I’m back with another task for Noelle, this one to challenge my ugliest, most stubborn food demon. Here’s how Noelle would like to feel:
I rarely eat refined sugar – my diet contains only natural sugars.
Yep, me too. Sugar cravings have plagued me for life. I’d like to take the favorite cop-out and blame it on my family. I was born into a Cuban American household, so this meant that as soon as I was weaned I went straight onto café con leche with generous spoonfuls of the sweet stuff – cue Beastie Boys: “I like my sugar with coffee and cream!”
But here’s the thing: humans are born liking sweet stuff for a perfectly good reason. It’s the form we choose that’s the problem. Our sweet tooth is there to instigate an appetite for juicy fruit – and the natural sugars in them. The natural sugars are of course diluted with the heavy water content in fresh, whole fruit – quite different from anything processed or even from dried fruit.
So here’s Noelle’s challenge: she needs to keep a big, beautiful bowl in both her kitchen and office and make sure they’re always filled with whole fruit. The more colors, the better. The assortment should be as alluring as candy, and it should be in season if possible.
Then she must allow herself to eat from them freely. That’s right, if she wants to down a bunch of bananas in one sitting, go for it. An entire tub of strawberries? Eat up, girl. It’s a free for all. The only rule is that she allow the fruit to be as ripe as possible so that it’s also as sweet as can be. Contrary to what one might think, eating lots of fruit (as part of a healthy lifestyle) does not cause unhealthy fluctuations in blood sugar – again, the water content in whole, fresh fruit takes care of that.
Noelle will be posting her feelings and feedback over the next two weeks in the comments section. Hopefully, you’ll follow along, too.
Ready? Sweet!
And make it a green one. If you look at Noelle’s list of successful outcomes, the first is:
I rarely eat processed food – I almost always eat fresh food.
The quickest way I know of to get more whole, plant-based food into your diet is to chug or slurp one large green smoothie a day. I’ve written about the magic of green smoothies before, and you can try one of my favorite recipes here. But you really don’t need a recipe at all: just lots of greens (spinach is flavor-neutral) and then fruit to sweeten it out. I normally put a banana in mine to make it creamy and then top it up with any variety of chopped fruit I keep in the freezer.
This one little change is a great kick-start and is really motivating since it’s so easy to do. You can have the smoothie as a snack or even in place of a meal – it’s more filling than you might think.
This challenge goes for the next two weeks so everyone has plenty of time to perfect their smoothie moves. But keep checking the comments section, because Noelle will be posting her experience being a newbie to green smoothies. And I know some of you are green-smoothie veterans, so please chime in to support Noelle!
A friend of mine in London recently asked if I would be up for coaching her on the path to healthier eating. Noelle (not her real name to protect her privacy) is a productivity coach, so she was very clear about her goals. I’ll quote her words:
In my work, when we start a project we always recommend defining the “Successful Outcome.” In other words, how do you know when this project is “DONE”? The idea is that if you feel unhappy about something, you ask yourself, “Well, what would I like instead?” That question is usually enough to get the ideas flowing! Here’s what I’ve come up with:
I rarely eat processed food – I almost always eat fresh food.
I rarely eat refined sugar – my diet contains only natural sugars.
When I look in the mirror, I can say confidently, “My body is just right how it is. I wouldn’t want to lose any weight or gain any weight.”
My stomach is flat and muscular.
I know a lot about nutrition, and I make choices about what I eat that reflect my knowledge.
I have a healthy body – inside and out.
My body is almost always in great shape.
I am a conscious eater – I know what foods have what impact on my body.
I eat foods that give me energy (and not foods that zap my energy).
Wow! Are you as impressed with Noelle as I am? My first thought was that she doesn’t need me. But here’s where we all need each other: Noelle told me that a money-savvy friend of hers is giving her a bi-monthly money challenge, and it’s working so well that she wants me to give her the same kind of challenge when it comes to food. And me? Noelle’s helping me get better at being more decisive. My successful outcome: to feel more confident in my decision-making and not stress myself out in the process. We’ve created our own little barter economy!
