Bike Fest is coming soon so there is lots of bike love action on Melbourne’s horizon. It runs from 17 Feb to 17 March. Check out the program.

My top pick is Pushy Women, an event I had a very small hand in putting together. It’s women and bikes and performance at the Malthouse, people: run, don’t walk to get your tickets.

There’s also a Treadlie bike market, a bake off, swap meet and plenty of rides! Plus, the amazing Oslo Davis will be creating road harmony coffee cups.

Also, I’m the Bike Fest blogger, so add the Squeaky Wheel to your RSS now to get my daily updates from the fest. I’ve pumped up my tyres and lubed my chain so I’ll see you there!

February is FebFast, a one-month no-drinking challenge. Some people are into it, and some aren’t, but whether you sign up to do it ‘officially’ or not, there are compelling reasons to give up alcohol next month:

• You will sleep better. Even if you are a good sleeper, sober sleeping is of a much higher quality and you’ll get a better rest.
• You will feel better. We forget that alcohol is, above all, a depressant. Yes, it’s fun. But it’s also a downer, even if you don’t feel it at the time.
• You will look better. Not drinking is good for your skin, it’s good for your waistline, and all that great sleep will have you sparkling.
• You’ll have more energy. No hangovers = clearheadedness + restful sleep = more energy.
• You will have more spare time. No one ever has enough time. But think of how many hours you spend a week drinking, and consider how you could productively spend that time. Catching up on work, exercising, sleeping, reading…?
• You will have a lot of extra cash. Seriously, how much do you spend on alcohol in a month? Imagine what you could do if you had that sitting there as a lump sum at the end of Feb.
• You will have support. Loads of people stop drinking in February so there will be plenty of ginger-beer sippers to hang out with. It’s totally socially acceptable and you won’t have to explain yourself to anyone.
• It’s just 29 days. Even if you don’t see any benefits and it’s the total absolute worst thing you’ve ever done in your entire life (note: it won’t be), it’ll be over in no time.
• You can say you’ve done it. When I did sober Feb in 2010, it was the first time I’d gone without alcohol for so long in my adult life. This is not unusual! Taking a break and going sober for a month makes you exceptional and awesome – so it’s worth doing, even just to say you have.
• It might lead to something else. After a (surprisingly!) successful sober Feb in 2010, I decided to moderate my drinking, which I failed miserably at. So I decided to take a year off drinking. Having done a sober Feb and seeing that I could abstain (even if it was hard), I had the courage (a year later!) to quit drinking. If, like me, you want to be in control of your drinking, taking a month off – or any period of abstinence – is a great place to start.
• YOU CAN DO IT. If I can, anyone can – trust me. You’ve just got to commit, tell your friends and family, and take it one day at a time.

How to stop drinking for a month: Sign up to FebFast, check out Hello Sunday Morning’s #12in2012 mission, or ignore all advisory organisations and just make a personal decision not to drink this February.

11 Reasons not to drink this February – click to tweet!

Just a quick update about the cleanse I did last week. I spent Friday afternoon feeling a little nutty about food (mostly imagining what I would eat on Saturday!) but great overall. On Saturday I woke up feeling full of energy and generally just awesome.

I ate nothing but fruit, veggies and nuts all weekend, and it was fabulous. After drinking juice for a week I really appreciated all the excellent flavours, not to mention chewing. I ate organic stone fruit and berry salads, giant salads with Japanese dressing, baked sweet potato with tahini and green veggies, massaged kale salad… yum. I had a super productive weekend, cleaned the whole house, and got a lot of writing done. Coincidence? I think not!

During the cleanse it was interesting to take a step back and think about how and what I eat. A few things I noticed:

• Every morning that when I woke up I felt like a big glass of water. Usually when I wake up I start planning how to get coffee into me, and I feel like I might have broken that dependency/habit.
• I can’t stomach breakfast first thing when I wake up, but green juice goes down well.
• I tend to want to eat more in the evening, and forget to eat during the day when I’m busy. I was drinking three juices by 4pm then have a further three to drink before I went to bed (!!), but in the last few days I forced myself to stick to a schedule and drink more evenly across the day. And I felt more energetic for it!
• Sometimes I think I mistake thirst for hunger. Once I started drinking the requisite two litres of water a day I never felt hungry again.

Of course, what happens after the detox is the most important thing. I said last week that my eating habits had gotten pretty bad/lazy, and I want this to be the turning point where I start eating well and looking after myself again.

If you’re interested in doing a cleanse, I do recommend Schkinny Maninny (still). They deliver juices to your door every day, it’s not a starvation thing (you get 1700 calories), and it’s all-natural, ie. you don’t have to take any weird supplements or powders. Importantly, it’s pretty yum – I didn’t like the evening soups (but I do like the lentil lunch one), and the green morning juice feels a bit intense the first day, but the rest is tasty. The downside is, of course, that it’s kind of expensive.

(If you’re interested, the 15% off discount code that Schkinny Maninny gave me to pass on still seems valid – Olivia Gao used it recently – so hit me up if you want to try it!)

I’d be interested to hear your experiences of doing detoxes or cleanses!

Some things I saw in Muscat, Oman last November.

Remember a while back I did a detox? Well, I’m doing it again.

I know the concept of detoxing is a bit divisive. While I agree that a detox is not going to cure or fix anything, and that’s there’s no replacement for eating well all the time, I still think that it can be good to take a little mental break, to recalibrate, to spend some time doing something super clean and healthy for your bod.

At some point last year I stopped cooking. I just got tired of it. Seriously. There’s only so long you can cook for one and still find it interesting, and last year I reached that point. Unsurprisingly, at about the same time I stopped eating well. I had a major case of cbf and wtp* and I’ve been feeling increasingly shit – both mentally and physically – since then. And, MAN!! I am so angry with myself!! I know that when I eat really well and kill myself at the gym, I feel better: more balanced, happier, more positive, just… good. And when I don’t, I don’t. But when I start feeling crap it’s really hard to turn myself around and convince myself to eat a carrot instead of a latte and to stop watching FNL and go for a run instead. You know?

I’m doing the cleanse now because I want to fill my body with delicious fruit and veggies, take a break from my current less-than-healthy diet, and to help wean myself off coffee (my addiction to which I’m starting to question). Also, I’ve been sober for a year! How awesome is that? Definitely worth celebrating with a week of fresh, organic juices.

I’m using Schkinny Maninny again, though off my own dime this time (but at a discount, which is nice). My diet was not as clean before I started this cleanse as it was last time, and I’ve had more negative effects. One morning I accidentally drank green tea instead of herbal, and had a pretty impressive hurl shortly after. Yesterday I woke up with a pounding headache. Plus (tmi alert) there’s been lots of toilet time. But today, four days in, I’m feeling pretty damn good.  (This is how the detox went down last time.)

*what’s the point – I just made that one up, but you can use it if you want

On the weekend I went to the velodrome with some friends for a beginner session and rode track for the first time. Before we got into it I was pretty nervous. The idea of doing something completely new, in front of other people, made me feel a bit edgy, especially with the added fear of injury – either physical or in the dignity.

Luckily, we had a teacher who knows his stuff and I managed to stay upright the whole time. We all did good and best of all, it was fun and not stressful.

As I was riding home later I was thinking about how awesome it is to learn a new skill. In three hours I had gone from a complete fixed gear novice, to wobbling around the training zone, to pacing with other riders around the track, to being in a fake race. I can’t remember the last time I’d learned a completely new physical skill like that. It’s a great feeling.

When was the last time you mastered a new skill?