Hi everyone. As many of you know I’m staying with my mom in New Jersey for 2 weeks as I’m moving apartments. And we’ve been going to the gym, the Whole Foods market and watching chick flicks like “Julie & Julia” (oh man that was a good movie!). I kind of feel like I’ve gone from “Sex and the City” to “The Golden Girls” because my mom lives in a retirement community (and boy is she quick with the comebacks like Sophia!). I could actually write an entire blog post about all of the hilarious retirement community antics and anecdotes. . .but let’s get back to the business of healing for a moment.

Yesterday when my mom woke up she was sick as a dog: sore throat, body aches, no energy, low-grade fever, the whole nine yards. Mom slept until 11am and when she woke up felt absolutely awful. It absolutely sucks to see one of your parents in that much pain.

You all know I am NOT the one to resort to using Robitussin or Tylenol or anything of that sort, and neither is my mom, so I asked her if she wanted some tea. When she said “yes,” I proceeded to make her my Get Well Tea over the course of the day. Here’s the recipe:

• Peel some raw ginger root and chop it up
• Boil it in filtered water to make a tea
• After 5-10 minutes strain and pour it into a big mug and add 1 tablespoon of organic extra virgin coconut oil
• Slice an organic lemon in half and squeeze half into the tea
• Add  up to 1 tablespoon of raw organic honey
• Stir well and enjoy

By the end of the day she was feeling 50% better, and by the next day 70% better. This miracle tea has worked very quickly for many of my clients, colleagues and friends who have felt a cold or flu coming on (especially those who are pregnant or nursing and are not allowed to take over-the-counter medications). What is it about the ingredients that bring on such a rapid healing?

Ginger boosts the immune system because it kills bad bacteria, fungi and yeast and promotes the growth of friendly bacteria like lactobacillus acidophilus. Coconut oil has anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. Freshly squeezed lemon juice supports the liver as it ridding the body of microorganisms. Raw honey has anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties. Put all of these together in a tea and you’ve got the perfect drink to help the body rid itself of invaders.

The only thing left to do to make sure the body is able to heal is to drink lots of water and strictly avoid any refined sugar, refined grain, or pasteurized dairy until you’re healthy. Sugar suppresses your immune system for 6 hours after eating it…that’s right so if you’re eating sugar, it’s going take a lot longer to get well. Also throw some raw garlic on your food because it is also very good at killing viruses, bacteria and fungi and helps support the liver as it rids the body of toxins and microorganisms.

Our bodies are brilliant and know how to heal themselves when we give them the right materials. Mom’s better now and we’ll be back to country line dancing at the community Clubhouse in no time. Hahaha…

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“Revolution is a lifestyle not a war.” –David Linhart

Happy New Year! Hope 2010 has gotten off to a healthy and joyous start for you. I went to a great New Year’s Eve party and so far 2010 is rockin’ for this single chic!

Anyway, this blog is not entirely about the resurgence of my social life. I want to say a few words about New Year’s Resolutions since that is the topic on everyone’s mind this time of the year. From the title of this article “The Revolution Against Resolutions” I know you’re thinking that I’m going to tell you to throw out your resolutions and just love yourself. That’s partially true, to be healthy you do need to love yourself first and foremost. Resolutions in and of themselves are not good or bad, it’s simply a matter of how we use them.

The typical resolutioneer will say, “I’m going to work out 5 times a week, and totally give up alcohol, sugar and bread for the whole year.” And then when she slips up once and gets re-addicted to these things, the ensuing shame is sometimes enough to make one throw out the whole program for a long time and get lost in a war of self-flagellation.

I really love the quote that starts this blog, “Revolution is a lifestyle not a war” because it’s true! Changing your life to be healthier on all levels is a committment to a lifestyle, not a short-term fix to blast your fat, shred your arms or exorcise your emotional demons. Look at the people that you admire, people who have demonstrated a high level of health and fitness and are also successful in other areas of their lives. It’s generally not because they beat themselves up or have to constantly fight their inner nature or the desires of others around them. These are people that are committed to excellence on many levels and see the integral role that good health and fitness plays in contributing to success in other areas. I’ve taken note of a few more important qualities of successful people that I admire, people who have no need for resolutions:

