Earlier today I found myself in one of those situations where you look around and actually enjoy the present moment. You know, really soak it in. I had spent the morning in the library studying, and decided to get lunch before heading to the gym. I don’t like eating alone. I don’t like watching others eat alone either, it just makes me really sad. I justified my eating alone with the fact that I had tons of papers I could read to further study for my midterm this Wednesday. If I have reading, then sitting alone doesn’t feel so lonely. I went to Le Pain on 84th and Madison. They are across the street from my gym, support sustainable farming, and their food is awesome. I had my small painful moment where I confirmed with the man seating me “yes, just me, just one”, and he placed me at the large community table. For those who haven’t been to a Le Pain Quotidien, they are French in style and food and while there are many small tables for individual parties, there is also the giant communal table where people from different groups all sit together. Since it was a packed Saturday, I definitely wasn’t going to get my own table, but I was OK with that. They squeezed my one chair into a place at the big table. Even though I was there alone, I was surrounded by at least 15 other people. We shared the jams and jellies for our bread, and menus that were in the center of the large wooden table.
To my right was an older couple, seemingly grumpy. When the woman sat next to me, she tapped my shoulder and said “could you move over at least a little?” (I hadn’t even seen her yet, of course I would move! Gese!) Across the table and staring back at me, a French woman with a thick accent and her (I would guess) 11 year old daughter, who clearly spoke all the English in the family. To my left, a sweet older couple, the woman in a gorgeous Burberry wrap, the husband in a baseball cap. And across from the sweet couple, (next to the French woman) were the sweet couples friends, two men, who were partners. I sat there with my orange juice, whole wheat bread, and apricot jam; reading my notes on how the industrial revolution changed public health and brought about two cholera epidemics in NYC. Every few seconds I would look up at the people to my left and observe how much fun they were having with one another. Finally, the sweet woman next to me says “what are you studying?” I replied “history of public health principles….for my midterm…(smile).” “Oh that’s wonderful, where do you go?” “NYU”. Then she smiles at me and says “you are a very sweet, and pretty girl, I wish my son was here!” The couple across from us starts laughing and I laughed too. We went about our meals for a few seconds, but they were talking about museums in the city, and I really wanted people to talk to. I looked up and made eye contact with one of the men across the table, and he included me in the conversation. Jackpot. I am making friends at this lunch and I am not eating alone. “What do you think about the Guggenheim?” he asks me. “Well, actually I’ve never been! I just walk past it all the time! I always return to the museum of natural history and the Met”. “Oh, we just came from the Met!” both men said at the same time, and now we are all smiling and talking about how awesome the Met is. The French woman keeps shooting us over some looks; I think she was taken back at how I jumped into these peoples lunch. It wasn’t until one of the men kept pronouncing tabouli wrong that she jumped in and with her perfect French accent and said “ It’s tabouli!”
“Oh! You’re French! Here, how do you say this?” (I was cracking up, they were asking her how to pronounce the name of the restaurant, which, after 8 years of eating here I can’t pronounce either). Now the French woman was in on our lunch, and explaining to us not only the name of the restaurant but how it means “breaking bread” sorta. A way of saying daily bread, or to break bread together, which makes sense considering the restaurant has the communal table. “Eh, eh, how do you say?” and her daughter looks up from her plate and says in a perfect Manhattan accent: “pastry”. “Eh yes! Pastry!”
She continues now to talk about how this restaurant reminds her of home, except in France they spend more time having wine and cheese at the communal table then they do tabouli and lentil salads. “They don’t have wine here” she says, and then out of nowhere, grumpy woman to my right chimes in with the menu in her hand “Oh no, they do! They do have wine here!” I look at her and smile, and agree that wine and cheese is my absolute favorite. “Oh yea, definitely!” The two men say, again, at the same time. Now we are all eating together. “So are you from New York?” The sweet mom asks me. We small talked for a bit, I explained where I was from and what I was doing, and she told me how she has two sons, one is earning his masters degree right now in Scotland, in English Literature. The couple, who her husband and she were lunching with this day, were friends of theirs. All four of them are vegans. I explained that I would be a vegan, if I didn’t love cheese so much. The French woman told me to start buying Brie cheese from France only, because it is substantially better. Noted.
I ate a steel cut oatmeal with banana, maple syrup, and pecans. They all ordered giant salads and platters of lentils, hummus, mini sandwiches and soups. Everything looked and tasted great. I put my notes to the side, and spent the meal chatting with everyone about wine, cheese, museums, and the quality of the food here at the restaurant. I didn’t eat alone. When I got my bill, I stood up and told everyone it was lovely to meet them, and 8 voices replied back “oh it was nice to meet you! Have a nice day!” The sweet mother who was to my left said “Oh I hope I run into you again here”, (still disappointed she couldn’t be a matchmaker this day). It was a great lunch, and I had a moment where I was thinking how happy I am that I like to talk to people. Lunch could have been lonely, but it wasn’t because I took advantage of the communal table. Way to go Le Pain. Breaking bread with people and enjoying company around good food and wine really is what it’s all about.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
I should warn you, I will be blunt here
If you haven’t already seen the movie Food Inc, I beg of you to Netflix immediately. This film, although rather young, is considered a classic and should be watched by anyone who well, eats. The film discusses slaughterhouses, environmental issues caused by our food systems, food contamination/safety, the mistreatment of immigrant workers, expensive healthy food, and the absolutely mind boggling story that is the history of Monsanto. It is so much more than a few hours of cow killing footage to scare you into never eating meat again. It is smart, well written, and encourages consumers to be knowledgeable on what they are eating, and to be aware of just how powerful their purchases are. I push this movie onto anyone who will listen, because I believe in its message so strongly.