And the marker of any worthwhile goal is that it also benefits the greater good. Which is where you come in. Over the next several weeks, I’ll be taking each of Noelle’s “successful outcomes” and detailing a challenge she can do to make them a reality. The idea, of course, is that it takes time to implement a change until it becomes habit. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Noelle will be posting her feelings and feedback in the comments section, so I hope you’ll follow along. She’ll also post both a physical (weight) and emotional indicator of her progress.
I’ll be doing each of the challenges along with Noelle – I need to coach myself every day to have the same successful outcomes, otherwise I’m bound to backtrack. And here’s where the real beauty of coaching comes in: peer support.
Feeling motivated to join us? Take this as your first challenge to write down your own successful outcomes like Noelle did. And please be sure to share your thoughts/progress/support in the comments section!
The next challenge will be posted tomorrow.
So there I was strolling down State Street in Downtown Santa Barbara for probably the eighth time in half as many days when my blissed-out gaze fell on The Natural Café.
It took me a couple of minutes in the Mediterranean breeze to study the menu. The Natural Café is, naturally, big on plant-based food sourced locally, although there’s a separate section for chicken and fish.
I was initially swayed by names like Spiritual Spinach Salad and Buddha Burrito before the Natural Tamale put an end to any kind of indecision. In I went.
There’s definitely a Bohemian vibe here, and the place is overflowing with the college kids that call this town their crib. You order at the register and then take a plastic number to your table – all the outside spaces were taken, so I nabbed one by a stack of The Independent, the city’s free local newspaper.
Just as I was drooling at the event listings for the week – candlelit yoga, sailing lessons, organic wine tasting – my Natural Tamale arrived.
I haven’t been this excited since I first laid eyes on Sharky’s two-taco combo late last year. You can’t really see the scale from this photo, I know, but this was generous at $7.95 and tremendously tasty. The brown rice was cooked perfectly, the beans were robust but not soupy, and the tamale – which was filled with chiles, pinto beans, ground peanut, and garlic – was better than any traditional one I’ve had. I asked for it sans sour cream, which meant the ranchero sauce could shine on its own. And then there was the perfect salad with crisp jicama. Just beautiful.
Check out The Natural Café’s Ten Easy Ways To Live a “Greener” Lifestyle. Not sure what the quotation marks are for, but I can’t wait for my next tamale taste.
I had thought about posting a series of these photos with a “Where Am I?” headline, but I’ll just cut right to the chase.
I’ve had a long-standing, long-distance romance with Santa Barbara; and this week I got a chance to spend some quality time with my beloved.
Not only does it have enough electricity to satisfy the city dweller in me, it’s the kind of country I crave. Santa Barbara makes me feel good.
And it knows how to push all my buttons: I could be very happy indeed living life according to Santa Barbara Car Free…and buying everything I need from the farmers market in Old Town Santa Barbara. It rivals any of the markets I’ve seen in Europe.
To know, know, know SB, is to love, love, love it. And I do.
I’ve always feared I’d go from pimples to wrinkles.
Ever since I can remember, my face has been a bright stage for one red spot or another. I’ve sampled what seems like every skin care product under the sun, which, incidentally, is one of the few things that have been able to clear my skin.
To that end, I’ve also tried – gasp! – blasting my skin with a sunlamp while wearing plastic goggles, a course of Accutane, Retin-A, prescription creams, and chemical peels. That’s in addition to the aforementioned products, from down-and-dirty Cetaphil to was-I-delusional-or-desperate Crème de la Mer.
I also threw in some mail order “systems” like Proactiv. And how can I forget the years and years of antibiotics? I’ve probably suppressed them from my memory given I wound up with two ulcers as a result. And a dearth of good bacteria in my gut.
Oh yeah, and there have been colonics, Chinese Medicine, herbal teas, and the birth-control pill, not to mention at least a hundred cortisone injections for the cystic acne of my early to mid 20s. By 30 the massive bumps had taken a hike, only to be replaced by more typical, concealer-dodging acne in the famous t-zone. And last year, my skin decided it was time for acne rosacea, which the woman at the Dermatologica counter in London aptly described as “angry.“
Finally, I’ve had to accept that heredity and hormones – and yes, stress – play a big part in my skin’s fiery temper. And that it sure looks a lot better if I eat right and exercise. I had nearly given up on the skin care aspect of it. After all, can something coming from the outside really make a difference?
