My Ikaria

by Tsintziras, Spiri;

  I’m getting sleepy now. It’s time to rest. I love you.

  I blow her a goodnight kiss and lock the door behind me.

  Your Ikaria

  Have purpose

  UNDERSTAND YOUR PURPOSE

  How can we better understand and honour our purpose in life? Why do we get up in the morning? What drives us to keep going?

  Exercise

  Think about and then write down your answers to the following questions:

  •What and who is most important to me?

  •What gives me real joy and satisfaction?

  •If I think back to a moment of grace in my life, what image first springs to mind?

  •What would I like people to remember me for?

  •If I knew I was going to die next week, what sorts of things would I prioritise this week?

  Some of these questions are challenging. It might take you time to answer them. You might think about them and put them aside. Or the answers might come to you in a flash. Put down the words that come into your head, as I did with my ‘purpose list’.

  HONOUR YOUR PURPOSE

  So often, we know what we should do to make changes in our lives, but we feel stuck in a rut, make excuses or simply ignore things because it feels too hard to muster the energy to transform our lives.

  In my experience, change that is incremental and undertaken over time is most likely to last.

  You don’t need to make radical changes like quitting your job and joining an ashram (although you can if you want to). You might decide you want to work towards spending more time with your kids or an ageing parent. You might want to feel more energetic so you can do the things that mean the most to you. You might want a job that gives you more joy (but still helps you pay off the mortgage)! Or you might decide that you want to give back to your community now that you have the time and space in your life to do so.

  Exercise

  Sit down with pen and paper, and write down everything you can think of in answer to the following questions:

  •What changes do I want to make in my life?

  •Realistically, what changes can I make today / this week / this month / this year?

  •Choose one change you’d like to make (for example, making more time for your family, quit smoking, etc.) and note what you need to do to make it.

  Break the changes you want to make into bite-sized tasks that you can put on a list and tick off as you complete them (yes, yet another list – but this one is important!).

  Befriend time

  DON’T DO TOO MUCH

  I still struggle with my impulse to do too much each day. If there is a spare moment, I will try to fill it with something – an exercise session, a social commitment, a phone call. Both my mother and I find it hard to relax. I envy my husband, who doesn’t feel guilty taking time out during the day to do something relaxing for a few hours, like read a book.

  The Ikarians I met get stressed, work hard and experience problems – but many of their rituals, such as walking, socialising and taking naps, help to dispel their stress.

  Tips

  •Try to do more things that are in keeping with your purpose and are important to you, and fewer activities which sap your energy and aren’t in keeping with what is important.

  •Practise saying no to activities that aren’t important, without feeling guilty.

  •Get into your body and out of your brain by walking, running, dancing, boxing, swimming, going to a yoga class, meditating, cooking, doing housework or any other activity that makes you feel good and that you can build into your life without causing more stress.

  •Establish social rituals that help you deal with stress, whether it be a weekly walk with someone whose company you enjoy, a daily phone chat, a cuddle with your partner or kids at the end of the night, joining a club, volunteering for a charity, catching up with friends or other activities that help you relax and feel more fulfilled.

  MAKE PEACE WITH TIME

  The ageing process is natural – we can’t do in our forties what we did in our twenties. In some ways, getting older is a process of reconciling ourselves to loss – loss of capacity in our bodies, loss of youthful dreams and hopes, loss of time as it ticks away, loss of friends and family members who die. On the other hand, so many people I’ve met in recent years wear their elder wisdom with grace and dignity. The Ikarians were a real inspiration in this way. They spend time with young people and offer valuable skills and support to their families and villages. They are still able to offer meaningfully of themselves.

  Life is finite. Time is finite. If we can live life as mindfully and fully as possible every single day, no matter our age, then I believe that’s the best we can do.