As an already current vegetarian, I don’t need to see cows being slaughtered to convince me of my dietary choice. However, my reason for being a vegetarian is not because I think humans are not meant to consume meat. It is, as the film will show you the American system of producing beef, poultry and fish that keeps my plate looking the way it is: meatless. Author Michael Pollan is a commentator in the film and brings to our attention how we walk through the aisles of the grocery store seeing pictures of farmers, pastures, and 1930’s barns on our food packaging. But this advertisement is just that, an advertisement. Because our meat and dairy is not coming from a farm anymore, it is coming from a factory. In fact, it is coming from about 13 factories. Yep. In our whole nation, we only have 13 slaughterhouses now providing us our meat. Billions of pounds coming out of 13 doors, picture it. There is no man with a straw hat calling cows in from a day in the grass. Four companies control over 80% of the market. And with science and technology, factory farms are now mass producing our food even if it means cutting back in other areas such as safety and quality. Here is a scary part of the movie summed up for you: when E. Coli broke out in our meat, and people started dying, rather than improve our quality assurance (E.Coli spreads between cows mostly through feces, which since the cows are kept so close to one another in unsanitary conditions, is an easy situation to arise), food science gave us meat “fillers” with ammonia in them. Meat fillers would be combined with our ground beef, the ammonia would kill any e.coli, and now we don’t have to worry about the bacteria anymore. We can keep the cows standing in their own fecal matter, and voila, we even have a new product to bring in revenue.
I am a firm believer in”you are what you eat”. If you eat a depressed cow, you are eating depressed beef, and therefore will not feel as wonderful as someone who is eating a happy bird, or better yet a plate of organic leafy greens that the sun fed. My first thought while watching the film is “why so greedy? Why can’t we just have more small individual farms, more grass grazing animals, and less of a psycho production goal?” It is a reminder that business and food are two separate teams, and nowhere in the rule book under profits does it say “just make sure to not make too much; it is unhealthy, glutinous, not sustainable and morally wrong”.
You will also learn about some of these factories recruiting workers in Mexico, and bringing them into our country, illegally. Here in the states, immigrant workers take these jobs at below minimum wage, in unsafe and unsanitary conditions. To avoid a police raid, bad press, and the chance of outsiders seeing the inside; factory bosses submit small lists to the police on a routine basis, and workers are arrested in their homes and deported back to their country. Workers are easily replaced since they are on assembly lines and not given more than one simple responsibility to do over and over again. In exchange for these arrests, the police look the other way and never raid a factory, where we can imagine they are well aware of the illegal working situation that is present. The food companies know well who they are hiring; they put a huge effort into recruiting these workers themselves. While watching this portion of the film, one cannot help but think it seems as if our American dream is built on the sacrifice of others.
Author Marion Nestle (professor at NYU, author of Food Politics, Safe Food, and What to Eat) writes about just how political our food system is, and Food Inc touches on this as well. We learn of Montsanto (the seed company which owns 90% of our nations soy beans) VIP’s moving on in their career to occupy positions in the FDA (Food and Drug Administration responsible for many policies, and plays a large role in food safety), and becoming Supreme Court judges. The exchange in positions may be considered a conflict of interest to you, and it should be. I wonder how this hasn’t been figured out sooner. We rely on our FDA and USDA to protect us, but we have no idea who the faces of these organizations are. If the people who are hired to protect us have roots with the companies who have capitalized our food system, how honest are our policies? We may live in a seemingly democratic country, but we do not have a democratic food system.
The main message is that there is a huge effort in keeping consumer information low, and profits high in the food business. As Eric Schlosser (author of Fast Food Nation) says “they know that if you knew, you might not want to buy it”. It is all about the sale. Quite honestly, our food system is frightening, and everyone needs to know about it. We have a small number of people controlling a gigantic industry, and we aren’t talking about companies who produce toy sail boats for kids; we are talking about our food. This is what we eat; this affects our life span, our health, and therefore our medical bills and healthcare needs. So it is financial. This system affects our soil, our one planet earth with our always growing human population. So it is environmental. And the system we have now is not sustainable. This should be priority, and yet the power is shifted so strikingly to one side. Ultimately, it will fail. It may not be in my lifetime, but we know it will fail.
What I love about the film is that it does not leave us with the tragic conclusion I just drew upon, America as a developing country low on nature made food and water. Instead, just like a new business draws a business plan with proof of success in other markets, our cast reminds us to look at tobacco and how a once ruling product was eventually dethroned. We cannot sit at the dinner table with our children knowing that they are eating food products rather than simply food, or worse, meat fillers. We vote with each purchase in the food store, and we haven’t lost the war yet. Be knowledgeable about where your food comes from, and your business will eventually make change happen.
Below is the trailer for food inc, so you can get a feel for it and be motivated enough (if my writing didn’t do it for you today) to go out and rent it. Also, I highly recommend all the books mentioned in this blog, as the authors mentioned are all insanely intelligent people in the food world, and certainly the kind of people I aspire to be like one day. They are my heroes.
As an already current vegetarian, I don’t need to see cows being slaughtered to convince me of my dietary choice. However, my reason for being a vegetarian is not because I think humans are not meant to consume meat. It is, as the film will show you the American system of producing beef, poultry and fish that keeps my plate looking the way it is: meatless. Author Michael Pollan is a commentator in the film and brings to our attention how we walk through the aisles of the grocery store seeing pictures of farmers, pastures, and 1930’s barns on our food packaging. But this advertisement is just that, an advertisement. Because our meat and dairy is not coming from a farm anymore, it is coming from a factory. In fact, it is coming from about 13 factories. Yep. In our whole nation, we only have 13 slaughterhouses now providing us our meat. Billions of pounds coming out of 13 doors, picture it. There is no man with a straw hat calling cows in from a day in the grass. Four companies control over 80% of the market. And with science and technology, factory farms are now mass producing our food even if it means cutting back in other areas such as safety and quality. Here is a scary part of the movie summed up for you: when E. Coli broke out in our meat, and people started dying, rather than improve our quality assurance (E.Coli spreads between cows mostly through feces, which since the cows are kept so close to one another in unsanitary conditions, is an easy situation to arise), food science gave us meat “fillers” with ammonia in them. Meat fillers would be combined with our ground beef, the ammonia would kill any e.coli, and now we don’t have to worry about the bacteria anymore. We can keep the cows standing in their own fecal matter, and voila, we even have a new product to bring in revenue.