1. They are usually quiet and peaceful about their lifestyle changes. A person successfully executing a clean nutrition plan probably won’t tell you about it unless asked because she has no need to justify or get approval. When she has fallen off her plan, she chooses to make peace with the slip up and gently returns to the eating program that makes her feel healthy the next day. There is no self-criticism or treadmill penance.
2. There is always joy in the process of people who successfully get and stay healthy. If you hate spinning, you will not stay thin doing it for very long. Find an activity that you like or maybe even love. Or if you hate exercise find a trainer that you like or maybe even love (or workout buddies!). People who find health and fitness intrinsically rewarding look energetic and attract others to them in business, friendship and romance! People who go to the gym because they have an inner belief that they way they look is unacceptable to society look exhausted. This is a battle they never win because if one believes she is unacceptable, she will attract others who will confirm that belief.
3. People who maintain health and fitness all year long use positive thinking and affirmations to stay that way. If you are currrently saying negative things about yourself to get yourself to the gym, change them to positive statements. For example, change “I really got fat since Thanksgiving” to “I am getting healthier everyday” or “I am actively involved in becoming my best self” or “I am fit and strong, and lean!” If you are not used to doing this, at the beginning it will feel fake but over time you will start to believe these statements and see the results. That’s what affirmations are for, if we already believed it, we wouldn’t have to do an affirmation.
4. Successful people surround themselves with supportive friends and family. I’m pretty good at this one by now as I’ve been affirming for years that all of my relationships are loving and harmonious. Take a good look around you. Do you always feel bad after hanging out with certain people? This is powerful feedback. To stay in good health you must learn to either minimize or reframe your time with those individuals and emphasize your time in supportive work and social environments.

Resolutions are powerless without some intelligent action behind them. Here are my top six tips to make long term positive changes in your health and fitness:

1. Work out at least 3 times a week to see change. If you are beginning a fitness program, set aside at least 3 specific times that you will work out. If you only have 3 times a week to work out, weights or yoga class in combination with a clean diet will give you much more bang for your buck. Cardio is the gravy in addition to this. Two high-intensity 45 minute weight circuits and a solid one-hour yoga class per week is enough to keep you in great shape and will raise your metabolic rate more than just cardio alone. Weights and yoga will also give you muscle tone which will make you look fitter. For more information about personal training please visit my website at www.theorganicexperiencenyc.com.
2. Don’t keep junk in the house. Just don’t do it. I’ve heard every rationalization in the book on this one. “I need to keep junk for my kids/husband/wife/when company comes over.” 9 times out of 10, if junk is in your house you’ll eat it. If it’s not you won’t or you’ll eat it less. It’s that simple. Not to mention your kids and family don’t really need that crap either and if you stock the house with delicious substitutions, most times no one will notice. I liken this to the fact that I just got rid of my cable box. When I had cable, 9 times out of 10 I would find myself watching some trashy show like Rock of Love, Real Housewives or Jersey Shore. Now that I don’t have cable, no more junk TV unless I’m at someone else’s house and then it’s a special treat.
3. If you have not fully converted to all organic food, start the next time you go shopping. The change doesn’t have to be shocking. I find the easiest changes to make first are buying organic eggs, organic produce and strictly avoiding anything with hydrogenated oils or corn syrup. When I first started eating all organic and using non-toxic cosmetics and cleaning products, it took me about a year to shift everything. Be patient with yourself, but start now.
4. Usually the hardest resolutions to keep are staying way from addictions including but not limited to: alcohol, cigarettes, sugar, aspartame, gluten (bread), dairy, chocolate, and caffeine. If you simply cannot go 2 weeks without any of the above, you are addicted. Yes dairy and gluten can be addictive because many people are allergic to them and we sometimes crave what we are allergic or intolerant to. If you are addicted to any of these things and you would like to kick the addiction, I recommend you start with noticing what the addiction is helping you deflect from. Usually it’s some form of fear, guilt or shame. People don’t intentionally hurt themselves unless there’s a payoff. Deflecting from emotional pain is usually the payoff. Once you have identified what you are deflecting from (therapy is great for this), I would cut the substance out cold-turkey, with the exception of caffeine which I believe is best to wean.
5. Make the bulk of your diet grass-fed meat and poultry, pastured eggs, wild fish, raw dairy, organic nuts, coconut oil, olive oil, organic fruit and veggies, non-gluten whole grains like brown rice and buckwheat, and water. Keep it simple. Use the spices you like. Use as much Celtic sea salt as you like.
6. Have an accountability partner, or two. An accountability partner is someone that is genuinely committed to his or her own fitness path and will keep you committed also. Someone that you feel comfortable talking with and you won’t mind if they ask you about your progress. Someone positive who will help you strategize through the slip-ups and asks for your help doing the same. Someone with whom there is a mutual caring. It also helps if it someone you really like. Pictured below are my two accountability partners, Jenny on the left and Sophia on the right. This fall I lost 2 grandparents and both my parents had surgery. I’m only human and the truth is there were some days that I could barely accomplish what I had to do to keep my life going, much less exercise. Because I take such good care of my health, my bottom line is a lot higher than most people, but even still, the events of my life caused me to take a momentary pause from fitness. These women train at the gym with me and are not only very committed to health and fitness but bring a great deal of levity, joy and laughter to the process. This has made all the difference for me and I know it will for you too. They were my angels at a time when I needed to be lifted. If you feel like you have fallen off the wagon, I guarantee there are angels (human or otherwise) around you waiting to help. Are you ready to let them?