  REFLECT ON WHAT IS ‘ENOUGH’

  Material things don’t always plug the holes in your life. There is solid evidence that rising incomes do not correlate with higher levels of happiness. In fact, our aspirational spending can create some decent-sized holes as we get into more and more debt to feed our ever-expanding lifestyles and waistlines.

  Contrary to what we are often led to believe, we can’t (and perhaps shouldn’t) have it all. Thinking we can makes us feel dissatisfied with our lives. We can’t have the well-paying and satisfying career, the well-tended home, the well-behaved family, the interesting friends, the paid-off mortgage and a heap of leisure to boot. Life can be messy. It’s often hard work. And sometimes it’s confusing. But ultimately, it’s worth living, and, I believe, it’s worth living well.

  Cook, eat, celebrate

  EAT FOOD THAT YIAYIA WOULD RECOGNISE

  If you don’t recognise an ingredient or a product, or it doesn’t instinctively feel like real food, avoid putting it in your mouth, pantry or fridge.

  Below are some quick and simple suggestions for how you can purchase and prepare more yiayia-friendly foods.

  Breakfast

  Non-yiayia foods Yiayia alternatives

  •Most breakfast cereals

  •Breakfast biscuits

  •White bread toast with commercially bought spreads

  •Oats prepared as porridge in winter or Bircher muesli in summer

  •Eggs with a side of greens/tomatoes/avocado on grain toast

  •Unsweetened yoghurt with fruit and nuts

  •Wholegrain breads with natural spreads such as avocado, nut paste or tahini, or a drizzle of olive oil

  •Dinner leftovers (breakfast doesn’t have to be sweet or include bread!)

  Lunch/dinner

  Non-yiayia foods Yiayia alternatives

  •Pre-prepared lasagne/pizza/frozen meals and snacks

  •Canned soups/meals

  •Meats and poultry marinated in pre-prepared sauces

  •Sandwiches/rolls with processed meats/cheeses/spreads

  •Wholegrain pasta, couscous and rice

  •Whole cuts of meat and fish

  •Fresh and frozen vegetables

  •Soups made from homemade stock

  •Beans and pulses

  •Wholegrain bread sandwiches with natural spreads, salad vegetables and home-cooked meat or beans and pulses

  Desserts/sweets/savoury snacks

  Non-yiayia foods Yiayia alternatives

  •Flavoured yoghurt

  •Ice-cream and flavoured ices

  •Sweet pastries and biscuits, including croissants, donuts and muffins

  •Potato crisps

  •Savoury biscuits and rice crackers

  •Commercial popping corn

  •Unflavoured/unsweetened yoghurt

  •Whole fresh fruit

  •Unsalted/unflavoured nuts (preferably still in the husk) and seeds

  •Grain breads with natural toppings as above

  •Whole corn kernels popped in olive oil

  Flavouring/Sauces

  Non-yiayia foods Yiayia alternatives

  •Commercially prepared sauces and flavourings

  •Home-made tomato sauce

  •Fresh and dried her
bs and spices

  •Lemon juice, vinegar

  •Olive oil

  Drinks

  Non-yiayia foods Yiayia alternatives

  •Soft drinks (both sugar and artificially sweetened varieties)

  •Fruit juices and drinks

  •Flavoured teas

  •Sweetened mineral waters

  •Water, water and more water

  •Herbal teas you make yourself from dried or fresh tea leaves

  •Coffee

  EAT FOOD YOU’VE COOKED YOURSELF AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE

  We are spending an ever-increasing amount of our incomes on eating out. Collectively, Australians make 51.5 million visits to fast-food restaurants every month. As a result, it’s become very easy for us to consume many calories in a short amount of time. That’s a lot of added salts, sugars and dubious fats coming at us in large servings, which we have expended absolutely zero energy in preparing. Below are some tips for eating out to make it as healthy an experience as possible, as well as ways to help you eat more food you have prepared yourself.

  Eat like a pauper when you dine out

  •Order an entrée serve.

  •Say no to upsizing food and drinks, no matter how good the deal seems.