I am a firm believer in”you are what you eat”. If you eat a depressed cow, you are eating depressed beef, and therefore will not feel as wonderful as someone who is eating a happy bird, or better yet a plate of organic leafy greens that the sun fed. My first thought while watching the film is “why so greedy? Why can’t we just have more small individual farms, more grass grazing animals, and less of a psycho production goal?” It is a reminder that business and food are two separate teams, and nowhere in the rule book under profits does it say “just make sure to not make too much; it is unhealthy, glutinous, not sustainable and morally wrong”.
You will also learn about some of these factories recruiting workers in Mexico, and bringing them into our country, illegally. Here in the states, immigrant workers take these jobs at below minimum wage, in unsafe and unsanitary conditions. To avoid a police raid, bad press, and the chance of outsiders seeing the inside; factory bosses submit small lists to the police on a routine basis, and workers are arrested in their homes and deported back to their country. Workers are easily replaced since they are on assembly lines and not given more than one simple responsibility to do over and over again. In exchange for these arrests, the police look the other way and never raid a factory, where we can imagine they are well aware of the illegal working situation that is present. The food companies know well who they are hiring; they put a huge effort into recruiting these workers themselves. While watching this portion of the film, one cannot help but think it seems as if our American dream is built on the sacrifice of others.
Author Marion Nestle (professor at NYU, author of Food Politics, Safe Food, and What to Eat) writes about just how political our food system is, and Food Inc touches on this as well. We learn of Montsanto (the seed company which owns 90% of our nations soy beans) VIP’s moving on in their career to occupy positions in the FDA (Food and Drug Administration responsible for many policies, and plays a large role in food safety), and becoming Supreme Court judges. The exchange in positions may be considered a conflict of interest to you, and it should be. I wonder how this hasn’t been figured out sooner. We rely on our FDA and USDA to protect us, but we have no idea who the faces of these organizations are. If the people who are hired to protect us have roots with the companies who have capitalized our food system, how honest are our policies? We may live in a seemingly democratic country, but we do not have a democratic food system.
The main message is that there is a huge effort in keeping consumer information low, and profits high in the food business. As Eric Schlosser (author of Fast Food Nation) says “they know that if you knew, you might not want to buy it”. It is all about the sale. Quite honestly, our food system is frightening, and everyone needs to know about it. We have a small number of people controlling a gigantic industry, and we aren’t talking about companies who produce toy sail boats for kids; we are talking about our food. This is what we eat; this affects our life span, our health, and therefore our medical bills and healthcare needs. So it is financial. This system affects our soil, our one planet earth with our always growing human population. So it is environmental. And the system we have now is not sustainable. This should be priority, and yet the power is shifted so strikingly to one side. Ultimately, it will fail. It may not be in my lifetime, but we know it will fail.
What I love about the film is that it does not leave us with the tragic conclusion I just drew upon, America as a developing country low on nature made food and water. Instead, just like a new business draws a business plan with proof of success in other markets, our cast reminds us to look at tobacco and how a once ruling product was eventually dethroned. We cannot sit at the dinner table with our children knowing that they are eating food products rather than simply food, or worse, meat fillers. We vote with each purchase in the food store, and we haven’t lost the war yet. Be knowledgeable about where your food comes from, and your business will eventually make change happen.
Below is the trailer for food inc, so you can get a feel for it and be motivated enough (if my writing didn’t do it for you today) to go out and rent it. Also, I highly recommend all the books mentioned in this blog, as the authors mentioned are all insanely intelligent people in the food world, and certainly the kind of people I aspire to be like one day. They are my heroes.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
daily inspiration
This little piggie has had a difficult time writing this week, and I apologize for October being empty until now. I am working on it, and will have a new article for you to read very soon, quite possibly before the long weekend is over (I do have Monday AND Tuesday off and am oober excited about it).
In the meantime, I want to share a few things. I try (and very often succeed) to find inspiration in every day. Sometimes a certain song does it, so I play it over and over again on my Ipod. Other times it can be a meal, or going to a certain part of the city. Watching shows on countries I plan to travel to inspires me. Looking at images of rainforests, or exotic animals remind me how absolutely amazing our earth is. Very often a dance class is what does it for me. Today, this 14 year old girl inspired me. Not only did her voice give me goosebumps, it was her delivery of the lyrics that made me feel something. Talent is a beautiful thing. I want to share it with you! Secondly, I am happy to report that I am officially caffeine free in the body and actually feeling "normal". I did it. Weeks of headaches and sleepiness, but I did it! I've proven that if you want something bad enough, you can do it.
Jessica: 1 Coffee: 0 Enjoy the holiday weekend everyone, enjoy the video and in honor of Steve Jobs, the quotes.
"because the people who think they are crazy enough to change the world, are the ones who do"
"the only way to do great work, is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on"
"have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you want to become"
~~steve jobs.
In the meantime, I want to share a few things. I try (and very often succeed) to find inspiration in every day. Sometimes a certain song does it, so I play it over and over again on my Ipod. Other times it can be a meal, or going to a certain part of the city. Watching shows on countries I plan to travel to inspires me. Looking at images of rainforests, or exotic animals remind me how absolutely amazing our earth is. Very often a dance class is what does it for me. Today, this 14 year old girl inspired me. Not only did her voice give me goosebumps, it was her delivery of the lyrics that made me feel something. Talent is a beautiful thing. I want to share it with you! Secondly, I am happy to report that I am officially caffeine free in the body and actually feeling "normal". I did it. Weeks of headaches and sleepiness, but I did it! I've proven that if you want something bad enough, you can do it.
Jessica: 1 Coffee: 0 Enjoy the holiday weekend everyone, enjoy the video and in honor of Steve Jobs, the quotes.
"because the people who think they are crazy enough to change the world, are the ones who do"
"the only way to do great work, is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on"
"have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you want to become"
~~steve jobs.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
flaxseed fever
I’ve got the fever. The flaxseed fever that is. Some of you may know what flaxseed is, and I am sure many have heard of it, but do not know what it is exactly. Allow me to take one more product off your “what the heck am I supposed to do with this” list. Flaxseed comes from flax, which simply put, is a plant; a plant with stems, flowers, and seeds. You can purchase flaxseed whole ground (Bobs Red Mill is my brand of choice for their organic promise). Flaxseed is also gluten free, although it is best to always purchase a brand that certifies this to avoid possible cross contamination. Bobs Red Mill uses an acronym on the side of their bag to highlight the benefits of flaxseed. They are as follows: F (fiber), L (lignans), A (alpha linolenic acid), X (“excellent choice”). I will take you through this.
