The Hemp Connection:
Amber's journey

I'm grateful to see Amber's post this week. It's very real. And it confirms, for all of you, that changing behaviors isn't a perfect journey. In fact, there will be great days, and there will be far-from-awesome ones. If you're living with the fantasy that life is going to be just peachy when you lose weight/have a baby/get a boyfriend/pay off your debts, get over it. Real people have real problems. It is not whether or not you have problems that is important, it is how you handle those problems when they arise that is key.

What Amber didn't mention in this post, is that she is almost 2 weeks into being nicotine-free! So what's especially hard for her right now is that when things get stressful, not only does she not have food to turn to, she doesn't have cigarettes. Kudos to her for riding through it and being able to be introspective and insightful in the middle of a hormone/withdrawal storm. She's not giving herself enough credit for just what she's managed!

I introduced Amber to our resident yoga teacher, Sarah Jones, who is going to give Amber some pointers that can help both with the nicotine withdrawal and the stress management. Yoga is a very powerful tool for both. I look forward to hearing how the collaboration turns out.

Keep up the great work, Amber! Glad you liked the fries!

xoxo

Monika

Amber asked me awhile ago about some healthy substitutes for condiments, as she's noticed now that she's reading labels more closely, many are high in sodium.

Before I get to my suggestions, I want to congratulate Amber for her victorious week fighting the nicotine demon! It can be so hard to kick that habit, and it takes a lot of willpower. But if she can kick the butts…the rest is a whole lot easier.

Also, she's going to notice as she clears the tar and nicotine residues out of her body, her senses of smell and taste may be a whole lot more sensitive than when the cigarettes dulled everything. She may find that she doesn't even need salty condiments in order to taste her food. It's one of the rewards of quitting.: )

Tartar sauce
1/2 cup canola oil mayonnaise
2 tablespoons sweet pickle relish
1 large green onion, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons red wine vinegar

Barbecue sauce and Steak Sauce
I'm leaving this up to Eating Well, as they have a whole collection of barbecue sauces, marinades, and rubs. And the vinegar in many of these is excellent for keeping your post-meal blood glucose level low!

Ketchup
For the Jamie Oliver fans in our group, here is his recipe. I recently wrote an article about fennel, and it's included in his version. It takes a little bit of time, but for things like this I like to find pretty bottles at Goodwill and get crafty with it. Your kids might enjoy this as a Saturday afternoon project.

Mayonnaise
Canola oil mayonnaise is my favorite. I also, for those wanting to reduce fat, recommend stirring a spoonful of mayonnaise into a cup of Greek yogurt. Hummous makes a nice sandwich spread alternative to mayonnaise as well.

OK! Sounds like Amber had a great week, and tackled a lot of tough challenges. I look forward to seeing what the next week brings!

Hello everyone,

Amber texted me a bit ago to say she was having trouble with her computer and can't do her journal entry for tomorrow. So I told her I'd share some photos from our time together today. She and I and Craig met in Burbank to chat with ABC-7's Food Coach, Lori Corbin. She wanted to do a story about PCOS. I think it's going to turn out really well. Lori even asked Amber to continue to send updates about her progress so viewers could follow along with Amber the way you all follow her here.

I'm really excited that such a positive message from such a great role model is going to each women in a city such as large as Los Angeles!

I'm really hoping watching Amber's journey, ups, downs, good, bad, challenging, enlightening…is inspiring everyone who reads this to decide they too can make small changes adding up to a big difference.

Many, many thanks to Amber for doing the hard thing, and sticking with it…and most of all stepping up to the camera today and being her beautiful, genuine self!

Gettig miked and ready

I think someone in the peanut gallery was being disruptive

Interview action shot

Time for some supermodel lighting!

Team Amber!

We've got a new feature that we launched yesterday on the radio show. Amber is a woman with PCOS who, after a few years of not really knowing what to do for her PCOS, dealing with the many emotions that come with receiving the diagnosis, and taking the diagnosis out on herself…has decided it's time to change perspective.

In addition to her interview, she'll be blogging for us once a week as she works with me on her nutrition and with Craig Ramsay on her exercise plan.

I'm really excited about this because it's a first-hand view of what this journey, what many of you are looking for inspiration for, is like. Amber has been told that we don't expect perfection, and that this project will be more meaningful if it chronicles the ups and downs, the good and the bad.

So she's going to update us on Fridays about how it's going…what she's learning, what's working, what's hard, what's easy, what she wants the rest of you to know.

A huge thanks to Amber. It takes a lot to be so open when you're working on yourself. I'm honored to be part of the process, and hope you find it helpful!