  •Choose water to accompany your meal. If drinking alcohol, intersperse this with water drinks.

  •Order meals accompanied by as many plant foods as possible, such as sides of salads and vegetables, and small serves of protein such as eggs, fish or beans and legumes.

  •Avoid fried foods, processed meats and bread-like products where possible.

  •If ordering a desert, share it with someone.

  •Eat slowly and enjoy your meal. Focus on the social aspects of eating and talking with others. Make it last.

  Eating ‘take out’ when staying in – our top ‘Friday nighters’

  In our house, we tend to feel the greatest temptation to buy takeaway food on Friday nights. These days I try to resist the urge for takeaway and prepare a nutritious meal instead.

  The meal suggestions below take less time to cook than to order and pick up takeaway food. They can be cobbled together from things we generally have hanging around our fridge or pantry at the end of the week. Each cost less than $15 to $20 to feed a group of four and they won’t give you indigestion. Use the money you save to go to the movies, give to charity or put it in a jar over a year so you can treat yourself to a holiday. If you spend $50 a week on takeaway, that’s a saving of $2600 a year.

  1.Eggs fried in a little olive oil with crumbled feta (optional) on grain toast. Serve with a side of vegetables (for example, panfried tomatoes and asparagus, steamed peas, corn or whatever else is in the freezer, vegetable crisper or garden).

  2.Chickpeas in homemade tomato sauce with couscous and steamed greens.

  3.Toasted pita bread filled with legume salad, a dollop of garlicky yoghurt and a pinch of chilli.

  4.Filleted fish, pan fried in olive oil, along with seasonal vegetables (asparagus, chopped tomatoes, mushrooms, silverbeet, etc) seasoned with herbs of your choice and finished with a squeeze of lemon juice and chilli flakes.

  5.Crusty grain bread with crumbled feta, tomato, olive oil and oregano.

  6.Salad vegetables such as carrot, cucumber and celery dipped in tzatziki made from Greek yoghurt, olive oil, garlic and cucumber. Accompany with some feta or other cheese, a few olives and slices of grain bread for a healthy Mediterranean TV dinner.

  CELEBRATE REAL FOODS – AND EAT THEM AS MUCH AS YOU CAN

  Foods that are seasonal, tasty and nutritious make up the bulk of Ikarian diets and ‘peasant’-style diets in general. These consist predominately of fresh and preserved fruit and vegetables, beans and legumes, wholegrains, nuts and seeds. These are supplemented with moderate amounts of dairy, meat, fish and plant-based oils such as olive oil. Sweets are eaten in moderation, are traditionally home-made and tend to be consumed during celebrations rather than every day.

  Eating ‘real’ foods that you’ve mostly cooked yourself, and in sensible amounts, should make you feel good and give you the energy to do what you need to do. Generally, these foods are good for your gut, your brain and your waistline.

  The details of what you eat will vary according to your tastes, culture, budget, how much time you have available and whether you like to cook or not . . . There are so many variables, which is why breaking foods down into those we shouldn’t have (such as high calorie, high carbohydrate, high fat, etc) and should have (superfoods, proteins, etc) is so counterintuitive. Food is fuel. Food is comfort. Food is so bound up in celebration, culture and joy. The more we embrace delicious real food that makes our bodies feel good, the quicker we can get over our angst about it.

  Tips

  Below are some ways to celebrate and eat more real foods:

  •Shop mostly in the outer isles of your supermarket where the fresh food is – fruit and vegetables, nuts, meat and dairy.

  •Ignore the specials at the front of most supermarket aisles – these are generally cheap but nutritionally empty foods such as soft drinks, crisps, biscuits and chocolate.

  •Find local providores to buy fresh fruit, vegetables, beans, nuts and seeds rather than buying them exclusively at a supermarket. The produce is generally fresher, has higher turnover, is more varied and is likely to be cheaper and so you are more likely to eat more of these things. Stock up on staples that keep well.

