In the series “Mary Portas queen of shops” we watched how Portas tackled struggling independent businesses and breathed life and wealth back into them with ideas about merchandising the store, to buying and pricing strategies. Now Mary has got her beady eyes on Britain’s charity shops.
Mary believes charity shops represent a key part of the future of shopping: “a vast number of consumers worry about ethical shopping and the environment and charity shops provide a route to a greener way to shop where everybody wins”.
I loved “Mary Portas queen of shops” first time round and with my love of charity shops I cannot wait to see how this series is going to go and if Portas will succeed in her mission. I was watching last night on BBC2 at 9pm along with you guys thinking it was all going to have to turn out nice in the end because otherwise what is the point of the series? Awareness?
After watching the first five minutes it was clear poor Mary had her work cut out for her with the shop, dumped donations and Nick the apparent “Manager”. What surprised me most was the mindset of the people. Some of the volunteers did not think the shop needed a change, some were not open to change and some refused to change. If Portas cannot get the volunteers to want to change their mind sets about the store how does she endeavour to change the buying public’s minds about shopping at charity shops?
I am more than sure the BBC show will split people’s opinions on Mary Portas. Some cannot stomach her and find her patronising or condescending. Making the complaint that the shop workers were just volunteers and that they had been in that same job for 30 odd years. On the other side we have Mary Portas who has a wealth of retail knowledge and wants to help them make money by making some simple changes and treat them like a business. Mary Portas is marmite?
I cannot wait to watch the rest of the series and I really want this “plan” to work for Portas, the charity shops and the public. If we can change people’s ideas or perceptions that these stores are not just dumping grounds for our old tat and are in fact goldmines for great fashion and bric a brac than I will be happy and content. I will be tuning in for more “Mary Portas queen of charity shops” next week.
‘Tis the time of year when blogs, magazines, and radio broadcasts are full of tips for combating overeating, over-drinking, and the kind of carousing that leaves you tired, bloated, overly full, and generally disgusted with yourself. They’re often repetitive, and not all that useful. I’m full of tips, techniques, and strategies myself, actually! One that I DO think is useful and easy to remember is HALT, which stands for Hungry, Angry, Lonely, and Tired.
If you’re one of those things – hungry, angry, lonely, or tired – the risk of over-indulging rises. If you’re two, three of those things, the risk of losing control is much greater. And if you’re all four of those things, watch out world, because almost nothing’s going to stand in the way of the oncoming binge, bad behavior, or acting out.
But what’s the first aspect of change? Awareness. HALT is a way to bring yourself back to a place of awareness, so you can reign in your behavior before it becomes self-destructive. Let’s talk about the specifics:
Hungry: When you’re hungry – really hungry – your blood sugar starts to drop, and you feel tired, confused, and irritable. And did we mention, hungry? Really, really hungry. Like, so hungry you could the entire contents of a small refrigerator. Or the buffet table. Or as much as you can load up on at the drive-through. Yeah, that kind of hungry. Women with PCOS are more subject to the vagaries of blood sugar dysregulation (it’s the insulin resistance thing, AGAIN) than other people. We’re more vulnerable. Accept it, and plan for it.
Strategy: Have a little healthy snack with you at all times. Know that shopping is hard work and frequently results in blood sugar drops because you’re walking more than you think. Plan ahead. Decide: “If I get hungry, I’m going to Subway for a turkey sandwich loaded up with vegetables and skip the mayo.” This will prevent you from going to McDonald’s and getting a Big Mac, large fries, and a shake.
Angry: The traffic, the crowds, the prices, the shopping for people you don’t even care about, the time pressure, and the social obligations, your spouse who still expects home-cooked meals when you’re in the middle of SHOPPING!, can all lead to a build-up of anger.
Strategy: Do not shop when you’re angry. Do not expose yourself to challenging foods or social situations when you’re angry. Take five to twenty minutes to meditate, walk around the block, drink a glass of cool water, and practice forgiveness and compassion. Now engage in your usual activities.
Lonely: So often, it’s assumed that we’re off with our friends, families, and other loved ones at the holidays, but some of us are sitting home alone, without an invitation, a thought, or a concern.
Strategy: If you’re alone, embrace it. Don’t take a shower until 3:00 p.m. Spend all day on FaceBook. Eat breakfast for dinner. Revel in your ability to live precisely how you want to live today, without judgment or interference. It can be utterly rejuvenating. If you don’t like being alone, and really do feel lonely, make a point of issuing invitations to other people, or showing up at every group event you know about, and don’t tell me it’s unfair that you have to do all the asking. Life is like that sometimes, and if you want to undo this loneliness, you will have to take action. Tell people you don’t have any plans for Christmas, and you don’t have any invitations either. Quite often, one will be forthcoming. People are feeling generous this time of year. In any case, again, avoid whatever triggers you to behave uncharacteristically. This is not a good time to shop the web, bake a cake, or order enough take-out for six people. Remind yourself that this is a temporary, and repairable, condition.
