Goodbye internet.

I HAVE A JOB. 

A REAL JOB. 

A FULL TIME JOB. 




I will be working for a nearby council and I am SO EXCITED! I will now be closing down this blog and corresponding pages, but I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you and goodbye. This blog actually did lead to a number of job leads, and while they haven't resulted in this particular job, the support I have received by doing this blog has been lovely. To anyone out there looking for a job, hold on, and you will get there! It's NOT easy but hang in there and work hard!

With love, bloggers,


Sarah :)

Jobs!

Well, in the last two and a half weeks, Internet,  I have had more than 12 job interviews! Seem like a lot? Well - I was the applicant for only two of them, for the rest, I was the interviewer! 

My first one was to gauge my interest in a project, and the other was a full-on, whole she-bang interview. For my next batch it was several interviews for my Bonds job - getting Christmas casual staff at group interviews. This is the second year I have done this and I love it - though I am just a casual minion, I get to do cool things like stay in hotels when away to open up new stores, and also help out the HR department, and I love it. Meals on the company? Hell yes. 

How did they all go?

Well, I am happy to report that the Christmas casuals are going to KICK ASS and hopefully some of the talent will stay on in the business past Christmas! The job where my interest was being gauged is dependant on the outcome for the position that involved a full job application, and now that it is Wednesday I can now tell you that...

...I haven't gotten a call yet.

I am nervous, excited and optimistically hopeful that I will hear something by the end of the week, but here's something for you to chew over, friends... I think that if neither of these opportunities bring employment, I may have to shelve my search until next year. At the end of November, I am marrying my best friend and fiance, Steve. This is, obviously, super exciting and requires a lot of organising. I have decided, internet, that given there is so much involved in that, and the casual work at Bonds will continue to flex upwards towards Christmas including more work for HR, that to continue adding all this together and search for jobs would send me bonkers, not to mention the rejection is pretty hard to take, and from now until the end of the year, I really want to focus on being happy and not put so much weight on my self worth being tied up with my ability to find a job. 

Is this something you have ever decided or faced, internet? It is a difficult thing to do because I have invested a lot of time this year into looking for jobs, and to shelve the search until Janurary would mean I would be up against even more graduates next year (although this hasn't been the issue this year, it has been me against more qualified applicants!). 

SUGAR

I love sugar. Love love love it. Give me fruit, give me gelati, give me cake, give me pie, give me milkshakes and slices and lollies oh my! But lately, sugar has been getting a bad rap, as we look at our battle with the bulge, some people have sugar in the firing line. Last week, I watched two documentaries about sugar and health.

The first was the much talked about 'That Sugar Film'.

There has been a lot written about this film by people far cleverer than I so I won't harp on about it. There was some things I liked in this, and some I didn't.  Bottom line: if it gets people thinking and talking about their diets, it's great, but casting sugar as the devil in this piece is perhaps a little one dimensional - little time was given to the dangers of excessive salt or fat in our diets. More time could also have been given to the importance of exercise, and making a stronger definition between naturally occurring sugars and added sugars. I think this documentary sits well among other health information (and I am not talking about self proclaimed experts on Facebook) - because while I am sure experts were consulted on this project and informed the development - it was a study of one, conducted by a television actor, and has virtually zero external validity, given the number of confounding variables in this 'study'. But as I say, starting the conversation is part of the battle, and this is a good thing.

The second was 'Fat V Sugar' (Click this link to watch it all online for free in the next seven days)

Again, there have been many things written about this documentary. Since it is not as well known, the basic premise is that a set of twins, adult doctors as it happens, decide to undertake one each of a fat or sugar loaded diet and monitor the effects they have on the body, in much the same way as That Sugar Film does. Long story short: both men have poor health outcomes. And while again, this study has no repeatability, and has too many variables to make it a legitimate study, they presented two sides of the diet debate, and had an excellent, if boring, bottom line.

Everything in moderation.

I know I know how revolutionary. And how boring! Why can't I just cut one food out of my diet and be skinny! Why can't I eat this instead and it is a miracle food which does everything else I need! This is the thing - we want a quick easy fix. I'll quit sugar and I will be healthy! I'll start eating kalettes and my internal health will be amazing! But it doesn't work like that, moderation is key. Extreme diets where all food groups are cut out (unless you have a medical reason, of course!) are unsustainable.

And this is the other problem.

When we use the word diet, it can mean two things. It can mean, "I'm going on a diet where all I eat is lemon tea and acai berries" or it can mean "I enjoy a well balanced diet 365 days of the year". We need to get away from yo-yo diets and fad diets and losing 10 kilos so we can be bikini ready and looks at making our 365 diets more well rounded and sustainable. Make little changes here and there, don't bother with cheat days - keep it rocking all the time, and never get yourself to a point of excess for any food. Don't eat a whole bag of chips or block of chocolate. Just don't. Try and bring some more whole grains (I am doing this, I hate it, but I am doing it), try to bring in more greens (Helllooo spinach in everything) - but don't cut all carbs, and only eat salad - and try drinking less soft drink.