HAPPY 2010!

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The holidays are upon us (not to mention my birthday was on the 11th!). We all know people tend to put on 5-15 pounds during this season and let’s be real, no one on the wellness path feels good about that. How have you been feeling so far this holiday season. Are you indulging in moderation and sticking with your workouts? Or have you been eating and drinking yourself into oblivion and feeling bad about it?

Look, I’m not going to tell you not to eat, drink or enjoy yourself during this season because that’s just not realistic and I want you to party like a rock star! But what I am going to do is expose some of the rationalizations that have sent my clients down the ugly path over the holiday. (Ugly path = guilt about overconsumption of food or drink, indigestion, diarrhea, hangovers, party clothes that no longer fit, and just feeling plain awful about yourself). Let’s all take a good look at the stories we tell ourselves so we can nip the guilt in the bud and enjoy the rest of this holiday season healthfully. So here they are, my:

TOP TEN FITNESS SABOTAGING HOLIDAY RATIONALIZATIONS

10. “I didn’t eat all day so I could eat whatever I wanted at that party”. . .This system does not work. If you don’t eat all day, by the time you get to the party your blood sugar is going to be so low that you are likely to pounce on any food that you see regardless of what it is. Also by not eating all day you put your body in starvation mode so that when you binge at the party you totally store all those calories as fat (especially if you’re eating lots of carbs and sugar which is highly likely). It’s much better to eat 2 meals with protein and 2 whole food snacks during the day, so that if you have a nighttime party you will be more likely to eat less and indulge in moderation.

9. “I can eat whatever I want during this season and I’ll just do extra cardio to make up for it”. . .There’s a term for this. It’s called exercise bulimia. Eating junkfood frequently and in excess keeps you in fat-storage mode so you can do cardio until you’re blue in the face and it won’t do much good. Not to mention digesting junkfood is extremely stressful on the body. So is overexercising. A stressed body does not burn fat optimally. Plan an appropriate exercise program for your fitness level and stick to it, but don’t think that upping the cardio will make up for eating too much junkfood. It doesn’t.

8. “I don’t want my family/co-workers/friends to think I’m weird if I don’t drink or pig out”. . .How old are you? If the answer is somewhere over the age of 18, you are an adult and it doesn’t matter what anyone thinks! Let’s grow a set here people! If anyone asks why you aren’t gorging yourself on God knows whatever is at your party say it’s because you’re taking care of your health, or that you’re on a new fitness program and you want to stick with it. Anyone who has the nerve to challenge this is a troll and not worth your time. The people that truly care about you will say, “You go!”

7. “I just don’t have any willpower”. . .This is bull. Everytime I hear this I insist on seeing a fod diary from the client and generally what I see is that they’ve eaten cereal, skim milk and coffee for breakfast and that’s it for the rest of the day and then claim the reason they binged at the party is because they have no willpower. This is NOT lack of willpower, it’s low blood sugar and lack of planning. People who eat protein at every meal and eat small, whole food meals 5 times a day generally don’t binge. It’s not because they have more willpower, they are just properly fed and bingeing is unappealing!

The other side of this rationalization is “I’m just not motivated”. . .guess what, NO ONE IS! People are not born motivated. We all have to CREATE our motivation so think about your reason for healthy eating and sticking to your fitness program. I’ll let you in on my motivation: 1) I’m single and I really want a boyfriend and when I eat healthy and exercise I feel sexy, 2) I know how much toxic crap is in junkfood and how the production of it pollutes the Earth and it makes me nauseaus just thinking about it, and 3) I don’t feel authentic when my actions aren’t congruent with what I promote in this blog and overindulgence makes me feel like I’m losing my integrity with myself. Your motivation may be different than mine but the important thing to identify is why you are committed to your health.

6. “Free food is fat-free”. . .If you are gainfully employed right now this does not fly.

