Let Food Be Thy Medicine...

...and medicine be thy food.

Ever since my Big Wakeup Call last winter, I have become much more aware of how the food I eat impacts everything about my health and body. Not just obvious stuff like weight and digestion. I mean everything -  sleep, skin, hair, energy, flexibility, mood, and even my habits and emotional health (do you hear me, Stress Eating? We are donezo.).

So when I sat at my desk last week guiltily wolfing down TWO slices of cold pizza and a cookie, I knew that I would regret it. Over the long haul I'd regret not being able to fit into my pants if I ate like that every day, but in the short term, I knew that all that gluten and sugar and dairy and processed non-food would result in pimples, puffiness, discomfort, creaking joints, and jittery, restless sleep. And later that night when I examined the newly materialized breakout on my chin, I decided that it was time.

Time for The Detox.

When my food sensitivities were first diagnosed, I went on a strict two week elimination diet. It was tough, but I did it, and I felt better than I had in years. I'm taking a different approach this time.

This time, I'm turning to the Very Last Issue of Whole Living Magazine ever to be published* for a 3 week whole foods detoxifying meal plan. The idea is to focus on healing, whole, anti-inflammatory foods to recalibrate your system. No caffeine, alcohol, dairy, grains, meat, or processed food of any kind the first week, and gradually loosening up in weeks 2 and 3.

Week One - Purify.
I'm on my second day of Week One. It's the strictest of the 3 weeks of Detox, so I can really only have fruits, vegetables, and seeds. Ideally, you don't even want to eat nuts or soy, because they can be difficult to digest, but I've had almond butter every day and a splash of soy milk in my caffeine-free herbal tea.

Breakfast for the week:

Berries, banana, flax seed smoothie

Apple with almond butter

Not a terribly filling breakfast, but a lot more fruit than I usually consume before noon. The almond butter helps me feel full-ish. The menu plan gave lots of other fruit-based breakfast options, but this is the one that works best for me and my squishy-fruit aversion.

Lunch/Dinner

I had yesterday off, so I cooked up two of the recipes to eat for the first couple of days' worth of lunches and dinners.

The makings of a surprisingly tasty lunch.

I had seen recipes for "cauliflower fried "rice"" on Pinterest, but was veeerrrrry skeptical. Cooked cauliflower is near the bottom of my preferred veggie list. Raw cauliflower = crunchy treat. Cooked cauliflower = mushy, stinky small brains.

But here's the deal. Since it is a grain-free week, you can't add rice to your stir fry. They cleverly have you pulse cauliflower in a food processor to make it LOOK like rice. And, honestly, once it was cooked up I really couldn't tell it was cauliflower. Genius.

Cauliflower 'rice'

Cooked up the veggies and cauliflower in coconut oil, red pepper, and some spices for an asian-y tint to the flavor. It was pretty AND tasty.

The next recipe I tried was almost scrapped from my list. Marinated Portobello Mushrooms and Kale. Marinade? Love it. Thick, meaty mushrooms? Love. Kale? Ugh. Why did it have to be Kale? I know it is a wonder food full of all kinds of nutrients and stuff. I just hate it. HATE it. But, for the sake of discipline, I went for it.

Not the best picture. Must only cook/photograph food in the day time for natural light!

And thanks to timing error on my part, the kale got actually a bit crispy-fried and crunchy! Hooray! Accidental kale chips over a very tasty bed of sliced 'shrooms. A stunned Thumbs Up for this recipe too.

When I got to work this morning, I warned my team that I am going to be hungry, uncaffeinated, and probably cranky until I get over the hump. So far, though, I feel pretty good. It helps a LOT to have recipes and a plan, rather than just a list of things you're not going to eat. I can almost hear my joints rejoicing. It really isn't any fun to go through life chronically inflamed.

Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels. not having chronic pain/stiffness/zits/digestive problems/poor sleep.

Now if I can just convince myself of that after the end of the 3rd week!

*Can we just pause to shed a tearful goodbye to my all time favorite magazine? My insider friend, Jeana, told me that Ms. Martha Stewart had decided that her brand lacked focus, so they dropped Whole Living and Everyday Food. SO. Sad.

Grace and Grief - What to do when a friend is grieving

Lily of the Valley - Mom's favorite .

Ok, so this post is a bit of a departure from the usual Greeny memoir. I hope you'll bear with me.

There hasn't been any tragedy close to me recently, which is probably why I can write this today. But as many of you know, I've lost both my dad and my mom within the last 11 years to brutal diseases, so I've lived (and am living) some grief. I have some insider knowledge. But I've also found myself fumbling for words, for hugs, for meaningful action when a friend has lost a parent, a sibling, a spouse, a child, a close friend. I feel like I should be an expert, but I usually find myself paralyzed with insecurity and questions. So I'm writing this post as much for my own instruction as anyone's.

