Sarah is an Australian media personality, journalist and blogger with an integrated voice across television, radio, magazines, newspapers and online. She’s the former editor of Cosmopolitan magazine and was the host of the first series of MasterChef Australia, the highest-rating show in Australian TV history. She’s now the host and program developer for the country’s newest channel Lifestyle YOU, where her new TV show “Eat Yourself Sexy”(a nutrition and wellness makeover show) will air in August. Sarah has written more than 100 weekly columns for Sunday Life magazine about how to have a better life and is a regular guest on Sunrise, Good News Week, 7pm Project, and Sky.
Sarah is an adept social commentator, following a career that’s spanned politics, health advocacy, restaurant reviewing, opinion writing and trend forecasting. She’s also qualified as a Health Coach with the Institute of Integrative Nutrition in New York, is about to launch an ebook on quitting sugar, and is currently writing a book for Pan Macmillan on how to make life better, a memoir of her journey to wellness.
- Meanwhile, I like that old feminist motto "Question Authority" - ro.watson
- Yip, equality. Yip, inclusion. Yip, respect for any effort and example and yip, respect for being there when you have a capacity to say what this is and is not like, and was and was not like, for those coming after you. - ro.watson
- Gracie 123 totally agree I don't mind having a flutter on the Melbourne Cup in the form of a Sweep ,but this gambling on everything is abhorrent the Waterhouse's and the like sicken me.They get their wealth on the weakness of others.px be on them and theirs - Sarah
- I am a single, childless, woman in midlife; educated, work experienced and apparently - unemployable. In the domestic sphere, I have no problems with respect - as I am master of my own household. I own property, pay taxes etc etc. However, beyond the domestic sphere - in the world at large, I feel powerless. And why? Because I can't get a job. And so my economic independence on a 1 to 10 scale is zero. I see personal economic security as key to self respect, and my full participation in society. In Australia now - I am encountering unavoidable barriers that stop me gaining the employment, that enables me to be economically independent - and enjoy my individual sense of power - as a modern woman. To employers and recruiters - I am invisible. Is it because of my age? Is it because of my gender? I think it's a combination of both. But where the "disrespect" originates - I think is not limited to one sex or the other. I think that women (including educated and powerful women) can be disrespectful toward their own gender. I know this from experience on the workplace floor (and social observation). We are all competitive animals. As for respect? Any politician (female or male) that takes strong and clear action to remove the barriers that inhibit my "employability" is showing a respect for my rights and entitlements as an individual. Gender shouldn't enter the equation. This is why I find it tiring to see parliamentary time absorbed by the "misogyny debate". Ordinary women from the lower thresholds of society, do not have this luxury. Some will curse me - but when I see various female politicians accusing this one or that one of being sexist - all I see is the indulgent banter of women with a particular agenda, and the luxury of a political platform and well paid career path. I feel disconnected from their world. If I saw them speaking up about the crucial issuing affecting ordinary women (and men) I would feel more inspired by this topic and their actions. - Patrice
- Anyway not sure about the notion of "lone wolves" .A search and finding of belonging takes many forms~ I am not sure how many acts which harm and hurt single or multiple people are "organised" though I suppose people can get skilled in how to hurt and maim other people, and do this hurting.... and remember this hurting when the ones they loved or knew were hurt or killed too etc.....? - ro.watson
- This is the problem Jenna, most Australians forget or don't know exactly why it is Australia has troops over there at all. You and your partner have my deepest and utmost respect. Take care. - Tracey
- Blood oath Kev. Unfortunately, if psycho's like these 2 are not murdering in the name of religion, they'll find something else to murder in the name of. - Sandy
- Totally ridiculous and laughable examples, particularly the first two. The Governor-General arrived on a day where the most important people on the Tarmac were the Diggers being sent home in coffins. End of story. The troops watching the footy may have not long been back from being somewhere or doing something we can't even begin to understand. Watching the footy is a small part of home in a nightmare place they live in day in and day out. Get a grip....ithe way they were treated had nothing to do with mysoginy, the fact they are women or lack of respect, they were on an Army Base, not at a Parliamentary garden party! - Tracey
- Reading the Daily Fail, Gee? Why am I not surprised. Dude, you should go have a read of the National Enquirer next. "Add the current ‘invasion’ rhetoric that is filling our young Aboriginals with such hate and we have a cocktail for disaster." Ah Gee dude, not only was it an invasion, but also a genocide. Are you on crack? Hateful little bloke. - Sandy
- Rosie, it's been going on all the time: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/22/two-anti-gay-attacks-new-york-city_n_3314145.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Shepard But of course, homosexuals are hated by both christians and muslims. - Matilda
ON THE HIGHWIRE PROFILE
Sarah Wilson
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How much ‘me’ time do you get?
Me time... I've been carving it out, bit by bit, over the years. The big thing I've learned is that these days we have to carve it ourselves. Previous generations - or just a few years ago - Me time was sanctioned, carved out be the structures of our culture and workplaces. So weekends were delineated. Work finished around 6pm. Then it was family time (which is more closely aligned with "me time"). Now the line is totally blurred. We can sit around lamenting and whining. Or we realise we simply have to take responsibility ourselves. We have to carve out the time clearly. Or drown!
The BEST, MOST EFFECTIVE way to do this, or to start this, is to turn off email. And log on twice a day only and do them in batches....
WHERE WILL YOU BE WHEN YOU’RE 80?
