BODY: InfoPharmacy Nutrition Makeover Week 13

As I sit here and munch on veggie shepherd’s pie with a side of Japanese-style spinach, I am reflecting on what three months, which is the halfway point, of my nutrition makeover has accomplished. In the past 12 weeks I have:

• Lost eight to 10 pounds (depends when I weigh myself)
• Clearer skin and shinier hair
• Improved energy level
• Better sleep (eight hours a night)
• Strong digestive system and consistent elimination

And that is just the physical part.

As I was waiting for the bus this morning in the 20-degree weather, I also contemplated my ‘Monday morning blues’. I was trying, through sheer habit, to feel sorry for myself (work, Monday, cold, holidays), and then I realized that I actually didn’t feel that bad. In fact, I felt good.

For many years, I walked around feeling more or less bad all the time. It would wax and wane, but my default setting was always ‘slightly cloudy with chance of rain’. It was as if I didn’t know how to be any other temperature. I just didn’t know how to be happy and my lifestyle that included generous amounts of booze and cigarettes wasn’t really helping.

But that started changing two years ago as I put down those bad habits and replaced them with more positive ones.

I put down drinking, and took up meditation.

I put down smoking, and I took up cooking.

I put down hating my body, and I took up a regular yoga practice.

I put down hating my alarm clock, and I took up the practice of making a short gratitude list first thing in the morning.

On any given day, it’s hard to judge the progress and cumulative effect of these efforts. Some days it is still a rainstorm. But more and more it’s not. And having put down the drink or more than 14 months, the nicotine for more than six, and embarked on a new way of eating for the past three, I can say there is a cumulative effect: I feel, in every way, stronger, more resilient, quicker and happier.

I have been receiving compliments such as “you look great” and “you seem very happy”. It is wonderful to hear things like that because I know what it feels like to not hear affirmation; to be stuck in the self-knowledge that you’re really just not doing that great or looking good. That you’re stuck in the depths of a dependent relationship with alcohol, cigarettes, ice cream, men, women or whatever.

However, I remind myself daily that while compliments feel good, the true meaning of this work is for me alone. I am really looking forward to the next three months of this makeover and deepening that self-knowledge.

BODY: Week 11 Infopharmacy Nutrition Makeover

I have been back from Borneo for a week now and it’s over-
whelming how quickly such an amazing experience can recede into distant memory (see pictures). [Photo: Fresh coconut juice in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.]

This week, work and quotidian stressors jockeyed for position in my brain far too quickly; that noise tends to make me seize up and lose sight of what this whole project is about and just curl up in a ball and complain instead.

Yesterday, finally, I got back to the ‘good’ place in yoga class. The teacher, as we labored into extended side angle pose, kept stopping us as we tried to put our arms awkwardly over our ears. “You are so focused on the goal!” she berated us. “Keep thinking about the process; find a home at each step.” Hand on hip first, step down in the heel, open the chest, keep breathing.

Battling the post-vacation blues, I think it’s important to re-visit that idea of the journey, not the goal. There is so much emphasis on “The Vacation”, that after it happens, you feel lost. What are you looking forward to now? Reframing the issue as process, not destination, helps me with blues management. It is also helpful to remind myself that this nutritional makeover is not just about losing some weight (the goal), but its about learning more about body and health. It’s about enjoying the learning the process and experimenting on a daily basis, and understanding that there’s no one right answer. Today, one thing works well for me while tomorrow it may not. It’s about keeping an open mind.

That said, it has been great to get back to my own kitchen and cook for myself after our trip. When I got home, I opened the first wedding present we received. A Cuisinart. I have dreamed of a food processor for years. When I was growing up, my mom and I often coveted the device at other peoples’ houses, but it was too expensive to use. The fancy food processor was something delegated to gourmet kitchens alone; they were not for our galley where my favorite meal was “Trash” (ground beef, cream of mushroom soup, egg noodles, frozen peas and carrots).

This weekend I took the thing for a spin: pureed zucchini, curried sweet potato soup with ginger and hijiki salad (slices of onions). It’s awesome. One goal this winter is to be more strategic with my home cooking and store soups in the freezer and save myself cooking time during the week.