5. “I’ll eat whatever I want and just wear Spanx”. . .I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve used this rationalization. And it did work and I’ve got the Facebook pictures to prove it. But this does not work long term ladies (or gentlemen, I guess you never know these days). First of all, Spanx only make you look about 5 lbs thinner so you’ve got to have a good base of fitness to make the illusion really work. And secondly, I’ve heard my male friends tell me how they’ve gone home with girls from a party and when they take off their clothes, these guys are terrified of what’s going to come pouring out of the Spanx! (FYI-ladies please remove your Spanx in the privacy of the bathroom, it’s not cute.) The point is, when the Spanx come off they cannot hide the abdominal distention that results from overconsumption of junk food.

4. “I’m depressed”. . .I understand. I sympathize. I’ve been there and I’ve used this rationalization too. But we all know when you’re depressed and you binge on junk, though it does help you numb out for a few hours you always feel even worse about yourself after. When you’ve got the holiday blues a few things will help:

• Do the things you love. If I’m depressed I won’t stay that way for very long if I go dancing, do karaoke, call my best friend, or dogsit for one of my friends. Identify the activities that pull you out of depression quickly.
• Make a list of everything you have to be grateful for. This will help you shift immediately.
• Step out of your life and offer service to someone else. There are so many less fortunate people in this world and formally or informally volunteering to do something for someone else will always lift you out of depression.

3. “If I don’t eat/drink whatever junk I want I feel deprived”. . .Get real, starving children in Africa are deprived. If you have the money to buy good food for yourself, you are not deprived.

Along with this is, “it’s not fair, that person can eat whatever she wants and she’s still thin”. . .Again, children orphaned by AIDS is not fair. If you have to stick with healthy practices to maintain a healthy body composition, I would hardly call this unfair.

2. “I’ll just take it off in January after the holidays”. . .this may or may not be true for you. If you’ve been able to do this in the past, OK, who am I to argue? But if over the years 20 extra pounds have crept on, this is surely a rationalization. There is no better time than now to stand up for your health.

1. “If I ate it when I was drunk it didn’t count”. . .this is actually my favorite rationalization. It’s kind of funny. I’ve had people tell me that instead of waking up to a stranger after a night of drinking, they’ve woken up to strange cartons of food and said, “did I really eat THAT???” Yes you did, even if you don’t remember. The only way to combat this is to drink in moderation and know when to say when. Because just like the drunk calls and text messages that count the next day, so does the drunk calorie intake.

Ok so what do we do now that we’ve exposed the rationalizations. Here are just a few things that have worked for me and my clients:

1. Know yourself. Are you the type of person that can have one small cookie and not touch anymore junkfood for 3 days. Then you probably don’t need my help. Or are you the type of person that has the innocent brownie at the hair salon which then opens the flood gates and turns into a donut at the office, a cookie at Starbucks, linguine at the work dinner and eggnog at the holiday party? Because junk is available almost everywhere during this season my suggestion is just don’t start the downward spiral. If you don’t have that first goodie, it won’t spiral into a diet day that has totally gone down the toilet.
2. Choose in advance when you are going to cheat. It’s better to save your cheating for one event than have small cheats all week long (by way of the fact that you spike your insulin only once rather than many times over the week). If you know there’s going to be a great food party then eat clean up to it so that you can cheat without guilt. The self-flagellation that results from overeating is actually energetically way worse than eating the junk food. Planning is key!
3. Focus on eating mostly proteins (meat, poultry, fish and eggs), vegetables, and fruit. It’s impossible to get into trouble that way.
4. Drink water or sparkling water all night. I do. Really. And I feel so much better the next morning when I wake up.
5. A note about getting sick during the holidays: if you are sick and you keep eating sugar and refined foods, you will stay sick. Sugar suppressed your immune system for 6 hours everytime you eat it so you must stop NOW. In fact, limit all dairy, gluten, sugar and alcohol until you are better and make sure you eat some garlic, ginger and/or coconut oil.

Have a most happy holiday season. I’m sending everyone that reads this prayers for love, health and happiness. Enjoy!

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I know you all read my blog for witty commentary about nutrition and holistic healing, but I have to admit, I’m a little sad today. My Grandma Molly passed away Sunday night in her sleep. She was 91 years old and had been struggling with advanced Alzheimer’s disease. Though part of me is relieved that she is now at peace, mostly I am sad that our family has lost such an underappreciated treasure of a woman. Let me explain.

My grandmother was loving, giving and adoring as most grandmothers are and I will always remember how deeply she loved me. But what I really want to focus on in this blog is that fact that I believe my Grandma Molly paved the way for my life’s work. When people ask me, “Jackie, how did you get to be this unceasingly meticulous organic health nut?” (OK I’m ad-libbing, they really say “psycho organic freak”), I say, “you don’t know my Grandma Molly.”