Tired: Tiredness connects to hunger quite often. Drops or dips in blood sugar can leave you feeling exhausted, confused, and overwhelmed. When you’re tired, your decision-making capacity is impaired. See where I’m going with this theme?
Strategy: If you’ve been running around like a maniac, trying to get it all done (The shopping! The cooking! The baking! The cards! The decorating! The parties! OH MY!), slash and burn. You are NOT Superwoman. I repeat, you are NOT Superwoman. No one will notice. Seriously. I used to send upwards of 100 handwritten (and often handmade) greeting cards. A few years ago, I only sent a few. Now I don’t send any, except to my mother, and that’s a maybe. Not one single person has called me out for it. Wow, what a relief!
If you feel strongly, pick a few critical priorities (i.e., my husband will definitely die, or at least pout for days, if he doesn’t get a homemade peppermint cake by Christmas, my children will be ostracized if they don’t get Chanukah gifts like everyone else, and my staff assistant is going to “lose” my messages for the rest of the year if I don’t buy her a great present) and lose the rest. Children are important; adults will have to understand. Your budget, your sanity, and your ability to get the rest you need are the most important things. The rest is not. HALT. And be well.
Gretchen Kubacky, Psy.D. is a Health Psychologist in private practice in West Los Angeles, California. She has completed the inCYST training. She specializes in counseling women and couples who are coping with infertility, PCOS, and related endocrine disorders and chronic illnesses.
If you would like to learn more about Dr. HOUSE or her practice, or obtain referrals in the Los Angeles area, please visit her website at www.drhousemd.com, or e-mail her at AskDrHouseMD@gmail.com. You can also follow her on Twitter @askdrhousemd.
Hi! My name is Belynda and it is nice to meet you. I have been itching to get a blog going to be able to chat with some of the bloggers I have been reading.
I am at that sweet spot in life with my kids grown and I have time to figure out what I like to do. I have a good amount of job experience and a good amount of stay-home experience, too. Most of my job experience is in the secretarial field. I was at home during most of my child-raising years. Then I had a FUN job working at a hospital gift shop. It was like going shopping for a few hours each time I went to work.
Decorating is one of my passions and I rearrange and tweak things around my house A LOT. I like to cook, but am more along the lines of Sandra Lee than Ina Garten. My most favorite thing to shop for is: PURSES! Love them. I can get a rush from a new beauty product, too. Getting a "deal" is a big thrill for me and I love to tell people when I find one.
I am married and my husband and I have three sons. Our oldest is married to a beautiful girl and they live about 40 minutes from us, our middle son lives a little nearer to us-about 30 minutes away, and our youngest is finishing his last year in graduate school and still lives with us. I am sure a lot of my stories will involve them!
The day after the FDA warning about pistachio nuts came out, I was in a local grocery store. As I walked through the produce aisle, I noticed the produce manager and his clerk with a huge bin; they were emptying out their inventory of pistachio nuts into a huge garbage bin. They had no idea where their pistachios had come from, and they had to throw them away.
I felt sad that so much food had to be wasted.
The day that the FDA warning about pistachio nuts came out, I received a note from Whole Foods Market. They were working to source where all their pistachio nuts came from. A detailed memo was released later in the week regarding the safety of pistachios in their many stores.
Please read this blog post and make your own decisions. But do consider the value in being an informed consumer. If you are judicious about where you shop, it may be worth a little extra investment. If you make a choice to purchase locally grown products at your farmer's market, you're not only supporting a local small business, you know exactly what hands your food passed through before it fell into yours.
There will come a time when pistachios will be considered generally healthy to eat, no matter what the source. And when that comes, keep these pistachio fun facts in mind:
--a one ounce serving of pistachio nuts scores higher on the USDA's antioxidant scorecard than a cup of green tea. --pistachio nuts can help to reduce bad cholesterol and raise good cholesterol --pistachio nuts are high in lutein and can help prevent macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness --pistachio nuts are a good source of many vitamins and minerals, including: thiamin, vitamin B6, copper, manganese, potassium, dietary fiber, phosphorus and magnesium --pistachio nuts are a good source of healthy fats, including omega-3's
My point is…I hope you don't eliminate pistachios completely from your diet because of what you've heard in the news. The pistachio recall was specifically for pistachios from Setton Farms. If you can shop at a store or farmer's market where you can be assured pistachios did not pass through this processing plant, they can be a wonderful addition to your PCOS eating plan.
Here's a recipe for white bean pistachio chili to get you started!
Phoenix Vice Mayor and District 4 Councilman Tom Simplot just sent me his responses to my questions I recently posed to our City Council members about locally produced food and organic shopping. Vice Mayor Simplot is not one to sit still! In addition to being Vice Mayor, he serves on various City Council subcommittees.
Love how he mentions the light rail! Using that to get to and from your favorite local watering hole or grocery shopping spot, not only adds a little bit of activity into the evening…it promotes a healthier environment as well!