Actually, yes. Many of the products I tried triggered that dreaded cycle of stripping my skin of vital moisture, which in turn caused it to produce even more pore-clogging oil. Yet the so-called “gentle” concoctions left my face feeling unclean and too moisturized.
And then, late last year, I stumbled on MyChelle Dermaceuticals at a health-food store.
Everything MyChelle makes is cruelty-free and veggie-friendly, but it’s the products themselves and how they felt on my skin that really sealed the deal for me. I was impressed enough by the sample sachets I tried that I emailed the company, especially as their philosophy is right in-line with mine:
To offer pure, nontoxic, results-oriented skin care products made with therapeutic ingredients that do not compromise personal health or the environment.
I explained my skin issues to MyChelle, and they sent me their White Cranberry Cleanser, Capillary Calming Serum, Fruit Enzyme Mist, and Oil Free Grapefruit Cream, which I’ve been using religiously for the past four months.
Finally, I’ve met my skin care match. I’ve used it in both the California desert and the high humidity of Florida, and my skin loves it. The redness has gone down dramatically, pores look smaller, and my skin feels comfortable. I love how I only have to use a tiny bit, and that the packages are small enough to travel in my carry-on (in a requisite Ziploc bag). My only regret is that, on a recent trip, the Fruit Enzyme Mist spilled open.
I’ve now run out. On the bright side, it bathed everything in a soft, pleasant scent – yet another MyChelle perk.
MyChelle Dermaceuticals is offering a free 2oz bottle of Pumpkin Hydrating Mist with every order over $100 when you buy before April 15th, 2010. Discover your natural skin care match at MyChelle Dermaceuticals.
You know that question about who would be at your fantasy dinner party? One of my guests is easy. Brian Boitano, for sure.
Maybe it’s because he played such a pivotal (ha!) role in my childhood. Brian’s twirling, triple-axel’ing presence on the TV screen during those formative years certainly fuelled my obsession with figure skating, even if I never mastered anything more technically complex than a shoot the duck.
So imagine my surprise when, upon returning to TV land, I learned that Brian also has a thing for shooting the breeze on the Food Network. And that’s he’s pretty good at it.
Not only that, but his show What Would Brian Boitano Make? (a play on the South Park segment you can Google) features a ton of great plant-based recipes. They’re interspersed with some clever producing, including hilarious “over-the-top reactions” from Brian after he has a mandatory taste of whatever he’s making or shaking.
I don’t just want this man at my dinner party, I need him in the kitchen with me. I’m itching to try his completely dairy-free Horchata Rice Pudding. He made this while having Kristi Yamaguchi and her extended family over for a Mexican fiesta. His goal? To get Yama (as he affectionately calls Yamaguchi) to say “yumma.” Nobody but Brian B. can get away with this.
Technical ability: 10. Artistic interpretation: 10. Catch him on Sundays at 1pm EST on the Food Network.
Okay, so it may not look like much.
But when you’re missing California Mexican food and you’ve got time to kill at the airport, this place was a gift from the heavens.
Check it out: your choice of beans (I went with pinto), red rice, guacamole, salsa, and a big pile of fresh pico de gallo over romaine – all with your pick of either warm corn tortillas or chips. It’s called the Peasant Plate, and I got it for just over $5 at the Baja Burrito in Nashville’s airport. There are other branches around the city – where the price is even cheaper.
I know, it’s not like you can hop over to this place very often – unless, of course, you’re a Nashvillian. Or a Nashvillain. I like that better.
It used to be that we were in awe of nature – of all its mystery, power, and beauty. From this came the myths and the fables we created in an effort to understand it all. We intuitively knew and respected our connectedness. We understood that nature is us and we are it; and that was sacred.
We have lost so much.
My friend Margaret Emerson is on a quest to help you find your soul by re-connecting with the natural world via her inspiring, important blog Contemplative Hiking. She’s also working on a book, which I’m also in awe about. As I alluded to in my previous post, I’m completely baffled by the book-writing process – it has always seemed an extraordinary feat to me. I can write post after post, but composing a whole book seems like a natural wonder.
Even if you’re not in Colorado where Margaret does her hikes, add it to your news feed and let it nurture you. You’ll find plenty of contemplative exercises that will make you look at your world, wherever you are, in a whole new way. I especially love her concept of the secret world – of all the life that has come and gone before us, each one leaving its mark to sculpt the landscape as it is this very moment.