Next week: projects for 2009…

Week 7: InfoPharmacy Nutrition Makeover

I have a really crappy scale from Ikea in my bathroom. I have fiddled with the knob enough times that it is not really very accurate, but I continue to use it. I am happy to report that this morning when I stepped on, it appeared that I am at the lowest weight I have been in two years. Yay!

I chalk up my success to: drinking GreenVibrance every morning, home cooking vegan food and eliminating most dairy from my diet.

However, that is not to say every day is perfect.

Yesterday, we had a work team-building event, which included lunch: pizza, salad and soda. I had a slice of veggie and piled up the salad. I also had one can of Coke, which is highly unusual for me. I nursed it over a couple of hours (to give my energy for all those team-building trust circles and what not!). The meal was, of course, nowhere close to being a healthy, wholesome affair. But I think it’s important to recognize when you have to be flexible.

I am feeling a bit run down and on the verge of a cold this week. And like so many people, today is the last day of “open enrollment” for health insurance. Which brings me to my final point.

An article in the New York Times last week, “Women Buying Health Policies Pay a Penalty” (Oct. 29, 2008) showed what I consider to be institutionalized sexism and underscores how important it is for women (and men) to have agency in their own health, starting with nutrition.

The article showed that women who buy individual health care – like freelancers or contract workers – pay significantly more than male peers. One reason: maternity care sends the costs up. This is – in absolute terms – a penalty for being born with reproductive organs. Unlike car insurance – where men generally pay more for premiums – having a uterus is not an opt-in activity. And unlike in car insurance where you are rewarded for “preventative care” such as driving lessons, in health insurance you are punished for “preventative” doctor’s visit.

The cost of healthcare must spread out over society as a whole – we are obligated as a society to bear the cost equally. Women make less money than men overall, and yet pay more for health insurance. This is an inequality of the highest order.

An addendum to last week's post on money and health: I found this clever blog and it has some quite helpful money-saving tips.

BODY: InfoPharmacy Nutrition Makeover Week 6

Tough times call for healthy measures. The recession has become, let's face it, a no-kidding matter. The layoffs are happening, my credit card tightened its chokehold on my APR and spendy trinkets are totally out of the picture. For that matter so are a lot of other things like hair highlights, pedicures and the other beautyifying things I did in the flush early millenium. This week - though I am late to posting - I continue to work on my eating, weaning myself ever so slowly off wheat (tried a spelt bagel - not bad! It had the sourdough taste, but I liked that.) I had a tough week emotionally (nothing like wedding planning to bring out the baggage) but I found strength in the food I was eating. That was a big help to staying on even keel.

As I continue to make healthy shopping and cooking the rule, not the exception, I have come to think about how money, now tighter than ever, is a part of this makeover.

While Whole Foods, where I shop frequently, is scoffed at as being "Whole Paycheck", it can also be the gateway to a much more economical way of eating. With this new diet, I am not only saving money on lunch and breakfast (and getting more nutrition 'bang for my buck'), I know I am building my overall health 'equity'. I have averted several colds in the last month with echinacea and rest. In the name of the recession, I did a little accounting. I was surprised by how much money I spend on food, even now, overall. We do eat out a lot, partly out of laziness and partly because we like to eat out. I figured in a basic meal with tax and tip at $25. But looking back at my old diet - as recently as last year - I am more shocked by how un-nutritious it was. Read and weep:

Current diet

Green Vibrance with agave and juice $1.70
Plain oatmeal - I packet $0.30
Frozen blueberries 1/4 cup $0.25
Apple - organic Honeycrisp $1.50
Coffee with soy milk $2.07
Homemade fennel stew with kale $4.50
Lara Bar $1.29
Green Tea Free
Dinner out $25
TOTAL $36.61


Old diet

Total Yogurt $2.50
Fruit salad $4.00
Coffee with milk $2.07
Sandwich or salad from deli $7.95
Diet coke $1.50
Afternoon snack (fruit, crackers) $2.00
Dinner out $25
TOTAL $45.02