Do you have any favorite locally owned restaurants in your council district that you'd like us to mention? Plenty. Since the completion of the light rail, new locally owned businesses have been sprouting up along the rail line like organic mushrooms. Postino's on Central; Maizie's; and Two Hippies Taco Shop are relatively new to the district, and more are on the way. Old favorites include Harley's Bistro; Fez; and Alexi's.
Do you have a favorite Arizona-grown food? All locally grown food is great…and don't forget Arizona wines, too.
You mentioned that you are a strong supporter of the Phoenix Downtown Market. Do you have any favorite booths? Yes, the ones that hand out samples! Hmmm…then I must have unknowingly bumped into you at least once at the Dr. Hummus booth!
You're in the middle of a campaign and you're a pretty busy guy with all your committees and boards, yet you make time to patronize the Downtown Market. What would you say to the person who says the idea of a local market is nice but they're just too busy to shop there? The one of the best reasons about shopping at the Downtown Market is that you, as a consumer, have a say in what your dollar supports. You know exactly who benefits from your purchase; I like to think of it as a"political purchase."
A LITTLE MORE ON WINE! Councilman Simplot gave me a perfect lead in to a topic I've always intended to write about but never did--wine and health. For starters, the main difference between red and white wine is that red wine incorporates the crushed skins of the grapes in processing, while white wine removes the skin and uses only the remaining pulp for the final product. Resveratrol, found in grape skins and therefore in red wine, is probably the most well-known of these compounds. However, grape pulp contains polyphenols, another kind of antioxidant, which gives white wine health benefits too. Both red and white wine have antibacterial activity. So regardless of the type of wine you enjoy, know there is some benefit to your favorite variety.
If you are currently trying to conceive, or do not drink alcohol, the same benefits can be obtained by eating fresh grapes, grape juice, and wine vinegar. Homemade vinaigrettes are quick and easy, and a perfect topper for the salad fixin's you are sure to find while working your way from that free hummous sample to the organic grapes on your next trip to the farmer's market.
I appreciate your time and comments, Councilman Simplot. From healthy, tasty food to using public transportation to thoughtful consumer spending, you summarized exactly the kind of choices what inCYST aspires to encourage in its readers.
Something I love, love, LOVE about working with PCOS is all the amazing creativity I have the honor to be surrounded by! So many of you are singers, authors, sewers, candle makers, dancers…it really is part of who you all are.
I finally figured out how to do something positive with it. Talked to Beth over at Power Up for PCOS, and she's opened up a"Shop Cysters" store. If you have any kind of creative works that you sell, be it photography, jewelry, or sweaters, and you have some type of online link we can use to promote you, we'll promote you in exchange for a donation of the percentage of the sale.
It really is important for me to make what we do as positive as it can be. I know many of you are going through hard times financially, partly because of the economy and partly because of the expense of your PCOS. Here's a little thing we can do to help a bit. Plus, I know when artistic people do their artistic things, it's a huge stress reliever.
Not long ago a young woman posted photos of earrings she was making to pay for her IVF on her fan page. It drove home the massive collective cost of this diagnosis. It just occurred to me one day, shoot, 1 in 5 women has this disorder, and if you think about the collective economic power held within that percentage…imagine the voice we'd all have if we started shopping from each other, and stopped buying the foods and products that simply don't promote our health? We'd get a whole lot of attention. We'd have a voice with a backbone.
Shop Cysters is a small, very small step toward having that voice…but a year ago a walk-a-thon raising several thousand dollars wasn't even on the radar. You all have it in you to make a huge difference together.
I want people to know about the good side of PCOS, and not to think of women who have the disorder as some kind of walking pathology. You're not. You're the creative force in our population and we need to honor it.
If you're interested in participating, please go to www.powerupforpcos.com/shopcysters for more information.
I’ve been having an interesting conversation on Twitter with a woman who advocates for size acceptance.
I shared with her that I believe in size acceptance, but that my experience in over 30 years of being a dietitian has been that it hasn’t seemed to help progress the movement to confront it directly. In fact, many popular women’s magazines I’ve seen, tend to politely give lip service to the idea by putting an article in about the topic. At which point, I see it posted by the author on Facebook, all of that person’s friends “like” the post, they get a moment of fame for the piece, and traffic is driven to the magazine’s website. Where everywhere you look there are advertisements and other articles with messages running completely counter to the well-intended message in the “healthy” article.
The magazines don’t care what’s in the article. They want hits, because hits determine advertising rates. If baiting and switching the size acceptance crew to keep them coming back… keeps them coming back, and they read the counterproductive ads, then it’s highly possible that continuing to agree to participate in this vicious cycle only keeps those who feel victimized by the whole media/body image disconnect… further entrapped.
I’m a realist. We live in a country that is based on the right to freedom of speech. The very freedom I have to write this blog post is the same one the magazine publishers have. They really don’t care about my self-esteem, or your self-esteem, at all. They care about keeping their stockholders happy. Getting people to visit your website, regardless of how you make it happen, to keep advertisers happy, to keep ad rates up, to create the bottom line that keeps those stockholders happy… is all that matters to any media entity.