Flaxseed contains 4 grams of fiber in 2 tablespoons. I love diets rich in fiber because it promotes good cholesterol, lowers blood pressure, aids in satiety, and keeps you regular. Staying regular is important to note, since diets high in fiber have also been linked to a decrease in chances of colon cancer. This makes sense. Regularity keeps your colon clean and leads to less food rotting in your intestinal tract. This creates quite a mental image I am sure, but I am trying to make a point.
Lignans are antioxidants. Antioxidants are our body’s soldiers in the fight against disease. They fight free radicals by putting themselves on the front line, and oxidizing themselves before the oxidation can occur on your cell. Oxidation occurs naturally on our cells and plays a role in our aging, but diets high in antioxidants delay this process. Also, free radicals cause cancer, so picture antioxidants keeping the disaster at bay. Fruits and vegetables are high in antioxidants, which is just another important reason to consume as much of them as possible. But not everyone eats as many fruits and vegetables as they should, so now you have another food to turn to. Also, according to BobsRedMill.com, while many plant foods have naturally occurring lignans, flaxseed has 75 times more than any other plant food. The amount of lignans found in 2 tablespoons of flaxseed, is equivalent to eating 30 cups of broccoli. (Don’t be so hard on broccoli though, we need him too).
Alpha Linolenic Acid is the plant form of omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 is another nutrient that pops up all the time in literature, infomercials, and your google searches for how to eat better. To break it down, it is a fatty acid named after its chemical structure (omega-3 just means that the first double bond occurs on the third carbon, counting from the methyl end of the fatty acid chain). You do not need to know that to understand that omega-3 is good for you, but now if someone in a room says "why the heck is it called omega-3 anyway?"--you can answer them and look like a nutrition guru. This is the kind of fat we want in our bodies. They are essential fatty acids, meaning our body does not make them on their own, therefore the only way to receive omega 3 is through our diet. The oil in flaxseed is about 50% ALA. ALA is also found in canola oil, and walnuts. Other forms of omega-3 are found in fish and fish oils. One serving of flaxseed contains 2,400mg of omega-3.
Since the benefits are crystal clear, now you can start sprinkling this nutrient packed food into your meals. I most commonly toss it in my homemade yogurt parfaits in the morning. I spoon stoneyfield vanilla yogurt into a bowl with Kashi Go Lean Crunch cereal, raspberries, blueberries, and 2 tablesoons of flaxseed. This is a powerful breakfast. You can also toss it in with your cold cereal, blend it in with smoothies, sprinkle onto salads, or incorporate it into any breadcrumb mixture. Although I haven’t done this yet, the next time I make banana pancakes, I will definitely be sprinkling flaxseed into the batter. So yes, flaxseed is an excellent choice.
Flaxseeds produce a vegetable oil, referred to as flaxseed or linseed oil, and you will see this product in your market as well. Flaxseed goes rancid, and without temperature control this can happen pretty quickly, so it is best to just Ziploc it and throw it in the fridge. I hope to have passed the fever onto you by now. When learning of a food so powerful in such a small amount, it is impossible to not encourage consumption. ;)
Flaxseed contains 4 grams of fiber in 2 tablespoons. I love diets rich in fiber because it promotes good cholesterol, lowers blood pressure, aids in satiety, and keeps you regular. Staying regular is important to note, since diets high in fiber have also been linked to a decrease in chances of colon cancer. This makes sense. Regularity keeps your colon clean and leads to less food rotting in your intestinal tract. This creates quite a mental image I am sure, but I am trying to make a point.
Lignans are antioxidants. Antioxidants are our body’s soldiers in the fight against disease. They fight free radicals by putting themselves on the front line, and oxidizing themselves before the oxidation can occur on your cell. Oxidation occurs naturally on our cells and plays a role in our aging, but diets high in antioxidants delay this process. Also, free radicals cause cancer, so picture antioxidants keeping the disaster at bay. Fruits and vegetables are high in antioxidants, which is just another important reason to consume as much of them as possible. But not everyone eats as many fruits and vegetables as they should, so now you have another food to turn to. Also, according to BobsRedMill.com, while many plant foods have naturally occurring lignans, flaxseed has 75 times more than any other plant food. The amount of lignans found in 2 tablespoons of flaxseed, is equivalent to eating 30 cups of broccoli. (Don’t be so hard on broccoli though, we need him too).
Alpha Linolenic Acid is the plant form of omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 is another nutrient that pops up all the time in literature, infomercials, and your google searches for how to eat better. To break it down, it is a fatty acid named after its chemical structure (omega-3 just means that the first double bond occurs on the third carbon, counting from the methyl end of the fatty acid chain). You do not need to know that to understand that omega-3 is good for you, but now if someone in a room says "why the heck is it called omega-3 anyway?"--you can answer them and look like a nutrition guru. This is the kind of fat we want in our bodies. They are essential fatty acids, meaning our body does not make them on their own, therefore the only way to receive omega 3 is through our diet. The oil in flaxseed is about 50% ALA. ALA is also found in canola oil, and walnuts. Other forms of omega-3 are found in fish and fish oils. One serving of flaxseed contains 2,400mg of omega-3.
Since the benefits are crystal clear, now you can start sprinkling this nutrient packed food into your meals. I most commonly toss it in my homemade yogurt parfaits in the morning. I spoon stoneyfield vanilla yogurt into a bowl with Kashi Go Lean Crunch cereal, raspberries, blueberries, and 2 tablesoons of flaxseed. This is a powerful breakfast. You can also toss it in with your cold cereal, blend it in with smoothies, sprinkle onto salads, or incorporate it into any breadcrumb mixture. Although I haven’t done this yet, the next time I make banana pancakes, I will definitely be sprinkling flaxseed into the batter. So yes, flaxseed is an excellent choice.