Frightenly Bad Old Old Diet

Bagel with cream cheese $2.50
Coffee with milk $2.07
Salad bar or deli sandwich $8.00
Diet Coke $1.50
Black and white cookie or candy $2.50
Small coffee with milk $1.50
Dinner - restaurant $25
Drinks - 2-3 cocktails $21
Cigarettes (half pack) $4
TOTAL $68.07

BODY: InfoPharmacy Nutrition Makeover Week 5

Figuring out work-life issues and time management continues to be a challenge for me. Last week was congested in every way: I felt crunched for time, vaguely stressed out and more tired than usual. I wasn’t operating like the lean, green machine that I can be. However, my diet felt relatively consistent – Green Vibrance every morning, greens at dinner and lunch, little to no animal products. So I can only assume that it was a natural energy slump (full moon? mid-cycle? family drama? working too hard?). Brining all this awareness to my diet, brings overall mindfullness to every part of my life. And with the awareness is a growing ability to detach slightly from the event so that I am not on the all-too-familiar emotional roller coaster.

The aspect that I enjoy most about the makeover is the mind-body connection. The Center for Integrative Nutrition philosophy is very holistic. It was clear to me that my mental energy overload in the last week was taking a toll on my physical energy. This weekend, to restore some energy, I went to do one of my favorite things: hike outside and look at art. We drove up to Storm King Art Center, which is so incredibly beautiful with the fall foliage, on Sunday. At one point, I lay down in the grass and sunbathed. The blast of Vitamin D was the best ‘natural prozac’ and I felt very restored and ready to start a new week.

I have been very successful in eliminating most dairy (at least milk) from my daily routine. I have developed a new taste for soy milk, although I feel suspicious that Silk Vanilla, the popular brand, is hardly better for you with the sugar it has. I tried cooking another meal with amaranth, but it’s more of a porridge consistency. I think it might be nice as a breakfast cereal, but it didn’t work as a dinner/lunch grain. Over the weekend, I did eat meat a couple of times and I felt fine. I feel as if I have hit a small slump in losing weight, as I felt as if I was overeating at times last week. However, I will continue to be aware of the times I am hungry (physical) versus the times when I have (insatiable) appetite (mental).

Guilty pleasure of the week: Laura’s Wholesome Junk Food in Lemon-Vanilla

BODY: InfoPharmacy Nutrition Makeover Week 4

Cooking takes time. That is why so many of us don’t eat as well as we would like or should. Because we don’t have the time. Well, you actually do have the time. But you have to find it.

This week I learned the hard way what happens when you don’t plan ahead. The healthier I eat, the more reluctant I am to eat crap and undo all the hard work I have been doing. But finding myself in a pickle more than once, I resorted to pre-made junk food – granola bars, crackers, deli salmon-and-cream cheese sandwich. Even though I pick quality ‘junk food’ that is still what it is: food that you don't know anything about, how it was made or what's really in it. Or who made it. It's disconnected food. It's junk food.

Nothing catastrophic happened, but nothing really remarkable did either. I didn’t have the little hum of ‘green’ energy that comes with eating very healthful foods and I was really starting to dig.

So I am doing a little pre-planning this week. I bought enough fruit for every breakfast and have planned out my lunches:

Monday – Leftover Chard, bean and corn salad, heirloom tomato
Tuesday – Whole wheat pasta with zucchini, mushroom, tomato sauce, side of spinach
Wednesday – Fennel, bean and kale stew
Thursday – Homemade cabbage and potato soup (frozen)
Friday – Baked squash and greens

Also, just because it's in a health-food store, doesn't mean it's not junk food. As I continue to try and ween myself off refined sugar and also experiment with wheat and gluten (a real slower-downer for the digestive track), I bought some sugar-free gluten-free choco chip cookies. I gobbled away and ate handful after handful. No sugar! No wheat! Who cares! Next morning, there was a rumbling in the tummy, a spring to the bathroom and a few hours of stomach cramps. WTF?! I looked at the label again. The cookies had maltitol, a sugar substitute notorious for it's laxative effect. It kind of sucked. Whatever that product is, it's awful and I say avoid!

