IT'S TOXIC

Much to my dismay something I ate earlier in the week must not have been organic! The telltale sign is I have strategic, angry welts on my chest and face. I have taken a photo of one of them on my chest to show you what they look like.

Before I got these bumps I had that nausea in my stomach and headaches as if I had a hangover. Even though I did have alcohol earlier in the week I am not sensitive to it, but I bet you the vodka I drank was not organic. The mixer probably was, but I doubt the alcohol was. I'll find out more sunday.

The reason I'm sharing this with you is because I had at least a dozen of these when I first started organic only they got really bloody and full of pus. That is what a detox bump/symptom can also be like. They form where toxins are trying to get out of the body through the skin. Many doctors have patients on Niacin to help avoid this sort of situation.

See what you could have to look forward to?

EVENING DELIGHT

I think Organic has been taken to a whole different level with some of my friends. I was invited to a dinner event where my friends Taylor and Ronnie prepared striped bass ceviche(cooked) with a spicy mango and cilantro chutney. What was so special about the dish is the fish was caught by Taylor on a mini escape from the city! Does it get any fresher than that? http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=139113836109984

The thing is there is no USDA certification for fish according to Gustorganics owner Alberto Gonzales. That may be so, but I can say there is definitely a difference between getting farm-raised versus wild caught fish. The fish are not raised in stifling proximity to each other or raised off of feed made from GMO corn. Who ever heard of feeding fish corn anyway?

Oh by the way the Ceviche stole the show and I was honored that the hostess Stephanie had gone so far out of her way to make sure that everything was organic.

Still trying to figure out how to score some of the leftovers. My schedule has been insane!

NEWS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE!

The White House announced on May 11th that the threat to American society is not necessarily the war on terrorism, but the endocrine-disrupting chemicals in our foods!!!!!!!!!!

This is a MAJOR news break that shows that my journey may not be as ridiculous as many have commented. After the major results I was seeing in the first month I knew it couldn't be hype, but I just wasn't sure how much just the source of my food could be effecting me. I mean it does sound silly that I would be melting away 70 lbs of fat from eating steak and ice cream.

You MUST read this article: http://shine.yahoo.com/event/loveyourbody/why-you-cant-lose-those-last-10-pounds-1964849/

A big thanks to Donna for bringing this to my attention. There is a great amount of work to be done.

A WORK OF ART

This past weekend my friends Ronnie and Taylor treated me to a home-cooked organic meal. They did their shopping at Whole Foods which included steak, stir fry veggies, sweet tea, and carrots with a very addictive dip. The meal was topped off with the most intensely flavorful parfait! The combination of the yogurt, chocolate, granola, and fruit were so delightful that I asked them if they could step out of the room for a minute for some privacy. It didn't help that the dinner came with napkins decorated with half-naked cowboys on them. The entire meal was just incredible.

It was interesting to listen to their journey about sourcing their foods and how expensive organic can actually get. I then explained to them that farmers have said that if the demand increases then prices will go down. Basic supply and demand. I had also told them about www.organicdirect.com. They tend to be much more reasonable than whole foods anyway. They also commented on how despite the volume of food they ate that they were not miserably full as one would be after a meal like that.

A couple of days later Ronnie and Taylor said they had planned to eat like that more often. I replied if this country could do that at least once a week imagine what could happen?

The moral of the story is there's a lot of joy in organic food. It makes people feel good. It tastes good. The only thing missing from our dinner was our friend Stephanie who was off somewhere saving some part of the world, but I have a feeling we'll be enjoying more organic dinners in the future!

TESTING. TESTING.

So there seems to be a lot of doubt, cynicism, and sarcasm when I speak of organic.
Most people I poll say that they don't really believe that there is a difference.
Some say that it's just hype.
Some say it's not enough to really make a difference.

I would like for you to go out and buy one regular apple and one organic apple.
Slice both apples in half or to not be wasteful cut them into quarters and keep out a quarter of each apple on a plate.