Flaxseeds produce a vegetable oil, referred to as flaxseed or linseed oil, and you will see this product in your market as well. Flaxseed goes rancid, and without temperature control this can happen pretty quickly, so it is best to just Ziploc it and throw it in the fridge. I hope to have passed the fever onto you by now. When learning of a food so powerful in such a small amount, it is impossible to not encourage consumption. ;)
Sunday, September 18, 2011
what to eat (and what not to drink) to sleep better
Nine days ago I started shrinking the size of my coffee cups. After downsizing to a small cup, and going “half and half” on the caffeine/decaf, I finally made it to day one of “tea only” this past Friday. This puts me at four days coffee free today. Yes, tea does have caffeine in it, but green tea has less than coffee (black tea has more caffeine than coffee). I am drinking orange blossom green tea in the morning and chamomile at night. In August I started a new goal of having one cup of tea a day, so giving up coffee has given me a boost in achieving this by opening the slots to be filled with a new beverage.
I have noticed many changes this week in myself physically, and mentally. I suppose I can start by discussing how over the last two years I had been dealing with physical stressors on my body, one example being chest pains. After two visits to the doctor and an echocardiogram last fall it was decided the chest pains were from stress, but these pains came and went for almost two years, sometimes lasting for hours. Yes, they did appear more frequently during times of stress, but sometimes they would appear without any trigger reason to explain it.
I had also experienced waves of sleeping really well, and waves of not sleeping at all. I exercise frequently; take warm showers before bed and more recently have turned off all electronic devices one hour before bed time to decrease stimulation. This summer however, I am sure I was passing out from exhaustion, but not truly sleeping. I would pass out easily before 11pm, wake up around 1 or 2 am and struggle falling back asleep for hours. As if chest pains and insomnia weren’t enough, I experienced feeling tense. This feeling was something I didn’t even realize I had so badly until it went away. With each passing day that I walked further away from multiple cups of coffee, I began feeling lighter. It is difficult to explain, but what I think started happening was the tension, jitter feeling, and anxiety that caffeine has been known to cause was starting to leave my system. Even though I have felt small moments of stress this week, I don’t physically feel the same level of tightness in my chest and arms that I had come to accept as “stress”.
I believe the combination of actual stress and caffeine created tension, and anxiety had created for me a supernova of physical symptoms. Caffeine can stay in the blood system for up to 8 hours. This means afternoon coffee before class at 4 pm (which I did all the time), could keep me wired well until midnight. When I wake up in the morning the first thing I put in my body? A cup of coffee. I had realized during this week that I was probably spending over 20 hours a day with caffeine in my system on some level. Over a period of months and years, this can lead to not only the addiction I had, but absolutely can explain chest pains, jitter, tension, anxiety, and trouble sleeping. Holy ****, how can I stick up for a coffee addiction now? Look at that powerhouse list of awful symptoms I just wrote out. Since slowly decreasing my intake, I have been falling asleep much easier. But it is not just the falling asleep that matters, since I have been able to fall asleep in the past. It is the fact that I have not woken up in the middle of the night that resonates the most with me.
I jokingly tell others that the only way to explain the release of tension in my chest and arms, combined with the drowsy feeling I am still experiencing, is to say I feel sedated. Last night I compared myself to a Koala bear, which is known to lie in the trees gnawing on eucalyptus, which has a chemical component in the leaves that make the bears drowsy. Despite my comparison to a bear that appears stoned all day long, I still feel a massive improvement in my body and mind in only 9 short days of beginning this dietary change. I am sleeping through the night, feel calmer, and even notice myself clenching less. Actually, I haven’t clenched any muscles or my jaw at all this week. My goodness, all this time I was either accepting these things as stress, or not even noticing they were happening until they went away.
If you are having trouble sleeping, but are not addicted to caffeine as a possible reason for it, I have dietary suggestions for you as well. Tryptophan is an amino acid found in eggs, cheese, and turkey which causes a feeling of sleepiness. Foods with tryptophan combined with a carbohydrate make for the best evening meals or snacks to assist the body in winding down for bed. Turns out, “breakfast for dinner” can be acceptable here. Try scrambled eggs for dinner with one slice of whole wheat toast, or snacks such as a low fat cheese stick with cherry tomatoes and whole wheat crackers, or a few slices of turkey (for the meat eaters) on a rice cake. Walnuts also aid in sleep (and you only need 4 to reap this benefit, which is good considering walnuts are a high calorie food). You can also try sprinkling four walnuts into a low fat yogurt cup as a bedtime snack. Before I would ever recommend a sleep aid or medication to anyone, I would suggest all of the above. You may find a few eggs before bed does the trick, or you may (like me) realize giving up a food or beverage made a difference in how you feel. Nutrition is the front line in how our bodies function, and we should be adjusting here before giving up hope that we will never sleep or feel well.
(I think I will be switching to decaf from now on when I miss the taste of coffee, but I am not thinking too far ahead. For now, I am enjoying the feeling of it leaving my system, and the chance to start fresh).
I have noticed many changes this week in myself physically, and mentally. I suppose I can start by discussing how over the last two years I had been dealing with physical stressors on my body, one example being chest pains. After two visits to the doctor and an echocardiogram last fall it was decided the chest pains were from stress, but these pains came and went for almost two years, sometimes lasting for hours. Yes, they did appear more frequently during times of stress, but sometimes they would appear without any trigger reason to explain it.
I had also experienced waves of sleeping really well, and waves of not sleeping at all. I exercise frequently; take warm showers before bed and more recently have turned off all electronic devices one hour before bed time to decrease stimulation. This summer however, I am sure I was passing out from exhaustion, but not truly sleeping. I would pass out easily before 11pm, wake up around 1 or 2 am and struggle falling back asleep for hours. As if chest pains and insomnia weren’t enough, I experienced feeling tense. This feeling was something I didn’t even realize I had so badly until it went away. With each passing day that I walked further away from multiple cups of coffee, I began feeling lighter. It is difficult to explain, but what I think started happening was the tension, jitter feeling, and anxiety that caffeine has been known to cause was starting to leave my system. Even though I have felt small moments of stress this week, I don’t physically feel the same level of tightness in my chest and arms that I had come to accept as “stress”.