Before this makeover, I had gotten into a rut of always buying the same things at the grocery and invariably my default for healthy ingredients was broccoli and brown rice. Now it’s chard, kale, cabbage, zucchinis, green breans, snap peas, spinach, black beans, wheat berries and – drum roll – amaranth. We got down to the business of cooking this grain this week. I found a recipe online for popped amaranth with lemony cabbage and leeks. With a hot hot pan, the grain toasts like popcorn – exploding into a nutty little ball. Very tasty. Last night I also made another simple meal: broiled flounder with basil, olive oil and sea salt; sautéed chard with garlic and an heirloom tomato. (pictured)

I have been losing weight slowly but surely, my skin has never looked so healthy and my hair is also becoming quite shiny. All in all, I am impressed that at week 4 I can already see some positive results like this. I am looking forward to start wearing some clothes that I "grew" out of.

BODY: InfoPharmacy Nutrition Makeover Week 3

Photos taken at Stone Barns on Oct. 3, 2008. I like to think of these pics as vegetable centerfolds:

I am wear-
ing my slightly
skin-
nier jeans. The ones that I folded neatly and put on a shelf about nine months ago, when I stopped being able to sit down Indian-style in them. So while the scale refuses to move much, I have lost a little poundage and the jeans are proof of that.

I continue to "explore" my sugar addiction. For example, this weekend we went camping. Now camping to me says: eat anything you want, you're roughing it! (Well, it says more than that, but for the sake of the argument...) So I ate some cookies, some chocolates, a mini Snickers and had a trance at the campfire. Then I woke up and had a donut, and some more chocolate, some leftover peach cobbler. I had some coffee to wash it down. By 3 p.m. I was an exhausted, cranky emotional bi-otch. Pretty foliage at Lake Sebago? You mean get out of the car and walk there?! Are you kidding me? Waah. Nature sucks. I want to go home and eat more....sugar!

So as you can see, I am a human and I still find it challenging to 'just say no' to sweets, especially when I failed to bring any alternatives. The "sugar-sode" illustrated to me two things: sugar is a nasty, nasty thing. And I love nasty, nasty things. I will continue to work on this beast.

Meanwhile, back in the land of kale and amaranth - that's my new grain of the week - things are going well. I have been feeling overall very calm, relaxed and comfortable in my own skin.

This week, the transformation has been psychological as well. This nutritional makeover, and the success of losing a little weight, have really felt empowering. And this sense of empowerment has had profound effect in how I relate to the world around me. For example, in a public meeting yesterday instead of feeling anxious and breathless when I spoke in front of a group of 20 people, I felt confident enough to pause, take a deep breath and let it out before speaking. It's a small victory, but it's an important one.

I find myself craving whole foods more and more. I am finding it challenging to make enough time to cook (and clean up after) - I bought some new aluminum nesting-bowl containers to bring home-cooked food to work in. I have also taken a little extra effort to keep my kitchen clean, so it's appealing to jump in and cook something.

BODY: InfoPharmacy Nutrition Makeover Week 2

It has been just more than a week since I started my nutrition makeover. I have done three things: take a scoop of GreenVibrance every morning with no-sugar-added juice, limited caffeine to before 12 p.m. and eaten a green at every meal. (I also tried to watch sugar and limit dairy and animal products.) This has been no easy task (that last part especially.) At 11:55 a.m. each morning I found myself at the coffee maker at work, chugging a cup of joe just so I could get in a final cup before 'last call.' I also found myself walking past well-known candy bowls - just to window shop - before breaking down for a foil-covered chocolate, or four. At 3 p.m. on the dot.

I also discovered that kale is kind of amazing, GreenVibrance has improved my skin and, well, I am 'elminating waste' like nobody's business. I feel light and flexible physically and more importantly I feel calm, cool and collected in my mind. I think the most overwhelming result after just one week, is how much more in touch with my body - as in my guts - I feel.

Even my questionable food choices (fully-loaded diner nachos on Saturday night, a double-shot pumpkin soy latte on Sunday) were learning lessons. Having focused on eating more greens, and natural flavorings I can really discern how dehydrating a lot of prepared foods are. After the latte, I needed one liter of water to not be "thirsty" anymore; a Lean Cuisine I brought for lunch almost burned my mouth with the sodium.