  •Challenge yourself to try new ingredients when they are in season – if artichokes or pomegranates or beetroots are cheap and plentiful at your local greengrocer, buy them and search for a recipe online.

  EAT MODERATELY MOST OF THE TIME

  There is a time and place for stuffing your face with corn chips lathered in sour cream and tomato salsa, devouring a family-sized bar of milk chocolate and sculling a litre of your favourite soft drink. However, it’s best not to do so all the time, or even most of the time. It’s not the occasional excesses that are responsible for our collective excess weight woes, or lead to associated health problems. It’s the things we eat and drink every day, such as soft drinks, nutrient-poor high-calorie snacks, highly refined breads and pastries, and highly processed food-like products with added sugars, fats, salts and preservatives.

  It’s not just what we eat, but how much of it. One of the Blue Zones communities, the Okinawans, recite a phrase before every meal: hara hachi bu. This reminds them to eat to when they are 80 per cent full, rather than stuffing themselves to the point of bursting. Smaller portion sizes remind them to be mindful when eating and pay attention to their bodies.

  As a population, fat is creeping up on us insidiously, year after year. By and large, it’s making us feel sluggish and sore. Eventually, it will likely make us sick. It’s not our fault, but we owe it to ourselves to do something about it. Personally, I’m quite terrified of going into a nursing home and needing to be transported from my bed to a chair in a harness.

  Tips

  Below are some tips for eating moderately.

  •Gradually decrease your portion sizes at each meal. For some people, using smaller plates helps.

  •Serve food onto your plates away from the table.

  •Avoid seconds. If still hungry after a meal, drink water and wait a little – it takes twenty minutes for your body to indicate fullness. If still hungry, add more ‘filling’ food to your plate, such as salad or vegetables.

  •Learn to listen to your body – are you really hungry? Perhaps you are thirsty, or tired or stressed. So many of us partake in emotional eating. Perhaps you need a drink, or a rest, or to do something else constructive to distract you. If you feel you have an addiction to food or you have tried unsuccessfully over a long time to shed excess weight, get professional help – you don’t have to do this on your own.

  PLANT UP, ANIMAL DOWN

  The traditional Ikarian diet is high in vegetables and fruits, beans, whole grains, potatoes and olive oil – and low in red meat.

  Eating more
plant food is good for the environment. It’s also cheaper than eating meat, and better for our bodies. Data sourced from the UK-based Nurses’ Health Study found that people who replace a small amount of animal proteins (particularly from red meat) with plant proteins can add years to their life.

  Gradually adding more plant foods to your plate and your shopping list will make it easier to eat more without thinking about it too much. More than nine out of ten Australians don’t eat the recommended amount of fruit and vegetables each day. Often, we lack imagination when we think about plant foods. They don’t have to be a side of sad, tasteless steamed vegetables. They might be lima beans in homemade tomato sauce with garden herbs; a medley of baked vegetables in olive oil and garlic; or grilled courgettes and eggplants garnished with a dollop of yoghurt and paprika. These things don’t take very long to prepare and are cheap and tasty. If possible, it’s best to buy fruit and vegetables that are in season.

  Tips

  •Use meat as a flavouring or small addition to your meal rather than the main ingredient.

  •Bulk meat stews up with vegetables and beans. Consider adding leafy greens (spinach, silverbeet, kale) to as many dishes as you can.

  •Replace one meat dish with a bean/legume dish each week.

  •Buy a small amount of dairy and meat products each week. Once you run out, don’t buy them again until the following week.

  DITCH GUILT

  We live in a country where highly processed, takeaway and convenience foods are on every major shopping strip, on every screen, and at the end of every aisle in our supermarkets. So, when we’re told to deprive ourselves of these things in the interest of good health, we often want to arc up like a hungry child in a lolly shop (or is that just me?). I believe our systems are hardwired to respond to our environments – and so in an environment of plenty, we instinctively consume.