So while I applaud the efforts of my friends who work in size acceptance, I have come to believe that the approach they’ve been taking is quite possibly having the opposite effect.
That is why, several years ago, I dropped out of the eating disorder conference circuit. I stopped participating in the dialogue. I kept hearing the same old dialogue, over and over and over, but it always stopped with “dialogue”. No action plans were coming out of that dialogue, no progress was made in the success rates for treating ANY eating disorder… it just wasn’t making a difference. I wanted to make a genuine difference.
What the women advocating for size acceptance want, those creating the dialogue want… is validation. And they seem to desperately want it from an industry, that quite realistically, doesn’t care about validation. Quite the opposite. They want women to feel BADLY about themselves. Because if they were quite satisfied with their looks, they would not respond to any of the advertisements that keep THEIR stockholders happy, which wouldn’t line the pockets of the companies producing the products who also have stockholders to answer to.
One side of the issue wants dialogue and validation, the other wants money. That is never going to change.
So when I dropped out of the dialogue and went on to create this inCYST network, what I envisioned was that we would create a warm, safe, nourishing community where we could learn to be healthy. We wouldn’t stomp and scream and hold our breath and not do anything for ourselves until the world was perfect, we’d create a perfect world for ourselves. That is why, for the most part, on this blog, even though the majority of the audience we work with has body image issues, history of an eating disorder, and/or weight issues, we don’t really talk about it very much. Talking about it only focuses you on the feeling that you’re being victimized. We’d rather empower you out of that tree.
I care very much about how each and every one of you feels about yourself. But I am not interested in dialogue that focuses you on what someone else is or is not doing. I don’t want to talk about the thing you’re trying to evolve away from. I want to know what you’ve done today. To manage your stress. To eat more folate. To delegate. To move your body.
Let’s imagine for a moment that when we wake up tomorrow, overnight I was given a superpower that allowed me to reinvent the entire media industry. Internet, Facebook, television, Twitter, newspapers, magazines… everything And let’s imagine that I used that super power to reinvent all of those things so that the only messages that could be communicated, anywhere, were positive, nurturing, and reinforcing.
Would you be able to live in that world? Would you be able to have a conversation with someone if you couldn’t talk about body image? If you weren’t spending significant amounts of time reading destructive magazines, following unproductive Twitter personalities, having dialogue about what’s wrong with the world? Would you be able to fill your day with self-nurturing activities? Would you eat better? Would you be happier?
Or would you be totally at a loss for what to do with yourself?
I don’t have that super power, but I aspire to create that kind of world. Last week I sent a thank you note to someone who made a purchase out of our new eMarket. She thanked us for having a place for her to shop where she felt heard and validated. And she also gave me a long list of suggestions for things we could do to expand on that world. I was happy to be able to ask her to “hold that thought” because most of those ideas were already on the drawing board.
I actually don’t want to have that kind of superpower. Because that wouldn’t be very empowering to YOU. I want YOU to take action. To stop looking at those magazines in the grocery store. To stop walking past the healthy salad bar and walking into the fried chicken joint. I want inCYST to be an underground of sorts, of women who have decided they don’t have to be victims anymore.
And who understand that one of the most powerful ways to speak, is with their wallets. If you’re not buying the magazines, not clicking on the websites, you are having a much greater effect on those media corporations than you are with dialogue.
I hope you choose to patronize the companies offering products in our eMarket, because if we can help these companies with great ideas as well as integrity to succeed, they are validated financially and can have the opportunity to become advertisers with power who actually have some influence over the media.
And the bottom line is, I want us to use our community to learn how to live in a world whether or not the media influences do exist. They only have a negative influence on you if you allow them to, and clicking on links and buying magazines opens the door to that path. Not going there is going to mean being more introspective, and talking about things like what you think how you feel, what you aspire to… what your talents are, what action you’re going to take… but for me, that is the dialogue that inspires me.
That world can exist right here, you know. Which is why I don’t participate in the dialogue about media. There are only so many hours in the day and any minute I spend on a fruit less effort is a moment that I’ve wasted because I didn’t use it focusing on YOU and who you are and how we can make inCYST world a place thtat celebrates who you are.
I know it sounds a little weird to some of you who are used to identifying yourself or introducing yourself as afat person or a former fat person or an infertile person,… or other limiting labels. I want to challenge you to, every day, if even for 15 minutes to start with, see how it feels to stop using labels to define yourself. Labels that keep you in a position of disempowerment. Labels that keep you stuck right where all those media companies want you. You might be surprised at how limiting your current labels actually turn out to be.
I want to create a new world and a new econmy with you, supported by health professionals and companies who see your beauty and your talent and who really would like to do business with you. Of course, they have stockholders too. But when they can go back to those stockholders and report that they succeeded with a product that was hard to get on the market because they took a risk on a product they were told didn’t have broad enough appeal… they teach those stockholders to seek out other small companies with big visions.
It’s a trickle up effect. I can offer you options, but it starts with you. And your decision to not focus on what the “bad” guys are doing, but to find those good guys who can help you feel good about yourself.
