conclusion that a vegan lifestyle is what I'm aiming for.
Thus, if ever possible, my diet avoids milk products and eggs (I don't have a problem with honey) as well as meat and sugar.

Slowly, I am also beginning to experiment with reintroducing some kinds of sugared food into my diet. I'm eating white bread, for example, and in the rare occasion of ordering fries, I will eat the ketchup. I am not quite sure yet if and how exactly this will affect me. I still feel like I'm lightyears away from the state of being able to have an occasional cookie and then leave the rest of the package in the cupboard untouched. 

Problem's I've had during this period
I definitely don't want to tell you that I have gone through these nine months without eating even a morsel of sweetened food, cravings or binging. Oh yes, all of this happened.
Once, for example, we had chinese takeout and I ordered sweet and sour and after I had eaten every last bite of it Trev said: "You know that they definitely put sugar in that sauce, don't you?" I was devastated. It seemed obvious, then, how could I have not thought about it? And I had eaten it all... I felt very bad. ^^

Well, it happens. It also happens that I have occasional days - mostly linked with my period or a stressful situation - when I feel like I'm back at square one again. I'm pacing back and forth in front of the fridge, wishing something sweet would appear in there by magic to soothe my horrible, horrible cravings. I'm eating all kinds of weird food like mustard on toast, pure tomato sauce and handfuls of almonds trying to find the one thing that will make the feeling that I had to eat something stop, and it just doesn't help.
Christmas has also been a though time, and I admit I've had an occasional cookie, although I was surprised at how well I held up (I had planned on giving myself an 'out-of-jail-free' card for that time but felt I didn't need it in the end).
So yeah, it wasn't nine months of totally sugar free.
It just happens, it's part of the game.

It also totally happened that I caved in about two weeks ago and begged Trev to bring me some choccolate cake because I had been dreaming about choccolate cake for two nights in a row and I just really, really needed a choccolate cake date.

AND it is totally true that I ate at least five lindor choccolate balls today. And a big spoonful of cheese potatoes.
Jap.

I don't regret these episodes, though. They teach me a lot. First of all, it's ok to let go sometimes. Sometimes it's not my body that needs food, it's my soul. And whilst it should learn to thrive from other things than food, every once in a while I feel like my soul and I should totally go for a choccolate-honeymoon. :o)
It still confirms though that I still can't do moderation. It just doesn't work. Once I started, I CAN NOT stop myself. Even if it makes me feel sick. My body speaks very clearly to me in these situations. My gurgling, cramping stomach, the sicklish feeling in the back of my throat and the horrible ache in my head are screaming at me to stop.
And I just can't.
If I needed any more motivation to cut it off again, the creepyness of this situation would totally be it.

Yaga's list of must read 'classics' - 2012

One of my goals for 2012 is to read at least one book a month from this list of 'classics' that I have put together. I thought it might be fun to share it. 

This is a personal list. It is not meant to be complete. It only contains books that I have not read yet. There are many more that can be considered world literature and that I have either not thought of yet or that I have read already.


If an author as written many famous books, I have usually selected one or two of the most well-known or recommended. The titles are written in the languages that I intend to read the books in (mainly German and English, sometimes French), if you want to see the complete list with information about the year each book was published and the original language it was written in, please give me a shout.

Some of them, more to the end of the list, are modern books that I put on so I wouldn't forget that I wanted to read these, too. I do consider all of them quite must-read books, though, so maybe they are interesting for you, too.

If you have any suggestions of books to add to this list, please do contact me!

Things I'm loving today

- Pajamas - Mango for dessert - Writing in my supercool new diary - Feeling inspired and passionate - Meeting Godesses - Getting inspiration for a story I've had in my mind for a year and didn't know how to continue - Running-date with the sunset - All organic incense sticks - Starting a new painting - The boy in cuddly sweatpants

Weekend links

Hey, wanna have a peek into my bookmarks? It's always interesting to see what other people are up to, so I thought I'd share with you where I hang out on the net these days.
Blogger/ipad (they're the best pals!)have decided they won't let me add pictures to my posts anymore (I can't upload anything from the pad but before I could at least steal something from the web.), so we'll tell them 'screw you!' and you'll just go and look at the links, ok?

- Happy Cow This page finds you vegetarian, vegan and vegfriendly restaurants - all over the world! Trev is taking me out for dinner tonight, so we'll try one from the list (unsurprisingly, there's not many, down here in the South where people are fond of their sausages and think that fish is a type of vegetable).

- Fluent in three months: Can you believe this guy learnt how to speak 8 languages fluently in 9 years? And he's conversational in more. Currently, he's trying to get fluent in Mandarin in 3 months... oO I'm working hard to push my French, so I find it very inspiring.