Once in a while a friend will write or call and say "My friend just lost her mom. What should I do?" and I'll just "hmmmm" anxiously into the phone and say unhelpful things like "One of my friends mailed a box of my favorite candy and snacks when my mom died. My roommate baked 3 dozen healthy muffins and put them in freezer bags so I would have over a month's worth of breakfasts for mornings when getting out of bed required a feat of super human strength. My college friends gave me a sympathy card with a photo of a bunch of them mooning. That made me laugh." Every person is different. A card with the naked butts of your close friends in the funeral receiving line is a risky, but dearly personal (and for me, perfectly apt) move. I felt loved, known, and surrounded by people on whom I would rely for sanity and perspective in the days ahead.

I have come across a few extremely well-written articles over the past couple of years and I wanted to share them. Both of the links at the bottom are to essays about losing your mom. These naturally resonated with me, but I think there are some key nuggets of wisdom that can help you love just about anyone who is grieving. I've summarized a couple of key points:

• Americans suck at grieving. We have few rituals and almost no public acknowledgement of grief once the funeral director locks up after the service. In cultures where grieving is woven into the fabric of daily life, we wouldn't have to ask what to do when someone dies. We'd all know what to do, because we would have been visiting, eating, praying, crying, singing, or storytelling with our grieving friends and neighbors since we were kids. So don't feel guilty if you don't know what to do. You are not alone. The important thing is to DO SOMETHING.
• Do something. Say something. Send a card. Say "I'm so sorry". Reach out even though it is awkward or weird. Even if you are not BFFs with the person. The articles give some sage advice about what NOT to say ("She's in a better place." and  "It's God's will." come to mind. Even if you personally think that is true, choose a different thing to say. Trust me.). Facebook is OK as a last resort. It's better than nothing. A call, card, or visit is better. Don't be offended if your sincere "How can I help?" goes unanswered. She probably has no idea what to say or ask. Just like you, she doesn't have a cultural script for this. If you can think of something creative, or if your church or office can organize meals or child care or laundry or errand running, then do it. But please don't wait for the grieving person to turn up with a wish list. 
• Grief is more like a new state of being than a process with an end point in sight. Does it get easier to behave like a normal person? Yes, it does eventually. But it has been 11 years since my dad died, and I am not "over it". I'm even less over mom's 2009 death. The essay series in Slate by Meghan O'Rourke does a beautiful job describing the long process of putting your life back together after someone dies. You are muddling through, but in our culture you still have to go right back to work and eat and shower and act like a civilized human being. This looks different for everyone. Some dive back into keeping busy and getting back into the swing of routine. Some, like me, almost get fired from their jobs because they can't pull it together even 2 months after the funeral. It's not like you need to walk on egg shells with a grieving person. Or never mention your own mom again, or worry that any moment your grieving friend is going to burst into tears, change the subject, or wig out. She might. And that's Ok. Sometimes I cry when I talk about my mom or dad, but that doesn't mean I don't want to talk about them. Which brings me to my #1 Word of Wisdom:

Talk and ask about the person who has died. As Laura Fraser said in her article for Whole Living:

When someone is gone, we are hungry to talk about them, to conjure them from memories, to linger long enough to recall vivid moments.

Talk about the person and her life, not her death. If you knew her, share stories. Talk about details you remember about her - her cooking, her voice, the smell of her perfume, the bright scarves she wore, the day she sent flowers to you at work when you got engaged, etc. If you didn't know her, ask questions. What did she do? Did she grow up in Illinois? How did she and your dad meet? Keep asking. Keep talking. Even years later. Especially around holidays, anniversaries, birthdays, and milestones. Some of the most dear and intensely healing conversations I have had with friends over the past three years have started with someone being brave enough to ask me, out of the blue, something like "What did your mom like to cook at Christmas time?" or "Oh my goodness, I bet your mom would be SO happy to hear that!". It's OK to say something that results in tears, BTW. If given the choice between "crying in the grocery store" and "never getting to talk about my mom even though I think about her every day", I'll take crying.

I hope these are helpful to you sometime down the road. I highly recommend these two links, both called "The Long Goodbye", aptly enough:

The Long Goodbye, by Laura Fraser for Whole Living magazine

The Long Goodbye, Part 1 in a series of 9 excellent essays on bereavement by Meghan O'Rourke for Slate.

Fighting Oil With Oil

Several months ago, I posted this post about finding a new face soap, and my friend B suggested that I try something called "The Oil Method". I laughed to myself. "I'm pretty sure I can't use OIL to wash my greasy, acne-prone, stressed out skin". I filed it under "Things I Swear I Will Never Do". I should have known right then that I would eventually embrace it, since many of my current raves are things I originally scoffed.