I believe the combination of actual stress and caffeine created tension, and anxiety had created for me a supernova of physical symptoms. Caffeine can stay in the blood system for up to 8 hours. This means afternoon coffee before class at 4 pm (which I did all the time), could keep me wired well until midnight. When I wake up in the morning the first thing I put in my body? A cup of coffee. I had realized during this week that I was probably spending over 20 hours a day with caffeine in my system on some level. Over a period of months and years, this can lead to not only the addiction I had, but absolutely can explain chest pains, jitter, tension, anxiety, and trouble sleeping. Holy ****, how can I stick up for a coffee addiction now? Look at that powerhouse list of awful symptoms I just wrote out. Since slowly decreasing my intake, I have been falling asleep much easier. But it is not just the falling asleep that matters, since I have been able to fall asleep in the past. It is the fact that I have not woken up in the middle of the night that resonates the most with me.
I jokingly tell others that the only way to explain the release of tension in my chest and arms, combined with the drowsy feeling I am still experiencing, is to say I feel sedated. Last night I compared myself to a Koala bear, which is known to lie in the trees gnawing on eucalyptus, which has a chemical component in the leaves that make the bears drowsy. Despite my comparison to a bear that appears stoned all day long, I still feel a massive improvement in my body and mind in only 9 short days of beginning this dietary change. I am sleeping through the night, feel calmer, and even notice myself clenching less. Actually, I haven’t clenched any muscles or my jaw at all this week. My goodness, all this time I was either accepting these things as stress, or not even noticing they were happening until they went away.
If you are having trouble sleeping, but are not addicted to caffeine as a possible reason for it, I have dietary suggestions for you as well. Tryptophan is an amino acid found in eggs, cheese, and turkey which causes a feeling of sleepiness. Foods with tryptophan combined with a carbohydrate make for the best evening meals or snacks to assist the body in winding down for bed. Turns out, “breakfast for dinner” can be acceptable here. Try scrambled eggs for dinner with one slice of whole wheat toast, or snacks such as a low fat cheese stick with cherry tomatoes and whole wheat crackers, or a few slices of turkey (for the meat eaters) on a rice cake. Walnuts also aid in sleep (and you only need 4 to reap this benefit, which is good considering walnuts are a high calorie food). You can also try sprinkling four walnuts into a low fat yogurt cup as a bedtime snack. Before I would ever recommend a sleep aid or medication to anyone, I would suggest all of the above. You may find a few eggs before bed does the trick, or you may (like me) realize giving up a food or beverage made a difference in how you feel. Nutrition is the front line in how our bodies function, and we should be adjusting here before giving up hope that we will never sleep or feel well.
(I think I will be switching to decaf from now on when I miss the taste of coffee, but I am not thinking too far ahead. For now, I am enjoying the feeling of it leaving my system, and the chance to start fresh).
Sunday, September 11, 2011
the road to herbal teas
So the ayurveda detox has been postponed one week. This being for two reasons: After glancing at my calendar I realized this upcoming week is, ahem, my week. And I would like one reason to feel fatigued and irritable at any given time, not two. More importantly, since I decided to do this so last minute I didn’t have enough time to wean off of coffee. I have learned in the past that going cold turkey on caffeine is probably one of the most torturing things I could do to myself. I want to enjoy the detox, not set myself up for failure; so I think if I have an extra week to slowly decrease my intake I could be more successful. This leads us to this morning. Sunday morning and I am up bright and early at wholefoods. I love the coffee there so I get on line at the bakery section. I look up at the chalkboard menu: (inner monologue) “lets see…what sizes do they have…20oz…16oz….12oz. I usually get 16 so today I guess I should get the 12”.
Wholefoods Man: “Next! Yes miss what can I get for you?”
Me: (All smiles) “Hi! Can you just hold up the 12oz cup I want to see how big it is”
Man: (holds up cup, smiles)
Me: (raises one eyebrow). Now I’m pissed. And so it begins. I can’t believe what a little monster I turn into when I try to cut back on this stuff. “Ok, thanks. Yea I’ll just have that size coffee with room for milk please”. (Why cruel world!? Why!?)
I understand that for someone who blogs on health I may be coming off as a complete lunatic right now. It is not healthy to have a caffeine addiction. Mine started innocently enough when my first job in the city required me to show up at 5:15am every day. I remember saying to a co worker, “how am I going to do that?” My manager overheard me and replied “with a lot of coffee.” I should send her the bill one day I suppose. But truth be told, not only am I addicted to coffee; I actually enjoy the taste. I really like it. Ideally, I would drink it every other day and not “require” it to feel OK. Now when I skip, I get headaches and feel fuzzy. It is difficult for me to concentrate and then I become really…really…cranky. I’ve tried a few times to quit or cut back. The first time was in 2007 when I was working in a pre sale office right before opening a new gym. I remember my boss looking at me and saying (in a way that made me laugh) “what did I tell you!? No new habits, no new boyfriends, no quitting anything! Everything stays the same until this gym is open!” There I was in the middle of the work day barely able to make phone calls and my boss is pacing around: “someone get her a coffee! I can’t do this!” As if the stress of my healthy living attempt was going to just kill him. He bought my coffees for a few days until I snapped and went back. Coffee: 1, Jessica: 0.
So I had my 12oz this morning and enjoyed it with agave and soy milk as I browsed up and down the aisles food shopping. I picked up bell peppers for dinner, strawberries, wheat crackers, and veggie burgers. I spent the mid day baking chocolate beer cupcakes with a baileys butter cream frosting for my roommates birthday which is tomorrow. I sprinkled green sugar sprinkles on top of each frosted cupcake. He is Irish, he likes to drink, and he roots for Michigan State (green and white colors): these cupcakes are all him. And he deserves them for living with me, being so nice, and always snaking our shower drain.
(Patricks Birthday Cupcakes: Chocolate Beer Cupcakes with Baileys Buttercream Frosting for the big 2-6).