It’s still dialogue, it’s just dialogue with action plans attached. And from what I can see with who’s buying in our store and the energy it’s creating, it confirms to me that my better action here is to not talk about body image and self-esteem. But rather to encourage those very things with actions.
If you are a solution-focused person ready to take action, inCYST is designed for you. If you're into dialogue it may not be a great fit. If the dialoguing eventually moves you to a place where you're ready to take action…come join our fan page, come to a fundraiser, come to a class at our new office in Santa Monica, work with one of our network members to create change in your life, or simply read our posts and try a suggestion from time to time.
We like to think if you hang around us long enough, you'll start to feel like hanging out on the same old site with the same old ads and articles, Tweeting the same thoughts to the same people, is going to feel a lot less rewarding than what we have going on here. Our network stretches from New Hampshire to Florida to San Francisco to Seattle. Wherever we are, we're pretty great and we have a lot of fun. We look forward to seeing you somewhere, sometime soon. No magazines allowed.: )
We have this mentality about food. If it's healthy, it has to mean work and sacrifice. I am soooo against that way of thinking! For me, food is art, and it's creative energy, and thinking up ways to make it healtthy is part of the process.
I shop a lot at Fresh and Easy, and they have a sale shelf. It's one of my favorite things to do, see what's cheap and see what I can concoct from unexpected combinations.
Here's an example of what can happen when you decide to have fun with food. At last month's Places, Spaces, and Faces dinner here in Phoenix, the theme was fusion. inCYSTer Ivonne Ward, whose heritage is Cuban, started out with a basic Cuban ingredient, plantain bananas.
She called me from the store asking for some inspiration for a savory dish. I suggested Moroccan couscous.
Ivonne found a pre-mixed version, as well as some chicken curry salad. We decided to make what we ended up calling"Cous-chettas y Brus-curry de Havana"…a bruschetta-like appetizer, using broiled platano rounds instead of bread.
Here's how to replicate it.
Cous-chettas y Brus-curries de Havana 1 bag of plaintain chips 2 plaintain bananas 1 bag Mediterranean dried fruit mix 1 container guava jelly 1 salad container prepared couscous salad 1 salad container prepared chicken curry salad Mint leaves Olive oil
1. Separate the plaintain chips, setting aside all of the whole ones. Grind the broken ones into crumbs in a food processor.
2. Chop the dried fruit mix.
3. Slice the mint leaves into thin ribbons.
4. Cut the plantain into 1-1/2 inch slices. Stand them upright and smash them from top to bottom, to make what looks like mini pancakes. Spray them on both sides with olive oil and broil them on both sides until browned.
5. Take a few squares of guava jelly, add a bit of water, and heat over medium heat until it melts into a syrup. Set aside.
6. Spoon a small amount of salad on top of the plantain rounds, then spoon a small bit of chopped dried fruit mix on top of the salad.
7. Sprinkle crushed plantain chips on top of the salad, then drizzle a bit of guava syrup over the salad.
8. Lay a mint strip on top, and insert a whole plaintain chip for decoration.
9. Give yourself a pat on the back for having fun with food!
You can use any topping you have, really. What I liked about this creation is that we used ready-made salads to save some time and took a cultural favorite, fried plantains, and figured out a healthy way to cook them.
I know, I know. You may be asking,"What in the heck is that?!" At least that was my first thought.
I came across Piñalinaza product by chance, when in the midst of a bout of homesickness for the latin markets in my hometown of Miami, FL I decided to shop at a Food City in Chandler, AZ instead of my usual Fry's or Sprouts.
Sure there wasn't any salsa music playing, and the prepared foods and the marketing were more Mexican than Cuban, but it felt close enough to home. As I was grabbing a bag of onions and a few mangoes, I saw a little stand off to the side in the produce department. Always on the lookout for an"omega 3 boost," the packaging for the Piñalinaza caught my eye.
So what is it exactly? Simply put, it is flaxseed meal (ground flaxseed) with ground pineapple and prickly pear, as well as some other citrus fruits (orange and grapefruit). At plain sight it looks exactly like regular flaxseed meal. But it has a mild tropical scent to it. If you already use flaxseed meal, I imagine you could use it in the same way you use the regular stuff!
Flaxseed is an excellent source of fiber and omega-3 fats, and as you may have already read in this blog before, the best way to get the benefits of flaxseed is to grind the seeds instead of eating them whole.
How do I use it? Normally I might put a tablespoon or two of flaxseed meal into a smoothie/protein shake or sprinkle it into yogurt. When making a smoothie I tend to stick with a vanilla flavored based as it's the most versatile when adding other flavors to it. This didn't disappoint! I made a vanilla smoothie with unsweetened almond milk (Almond Breeze brand), vanilla flavored whey protein, 2 tablespoons of Piñalinaza and about 1 tablespoon of shredded coconut, the kind you might use in baking. A nice tropical deviation from my usual cinnamon-vanilla smoothie.