Which brings me to my final point.

Label reading is IMPORTANT. But not all the time - just be aware. A few weeks ago, before I watched either of these documentaries, Steve and I were in the supermarket shopping for the dinner we were cooking for family. As I said above, I have made small changes - one of them is cutting back (not quitting) sugary drinks. I didn't drink a lot, but I felt it was something I could do less of. We decided we would buy mineral water instead of soft drink, because it's healthier, right? Well! This is what we found.

Can you see that? You might not be able to. The Coles Mineral water - which I grabbed first based on price, has 10.5 grams of sugar per 100mls. For some reason, I decided to compare this to the same flavour in the soft drink. It's 13 grams per 100mls. Only 2.5 more grams! I was flabbergasted at this. These are both fine products (don't sue me Coles), but if you are looking at sugar, there was little difference. I then looked at the Schweppes brand and true to the label advertising less sugar - which I often ignore as a simple marketing ploy - it has 5.1 grams of sugar per 100ml. Whoa. Bet you can guess which one I picked.

So what is my bottom line? Well, I am just another flog on the internet. I don't know it all, and there are things I struggle with, but I think moderation is honestly key, and maintaining a constant diet always is better than yo yo-ing, and if you can do anything to cut back realistically on your excess sugar, fat and salt intake, then do it!

Adios bloggers!

How's the job hunt going? (and look, I'm famous!)

The question loved and loathed by job seekers everywhere!

First off though - That Sugar Film - I still haven't watched it - I tried to watch it after I cooked dinner for my family last night and was greeted with 'What, are we at school?', and we watched Guardians of the Galaxy instead, which is excellent, obviously, but has little to do with Public Health. So, let's aim for next week on that one!

And the job search,

Well, I'm still hunting! I'm very excited about the position I am applying for this week and have high hopes for it, and I continue to bust my ass working my two jobs (last week around 50 hours!), including my retail job where last week, I was in Bendigo for two days, opening a new store with the good people from Head Office (and staying overnight and being fed on the house, I might add!)

Thats me, third from the right! Legend that I am.

At a rough count, I have applied for around 16 jobs since the start of the year.That might not sound like a lot, but it needs to be remembered that there is not a lot of jobs in the field (I have been recommended a lot of jobs which have been a long way removed from my field. This has been less helpful), and that it works out to be about one a fortnight - which when you are juggling two part time jobs is just about all you can fit in! Whoever said job hunting in itself was a full time job was correct! In that same amount of time, I have had 2 interviews - so a 10% partial success rate! Both times I have received the same feedback - you were great, we loved you, but we have gone with a candidate with more experience. Sigh.

Not to be put off, because I know I can make a dent in the world of health, I am keeping on keeping on, I have put my hand up for some volunteer work at the end of the year - if I don't have a full time job - with the Cancer Council at their Skin Cancer Conference in Melbourne. I've also put my hand up for another store opening with Bonds - I have a fair few under my belt now and love the excitement of meeting and helping to train a new team. 

There is a tendency, when looking for a job - or technically, in my instance, a job in a different field to current employment - to postpone the rest of your life until 'the job thing' is sorted. I've not learnt that this simply cannot be how you run your life. Things I thought would follow once I got a job: get engaged (wait - did it last year already) get married (oh what the hell - we are doing that this year as well too!) buy new, grown up make up and learn how to use it (had to do that too, because buying more crap was a false economy), make plans for anything beyond next week (well that was just stupid). I'm now trying to live in the moment and take things as they come, and take hope in that I will eventually get there!!

Until next week bloggers. 

I really really do love Public Healh

Hello to anyone who is not also reading the Facebook page - I just wanted to explain my brief absence. Last week I was snowed under with printing and stapling my Deakin job paperwork for the coming data collection sessions, and this week I am just so flat out I haven't had a second to scratch myself, but never fear - next week I am going to be looking at SUGAR including That Sugar Film and my own supermarket investigations!

On another note, last week I received an award from La Trobe University! It was the Penfold Public Health Research Prize, awarded to the student who had the highest average mark across three specific public health subjects. I was presented this award by the very interesting and trail-blazing Dr Barbara Francis, a Virologist from Melbourne and the grand-daughter of Dr Oliver Penfold, a Bendigo GP who was passionate about preventative health. I was so honoured to receive this award and stoked to get this unexpected recognition of my hard work throughout my degree - and this brings me to a total of two degrees in the degree, alongside the SCU/Lincoln award received for academic excellence in 2013.

I feel, this week, like I am on the cusp of knocking down the doorway of a career in Public Health - let's see, shall we?

Corporate Sponsorship and our Children's Food and Exercise Habits

Hey bloggers!

How are we? As I shared on the Facebook page last week - I went for a job annnnnd didn't get it! BUGGER! My feedback was the same as the previous interview - we loved your energy and enthusiasm but in this instance, we had a more qualified applicant (5+ years). Ack, much graduate, so hard.