Throughout the day I thought everything was great, but now I am feeling that fuzzy feeling again. Although I managed pretty well today, I am sure that I need to have the 12oz again tomorrow. I plan on going from 12 to 8oz, to 4oz, and then the last 2 days to go to green tea before the detox starts and I am entirely off caffeine. This is definitely going to be a challenge for me, but I have to try.
Moral of this story? It wouldn’t be smart to dive into any diet change without properly assessing where you stand now. Sometimes we just need to take smaller steps to get to where we want to be, but no matter the size of the step, just keep walking in the right direction and you will eventually get there.
(with my little gem, she's having a great Saturday, talking vegetarianism with auntie jess).
Til next time my friends,
“the brave may not live forever, but the cautious do not live at all”
“no one can make you feel inferior, without your consent”
Wholefoods Man: “Next! Yes miss what can I get for you?”
Me: (All smiles) “Hi! Can you just hold up the 12oz cup I want to see how big it is”
Man: (holds up cup, smiles)
Me: (raises one eyebrow). Now I’m pissed. And so it begins. I can’t believe what a little monster I turn into when I try to cut back on this stuff. “Ok, thanks. Yea I’ll just have that size coffee with room for milk please”. (Why cruel world!? Why!?)
I understand that for someone who blogs on health I may be coming off as a complete lunatic right now. It is not healthy to have a caffeine addiction. Mine started innocently enough when my first job in the city required me to show up at 5:15am every day. I remember saying to a co worker, “how am I going to do that?” My manager overheard me and replied “with a lot of coffee.” I should send her the bill one day I suppose. But truth be told, not only am I addicted to coffee; I actually enjoy the taste. I really like it. Ideally, I would drink it every other day and not “require” it to feel OK. Now when I skip, I get headaches and feel fuzzy. It is difficult for me to concentrate and then I become really…really…cranky. I’ve tried a few times to quit or cut back. The first time was in 2007 when I was working in a pre sale office right before opening a new gym. I remember my boss looking at me and saying (in a way that made me laugh) “what did I tell you!? No new habits, no new boyfriends, no quitting anything! Everything stays the same until this gym is open!” There I was in the middle of the work day barely able to make phone calls and my boss is pacing around: “someone get her a coffee! I can’t do this!” As if the stress of my healthy living attempt was going to just kill him. He bought my coffees for a few days until I snapped and went back. Coffee: 1, Jessica: 0.
So I had my 12oz this morning and enjoyed it with agave and soy milk as I browsed up and down the aisles food shopping. I picked up bell peppers for dinner, strawberries, wheat crackers, and veggie burgers. I spent the mid day baking chocolate beer cupcakes with a baileys butter cream frosting for my roommates birthday which is tomorrow. I sprinkled green sugar sprinkles on top of each frosted cupcake. He is Irish, he likes to drink, and he roots for Michigan State (green and white colors): these cupcakes are all him. And he deserves them for living with me, being so nice, and always snaking our shower drain.
(Patricks Birthday Cupcakes: Chocolate Beer Cupcakes with Baileys Buttercream Frosting for the big 2-6).
Throughout the day I thought everything was great, but now I am feeling that fuzzy feeling again. Although I managed pretty well today, I am sure that I need to have the 12oz again tomorrow. I plan on going from 12 to 8oz, to 4oz, and then the last 2 days to go to green tea before the detox starts and I am entirely off caffeine. This is definitely going to be a challenge for me, but I have to try.
Moral of this story? It wouldn’t be smart to dive into any diet change without properly assessing where you stand now. Sometimes we just need to take smaller steps to get to where we want to be, but no matter the size of the step, just keep walking in the right direction and you will eventually get there.
(with my little gem, she's having a great Saturday, talking vegetarianism with auntie jess).
Til next time my friends,
“the brave may not live forever, but the cautious do not live at all”
“no one can make you feel inferior, without your consent”
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
The Ayurveda Fall Detox
Last October I wrote some blogs on my experimental blue print juice cleanse. I never finished the project, partially because it didn’t turn out the way I expected, and partially because I believe I was traumatized from it and blocked out most of my memory from the three day nightmare. I was embarrassed to admit to my professors that I had voluntarily signed up for a three day cleanse that involved only drinking juices. As a graduate nutrition student, I should know better. I read the testimonials of others who had done it, and I searched the website for proof that this could detoxify me. I believed what I read and justified that if others were swearing they still had energy to work out while on the cleanse, than I would be fine. I understand there are people out there who have had positive experiences with not eating for a few days and “purifying” their systems through juice. Not only am I not one of those people; I comprehend how we digest our food and the importance of our digestive system and keeping it working. I do not recommend any sort of diet, or cleanse that tells you to stop eating. On my three day experiment I suffered headaches, nausea, weakness, irritability, and eventually threw up my first foods consumed when I broke the cleanse. Our gastro intestinal system is composed of muscles. Like any other muscle in the body they need to be used. When people go on lengthy (and I mean greater than my measly three days) cleanses, they weaken their G.I. system. Like a pair of legs that has been in a bed for weeks, it does not function the same. We need food to function, and what my body was experiencing was an extremely low caloric intake leading to low blood sugar levels, in combination with a halt on my caffeine intake (something my body was not prepared for, as my 72 hour migraine reminded me. That one is my fault. Coffee addict. Guilty).
Anyway. That was October 2010. Now we are approaching October 2011 and here I am again. Since I fall somewhere in between a holistic woman and a firm believer in everything western nutrition teaches us; I have been previously conflicted between “cleanse” and “just eat your 5 food groups”. As a curious one always searching for ways to improve my inner Chi, I am experimenting again. This time, I hope to be more successful. I am going to try an Ayurveda cleanse. Below is the background of Ayurveda, taken from Yoga Journal and written by Scott Blossom.
