CHOICES

After working a long, hard day in the office I decided it was time to take a break at the ping pong club next door called SPIN NYC. I had mentioned them in the beginning because they were the ones trying to accommodate my gluten free diet.

Much to my surprise they had added an organic wine to their alcohol list!!! When one of the owners of the restaurant saw me at the club and asked why I had not been there I told her about my organic journey. She said that actually a lot of what they source is local or what would be considered to be organic!!! She said she would sit down with me and go through the menu to show me what was organic. Yeah!

Some of the staff there said they also noticed that I was losing weight, especially in my face. One of the bartenders who is from Russia said that where she comes from in Russia (Siberia) everything is organic. She said she was super skinny in Russia. She also said they ate more in season which is what Alicia Silverstone talks about in her book the Kind Diet. I asked the bartender if she gained weight moving to the US and she said definitely. 20 lbs extra to her 100 lb frame. She attributes it to eating food in restaurants so she keeps it under control by preparing most of her own food so
that she knows exactly what is in it.

Good info. Looks like I have a date with one of the owners at Spin to figure out what I can eat!!!

ROAD TRIP!

It looks like I get to take this Organic project on the road. I have my grade school reunion this saturday in Kentucky. I spent 9 years with these people! I'll be flying into Chicago in the morning and driving to Kentucky. I've decided to see if my journey will be one of starvation. I am going completely unplanned under the trust that I will find something organic somewhere.

I just couldn't stand to bring anything prepackaged on the road with me. As I said a lot of packaged organic products seem to have organic cane syrup which I try to stay from to keep my insulin from spiking! I also didn't have time to get any fresh fruit, etc because I have been dependent upon the restaurants surrounding me. To say the least this is going to be very interesting. I'll take lots of photos.

In addition I've already warned my dad that I will be eating only organic while I am at home. He and my stepmother do very well with a lot of their foods since they grow so much in their garden. He also said he would have fresh eggs from his friend's chickens (which I can't wait to indulge in). I think in the back of his head he thinks that eating organic is a bit hokey though. I told him once he takes a look at me he can decide if organic is making a difference or not. I haven't seen him since christmas.

On a different note I was so upset I had to miss out on a major restaurant opening at Jean Georges. That was a REALLY big deal to turn down. I know a lot of fashion people don't eat very much, but when you are specifically going to a restaurant opening it's probably not the best thing to be a social outcast among that group. How upsetting. The person who invited me is a very well-known writer who thought it wouldn't be such a big deal to cheat on one meal. BUT to me I am remaining loyal throughout the entire year! I really must know for myself if organic is really going to make a difference!!!

As you can see I have also attached a fuller length photo taken of me this week from fashion week. I've had some inquiries at to what my body looks like right now. At the start of this journey the scales leaned towards 300 lbs! I would estimate here that I am about 265 lbs already! Mind you I was also still swollen from a wreckless doctor last year so I can imagine some of this loss is edema (water). I am not weighing myself until I am further along into this project. This is not about a weight loss. This is about observing BOTH the physical and mental changes going on from this journey.

Thanks to my friend Casey for shooting this photo of me.

By the way I doubt I will have the internet access that I need during this trip to update this blog so I will catch you on the other side of the reunion either feb 24th or feb 25th.

Have a great weekend and wish me luck!!!

A 'CLEAN' PLATE

As of this saturday I am completing my third week of my organic journey. It's not easy here in the Big Apple! At this moment I am taking in information and looking for guidance in all sorts of areas! For instance my friend Lisa just told me Alicia Silverstone has a new book called The Kind Diet which sounds very interesting. She said it includes reasons we shouldn't eat foods that are not in season.

For weeks now a particular book has been staring me in the face when I check out at the register of Organique. It's titled Clean Plates NYC. I just purchased it the other day because I found out Organique was on the approved list. The book is by a Nutritionist, Jared Koch and Food Critic, Alex Van Buren. All of the 75+ Restaurants had to undergo certain criteria. Taste, Atmosphere, Type of Cuisine, Lifestyle, Geography, Healthfulness of ingredients, Food Source, High percentage of veggies on the menu, etc.