When I'm 80, I'll be living by the beach in a city where the young kids keep me young. My absolute aim is to get better with age - my great grandmother did. She won the over 50s tennis comp at age 80. I get happier with every year that passes and my health is improving and I'm certainly stronger - physically and emotionally. I LOVE getting older.
YOUR LIFE IN HIGH HEELS
My memorable heels moment: my last day working at News Ltd before heading to Cosmopolitan magazine (to become editor) I was riding my bike out of the company carpark....in a skirt...and heels...with three handbags slung over my shoulders. I skidded out and broke three bones and tore my tendon. Thus, I arrived in the ACP building on crutches with a big ski boot. APPARENTLY, the entire building felt sorry for me, having to make such an entrance. I was more concerned I did the skid-out in front of the MD of News Ltd. Fittingly, since then I've had so many ankle problems, wearing heels is a brief on-then-off-again deal this days.
WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GREW UP?
a nun or the first female Prime MInister of Australia...looks like it's off to the nunnery!
DEAR PRIME MINISTER, MAY I HAVE A WORD?
Ohhh, such a good question. I would beg her to drop her "performance speak" and say a whopping great "f*ck it" to whatever advice she's been given on presenting like a dalek. And beg her to talk to crowds like she's reported to speak to smaller groups. Pretend we're all naked. That we're all on her side. We're all waiting to be led. We're all rather uncertain about all kinds of things and would actually like to be inspired and drawn forward and given a vision. Oh, and that the 6000 limit for asylum seekers needs to be quadrupled. At the very least.
WHAT’S YOUR MOST-TREASURED COOKBOOK?
Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. It's the densely nutrition sprouted mung bean nut bread of the cookbook world. No pretty pictures, no softening of blows (fermented milk anyone?), but it's the most sound eating inspiration around. A bible.
WHAT DO YOU WANT FOR CHRISTMAS?
IF my family weren't anti-consumerist, let's-buy-a-goat-for-a-poor-village types and IF we actually welcomed Santa to our crowded house on Christmas day....hmmm...it would probably be a snazzy piece of kitchen equipment I couldn't justify buying for myself. A nice set of ceramic knives. A therma-mix. A set of omelette pans. I tend to "make do" and improvise in the kitchen. I've just made some activated nuts using a chocolate pan instead of a baking dish.
WHEN DID YOU FAIL? WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?
Oh, last year was a series of "failures". I had to quit some very large projects and do so publicly (ie with my blogging and column audiences knowing all about it, in real time). I've been forced to do this a few times in my life. Leaving MasterChef could also have been seen as a "failure". I mean, WHO does that? When it's the highest rating show in history. Clearly I do. But I put failure in inverted commas because I don't see any of these decisions as failures. My failures have always been the precursors to the biggest breakthroughs in my life. I recently blogged about it here: http://www.sarahwilson.com.au/2011/12/dont-make-new-year-resolutions-play-instead/ ... I wrote this about what happened after my year of "failures" (I think a lot of us had them last year): "And – I love this – as 2011 closed, and the “failures” sped up, I began to find it all very funny. And all the stuff I used to care about – very much suddenly – mattered a whole lot less."
WHAT IS THE MOTTO YOU LIVE BY?
"Where the mind goes, the energy flows"...
WHAT DO YOU DO IN YOUR CAR (THAT YOU SHOULDN’T)?
On long trips...which most of my driving is... I drive with left foot up on the dashboard with cruise control on.
WHEN WERE YOU THE ‘HEIGHT OF FASHION’?
I had one Moment. It was captured by Dad on NSW's South Coast in about 1980. Ken Done-esque togs, Elle Mac-skowl, Instagram-y graininess...
WHAT I EAT WHEN NO-ONE’S WATCHING
Tahini straight from the fridge with....butter on top. A tablespoon of each. On a spoon.
WHAT WAS THE BEST THING YOU EVER GAVE UP?
Sugar. I gave it up 14 months ago and it's seriously made a very big difference to my health and my energy and my ability to be a nicer person more often. I should declare, of course, I wrote an ebook on the matter, I Quit Sugar: a Sweet 8-week Program...
WHAT WAS I THINKING?
I used to hitchhike. I was 18 and hitchhiked through Europe on my own quite a bit. I was mugged once and lived in Paris for two weeks with nothing but the clothes on my back (and at 18...actually I was 19 by this stage...this had such a gloriously grungy aesthetic to it). I used to sneak into hostels late, after the warden had left, and steal food and jump trains. Possibly the most free and unattached I've ever felt in my life. Would I do it again? Well, I still hitchhike sometimes...TWENTY YEARS ON!
THE TEACHER WHO INSPIRED ME
Mrs Jackson in Year 5. Funnily, just yesterday I went and visited my old primary school (you can see the pic on Instagram : _sarahwilson_) in Sutton, in rural NSW. And got a photo outside my Year 5 classroom and had only fond memories. Mrs Jackson was the first teacher to really see me. She took me aside one day and told me I was bright and that she would look forward to seeing me succeed in years to come. I'd never thought of myself that way before and she planted a seed and it grew into something I had to rise up to. I put a lot of my ambition to my desire not to disappoint Mrs Jackson!
I REALLY DON’T NEED ANY MORE…
I - we all - don't need ANYTHING. My family don't do presents. Instead we donate a goat to a impoverished village somewhere or chip in to rent a house down the coast for a few days so we can spend time together. We grew up anti-stuff and stuff depresses all eight of us now. I highly recommend the practice!