I was running out of my bar face soap, and while probably greener than my fancy bottles of Olay, my face was still dry and flaky and oily and zitty all at the same time.

So.... I did some more reading about the Oil Method and started to come around. Then Whole Living did an article about it, and I was sold. See, sometimes all it really takes to convince me are some pretty pictures.

The article and the online info suggested a 75% olive oil, 25% castor oil blend for oily and acne-prone skin. I ordered a bottle of Castor Oil online, and I tried it for the first time tonight!

EVOO and Castor Oil blend

Clean white wash cloth

I got a 1/4 tsp from the kitchen and filled it up "most of the way" with olive oil, then topped it off with the castor oil. Very precise... Yeah, that's why I stick to cooking rather than baking. Anyway. I poured the 1/4 tsp into my hand and then used my palms and fingers to rub the oils into my face (bonus! mini face massage!) while I counted to 90. It felt surprisingly pleasant, and not at all like I was rubbing salad dressing into my pores.

After you rub in the oil, you drape a HOT damp washcloth over your face to steam the now-grimey oil back out of your pores. Let the washcloth cool off, then use the washcloth to gently wipe away the oil and gunk. It was hard to just stand there with a washcloth on my face while it cooled, but it did feel pretty great. After wiping the oil away, my formerly pristine cloth looked like this:

Makeup and city grossness

All that came off with just a 1/4 tsp of oils! Joy! My skin feels soft and clean. You are only supposed to wash this way once per day, and then just splash your face with cold water in the morning. Even LESS product being used. Love that.

From what I read, this works because the olive oil is a natural skin softener that binds with the castor oil, which is a natural cleanser. The olive oil acts as a vehicle to get the cleansing castor oil down into your pores, and then the steam from the washcloth yanks them both back out of your skin again. Soft, clean, and 100% natural.

So, thanks B for planting the seed of the idea all those months ago! I'm really happy with this new plan. I'm also hopeful that the Oil Method will help rebalance my skin, and maybe even make it less oily over time.

I know. It blew my mind too.

Go get some more oil on your face!

This time, a Rave

I am generally reluctant to cop to my love/hate/fascination/repulsion relationship to Martha Stewart in mixed company. Partly because she's fallen from her pedestal as the Domestic Goddess of upwardly mobile America and become more of a character and a brand than a creative maven. And partly because she's kind of anathema to my newly sprouted "Less is More" shifting. But I gotta love her for reuniting people to their glue guns and inspiring millions to try DIY. Even when the project is so ridiculous you have to use her name as a verb to describe it. As in, "Oh my gosh, my roommate is a total Bridezilla. She is expecting us to Martha Stewart 300 handmade escort cards with embossed butterflies and paper-cut flowers for her reception."

Anyway, all that to say, I too have replaced aspirations of Martha Stewart-style LIVING with dreams of simplicity, gentleness, and far less stuff  (hand-made or otherwise). So I was skeptical of her revamped "Whole Living" magazine (formerly "Body and Soul"). But, the covers were pretty and I had cancelled all my other magazine subscriptions this year in a bout of frugality and waste-reduction. And I missed them. So when an email promo told me I could get one year of Whole Living for $10, I bit the bullet and subscribed. Because blogs are great and reducing waste is super, but man, I love me some magazines. Real paper magazines, with pretty pictures and pages that fold over at the corners.

I've gotten three issues so far, and I have to tell you that I've dog-eared so many pages, the designation has become rather pointless. Especially the issue I received yesterday. Seriously. I'd tell you to go out and buy it/borrow it/steal it from your acupuncturist's waiting room, but if you did, I would have far fewer interesting blog posts to write because Whole Living stole at least 7 of my blog post ideas in one stinkin' issue. I guess that makes my job easier, because they've been kind enough to do the research for me. So now I don't have to look up each cow milk substitute one by one to see the calorie, fat and protein content OR look for recommendations of how to use each. They put it all into one handy table. Which I now have to decide if I will plagiarize and/or how to properly site the info on the blog. This issue gave a how-to for indoor composting, using avocados as moisturizers, and making the transition towards veg or vegan. All that info for less than a dollar AND a zillion beautiful pictures to tear out for my cheesy vision board? WIN!

The only real caveat I see of the magazine is that you have to read it with the fact that they ARE trying to sell you stuff very present in your mind. And remember to cross-check every product they recommend with the Good Guide and Skin Deep rather than relying on the biases and preferences of Ms. Stewart's marketing people. If you can wade through the BUY ME! mulch nestled in between all that great general information, it's a fun and useful read.

Of course, I should say that I am in no way compensated for this or any of my product reviews, and no one is sending me anything for free (I WISH they were, but alas). So these ramblings are purely a product of my opinion and experience. Your results may vary.