I won't tell you that all this is a snap: nope, you have to go the grocery store (preferably a health food one) almost every day. See that fridge? It is a labor of love and schlepping. A cabbage the size of football, a bunch of radishes, leftover homemade tofu-spinach lasagna, yummy kamikaze dressing from Sunshine Mart, filtered water, seaweed salad, carrots, green beans and Flax Seed oil.

The truth is I don't know if I can maintain this. I have been pretty excited to cook up every new vegetable under the sun as I begin this journey, but mid-January I feel as if I am going to be craving beef stew and crumb cakes. I haven't weighed myself, but I can definitely say that my clothes fit better by the end of the week. Hopefully, I can start to connect the feelings of wellness with decision making so that I can continue to drop the lbs and get healthier and healthier.

We will see. As they say, it's one day at a time.

MIND/BODY: Passing with grace

I learned last night that a yoga teacher, and someone I admired from afar, had passed away after struggling with cancer for the past two years. Mary Dunn, the president of the New York Iyengar Association, died on Sept. 4. The news felt very emotional for me - I didn't know her well or take her classes, but I had the priviledge to interview her (along with James Murphey) in 2005 and am an active class-goer at the institute. Her blog, which she maintained nearly til the end, is an unbelievable portrait of the grace and beauty of life and death.

I have been part of the Iyengar network on-and-off again for the past 10 years. I am not sure how I was introduced to the style, but I spent a year taking classes at the Palo Alto Yoga Studio with a teacher named Catherine. (I think the studio is still there under a new name.) I moved to New York and stopped yoga for about seven years. And then I found my way back: namely, through the interview with Mary Dunn. She was able to convey in words both the spiritual expansiveness and physical concreteness that is available to Iyengar practitioners; she was accessible, smart and enthusiastic. The interview was tied to a celebration event for BKS Iyengar, which I also attended.

The event had an enormous impact on me - physical, emotional and intellectual. I was overwhelmed with the power of love that filled New York City Center that night. While I didn't connect the dots at the time, it put into motion a series of life changes and helped me articulate my own hero's journey so to speak. Two months later I had quit my job, and four months later I was in Thailand for the start of a four-month journey through Southeast Asia and India. A year later, I put down unhealthy vices like smoking and drinking, and in the process have kindled an active spiritual landscape. In the three years - to the week - since that moment I have deepened my own yoga practice and added a deeper study of Zen meditation. The goal of Iyengar, as Mary Dunn told me in that interview, is to educate yourself in what is possible.

BODY: InfoPharmacy Nutrition Makeover Day 1

I have decided to truly embrace the philosophy of the infopharmacy, and take on a great health project. Every week, I will update you on my nutrition makeover, which is a six-month health program I started today. I have enlisted the help of a Certified Health Counselor, Michelle Mahlman, who trained at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and is using a standard program developed there.

Some background: Since turning 30, I have noticed the weight creep on (not helped by eating out often). In the past year I have also stopped drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes, two vices that carried me through my 20s, but no longer work for me. Lastly, I am getting married in March. Vanity prevails. I decided that I needed someone to guide me healthfully through dropping a few pounds and also help me maximize my own mind-body health.

Tonight was our first official meeting. I admit, I was nervous that Michelle would scold me for some of my bad habits (diet coke, the occasional moo shoo pork, candy) but instead she asked me a lot of questions: what are new and good things going on in my life, what a typical day is like for me, and what my health goals were. Then we worked on my first step: eating more green food. I thought I ate a lot of vegetables, but nope, not enough. She eats her greens at every meal. The secret I found out is powdered greens first thing in the morning. I will try it. I purchased a 30-day supply of Green Vibrance ($40).

She also asked me to pick a green - I picked kale - and then try to experiment with it for the week. When I got home after our meeting, I steamed two bunches, one red and one green, and divided into four lunch containers along with broccoli, cauliflower and yams. I have some amazing "Kamikaze" Japanese carrot dressing from the Sunshine Mart. I hope this way I can get more greens in this week.