“Ayurveda, which translates as "knowledge of life," dates back 5,000 years to the ancient Sanskrit texts, the Vedas. It's a system of healing that examines physical constitution, emotional nature, and spiritual outlook in the context of the universe. According to the philosophy, universal life force manifests as three different energies, or doshas, known as vata, pitta, and kapha. We're all made up of a unique combination of these three forces. Though everyone has some of each, most people tend to have an abundance of one or two of the doshas. This unique combination is determined at the moment of conception, and is your own personal blueprint, or prakriti (nature). As you move through life, the proportion of each of the three doshas constantly fluctuates according to your environment, your diet, the seasons, the climate, your age, and many other factors. As they move into and out of balance, the doshas can affect your health, energy level, and general mood”
The reason why I was drawn to this fall detox was because it spoke of lifestyle goals that matched my own. The detox is combined with daily yoga classes, meditation twice a day, and recipes. I get to eat Kitchari which I will make for myself each day along with herbal teas, coriander chutney, and apples and avocados if I wish to snack more. Kitchari is the staple food and is meant to decrease internal toxicity, but I also feel that taking time to cleanse is so much more than just the food I will eat. Since I believe that health is mental, physical, and social: I also believe a cleanse should be mental, physical, and social. Food is powerful and I have no doubt that a combination of ingredients can purify our systems, but when do we detoxify our lives outside of food? When was the last time you sat down and thought about anything toxic you were keeping in your life, and then went through a painful week of ridding it? We don’t tend to do that, do we? It's not just food, it's feeling happy on the inside, and living in a way that inspires your own health all the way down to who you socialize with. I may not tell anyone to juice for a week, but the partially holistic woman in me does believe if I breathe better, digest better, and become more aware of choices I make other than the food I eat, that I can continue being the happy girl I am. I do believe that. So for me, while I cannot yet prove anything and do not know for sure if this cleanse will be successful; I am absolutely willing to try a week of particular ingredients, daily yoga, and a hell of a lot of time in silence. I also have been reading on certain poses to lie in for extended periods of time that is said to aid in digestion. I am intrigued. Who knows, if this works I may pull a Liz Gilbert and Eat Pray Love my way through being 26 years old.
(Kitchari dish with herbal tea and coriander chutney)
There are two great times to cleanse if you are interested and those two are the spring season and the fall. Spring tends to be more popular since we always come off winter feeling quite heavy and desperate to de puff before the beaches open. Fall though is a great time to prepare for the changes that will happen to our body in the winter, while also strengthening our immune system; since winter is a time many of us get sick. For this reason I am interested in the fall detox. I want to be ready in case another harsh winter hits nyc, and the stress of my final exams attempts a hit at my immune system. (Also, I may eat a lot more fruit in the summer time, but I also drink a lot more margaritas). Since the change in season always seems to begin new chapters, I am truly open to seeing how much I can let in right now. So I think based on what I just wrote, I am about to embark on a week of no red wine, cheese, or chocolate (my personal struggles).
And if it doesn’t work, well then I have only lost one week.
Love from my little heart
Anyway. That was October 2010. Now we are approaching October 2011 and here I am again. Since I fall somewhere in between a holistic woman and a firm believer in everything western nutrition teaches us; I have been previously conflicted between “cleanse” and “just eat your 5 food groups”. As a curious one always searching for ways to improve my inner Chi, I am experimenting again. This time, I hope to be more successful. I am going to try an Ayurveda cleanse. Below is the background of Ayurveda, taken from Yoga Journal and written by Scott Blossom.
“Ayurveda, which translates as "knowledge of life," dates back 5,000 years to the ancient Sanskrit texts, the Vedas. It's a system of healing that examines physical constitution, emotional nature, and spiritual outlook in the context of the universe. According to the philosophy, universal life force manifests as three different energies, or doshas, known as vata, pitta, and kapha. We're all made up of a unique combination of these three forces. Though everyone has some of each, most people tend to have an abundance of one or two of the doshas. This unique combination is determined at the moment of conception, and is your own personal blueprint, or prakriti (nature). As you move through life, the proportion of each of the three doshas constantly fluctuates according to your environment, your diet, the seasons, the climate, your age, and many other factors. As they move into and out of balance, the doshas can affect your health, energy level, and general mood”
The reason why I was drawn to this fall detox was because it spoke of lifestyle goals that matched my own. The detox is combined with daily yoga classes, meditation twice a day, and recipes. I get to eat Kitchari which I will make for myself each day along with herbal teas, coriander chutney, and apples and avocados if I wish to snack more. Kitchari is the staple food and is meant to decrease internal toxicity, but I also feel that taking time to cleanse is so much more than just the food I will eat. Since I believe that health is mental, physical, and social: I also believe a cleanse should be mental, physical, and social. Food is powerful and I have no doubt that a combination of ingredients can purify our systems, but when do we detoxify our lives outside of food? When was the last time you sat down and thought about anything toxic you were keeping in your life, and then went through a painful week of ridding it? We don’t tend to do that, do we? It's not just food, it's feeling happy on the inside, and living in a way that inspires your own health all the way down to who you socialize with. I may not tell anyone to juice for a week, but the partially holistic woman in me does believe if I breathe better, digest better, and become more aware of choices I make other than the food I eat, that I can continue being the happy girl I am. I do believe that. So for me, while I cannot yet prove anything and do not know for sure if this cleanse will be successful; I am absolutely willing to try a week of particular ingredients, daily yoga, and a hell of a lot of time in silence. I also have been reading on certain poses to lie in for extended periods of time that is said to aid in digestion. I am intrigued. Who knows, if this works I may pull a Liz Gilbert and Eat Pray Love my way through being 26 years old.
(Kitchari dish with herbal tea and coriander chutney)
There are two great times to cleanse if you are interested and those two are the spring season and the fall. Spring tends to be more popular since we always come off winter feeling quite heavy and desperate to de puff before the beaches open. Fall though is a great time to prepare for the changes that will happen to our body in the winter, while also strengthening our immune system; since winter is a time many of us get sick. For this reason I am interested in the fall detox. I want to be ready in case another harsh winter hits nyc, and the stress of my final exams attempts a hit at my immune system. (Also, I may eat a lot more fruit in the summer time, but I also drink a lot more margaritas). Since the change in season always seems to begin new chapters, I am truly open to seeing how much I can let in right now. So I think based on what I just wrote, I am about to embark on a week of no red wine, cheese, or chocolate (my personal struggles).
And if it doesn’t work, well then I have only lost one week.
Love from my little heart
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