I also sprinkled it right into some plain Greek yogurt for a quick breakfast this weekend. One tablespoon and half a packet of Splenda (you can use whatever you like if you need the extra sweetness — Greek yogurt is a bit too tangy for me to eat it unsweetened!). I bet it would tasted even better if I'd had some fresh pineapple chunks to throw in there, maybe some other tropical fruits — papaya, or mango. Unsweetened dried fruit may work too. Hmmm… I may have to go back to Food City and pick up some other things!
By the way, the company (Ibitta) also makes a prickly pear version of the product called Nopalinaza, boasting 4 grams of omega-3 in one 15-gram serving.
If you run across one of these products and get to try it, come back and leave a comment. Tell us what you thought and what you did with it!
They are not what you think, but even nutrition experts get caught away from home when hunger strikes! Here they are, in no particular order.
Source: google.com via Peter on Pinterest
1. Sushi boxes. I am partial to the brown rice California rolls at Trader Joe's. Go for sashimi if you don't want the rice. I love the portion control and feeling just full enough.
Source: google.com via j jump Janenifer on Pinterest
2. String cheese sticks and an apple. Just walk into the grocery store, grab, hit the"10 items or less" lane, and you are in and out in 1/10 the time the drive through would have taken.
Source: google.com via Rhonda on Pinterest
3. Justin's Nut Butter pack with whole grain crackers and a sliced banana.
Source: shop.wholefoodsmarket.com via Salina on Pinterest
4. Any protein-containing option at the Whole Foods Deli. They only use olive and canola oil so no label reading is required.
Source: ohsheglows.com via Alina on Pinterest
5. Hummus and vegetables.
And there you have it. As soon as you stop obliging marketers who need you to say"restaurant" after every time you say"fast food" in order to keep your job…the possibilities are endless.: )
I am so excited about this! Over the years I have been meeting great small businesses offering thoughtful, spectacular products with potential to improve health. These companies consistently battle a series of small business woes, most especially how to consistently grow without having to jump from Mom and Pop status to major market presence and not lose their shirts. It frustrates me very much, watching how many searches for these products bring people to our blog, knowing that these people may have stopped searching with us because they got tired of clicking. I wanted to create a bridge that brought these entrepreneurial types within reach of the enthusiastic customers who can help them grow and succeed.
So I've developed the inCYST eMarket, designed to help the best of the best to promote their products directly through us. You know, if it shows up in our store, it's been evaluated and fits with our mission, to support a lifestyle that is healthy for the planet AND its citizens. Most of the companies are small to medium sized, most were created with promoting better health as part of their mission, many are eventually going to be household names, if given a chance to brand and create a presence within the budget that their small business allows for. Many will be food products, but some will be personal care, others will focus on home and garden.
I envisioned, if I had the ability to bring my favorite business people together at my own market, who would be occupying the stalls. These people are pretty busy in their own worlds, wearing the multiple hats required in a startup endeavor, so this is a way for them to come together without having to leave their local operations.
That is where all of you come in. You're looking for great, healthy products. You're willing to spend money on them. You just don't know where to look. Or, you may know where to look, but aren't sure what you are seeing has validity. So we wanted to take the work out of it for you.
To encourage you to patronize our new store, between Memorial Day and Labor Day, we're going to allocate 100% of the profits earned by this store, to the new inCYST Research Institute. Thereafter, 20% of the profits will be allocated. I'm hoping that this will take care of the burden of the startup costs we're incurring, so that the majority of the money the fundraisers you all are organizing and participating in, can be directly devoted to research.
I love farmer's markets, and I envision this as being somewhat of an e-farmer's Market, specializing in valid hormone-friendly products we hope you are excited to try.
Starting tomorrow, for the rest of the week, we'll be posting information about each of the companies participating in our initial launch. This week we'll be featuring: Zing Bars, Ibitta, Arizona Mesquite Company, and Oila. We'll update you from time to time about new products and how they may be of interest to you.
If you can't wait until Monday for the detailed product information to start posting, feel free to check us out and browse around at this link!
We're excited to be able to involve our hard-working colleagues in the food, personal care, and design industries in our quest to make it easier for all of you to reap the benefits of an eco-hormone-friendly lifestyle.
I just helped a journalist friend out, who was writing an article about how to develop healthier summer eating habits for kids. Much of what I emphasized was being sure that the foods you WANT your kids to eat, are the foods you make it easy for them to eat. And the sodas, chips, ice cream, etc.? They just don't come home from the grocery store.
On that theme, here's my question I pose to you.
If you know that ice cream is your trigger food, and you bring it home, what you are essentially saying, to yourself, is that you intend to binge. You are planning to do it. I don't care what your rationale is in the moment--my husband wants it, this time I'm going to eat it without bingeing, etc…if you bring it home from the store, you intend to eat it yourself in counterproductive quantities.
That may feel uncomfortable to hear, but it needs to come into your consciousness and make you uncomfortable in order for you to think about how to handle your trigger food differently.