Grandma Molly was the O.G. of the health nuts (Original Gangster for those not familiar with the slang). She took vitamins in the 1940s before it was the thing to do. She knew the evils of sugar, processed food and food additives and would never have any of that garbage in her house. She had full-fat raw dairy delivered to the house when it was still legal in New York. Even when fat- and cholesterol-phobia took hold in the 1980s, she maintained that one was supposed to eat the whole egg. She only used brown rice and cooked with kosher sea salt. When everyone started using artificial sweetners to stay skinny, Grandma Molly refused to degrade her kitchen with any of it. When we went to her house, Grandma Molly would purposely make us sit outside in the sun for 15 minutes to get our Vitamin D (if you know how white my brother and I are, you understand why we only needed 15 minutes!).

She was a big fan of authors like Carlton Fredericks and Adele Davis (the Paul Chek’s and Sally Fallon’s of yesteryear) who believed good nutrition could positively impact ANY disease state and that poor nutrition caused most EVERY disease state. She loved Rachel Carlson’s “Silent Spring” and did her part to protect the environment. In fact, I remember one time going into her library and finding all of these books. I had just started taking nutrition classes at the Chek Institute and I had the following two thoughts:

1.  ”Wow, is it really possible that nutritionists have known all of this stuff that I’m just learning since the 1940s, and probably even earlier? Doctors seriously need to get on board because this information has been here for decades!” I mean there it was, the correct information about how harmful sugar was, gluten intolerance, raw dairy, how consumption of alcoholic beverages screws up your digestion, the healing benefits of saturated fat and everything else I had just paid thousands of dollars to learn.
2. “When did Grandma Molly become so cool and so smart?” (OK I guess she always was, I just needed to catch up!) Though she was the most gentle woman ever, my grandmother was a rebel. Everyone thought she was absolutely crazy and she absolutely didn’t care.

And why should she? While everyone else was busy getting fat and becoming depressed eating their Snack Wells cookies, drinking Diet Cokes and avoiding red meat like the plague, Grandma Molly was slim and emotionally balanced. Her skin was phenomenal. She had zero health problems until the Alzheimer’s began around age 80.

Grandma Molly also believed in the traditional values of preparing every meal at home and eating as a family. Her family did have one indulgence: eating out at Nathan’s. But what can I say, my grandmother was “Brooklyn” through and through. And because she made sure that her family was so nutritionally fortified, the occasional Nathan’s hot dog and fries did not diminish any of them one bit. This is a perfect demonstration of 2 concepts I try to teach all of my clients:

1. The 80/20 rule: if your diet is clean 80% of the time, you can indulge 20% of the time.
2. Don’t indulge unless you can do so with joy. Eating junkfood out of depression, guilt, self-flagellation or desperation will negatively affect your health. Eating junkfood in joy like at celebrations or special occasions will not negatively affect your health at all.

Leaving her funeral and going to pay the first shiva call (the traditional period of grieving in Judaism), I definitely felt the sadness of this great loss. I realized how hungry I was and went into my bag to get my snack: grass-fed beef chorizo sausage and onions cooked in coconut oil and a peach, all organic, local and seasonal from the Union Square Farmer’s market. As I reached back into my bag for the 7 vitamins that I take at every meal, I felt an etheric smile come over my body. I know it was her. I instantly felt that my work is the continuation of Grandma Molly’s legacy and moreover, that my spirit is the continuation of hers. You see, I always bring organic food, bottled water and vitamins with me everywhere I go. And everyone absolutely thinks I’m crazy. And I absolutely don’t care.

Thank you Grandma Molly, from the bottom of my heart.

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“In times of great change the power shifts from all things big and goes back to the small. The power waivers in that which has become conglomerated, that which was built upon the old. Power reverts back to the individual. All truth can then only be found with the individual. Such it is in this time of greatest change in all history.” -Pila of Hawaii

“I give you both a blessing an a curse in the same breath. . .to be born in a time of change.” -Confucius

Amen Confucius! Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our current reality. We are alive in one of the greatest times of change on our planet. Regardless of whether or not you believe in the prophecy of 2012 and all that New Age jazz, take a look around at all of the institutions that we have put our faith in that are collapsing around us (financial, religious, and governmental), causing us to once again find our own truth which is the true gift of what appears to be a societal collapse.