But, on we press! This little train that could is powering through the stations 'disheartening-ness' and 'fear of failure' and pressing on through to the stations 'success' and 'joyousness'. What helps this is that I have been awarded with the Penfold Prize for Public Health at La Trobe University for having the highest average mark for 3 Public Health units - see, I told you this girl loves Public Health!

So, for this weeks consideration, and sort of following on from last weeks post, is what place do big corporations have in our children's food and physical activity industries? (Note: I don't have a kid, just an awesome fiance and cat).

What I mean by this is two different things: First, food companies that are typically unhealthy - sponsoring kids sport, such as the McDonalds sponsorship of the Hooptime kids basketball competition, and formally of Auskick. This week I'm going to leave a lot of thinking up to you, internet, but here are some starters... what sort of message does it send to kids to associate physical activity with energy dense nutrient poor foods. Or where would these sporting organisations be without the huge corporate sponsorship they currently receive; would they disappear and would this lead to obesity as well, as there isn't enough money to run the programs?

Worth thinking about.

This is the other thing to think about. What about children's character 'endorsement' of certain foods? Characters like Mickey, Hoot, Peppa, Minions etc have a lot of influence in the lives of their key demographic. So why are the organisations behind the corporate endorsement of foods choosing foods that aren't particularly healthy? My assessment of this today in one supermarket: Minions are currently appearing on Tic Tacs, Cupcake mixes and Banana flavoured biscuits, none of which children need any help in consuming - why aren't they sponsoring actual bananas (prepacked), or healthy breakfast cereals (Oats or Wheetbix!) As an example here are more of the products Minions currently appear on.... not a lot of food kids should be encouraged to eat!

As this post is designed for you to think about, all I really want is for people to be aware of how this is all affecting our food and exercise and to think critically about it! Are these things you have noticed too? Should we be looking at who is supporting kids food and sporting competitions? Or is that just the way it is? 

Who runs the world? Girls! Who run this mutha? Oh it's actually huge multi-national countries.

In both of my current jobs, I spend a lot of time in supermarkets and shopping centres. Like many people, I check out the specials before I go shopping and it is genuinely starting to freak me out how much of it is unhealthy food, and beyond that, that many (most, even?) of the products in supermarkets are owned by some of the same half a dozen companies.

What do I mean by this? Well, sure, Nestle make baking chocolate and condensed milk but they also own the brands Maggi, Uncle Tobys, Nespresso and Purina! Then you turn over a packet of Dove soap and you see it is made by Unilever and sure sure I've seen that before but did you know Unilever also own Lipton, T2 and Bushells Tea, Omo washing powder and Ben and Jerry's. It is, in fact, increasingly difficult to support independant and local brands when shopping at a supermarket. To see more of what I am talking about, have a look at the diagram below.

I just find this super interesting. And I think it opens up a lot of questions like...
Where is my food being produced (See the Nannas berry saga to see why this is an issue!)
How far has this food travelled to make it to me and how much damage did this do to the environment to get here in terms of petrol used?
How much time has this spent in transit, and what chemicals and preservatives (and food dyes and their origins) did they use to get it here looking like this?

These are questions that you don't need to ask when you are buying from smaller, local companies - and there is believed to be a lot of health benefits from eating local in-season produce - but this is next to impossible in this day and age. And it's not all bad, some of these companies sponsor local events and fundraising... but I think it is interesting to think about. It also makes a point about why it's best to use a simple method when shopping for healthy groceries in a supermarket:

Stick to the outside of the supermarket.

This will include fresh fruit, vegetables and meat etc, whereas typically, the aisles are filled with these highly processed foods that are owned by large multi-nationals.

But I digress. the most interesting company to look at is Altria.

Who is Altria? Well, they have a generic colourful logo which gives no indication as to what they actually do. And they own a lot of companies, like the big multi-nationals I listed above. Their big ticket item is a little company called Phillip Morris who are the dead set legends* behind Marlboro cigarettes.

Let's look deeper. Altria own more than 28% of SABMiller. SABMiller own ALL of Fosters, who we know as the makers of popular brands VB, Carlton Draught, Pure Blonde, Cascade, Miller and Chill. So. This means that whenever you enjoy one of these beverages, 28% of it is owned by Altria who will be funneling that money into continuing the sale of cigarettes.

Now... its important to remember that these companies give people jobs and that is incredibly important to health. But wouldn't it be better if these companies put the amount of effort  and money they do into making us unhealthy...into making us healthier instead?

So what are my key points?

Shop local. Don't shop highly processed foods. Think about where your food comes from and what it goes through to get to you. Support smaller independent breweries! Don't bloody smoke! And remember that no one is perfect and while it's fine to say all this, it's near impossible to remain a 100% ethical human being in terms of food and drink! But it's good to know and be able to make informed decisions!

Over and out!



*Uh, not really. I have other words for them. Ask me in person. What sort of company sells a product which will kill you in a horrific way, or produces a product that the picking of can lead to illness in children in the developing countries where tobacco is grown and young children work, or what sort of company aggressively advertises their death-inducing products to developing nations with little knowledge of the health ramifications but annnywayyyyy....