I love ice cream. And I eat it when I want it. But I don't keep it in the house. My reasoning is that if I'm willing to get off the sofa, put my shoes on, get in the car, and drive to the store, I've thought an awful lot about that choice and it's probably ok to have it. But if all I have to do is walk in the kitchen and grab the spoon and the container…well…we all know where that goes.
Several years ago I had a client who was pushed to tears during a session over a tub of cookies she'd purchased at Costco, then proceeded to binge completely through. As we processed the incident, she said,"But I should be able to bring that tub of cookies home and not binge on it."
I shared with her that I would never bring that tub home, because it would be too easy to indulge instead of making healthier choices. It was a set up, and Costco likely preferred it that way, because your buying into the belief that you can eat one or two and not eat the entire tub, drives the need for you to go back and buy more!
She looked at me, incredulous, and said,"You mean you don't bring that stuff home?" I said no, I have lots of fruits and vegetables and hummous, things I can eat more often that I enjoy but don't eat mindlessly or binge on.
She thought for a minute and said,"You know, my husband says the same thing. Just don't bring it home."
It never occurred to her that she was setting herself up to fail instead of to succeed. It wasn't just her behavior with food that was distorted, her expectations of her self were distorted to the point of being superhuman.
I encourage all of you to take a mindful moment before you stand in line at the grocery store, look at your cart, and ask yourself,"Why am I bringing these foods home?" Any food you cannot honestly say, is being purchased with intent to nourish, should be removed from the cart. Drive out to Dairy Queen if you must, but don't set yourself up by bringing it home.
If you cannot remember to do that, and I do believe women with food issues get into such a"zone" in the store that they may not remember, I encourage you to shop with an accountability buddy. Someone who will get in your face when you make counterproductive choices, who will keep you from letting those choices slide through checkout, into your bag, and into your kitchen. Not someone you can schmooze into allowing you to sabotage the outing, perhaps because she feels most connected to you when you're not succeeding with changing your behavior.
It's a simple question, but one well worth asking.
Thanks so much to Kerstin Wingert of Souvia Tea and Michael Keele of Central Slope for sharing their expertise about these topics!
Here is more information about the companies, products and resources mentioned in today's program.
TEA STUFF
Here is information about the personal travel tea bag Kerstin mentioned. She has many other gadgets in her tea store as well.
Culinary Tea: More Than 150 Recipes Steeped in Tradition from Around the World is the book Kerstin mentioned, containing 150 recipes with tea as an ingredient. Have a foodie on your Christmas list? Check it out!
Remember, if you are in the store, mention the radio show and receive 20% off your purchase. Or, if you shop online, use my name, Monika, as your coupon code, and receive the same discount.
Both Kerstin and Michael mentioned Absolutely Delightful Honey, another local Arizona business.
BEE STUFF
If you garden, Humble Seed, a local company (with an online store), which specializes in"providing the highest quality heirloom, non-GMO, non-hybrid, and organic seed varieties" is the company partnering with Central Slope to host the exclusive Arizona premiere of the documentary, Vanishing of the Bees.
Here is the trailer to the movie.
If you would like to attend this movie in Phoenix, it is showing at the MadCap Theater, on Saturday, November 6, at 5 pm. You can buy tickets ($15 each) at the theater, 730 S. Mill Avenue, in Tempe, or online at http://www.madcaptheaters.com/
There is also a need for sponsorships for this event. If you're interested, please contact Michael Keele at info@centralslope.com.
FREE STUFF
I promised you a recipe to try cooking with tea, and here it is. Thank you so much to Sous Chef Lisa at Green Mountain at Fox Run Resort for sharing her Sesame Peanut Sauce recipe. (Kerstin suggested a Keemun tea for this recipe, which she says is full body, very smooth with a slight smokey flavor. Can you see what I mean when I say she is to tea what many others are to wine?) Sesame Peanut Sauce
Yields about 1 cup — perfect for noodles, chicken, tofu, etc.
Steep 1 black tea bag in 1/2 cup of room temperature water for 3 hours. (Heating the water can cause the tea to be bitter.)
Whisk the resulting tea with:
1/2 cup peanut butter (almond or cashew are lovely substitutes) 2 T honey (or agave nectar) 2 T tamari or soy sauce 1 T rice wine vinegar 1 T toasted sesame oil 2 tsp sesame seeds (optional) 1/2 tsp garlic powder 1/2 tsp ginger powder pinch of cayenne or sriracha sauce to taste (optional) Voila!
I've been busy with individual clients, and it's been very exciting to see how a few simple changes can make significant differences in how they feel, not to mention how their bodies function.
Two recent success stories include a client whose major complaint was constantly feeling tired, so tired she couldn't exercise even when she wanted to. She's sleeping soundly and she's back to walking daily with her neighbor. Another client miscarried awhile back and had not menstruated since. Within a few days, she too was sleeping more soundly, and within 3 weeks had a menstrual cycle.
I have to tell you, this work humbles me. Every single time I walk out of a consultation I take a moment to say a prayer. I know that all I can do is share the information. I cannot do it for anyone, I have to trust that they are going to use the information wisely. My part in this is minor, I just provide information and support. Their part is significant--it is their behaviors that affect their bodies. It's very humbling.