One of the systems which has been growing exponentially in the past 50 years which is now failing miserably is our food system. Just take a look around at how many Americans are obese, infertile, have heart disease, cancer and Type II diabetes. These were all extremely rare at the turn of the 20th century and now are extremely common. Food processing and conventional farming are major causes of all of these conditions and their prevalence in our culture is a sign that what has been created for our “convenience”, may actually bring about our demise. Unfortunately the governing bodies that we’ve entrusted with our health are not protecting us. The “blessing and the curse” that we are experiencing right now is that unless we stand up and take responsibility for ourselves, our fellow humans and the ecology of the planet, we may have nothing left to stand up for. The greatest threat to our way of life is not in Iraq or Afghanistan, it’s right in our own supermarkets and fast food joints. Let me explain. . .

 Last night I went to go see “Food Inc.”, a documentary about the industrialization of our food supply and the consequences it has on our health, the environment, animal cruelty and even human cruelty as in the exploitation of poor migrant workers. I’ve already read Michael Pollan’s “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and Eric Schlosser’s “Fast Food Nation” so what was presented was nothing new to me. But as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. To actually see the corruption of big business on the farming industry, to see cows standing in their own excrement up to their ankles, to see the tears in a mother’s eyes because her son died at the age of 2 from E-coli poisoning and our government is doing nothing to protect this from happening again, is to experience our food supply in an entirely different way.

Think about it. Do you actually know what’s in your food and how it was made? Do you know if animals or humans were abused to bring it to your table? Do you know if what you are eating has been genetically modified (GM) and that there are no long term studies on the effects of GM foods on humans? Do you know if the animal you are eating is a clone? Did you even know that in 2008 the FDA approved the sale of meat and milk from cloned livestock? (I actually didn’t know that and I’m truly terrified by it.) Do you know that if you are not carefully paying attention to the food you buy it may be closer to science fiction than food? The movie “Food Inc.” is a great place to start examining those questions. What you see will indeed be “a blessing and a curse.”

The whole movie was extremely informative but there were a few things that stood out for me:

1. Barbara Kowalcyk has devoted her life to passing “Kevin’s Law”, a law fighting to give the USDA power to shut down plants that repeatedly produce meat contaminated with E-coli or other deadly pathogens. This became her life’s mission after her 2-year-old son died from eating a hamburger that was tainted with E-coli (years of legal investigation revealed that the meat that caused her son’s death was recalled by the producer 2 weeks after his death). Kevin’s Law has yet to pass because the beef industry has such tight control of Congress. This seems like a no-brainer. If you are a producer of meat and your meat is tested and repeatedly shows up with bacteria that kills humans, you should be shut down. Not in America folks, at least not yet. People always ask me what I’m going to do when I have kids. “Jackie, are you going to be the pyscho organic mom?” You bet I am, and I’ll bet Barbara Kowalcyk wishes that she was. Conventionally raised meat is one of the most toxic things one can eat. Insist on grass-fed, free-range organic meat. Cows that eat grass and walk around outside in their natural environment do not produce tainted meat. Ever. It’s that simple. In fact they produce really healthy meat that builds your body and fights disease. Get to a farmer’s market or food co-op. Or if you want to be lazy order it online at www.grasslandbeef.com. There is really no good excuse not to get good meat.
2. Did you know that it is now illegal to publish pictures inside a meat-packing plant in some states where meat packing is big business? This is scary. Apparently the law-makers are afraid that if we saw what goes on inside a meat-packing plant we would be disgusted and outraged and boycott conventional meat. These pictures could cause a national panic. So let me get this straight, it’s widespread news when someone snaps a picture of Britney’s vagina, but we can’t see where our food is coming from??? People, it’s time for us all to wake up! If you know what’s going on with Jacko’s kids but you don’t know where your food is coming from, it’s time to reevaluate your priorities. On the flip side, organic biodynamic farmers like Joel Salatin that slaughter their poultry and meat in the open air, as humanely as possible and allow customers and journalists to watch, are called “unsanitary” by the USDA. With regard to food, the lawmakers and “experts” at this time in history are ineffective at best, deadly at worst. Again, it’s time to wake up, ask questions, make your own decisions and choices and drown out the financially-driven “experts”. (Good rule of thumb: biodynamic farmers are the true experts, most people wearing a business suit with clean hands are clueless when it comes to healthful farming practices)
3. The best way to stand for change is to vote with your dollars. The problems in our food supply are too many to be handled at the governmental level alone. Lobbyists are currently doing their best to keep the status quo. However, I do believe in the power of the free market and if we tell food producers what we want they will provide it because they want our dollars. Every dollar you spend on food either funds your health, our ecology, humane treatment of animals and fair treatment of farm workers, or it funds disease, the destruction of our environment, animal cruelty and the exploitation of the underclass. Tell the food producers what you want by purchasing organic produce (local if possible), wild seafood, and grass-fed, free-range organic poultry, meat, dairy and eggs. Limit or totally stop patronizing big chain fast-food restaurants (even Subway- Jared did NOT get thin eating that crap I don’t care what anyone says! OK fine-and even if he did lose weight eating Subway, the terrain of his intestines probably looks like a garbage dump.) Stop consuming soy (a hormonal dysregulator) in any form. Monsanto owns the patent of the genetically-modified soybean that makes 90% of all the soy products in this country. Our boycott of soy products will show big business that we will not stand for the patenting of life. Seeds are the intellectual property of Mother Earth, not agri-business conglomerates. By law, food producers do not have to label foods that contain genetically modified organisms. (umm maybe because no one would ever buy them. . .) If you are eating non-organic and processed food, there’s a good chance that you are eating GM food. If no one purchases this crap, they will stop making it. It’s time to put our collective feet down and stand up and say to the conventional food industry, “You may not treat us like this! We know the truth! We’re breaking up with you! It’s over!!!”

