BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS

I was a little crazed this morning to get my laundry done after I got a last-minute call to do something for the Tyra Banks show today. I was at the end of my cute clothes.
That being said there was only a very large corner deli available for me to get my nourishment from....especially at 8am.

I began to scour the store for organic products or even anything that would resemble something even healthy. I've found that most delis at least carry Stonyfield yogurt. I was a little disgruntled over the fact that the only thing that I found in the ENTIRE STORE was a honey Honest Tea. Nothing like having some organic cane sugar to start your day off right!

I have discovered most organic products that are conveniently available to me are prepackaged. I'm seeing a LOT of organic cane sugar in a lot of these certified organic products which is really not good for the insulin!!!! It's only going to spike it and make me gain weight with my already fragile metabolism.

The question is would you do the prepackaged organic products or the possibly GMO fresh foods? I would prefer fresh, but I'd rather speak to an expert about this.

To finish my story when I got to the cash register I looked at the bottle and told the clerk out of the 2000+ sq feet he has in that store only 1 product was organic.
He just looked at me a little puzzled and could only say "really?".

I wanted to say and by the way most of the rest of the store's products organic or not were garbage. But the reality is if people weren't making these choices they wouldn't stock their stores with this crap!

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!

THE FIRST LADY

I have to say I was both inspired by my interview with Alberto Gonzalez and invigorated by the food that followed. It has made me want to do food socials at Gustorganics. More to follow on that later.

I don't believe I've had as many compliments on my skin as I have today! Everyone including one of the girls that works with me wondered what I was doing with my skin. I said I have been doing the very same thing every day except changing the source of my food.

When one of my last clients of the day asked about my skin I told her about this organic project. I also explained to her that I want to go around to grade schools and high schools and educate kids about our food sources and create a grocery/menu for low to middle income families. She suggested I go straight to the top and make alliances with Michelle Obama who has a similar initiative.

As most people know Michelle Obama has been trying to increase the number of fruits and vegetables that kids eat to decrease the rate of childhood obesity. She started off by planting an organic garden at the White House. She also goes around to the schools and tells the kids "if you want to grow up big and strong like me you need to eat your fruits and veggies". Anyone out there know Michelle?

On a completely different note thank you Julie for the Organic Raisins! They're delish!

I HAVE A DREAM

......was the message the proprietor of Gustorganics, Alberto Gonzalez conveyed in our interview. As I said in a previous post, this native Argentinian has developed the first 100% USDA Organic Restaurant in the USA.

What I loved most about Alberto is that he built something based on an idea. He wanted everyone to see that we are killing ourselves with industrial food. The "Frankenstein" Mc-America-$5.00-meal that our government and corporations have created is killing us. We are one of the sickest, food-related diseased countries in the world. Alberto felt that if he made an example that showed it's possible for Americans to eat Organically and for businesses to profit, then his message could succeed. Alberto didn't set out to be a restauranteur. He set out to change the world.

As the interview went along further Alberto began to really show his sincere passion. I asked him questions like what is the difference between Gustorganics and Whole Foods? He said while they are making an effort that is needed in the food industry only 15% of Whole Foods is organic whereas his restaurant was 100% Organic. Alberto likes to source from local farmers for his food supply and encourages farmers with organic practices to get certified with the USDA. USDA is important to him because it is a good guideline to help make our food better.

Another good point that Alberto made is that a lot of people complain about the price of Organic. "Our portions in America are too large," says Gonzales. In europe they eat half as much food as we do. If America's portions were where they should be then it would not cost as much to eat Organic and the quality of life would increase.

I actually can second that theory. At the restaurant Organique where I eat all of my meals, they weigh their food by the pound at the hot and cold bars. My meals have been costing between $5-$8 which is cheaper than other restaurants for the same type of food! For lunch I had amazing chicken with brussel sprouts. Yesterday I had grilled salmon with quinoa and roasted tomatoes. I also find it's cheaper to eat that way in the end because the food is more satisfying.

In the end I played a little bit of a devil's advocate and mentioned that what if Organic is all hype? Maybe it's just the fact that Americans eat so much crap that it is really the cause to all of this sickness. BUT as a reminder this project is not about eating well. It is about ONLY changing the source of my food. In fact this morning I had an organic chocolate granola bar (120 calories).

After the Divine Eggs Benedict I had with Maureen two Sundays ago I couldn't pass up the opportunity to grab dinner there.

I decided to go all out for the skirt steak accompanied by broccoli and mashed potatoes. Alberto is from Argentina so I had to test to see if the meat was really that good.

It was unbelievable! It was so good it tasted like the food had a flavor enhancer. I savored the entire plate (which could have easily fed two), but I wanted to see what would happen if I finished my entire plate like I've always been trained to do.

On my very infantile organic food journey I give Gustorganics 5 stars!

In the meantime I'm so inspired by Alberto's mission that I'm going to try to see if he and Intelligent Nutrients could work together.....I love a challenge!

LET THEM EAT CAKE!

If someone had told me this tiny little cake was going to be split among over 20 people and that we would all be full off of it I would have thought you were nuts. Actually that's in fact what the baker told us.
This masterpiece called a strawberry shortcake is a raw cake. Raw means this cake has never been cooked. Given that the cake was so dense and satisfying the creator was correct. The entire room was bursting at the seams from this little cake..... and there were even three different kinds of cakes to try!
The icing tasted like cream cheese and the amount of strawberry flavor.....divine!
I was invited by Dhrumil, one of my organic/raw guides to attend a raw food gathering in Brooklyn New York at a new cafe that just opened called Sun In Bloom.
I had no clue what this event was going to be like. In general when I eat out at raw restaurants they go really heavy in the nuts which gives my stomach a really big workout, but this menu was really invigorating.
Meeting the "tribe", which consisted of people of all ages (but generally people in their 20's and 30's) was even more interesting.
I had a chance to ask people why they decided to go raw. Most of them answered that it was out of their own varied health conditions and concerns.
We spoke about food sourcing, the challenges of raw, the perceptions of vegetarianism, aging as a vegetarian, cleanses, and my project.
I expressed that for now I was still going to consume meat if my body craves it. Again, the only thing that is changing for this project is my food source.
We all left the cafe a little more nourished and a l myself a little more enlightened.
I must get the recipe for that Strawberry Shortcake!

TOMORROW'S FUTURE

Today I am very sad and even more determined to make sure what's in this photo that I found online does not become mainstream America!
Right now I probably know more people with lap bands and gastric bypasses than I do with cancer. There are all kinds of weight gain and weight loss theories out there. For me the ONLY thing I ever found to help me lose weight was the Elementals Wellness System. They have 30 programs for basically almost every diet type: vegan, kosher, on the go, but not the drastically-stressed-executive-that-doesn't-leave-her-office-but-to-go-home-and-take-a-shower meal plan! When I followed it I had lost 40 lbs in about 6 months. It was very easy, but I think that something even simpler has to happen to all of our diets. My theory still resides within the fact that our mass produced food might not be processing by our bodies.

In skincare, a cancer practitioner named Denie Hiestand had explained to me that when the body can't process a chemical absorbed by the skin, the body wraps the chemical up with a tumor to protect the body from the chemical.
I have heard many others since say the same thing and thus the green movement in skincare right now.

Again I am very neutral on this matter. Hopefully in a year we will discover the answer together. The only thing that I can do is sit back and wait and be loyal to the organic journey....for the kids.