ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY

I am just hours away from my one year anniversary of committing to organic. It has been quite the experience! Without trying I kept off a total of more than 50 lbs last year. Initially I had lost 70 and decided that I could play around and experiment with foods. I have no doubt I will lose 50 more!

I now officially know that organic is not hype. (There is marketing hype that makes people think they're eating healthy or organic.) My body will not tolerate conventional foods. It reacts in so many ways that are really unpleasant. For instance I just found out that conventional chocolate now gives me migraines. I have to figure out what is in it that causes that, but that has been my immediate response on two occasions (within about an hour). The pus-filled boils I get from ingesting pesticides are the worst because I never know how long it will take for them to heal and they leave a nasty scar on my very white skin. :(

One bit of wisdom I would like to pass on is beware of marketing. Really read your labels and know what it is that you are putting into your body. The perfect example of misleading labels was from a chocolate bar I picked out from Ghirardelli a few days ago. The labeling says 100% natural. The back of the label says in the ingredients HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP. According to the FDA "products containing high fructose corn syrup cannot be considered 'natural' and should not be labeled as such'.

HELLO this is my point. A company puts on their packaging 100% natural and yet it still gets to market and past the FDA. NO ONE is going to monitor what goes into your mouth or on your skin except for you. Don't rely on others for trust. You run a risk putting your life in other people's hands. This is the most valuable lesson I have learned!

For me organic itself is not hype. My weight loss has shown me that my body can't process these chemicals even if they are coming from whole foods. The hormones really slow down my system. The pesticides are a whole other issue.

The journey does not stop here. I plan on checking in about once a month because now I am motivated to go to the next step: creating a network of friends, restaurants, and farmers. We need to get back to food basics. We need to learn to ask questions. The most difficult thing that everyone from the outside looking in has told me is: organic is too expensive and it's hard for me to find it. It's not true if you know what to look for. You need to eat in season as we discussed in Alicia Silverstone's book "The Kind Diet". Trader Joe's is fairly priced as well. A friend of mine has friends that are going to start setting up gardens for people as a service in New Jersey. There is so much out there we can do to make things better if we just put one ounce of effort in.

I'm also going to start a database of farmers and restaurants. The temporary site is at http://organic-farmers.blogspot.com/

I'm going to ask each of my friends and their friends to find one good place that serves actual organic or biodynamic products.

Welcome to 2011!

ONE WEEK LEFT

Disappointed does not begin to express how I feel about the last few weeks.

For starters I allowed myself to eat conventional food where organic was unavailable. Many "organic" restaurants who have the same problem sourcing will do the same thing as well without telling the consumer. The thing is I was fully aware I was not eating organic. I have no one to blame but myself.

Without surprise I'm paying for it now. My stomach feels beat up! I have open sores all over my body. My mouth has been so raw that I feel like it's been burned with hot pizza and it's never recovered. My hands, ankles, and face are really swollen.

Since I also went home to Kentucky (exhausted after working 22+ hour days for the last month) I decided to not burden myself with finding or eating organic. I ate mostly home cooked meals. I feel like I've gained 20 lbs.

New Year's eve I shared an order of non-organic chicken nachos with black beans, mango, and lots of other toppings. It had no taste. It was like I was eating cardboard with hot sauce.

So I decided I would go back to home base: Gusto Organics. I had a burger with sweet potato fries and a salad and all I can say is ahhhhhh. I already feel the difference. Don't get me wrong. I still feel beat up, but at least now I feel a bit more nourished and not as lethargic. In fact my goal for this final week is to try to eat at Gusto as much as possible and see what that will do for me.

As a side note I thought I would share this photo with you. My stepmother is holding a very large apple to the right. On the left she has a washington apple. What in the world are they doing with the apples in Washington??????? That apple was the size of a melon or half the size of her head!!!