I guarantee this will be a quick experiment because the organic apple will already begin to oxidize before you probably get a chance to put everything away.
See what happens to each apple in a day.

Then think about how difficult it might be for your own body to break down that regular apple versus the organic apple.

It might theoretically take even more calories to break down that regular apple than the organic one. That's something I will be personally looking into.

This will hopefully answer some people's question about how I know if I'm eating organic or industrial food. It's about as elementary as this apple.

Organic Muscle?

So now it looks like even the fitness industry has seen the marketing potential of organic.
Several months ago I saw a product launch called Orgain. All of the sudden it's starting to pop up around new york city just like vitamin water had started.
This could both scary and exciting. It certainly tastes better than any muscle drink I've had in the past, but it did give my stomach a little tinge of discomfort.
Lately my stomach has been a pretty quick gauge at what is and isn't organic.
I'm certainly not implying anything here and I applaud the effort. If anything it's a step forward AND the nutrition supplement industry should have already been on this trend a very long time ago!!! It's also refreshing to see words that I can pronounce as well! Check out some of the conventional brands!!!

AMISH CHICKEN?

A while back we explored Kosher meat. Many were under the idea that Kosher meat is the same as organic meat. We quickly found out they don't even compare.

This evening I was invited out to dinner and the main course was Amish Chicken. For once I did not make a scene given the circumstances. It's only logical that the very people who chose to opt out of zippers on their clothing would raise livestock without hormones or antibiotics right?

All I can say is by the end of the dinner I was getting a miniature migraine behind my left eye and my ankles were beginning to swell. Some of the other guests also commented on how big the chicken was which could also be an indicator of hormone use.

Luckily someone has already done that homework for me. Amy's table has looked into Amish chicken in the new york area via the NY Times. The verdict is the Amish label on the food is more about marketing hype. Amish Chicken may not even be raised by the Amish.

Judging by my body's response to the dinner (and no I did not even have a sip of alcohol) USDA might be a better way to go for now. Haven't had a headache from that yet!

I'm still glad I took a chance to see what would happen if I trusted a restaurant. I was among great company anyway.

Just to be fair I'll give them a ring in the morning to find out what the whole story is.

CALORIES MATTER?

Last night I had about 8 oz of steak, 4 servings of the fattiest potatoes, and a tiramisu (pictured here). In total I'm guessing I consumed over 3000 calories. Earlier that day I had a chicken and sausage gumbo and a high protein shake called orgain which definitely hit over 1000 calories. For breakfast I had a raw salad that would probably equal at least 600 calories. All in all there were at least 4000 calories consumed in the day. It takes 3500 calories to equal a pound.

I have not been able to eat this volume of food since high school! Off of eating these foods I am losing weight. If you had told me this in the past that calories may not matter I would have told you that's crazy!

Things to consider: all of the food that I am consuming is organic. No I do not have a tapeworm. Yes I am exercising less than I was when I first started....maybe 3-4 times a week instead of 7 days a week.

The reason I am bringing this up is because I was blasted for not making sense on this journey. I have both doubters and cheerleaders. I didn't say I knew what I was doing. I just thought it made sense that since my body had difficulty losing weight for many reasons that I would go back to the way I used to eat when I was thin. It was a time where we grew and ate our own food or bought from a store that locally sourced our food.

Don't get me wrong. Even my father thinks organic and my weight is a bunch of crap, but I can't wait to see him in August and have him tell me he still thinks that way.
Even my skin looks like it used to.....clear and soft.

So now I want to find a documentary/filmographer that will test twins eating the same foods for three to six months. The only difference is the one twin will be eating industrial foods and the other one will be eating organic! That's a true test!

In the meantime I'm going to dig up more fun facts like how low levels of toxins absorbed by the body can lower the thyroid function thus causing your metabolism to slow down.
I don't know of any toxins in any foods do you? I just found out from a doctor on thursday that margerine is one molecule away from plastic! Hmmmmm.