- Pretty Zoo: Pretty Zoo is one of my muses on the web. When I feel a bit art-weary I take a break on this blog and let myself get excited by all the inspiration.

- Talk to the trees: Likewise, talk to the trees is my go-to feelgood blog. I like Rachaels gentle approach to beauty and her fearylike pictures. She is also an amazing artist, so get your creative juices there!

- d'blogala: Dawn is an art journaler and whilst I have never really warmed up with this technique, I'm just in love with her whimsy blogdesign and her beautiful creations. Maybe art journaling is for you? Go see what masterpieces you could end up with!

Happy Weekend everyone!

Good things on a Monday

Oh yes, they do exist! And i found some for you! :o)

- First of all: Friends and friendly people! Look out for them, they are everywhere!!
Alison from "Heavenly Handmades" passed this blog award to me. Thank you so much Alison!

Here are the rules for the Liebster Blog:
1.  Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
2.  Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3.  Post the award on your blog.   

I'm linking to these five wonderful people who help to get me up on moody Mondays:
- Kate from "Eat the damn cake" 
- Molly from "Stratejoy"
- Sally from "Already pretty"
- Holly from "Good Golly Miss Holly!"

- Melissa from "Operation NICE"

Thanks for brightening up my days, girls!

- Then: Random acts of kindness! How about making something beautiful and then sending it all over the world to people who will appreciate and cherish it? My friend Rachael from Squiggly Rainbow is hosting a Bunting Swap. Check it out, it's gonna be heaps of fun!

- Good food! Always something to look forward to! ;o)
I'll have to be patient until tonight though, because Trev is away for the day, and that means I'm living off hal-decent stuff from the fridge because I'm too lazy to cook for myself. But if I could choose, I'd have this:

- A little laugh:

... and, if all is lost, a good dose of sarcasm:

(both images via pinterest)

- Oh and my most favourite recipe to shoo away the motivation-blues: Make some plans to learn something new. I found this wonderful ecourse. Since I don't have a camera anymore, I'm taking out what I can for shooting with the phone. But I might just get back to learning some Dutch. ;o)

Have a good week everyone!!

Let me show you my favourite movie!

Hello, today I wanna tell you about my newest faaaavourite movie!
We watched this film when we took out my dreads. I have never felt so captivated by the artwork of a movie - not even Lord of the Rings comes close to it, and if I say that, it means a lot.

 

It's called "The Secret of Kells" and tells the story of a young monk named Brendan who lives in Kells - a monastery and a village close to the forest in Ireland of the seventh century. Whilst the head of his order struggles to build a wall around the place to fight off raiding Vikings, Brendan discovers the beauty of the forest outside the walls.

He meets Aisling, a spirit of the forest, and the two become friends.

Then Aidan, an old monk from the island of Iona arrives and brings with him the unfinished Book of Iona. Brendan is fascinated and soon loses his heart to scripture and illustrating. Inspired by his adventrues with Aisling, Brendan continues work on the book under supervision of Aidan.

When the Vikings attack and raid Kells, the two of them escape through the forest and wander through the lands for many years before Breandan finally returns to Kells with the finished book.

The story of the film is intriguing and mixes historic facts with inspired imagination. One can feel the love for the land and culture of Ireland that was the makers motivation for the production.
The plot, however, is not exactly epic. It lacks a certain drive or focus point and since the story also has a mellow ending, it feels more like a snippet from somebody's life (which it is) than a dramatically constructed story.

That means you don't have to spend too much attention on the story and can fully endulge in the fantastic and breathtaking artwork of Ross Steward, an Irish artist and the art director of the film. His character portraits are hilarious and deep at the same time. He uses a very two-dimensional style that makes you feel as if you were looking into a storybook where everything moves. His style is very fantastic and surrealist but at the same time it captures the spirit of a situation or a place in a way that no photorealistic animation ever could.





If you have any sympathies for nature or the old culture of bookmaking and historic Ireland, do do do watch this movie - it's truly absolutely stunning!
You can also watch the official trailers on the website.
Oh, and the Book of Kells - how the Book of Iona was called later on - is real and is on display in Trinity College of Dublin, IR.

All picture credit to Ross Stewart, copyright by Cartoon Saloon.

Thanks for reading!