The other glaring red flag that popped up in our conversation was how much caffeine I drink. I drink 16-24 ounces of coffee every morning and then a 12-16 ounce diet coke in the afternoon. It's true. I love coffee and I love being caffeinated. But instead of taking it away, we added some things: drink my Green Vibrance first before my morning cup; drink a glass of water for every 8 oz. of coffee and lastly, I think I will try and have a cut off: no more caffeine after 12 p.m.

On a side note: I read this amazing passage today about consciousness and self-realization that seemed an apropos kickoff for my mind-body program. It was written by Evelyn Underhill in 1911, and re-printed in the Mountain Record from the book Mysticism:

There are no words in which this realization can be described. It is of so actual a nature that in comparison the natural world of past perception seems twilit at the best. Consciousness has suddenly changed its rhythm and a new aspect of the universes rushes in. The teasing mists are swept away, and reveal, if only for an instant, the sharp outline of Everlasting Hills. "He who knows this will know what I say, and will be convinced the soul has another life." [Plotinus, Enneads]

MIND: Oh, baby, it's cold out there

This new study brought to mind two facts of life: the office is too cold and hot drinks soothe the soul. The new study shows that social isolation – or the ‘cold shoulder’ – actually makes you feel, well, cold and in need of some hot cocoa. The researchers asked people to guess the temperature of the room after thinking of socially isolating memory; they rated the temperature five degrees cooler than people who recalled a socially accepting memory. (CN)

MIND: Neural Buddhism or Western duff

Nice try David Brooks, but honestly I still don't think you nailed it. Brooks' op-ed "The Neural Buddhists" published in the May 13 New York Times, went deep into smug aging-boomer turf: science mysticism are not mutually exclusive. News flash! He cited (too briefly) that research trends are veering away from academic materialism, and into the emerging study of consciousness and emotions. This new direction for the Academy is exciting indeed, but where I got stuck in the op-ed is Brooks's use of the concept of Buddhism. His pre-packaged Whole Foods "I'm aethesist but spritual!" approach missed the point. He laid out several tenets that are critical to this new research direction:

1. The self is a dynamic concept.
2. Behind religious dogma, people have a common moral compass world wide.
3. We are physically rigged to be able to experience elevated states of being.
4. God is best conceived as the nature of being in that elevated state.

He calls this neural Buddhism. I get his point and I see the overlay with some Buddhist teachings, however where Brooks veers off course is that he tries to conflate theocratic systems and morality with a Buddhist system. It's a common Western trap, in my opinion. We are so trained to believe that there is or is not a God (believer or aetheist?), that question of God and where/how/what has to be the logical conclusion to an argument about consciousness. I beg to differ: there is no question about God. If you believe or don't believe is outside of the question of consciousness. There is no theocracy in Buddhism. If you believe in God, then it exists, if you don't believe, then it doesn't exist. God is a powerful idea but I don't think drills down into consciousness; if one is truly having a "direct experience" with God, a Buddhist would argue you would not even know you are having it because it would absolve the duality of self. That true enlightenment - the pinnacle of the elevated state of being (or feeling God in Brooks' words) - can ever been witnessed as an "other." When it is the other and you can speak about it as such, then you are not truly part of it.

What I am quite interested in learning more about is the elasticity of the brain and I hope that the academy continues to pursue that without getting caught in the God trap. (CN)

MIND/BODY: Wellness Guide

The New York Times launched an online Wellness Guide this week, which at first glance looked pretty interesting: the splash page has interactive old-timey graphics, and the package is organized around the body eclectic: from head to toe. As a former newspaper woman myself, I am well aware that packages like these are popular with advertisers and the bane of editors. To wit, the articles in the package reflect the this-is-as-thrilling-as-a-dentist-visit excitement of the editor. Some service pieces on bunions and other foot maladies, some regurgitated advice about simple-is-better for anti-aging skin care and some info on discreet hearing aids. All in all, the package is aimed at aging boomers and is really not a wellness package, as it is an "you are getting old and you're freaking" package. The navigation was confusing as well - a series of links on the splash page takes us readers off-site to other health web sites. The product is B-List Times. They can do better. They have to do better.