Next up: What do figure skating and face wash have in common, and how are they helping the environment? I’ll let you know, along with that best airport meal deal I hinted at earlier.
I don’t feel the need to apologize for including non-vegetarian restaurants here since this site was never about being vegetarian, vegan, omnivore, or other. My main purpose for starting Green Appetite was to show you how to include more plant-based food in your diet in ways that actually made you want to include them. I think we can all agree this is a good thing. For our bodies, for the planet. What is generally unhelpful is labeling others – or our ourselves – one thing or another.
And so when my Tennessean friends asked if I’d be okay with a typical Southern meal – emphasis on “Southern,” I said of course.
Of course, especially if said meal is at a place with a name like Miss Mary Bobo’s and is to take place after our tour of the Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg. No need to go into that experience here except to say that I think it’s one of the best-branded companies I’ve ever come across.
In fact, I’m starting to think the whole notion of this being a “dry” county (you can’t actually drink the whiskey) is actually a very clever marketing ploy to call attention to the, well, marketing.
The one-and-a-half hour drive from Nashville took us through plenty of green and cows munching on it. Past Federal-style houses perched atop more green. And by a surprising number of Mexican restaurants (stay tuned for another post about this).
I’ll get to the meal in a moment, but my takeaway from Miss Mary Bobo’s (I’ll get that trippy name in as many times as I can), is that I’d love to spend a few months in Lynchburg researching a novel about schoolteachers at boarding houses. This is probably never going to happen, especially as the most I’ve ever written of a novel is a single paragraph. But the experience showed me, once again, that it’s not about the food. And that perception really is everything.
Miss Mary Bobo’s (heh) is an old boarding house now owned, not surprisingly, by the Jack Daniel’s empire. Once you nab one of the sought-after reservations, you and fellow guests are seated in one of many dining rooms where meals are served family style.
It’s not hard to be vegetarian in the traditional sense at all here – if that’s what you want to be. Sure, there’s fried chicken and pot roast, but when I asked one of the hostesses what her favorites were, she was quick to point out the stewed apples spiked with Jack, the fried okra, and the “cabbage” casserole (I challenge you to find any cabbage amongst the sea of cheese). “Oh, and there’s a carrot salad – if you want it,” she added almost obligingly.
Before we sit down, there is a very important announcement: “The sweet tea is not very sweet; so feel free to add more sugar, y’all.”
Taking our places around the table, I was downright peeved that our hostess would apparently be talking throughout the entire thing, and that she was seated – of all places – right next to me. Yet as the lazy Susan spun around, a miracle happened. My mind became more enthralled by her speech than by the fried whatever in front of me.
Turns out the boarding house has been there since the late 1800s and was a place for the family-less to call home. Day in, day out, bachelors and schoolteachers would sit around this very table for three meals a day. They’d also get a bed – and probably their clothes cleaned – all for $14 a week.
We never found out how long these people lived on this heavy food, but that’s not what really interested me this time. I was curious about these schoolteachers. According to our Miss Mary Bobo’s hostess (say that fast six times), “In those days life was hard. If you were a woman, you were a wife, a nurse, or a schoolteacher.” And that’s that. Life was too hard. Pick one or the other. It was just a path. Go this way or that way. Doesn’t matter. Hmm. Very interesting, I thought.
Now I was actually taking time away from my plate to ask my neighbor a question. “So, it sounds like being single then didn’t have the stigma it has today?” And of course my requisite follow-up: “I wonder how many of these wifeless businessmen got it on with the schoolteachers.”
To my surprise, my hostess had never heard these questions before. Not from any of the thousands of tourists who had come through those pristine white doors. “Excuse me,” she politely says. “I need to get the historian.”
“Oh yes, life was hard then,” the smiley historian repeats, “Married women couldn’t be schoolteachers.”
Sometimes, it’s just not about the food. And that tea was like candy. As for those boarding-house hook ups? The case continues.
Jessica Stone
Well hello there! I’m an American with an appetite for great food, optimal health and green living. My passion is helping others discover the joy in whole, plant-based foods. This blog is about putting a smile on your face with simple, delicious ideas that are good for you and our planet. I’m always eager to hear your feedback, so thanks for sharing the journey with me!
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