Always.Sometimes.Never

Hey everybody, the internet-fairy is friendly today and although it's still too much for the poor connection to upload more than maybe a picture on facebook, I discovered I still have some posts up my sleeve here... I hope you'll have fun reading my Always.Sometimes.Never, and maybe coming up with your own list and tell me about it? ;o)

I saw this really fun post challenge on Dovetree the other day. You all know I love challenges - especially the bloggy kind, so I just had to copy it. It's from "barefoot love" originally, so go check hers out too, it's so adorable!

via Pinterest

 

I ALWAYS...

skip over creaks in pavement or on tiled floor. Dunno about you but I think it's a pretty exciting game ^^

smell a new book before I start reading

eat the soft part of the bread first

cast an eye back when I leave the train/bus/tram. I'm chaotic but I can learn. ;o)

take off my shoes when I sit down somewhere.

I SOMETIMES...
forget those shoes, walking away barefeet. I have lost more than one pair that way oO

try to whistle on my fingers. No luck yet.

squeal and skip when I'm happy

trip over my own feet. awkward oO

don't answer the phone because I don't like talking on the phone.

I NEVER...

ask for directions unless I absolutely have to

sleep without my teddy

order french salad sauce. yuck >.<

plan too far ahead. I'm changing my mind all the time anyways.

xxox

Guestpost: 8 Reasons to play bass guitar

I am so proud and happy to introduce this guestposter to you: Simone is my beloved little sister. She's nine years younger than me and I grew up being something like her second mama. 

Well, she's all big now and she wrote a great article for you about why playing base guitar is really cool! :o)

Hey everyone. I'm Simone, Yaga's baby-sister. She asked me to write a post for the Shiny Bubble and here I am now.

Since playing bass guitar is one of my greatest passions, I decided on writing a post about reasons why playing bass guitar is so cool. 

Well then, let's start:

1. Hormones. I know, it's unlikely to be true, but I always say that the vibrations somehow stimulate my body to release happy hormones. It doesn't matter how bad my day was, playing bass guitar makes it wonderful.
2. It is something besides school and all the other challenges in life which helps me to keep the balance. I don't have to practice, therefore I play bass guitar because I want to, not because I have to..
3. Every time I don't know what to do I just sit down and play what comes to my mind. I have to admit, I'm not very good at just playing and inventing my own bass lines. But just to hear the sound has something relaxing.
4. It is one of the aspects you can hold on to in life. Something, that is always there, every Thursday one lesson. It's there and it wont change at least you don't want it to. 
   
5. While playing bass guitar, the world is alright. For me, this is absolutely true. I can forget everything that doesn't work well at the moment. Playing means playing and nothing else.
6. It's easy to play. Everyone who can play guitar should be able to play bass guitar. Of course, for things like slapping, you need a lot of practice. I've been playing for two and a half years now. The most difficult song I gave a try is probably “Sunshine Highway” from Dropkick Murphys and I think I did a pretty good job for not being disciplined enough to practice everyday. It took me a long time to get the right speed, but now I'm very proud of myself.
7. Friends. You can make a lot of friends, or let's say acquaintances. In average, at least one person talks to me when I'm walking around in the city with my bass. Even if I'm just sitting in the train, at least someone is interested in my “guitar” (no, it's not a guitar, it's a BASS guitar. I don't know how often I used this sentence already..)
8. Bass guitar players are the most demanded musicians at the moment. Almost every band is looking for one. I don't know why, but there seems to be a lack of bass guitar players. So take your Chance! ;)

I think you have to be the bass guitar-type to play it. Like there are some guitar-guys, and so on. But I would really recommend it, at least just to give it a try. It's great, I promise!

I hope I was able to show you what playing bass guitar means to me. Of course, these reasons would fit for (almost) every instrument. But I think bass guitar is one of the coolest ever.

Thanks for reading and thanks to my beloved sister that I could share this with you. It really means a lot to me to write for her blog. ((:

I mean, seriously. Sunshine Highway? I knew Simen is cool, but that cool? It cracks me up! :o)

10 Birthday wishes by Keveen!

Hi everyone and happy weekend! I hope you have great plans! ;o)
I had a strange night because I just couldn't sleep and ended up staying awake until past 8 AM... I'm used to that, it happens every now and again and I will only feel horrible tomorrow, so I just made use of the time. I spent some hours on google maps pinning all the places I wanna go in Europe and setting a route for a possible trip trough all these places. Then I did something wrong and the whole thing was gone. o.O
I think I need to buy a real life map and pin the things on there.
I'm getting all antsy about going on the road and traveling, I'm really looking forward to it. In the past I used to feel very afraid to go away on my own because the last time I did I spent a looong time missing Trev very, very badly and not really enjoying the trip. But now I feel a lot more secure. I don't really know why, maybe time, age? Or sorting things out in my life? Maybe I'm also just overestimating myself and I'll be glad the next trip is only two weeks. ;o) We'll see about that.