Go to www.foodincmovie.com to check movie times in your city. And if you live far from a city, I’m sure it’ll be on DVD soon. In the meantime “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “Fast Food Nation” will give you more than enough information on this topic. Power to the people!

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This weekend my best friend in the whole world, Isabel De Los Rios, author of The Diet Solution, had her baby shower. It was actually the first baby shower that I’ve ever attended that I actually had a great time at. Normally baby showers are the bane of every single (and probably married and divorced) woman’s existence, for reasons I will discuss. But three things made this shower absolutely phenomenal:

1. It was co-ed.

2. She ordered all organic grass-fed meat from www.grasslandbeef.com and had an outdoor barbecue. All of the other food was prepared by the family as well.

3. I was not related to anyone there and most were of a different culture/religion. This always adds to the quaintness of a function.

Let me explain.

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Purchasing the book “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” has become a cultural norm among first-time moms in the United States. We have no idea what we’re doing. 1,000 years ago, we women would have been inundated with reproductive wisdom from the elder women of our tribe by the time we were 14 years old. But now that we’re too busy getting our degrees, working hard for the money, buying Manolo’s and watching who’s trying to date Flavor Flav and Brett Michaels, we are completely clueless when it comes to pregnancy and childbirth.

The problem with “What to Expect” and other books of the like, is that they have been overedited by lawyers to pinpoint absolutely every little thing that can go wrong which creates an atmosphere of fear and anxiety for a newly pregnant woman. Anxiety is the enemy of a healthy pregnancy and all pregnant women should do what they can to remain calm and happy. In my opinion, that means avoiding the pre-natal anxiety books and instead focusing on pre-natal health literature like Nina Planck’s “Real Food For Mother and Baby: The Fertility Diet, Eating For Two, and Baby’s First Foods.” What you focus on you get. Let your obstetrician worry about what could go wrong while you focus on what you can do to have your pregnancy be as healthy as possible.

That begins with good nutrition in the first trimester. Of course the main obstacle is that pesky nausea that is believed to be a result of the huge change in many hormones in your body. And don’t feel badly about this. 60-75% of women experience nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. There is no rhyme or reason to who it strikes as well. Women across the board of every race, socioeconomic status, healthy or unhealthy, tribal or corporate, active or sedentary, may suffer from pregnancy-related nausea and vomiting. So no guilt about this ladies, it actually does happen to the best of us.

The best strategies for nausea and vomiting are the following:

1. Make sure that you drink water with a pinch of Celtic sea salt in it to replace lost electrolytes and minerals. (My favorite salt is Celtra-F from www.ultralifeinc.com). Sea salt will not bloat you, refined table salt will.
2. There is some evidence that vitamin B6 may prevent and treat nausea. “Foods rich in vitamin B6 include [wild] tuna, beef, chicken, liver, avocados, bananas and whole grains,” according to Nina.
3. Ginger may also help ease nausea. Use raw on food or chop up a ginger root and use to make tea.

The good news is, your fetus does not require any extra calories in the first trimester, just micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). That means you do not have to eat more food than you were eating before you got pregnant, unless you are too thin by your doctor’s estimation. By all means you CAN eat more if you are hungry for more food. BUT, you do have to eat well and if that is impossible, take nutritional supplements.