MIND: Your personal Lido Deck

Leisure time, according to this interesting interview with Alison Link in the New York Times today, is an especially critical concept for those"at-risk". I am intrigued with emerging research, particularly with addiction studies and rehabilitation, about how leisure time is critical tool for keeping us healthy.

Leisure time is hard. But it's important. Down time keeps us human. We're not career bots, but we're made of flesh and blood and neurons that sometimes need a break. And not a vacation break, but a daily one. A time to stop, reset, gather, exhale, regroup, relax, recover, breathe, loosen and go beneath the surface. From my personal experience, it boils down to this: meditation practice is bedrock for keeping it real. Without it, the noise starts . The distracting internal critics in my head start to clamor for attention. Meditation practice turns down that volume and allows me to 'hear' the truth in a situation without my emotions coloring every twist and turn, There is on-the-cushion Zen meditation, and then there is meditation practice as it informs everyday life. Walking down the sidewalk, being mindful to feel the breeze on my face. Washing the dishes, and having the awareness I am making my apartment a more relaxing and nicer environment. Dancing to the radio, and just dancing to the radio. (CN)

MIND: It's not the tea, it's the teapot

I admit that even in my infinite capacity to love media, digital convergence can feel totally overwhelming. I spent a long time ruminating about this Washington Post article about life in 2025, and my skin was especially crawly in the part about a future government-controlled "AmeriWeb." As we Twit', Tumbl', Flick' and G', so go our brains and bodies. Then today I was reminded how when we get out of bed and hit the floor running - checking phones and email - without a second thought, the day often goes to shit. It is constant work to remind myself to slow down, breathe and just take a bit of time to gather myself each morning before diving into my own frenzy.

I struggle to make it to my meditation cushion at times (like today) but then I heard of sweet, simple meditation practice that is a good middle ground for the morning rush.

It is called Teapot Meditation.

How: In the mornings when you turn on your kettle to make coffee or tea, sit quietly until the whistle blows. This is about 4-5 minutes, depending on your stove. If you're feeling uninspired, watch these chanting monks at a monastery in Hue, Vietnam. (I filmed this in April 2006.)

MIND: Rich *and* famous works best

Would you rather be rich or famous? A new study suggests that we want both. The area of the brain that processes cash - or monetary reward systems - also processes social values. (CN)

BODY: Lathered up in all the wrong places

Last week I bought some new soap.

I have been trying to economize recently, and realized that at $6.99/bar, my penchant for fancy hand-milled European soap was a bit spendy, so I opted for a mainstream option at the drug store and purchased a four pack of Yardley Aloe and Cucumber scented bars. But within a few days I noticed a small patch (dime-sized) of eczema on my arm, and uncomfortable itching in my nether regions. I didn’t have the symptoms of a yeast infection, and it dawned on me that my new soap was more likely the culprit. As I child I remember being taken to the doctor after a particular luxurious bath with a box of Mr. Bubble that led me to rub my itchy little puss on pretty much any object I could find.

Soap, and the vagina, it turns out are a bad mix. One concerning issue is that many women equate itchy vagina with yeast infection, and run to get OTC relief. I believe that these remedies, like Monistat, are severely over-used and only create a cycle of more infection. Feministing took on the issue with a great comment thread about natural vs. OTC remedies. But I digress. I have a looked more into the soap and irritated vagina relationship.

Sodium lauryl sulfate and it’s cousin sodium tallowate are the most commonly used soap bases. The former is a particularly prevalent, and harmful, chemical/irritant that can cause vulvitis or vulvar dermatitis. The latter – as the name suggests – is made from rendered animal fats and lye. It is also a known to irritate sensitive skin and aggravate eczema. Both of these ingredients are cheap and plentiful, but they are also not so great for your body.