Travel-related, there is something really really sweet and important I want to share with you. It's Keveen' birthday. Keveen is the man behing Korakor - spread your love!, a really fascinating and inspiring project. I met him through a mutual traveling friend and he is just SO inspiring.
He made this video sharing ten things that you can do to make him happy on his special day and they are the best birthday wishes EVER!



So, pick one way to say happy birthday to an admirable man and make yourself happier at the same time! :o) If you do so, drop me a line, I'd love to share your experiences!
Thanks for reading!

Let me show you the dog!

I think I told you that I am looking after our landlady's boyfriend's dog. They are gone to Greenland for some time now and we're having Tschumi for one half of the week. The other half he stays with a family that knows him well and where they have more time for him than we do.

Me and Tschumi are getting along better these days. He was being really bratty and reserved the first few days after his owners had gone. I think now that he might just miss them so much and that's why he reacted very apathic towards me and the boys. Now this week he kept following me around the house, wanting to play with me. He was happy and jumped up when I told him we were going for a walk, instead of just trying to continue napping.

This afternoon, the landlady's parents were here to look after her garden and Tschumi didn't have a problem with that. But afterwards they came over and scorned me for leaving the door open (which I had been told to do by her because else the dog can't go in and out).
When they did that, the dog started to bark real wild, pushing between me and them and I had trouble shooing him down until they left.
I like to imagine that he wanted to protect me. :o)

Of course, he is still about as big as a small calf and if he decides that he doesn't want to listen to me, I don't have a chance. Like the other day when Trev saw a hedgehog upon coming back from a walk and Tschumi went right for it, leash (and me on the other end) or not. He got his fair share though, cause that little friend pricked his nose - serves him right, nosy dog!


I think he is just very intelligent and mostly knows exactly what he is expected to do - but he also knows that none of us stands a chance against him and that his real Master is quite far away. We're lucky he's so benevolent and decides to play 'well behaved dog' most of the time.

I even let him off the leash so we could play in the water one day when it was very hot. Even though his master almost never uses the leash I do keep him on it because there's so many things that catch his attention here and if he runs off and goes hunting after cats - or worse: fawns and rabbits! Everyone in the village will know and we'll be in real trouble.

I often go shortcuts over the fields with him because we both don't like going the same routes over and over. But because I'm not very far sighted (it's a metaphor - my eyes are fine, thank you ^^), we often get in trouble when we hit hidden rivers that cross our path, or fences and other things. One night we had to sneak up on the railway bridge to cross a deep trench. I was really scared that a train would come - just like in the movies. Of course that didn't happen.  And the dog really enjoyed the little excitement. :o)

Wouf! ...err... Thanks for reading!

Happiness in the mail

I couldn't hold back but had to take pictures to show off my new treasures to all of you! I already told you that a birthday parcel arrived in the mail today:

Inside were this beautiful card, four different fabrics and a book. I will write more about the book on Sunday because it fits with our Ralph Waldo Emerson project! :o)

Aren't they just darling? I love them all!
Martin and Sabrina had given me a little form to fill in for my birthday so that they would know what kind of fabric I like. I had to write down my favourite color, what kind of prints I liked, if I preferred polyester or cotton, etc.
It's so funny that even when you give such detailed instructions, even if the things that you get in the end fit all of them perfectly, they are still such a surprise.

Now I'm trying to keep myself from browsing the web for ideas of what to make with these goodies.
I've been wanting to sew a maxi skirt for a while and I think the purple and yellow would be perfect for a big hippy skirt. They look so Indian together!
Here's a few of my favourites so far from pinterest:

The flower print is very playful and would be great for a twirly skirt, maybe there's even enough fabric for two...
And I can't help but think about this dress when I look at the farm print. It might not be enough fabric, but maybe I'll find something similar but more simple...
How about this:

from pinterest

or this:

from pinterest

What do you think?  Do you have other ideas?
I'd love to hear them! :o)

Creating success around the world: A new blog hop!

Hello my lovelies,
aaawh, how can I break it to you? *hopping up and down with a gleeful grin*

There's a really exciting new blog feature coming up next week. I teamed up with four other blogs and we are launching a blog hop called "Creating Success around the World".

Inspiration - information - new friends: What could be better? 

We have spent  a lot of time planning this and we are all so excited to cast this circle and reach out to all you wonderful people.

We will start "Creating Success around the World" on Wednesday, 6th July.

Are you curious? Use the time left until our first round of the fun to check out my partners in crime:

Suzy from "Suzy's Sitcom"
Janelle from "Of Pinks and Fairytales"
Adepeju from "Peekadot"
Jill from "Creating my way to Success"


Thanks for reading!