I truly applaud Jared for taking on such and ambitious and very necessary project. I was sad when I began to scan the book and didn't find Gustorganics. I immediately emailed Jared to ask why Gustorganics did not make the cut? Chipotle did, but Gustorganics didn't? He explained that Gustorganics is in the supplemental list as "Healthy, not Tasty".

Not tasty? I had to figure this out! Were my taste buds not fully operating? I decided to enlist my friend Lisa this evening for dinner because she always gives here unfiltered opinion to me (because we just have that kind of relationship). She (just as Maureen) was "blown away" and by they time we got to dessert, the organic chocolate fondue with organic fruits, we couldn't control the groans coming out of our mouths. It was like two women reenacting a scene out of WHEN HARRY MET SALLY! One of the hosts thought it was so funny he couldn't resist topping us off with a taste of organic champagne. The staff was quite amused.

Clean Plates NYC also puzzles me because I look at some of the places that made the list like Angelica Kitchen and feel a lot less inspired by their menu. Angelica's foods were heavy and dense for me, but it's been several years since I've eaten there. Quintessence is also not on the list. Quintessence does a raw menu that doesn't seem as taxing on the intestines as Pure Food and Wine (also on the list). This is Jared's book and not everyone is going to have the same preferences.

Whole Foods is also on the list which renders some questions. I was told only 15% of their food is organic. The Organic Consumer's Association has even posted a letter from Sept 2009 urging Whole Foods to straighten up their act.

Once again I am left with a lot of confusion and feel like I am just entering inside of a crossfire I didn't intend to encounter.

I wave the white flag and trust that this year the proof will be the changes in my own body, health, and mind. There's a lot of things brewing in my mind, but don't worry, I'll keep pushing forward!

INTEGRITY

When I decided to go into business for myself I told myself I would do it in a way that would not compromise integrity. It's almost impossible to find businesses that are honest with their customer out there. I hear that honesty doesn't make money, but I plan on showing the world otherwise.

A couple of quotes I have kept in mind were "Behind every great fortune there is a crime."- Honore de Balzac and "Business is the art of extracting money from another man's pocket without resorting to violence"- Max Amsterdam.

Taking on a company that provides food that is either organic or locally sourced and the equivalent is a very daunting task especially in this economy. I am already starting to taste the differences in "organic" food in some places. I think I'm starting to pick up on what one business owner explained to me which is: a restaurant will call itself organic when it only buys a few organic chickens and the rest of the chickens they prepare come from industrial sources. I also know this is true. I have several restaurant owners around that source their food from the food industrial giant Sysco. They keep a lot of businesses running. That's what part of this journey is about figuring out our food and its sources.

On a different note here are a few more observations that I picked up in regards to my physical appearance. I know I picked up a bit of belly weight which that means it is directly from the food. I don't want to hear about the cortisol theory. I already know the culprit. The only thing that changed this week is I went three times to Gustorganics where the portions are MUCH larger than what I usually eat. One of their plates could feed two people comfortably which is also a greater value for your money.

The fact that I am able to weigh my food and use a particular container size at Organique really keeps me consistent. There is also a wider variety of vegetables like purple cabbage and eggplant. So the one thing in my diet that did change was variety. I still keep the ratios of meat and veggies the same. I don't do very much fruit. From time to time I will eat bread as part of a gluten-fee sandwich. I may have an acai juice here and there, but again NOTHING HAS CHANGED IN THIS PROJECT BUT THE SOURCE OF MY FOOD. That being said I have a very big trust issue about my food and as one writer put it "I'd rather go to the farmer's market and look him in the eye and know what I am getting rather than trust what I am being told that I am getting!"

Looks like I'm going to have to enlist one of my chef friends into this project if I can. On to the farmer's market!