But sodium lauryl sulfate is not just a small problem for me it turns out. The natural health care world has been quite vocal about all the associated dangers, including blindness in children, cancer, mouth sores, premature aging for the skin and hair. The jury is still out in mainstream research about the affects of SLSs with long-term exposure and it considered non-carcinogenic. However, neither was DDT for a long time. The bottom line: proceed with caution and make informed choices. Best idea: pick a soap with a vegetable base. (CN)

BODY/MIND: Food crisis is a feminist issue

I have been following food crisis news for more than a year about dwindling international reserves of rice and other grains (read my 2007 interview about rice), and the true crisis - apart from those hungry today - is that this will send back international women's rights for decades.

In short, high food prices have a undue affect on women. The percentage of women farmers ranges from 20 to 70, and is rising quickly in developing countries as more men leave for work in cities. In Africa, the situation is already harrowing for many women, who face violence from social unrest daily. The food crisis is compounding - worsening - existent civil strife. Some of the problems we can expect with respect for women's rights:

Increase in violence against women
More of their time is spent waiting (or looking) for food, reducing the amount of time they have to spend on other activities, including school, child-raising, and work
Poverty deepens
Children suffer
Literacy rates drop
An uptick in sexual work to make money

Ensuring women's rights - and pursuing policies that do so - isn't just a humanitarian issue, it is an economic one. (CN)

BODY: Sex after the big house

I came across this interesting post today at The Nation about the disturbing news from several weeks back that nearly 25% of teen girls have an STD. The author of the Nation piece asks for a re-framing of the issue: rather than behave shocked and horrified (we must do something! save the girls!) about the infection rates, we need to look at where these diseases are coming from (um, if 25% of teen girls are infected, what percentage of teen boys are?! The study did not look at male teens.) She links STD infection rates and incarceration rates in communities.

A personal rant about troubling media coverage: The Wall Street Journal downplayed the study's significance quoting a source as saying the high rate was because "it's just HPV and it will probably clear on its own." For nearly every woman I know who has dealt with HPV in one of its many forms, it does not clear on its own. It can be terrifying at age 18 to get a questionable pap smear and then told by your clinic gyno that half your cervix is going to lopped off to prevent possible cervical cancer. This is not clearing on its own. (CN)

MIND: Love and marriage or fish and bicycles

A 30-something woman: just the phrase alone conjures up a cascade of associations (media sustained) about babies, marriage, having it all!, the toll of gravity, and so on. Sadly, the associations rarely escape that box. Adjusted, enlightened, creatively satisfied, financially autonomous, happy from within: these associations reserved (weirdly) for a select few in the AARP set, if media coverage is any measure. (And for the record, I consider enlightenment as important, if not more, than the question of a baby. And indeed, the former behooves the latter.) But much coverage of this 30-something specimen boils down to this: so we gonna pop a kid out or what? Baby, no baby. Baby, no baby.

A fresh batch of writing has appeared in recent weeks on the subject and I dutifully present them here. Lori Gottlieb kicked off the media firestorm with her book Marry Him! and has appeared on NPR and in the pages of the Atlantic making her case for settling down with a 'good enough' guy, as opposed for continuing the search for deep, soulful personal connection. One friend of mine responded to a particularly depressing passage with "if she doesn't give a shit about the human connection of marriage, she should just marry her vibrator." Gottlieb went personal in a follow up on HuffPo about one of the responses she received. While another HuffPo writer, Lesley MM Blume, wanted to 'jab her eyes out' after reading Gottlieb's piece.
Meghan Daum at the Los Angeles Times wrote a measured response questioning the very framing of Gottleib's thesis. Why the emphasis on being married with child versus mothering solo? Shouldn't the emphasis be on whether motherhood should continue to be the foregone conclusion of identity for the modern woman? One of my favorite blogs Feministing cried sour grapes on Gottlieb calling her piece 'anti-feminist porn'.

In the end, my biggest beef here is that women are presented with a one-size-fits-all conundrum, the lowest common denominator being vaginas and what to put in, push out of them. But what is so often lost when the dust that gets kicked up around this issue, is the journey to get to these decisions. Life is hard and demands hard work, and that has nothing to do with babies, marriage, career or being female. It's about getting in there inside yourself and facing existential issues of being and nothingness, excuse the Buddha babble. The issue of greater importance is the foundation (spiritual and psychological) that brings us to make informed decisions in the first place. (CN)