Because your baby’s need for vitamins in the first trimester is high, you must be sure to eat real food. Do not succumb to junk like crackers, cookies and bagels. Refined foods like these actually rob vital nutrients from your body at a time when you cannot afford to be depleted at all. As Nina says, “if all you can eat is a cashew, then eat that, cashews have folate.” Do not listen to the nonsense promoted by some pregnancy books that tell you to just eat whatever you can including sugar and refined foods. This is erroneous at best, dangerous at worst. Eat whatever amount of real, organic food you can. Nina said all she wanted during that time was “fruit, salads, broth and lots of water.” If all you want is bland carbohydrates, eat bananas, apples, and brown rice and other whole food carbs. But keep the junk to a bare minimum.

A note of caution though: while it is encouraged that you eat what you can, pregnancy is not the time to intentionally try to be a vegan. Even traditionally vegan cultures like the Jain in India, have their women eat full-fat raw dairy from grass-fed cows because they know a baby needs protein and fat while in the womb. Especially if you have white skin, that means you evolved from half a million years of your ancestors eating protein and fat to stay alive and healthy (during most of the year that was all that was available). Our genes are no different today. Organic fat and protein build healthy babies.

Here are the recommendations for what is ideal to eat during the first trimester (as per your tolerance):

• As you are building more blood, it is ideal to eat grass-fed red meat, especially liver, for iron. Another reason to watch the refined grains is because they contain phytic acid which blocks the absorption of minerals like iron and calcium.
• A daily fresh organic mixed vegetable juice is a great source of easily usable vitamins. Drink it immediately after it is made so that the nutrients don’t oxidize.
• Good fats are required to build the spinal cord and organs so eat grass-fed butter, organic extra-virgin coconut oil, organic extra-virgin olive oil, avocados, nuts and fish oil (I like Pharmax Pure Fish Oil from www.ultralifeinc.com.)
• Foods high in vitamins A and D are also necessary for early stages of fetal development including proteins like pastured eggs, naturally raised pork and wild seafood.

Here’s what this would look like in a meal plan for a woman in her first trimester (small, frequent meals are usually best):

7am- one organic egg cooked in 1 teaspoon coconut oil, blueberries, ginger tea

9am- one organic egg cooked in 1 teaspoon grass-fed butter, steamed carrot with a pat of butter

11am- small apple with 1 tablespoon almond butter

1pm- small mixed green salad dressed with apple cider vinegar and olive oil, 3 oz. hamburger patty

3pm- small banana

5pm- one chicken drumstick, zucchini sauteed in butter

7pm- leftover vegetables (mixed green salad with apple cider vinegar and olive oil, carrots and zucchini in butter

9pm- one chicken drumstick, ginger tea

For more information please check out Nina’s phenomenal book devoted to this subject.

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Last week I had the pleasure of seeing Nina Planck give a presentation about her new book, “Real Food for Mother and Baby: The Fertility Diet, Eating For Two and Baby’s First Foods.” Nina Planck, a local and traditional foods expert, who created the first farmers’ markets in London and ran the legendary Greenmarkets in NYC, is also a mother and is currently pregnant with twins. Watching her stand before me lecturing for 2 hours straight, 6 months pregnant with twins at the age of 38 (my rough estimate based on her stories), looking as comfortable and powerful as Tina Turner at the Grammy’s and glowing with radiance, I said to myself, “Either I’m looking at Superwoman or this woman clearly knows what she’s talking about when it comes prenatal nutrition. I officially have a new hero.”

And man, the preggers lady really gave it to us straight!

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This is just sad. This picture pretty much sums up the absurdity of the whole swine flu scare. Seriously, if we were in the midst of a pandemic health crisis, shouldn’t the mariachi guy have just stayed home? I mean, is his job that critical that he’s out working when the World Health Organization is declaring that “all of humanity is threatened” by swine flu. Like the mask is really going to protect him anyway. Ugh!

OK, let’s get real people. I’ve seen the wackos on the news wearing face masks in states where there have been no reported cases of swine flu. Our fear-mongering media loves stuff like this. Everywhere you look they are telling us that we should be terrified of this outbreak of swine flu.

Energy follows intent. Unless you want to drive yourself crazy, I would suggest you turn off the swine flu news, that is if you want to remain healthy. All this talk of swine flu has me feeling. . .well, a little sick actually. And I know I’m not the only one. And for what?

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It’s Earth Day! And I’m sure you’ve been reading all of the blogs and articles about how to “go green.” So have I. And honestly I’ve got to say that some of the suggestions I’ve been reading are pretty lame.

One article I read suggests that you wrap presents in old newspapers. What? Oh yeah, because nothing says love like wrapping someone’s present in articles about murder, bankruptcy and Bernie Madoff.

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