My clients all get the same information and support, but there's definitely a difference between those who succeed and those who don't. The ones who succeed--follow the program. Not for a day or two, not just on days when they feel good, not just when it's convenient, but every day. It is the most important determinant of success. There is not a quantity of knowledge I can impart that can ever overcome or undo what not using that knowledge has the power to do.
We can give you menus, we can give you calculations, we can tell you which stores to shop in. But if you choose not to eat the food…we can't help you to succeed.
It's not so much about giving US a chance to help you…it's about giving yourself a chance to help yourself.
You can do it. One choice, one step, one day at a time. And you can succeed.
OK, so today really sucks. You woke up, you noticed a couple of new hairs on your chin, your pregnancy test was negative, you tried to put on your nicest skirt for that important business meeting and it was too tight to zip, a pregnant mom with a stroller passed in front of your car as you waited at the light, and your first phone call at work was from an angry customer demanding to speak to your manager. And you're exhausted because you slept so poorly last night.
Time for a donut?
Only if you choose.
Here are some facts about binge eating.
1. It is a form of self-medication.
2. It works in the short term…but over time, it actually changes your biochemistry in such a way that it increases, not decreases, your anxiety.
3. For most women with PCOS, it's the major source of excessive carbs that throw a low GI diet completely off track. You probably don't need an extreme diet if you can get a hold of your binge eating.
4. Throwing that diet off track with binge foods only throws your hormones off even more, making those hairs grow back with a vengeance, making the skirt fit even tighter, and making you even more frustrated with yourself than you were with stroller woman and angry customer.
What to do? Remember this:
NO ONE MAKES YOU EAT. NOT YOUR DOCTOR, YOUR MOTHER, YOUR HUSBAND, YOUR BOYFRIEND, YOUR COWORKER. YOUR PREGNANCY TEST RESULTS DIDN'T MAKE YOU EAT. YOUR SCALES DIDN'T MAKE YOU EAT. YOUR PERFORMANCE REVIEW DIDN'T MAKE YOU EAT. YOU ARE THE ONE WHO MADE YOU EAT.
In all the years of counseling, I have yet to know of a single situation where anyone was held down and forced to eat donuts. It's an entirely voluntary experience.
That's not to say when you're in the middle of an anxiety attack and your brain is screaming for Doritos and nothing else seems to matter that it can seem as if the world might be throwing everything in your path to make the easier choice eating the entire bag…but like it or not, if you ate the Doritos, you are responsible for all of the steps that led up to that incident.
--Did you push your cart down the chip aisle last time you shopped, rather than heading toward the fruits and vegetables? --Did you stop in front of the Doritos? --Did you pick the bag up? --Did you place them in your cart? --Did you bring them home? --Did you place them in a section of your home in full view to tempt you? --Did you choose not to eat breakfast, leaving yourself hungry at an inopportune time?
Eating those Doritos is not simply about eating those Doritos. It's about engaging in a collective series of habits that eventually led to your eating the Doritos. Which one of those habits can you change to move yourself in a new and different direction?
Just as it's easier to be positive if you surround yourself with positive people, it's easier to eat healthfully if you surround yourself with healthful foods.
What can you do to break the mindless cycle? --Shop at a grocery store in a different neighborhood where foods are organized differently so you can't go into your"zone" while you're filling your cart. --Bring along a shopping buddy for accountability. --Make a list of ten healthy foods to put in your cart to bring home. --Buy enough food for a week of healthy breakfasts. When you start to crave…eat a breakfast meal as a reminder that perhaps eating breakfast at the appropriate time may have helped you to avert the cravings.
I could give you a list of 100 things you could do instead of bingeing. Bottom line remains though…if you binged, you engaged in a voluntary activity. No one made you do it.
If you need help developing your own 100 Things I Can Do To Keep From Bingeing List…that's what inCYST is really good at! Find a provider or an event somewhere and ask for help. Now you only have 99 more things to think of for your list.: )
Over the weekend, I had the honor and pleasure of training the newest members of the inCYST network. I'll share more about them in another post!
I realized while doing that training that there is something I always share in professional presentations, that I have yet to post on this blog. It has to do with my perspective about the fact that walnuts consistently show up on every blog post and in every interview about increasing the omega-3's in your diet…and when you do the math…it turns out there may be some other great choices, potentially even better choices, than walnuts for doing this job.
TRUE Walnuts have the highest amount of omega-3 fatty acids per gram of nut than any other nut, about 2.5 grams per ounce.
TRUE Walnuts also have a very high amount of omega-6 fatty acids per gram of nut, about 10 grams per ounce.
TRUE Walnuts have an omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of 4 to 1. If this was the only food we ever ate, this is actually a decent ratio.
HOWEVER…The problem is, when people are trying to use diet for help with inflammatory diseases like PCOS, their ultimate goal is to simultaneously reduce omega-6 intake and increase omega-3 intake. Every time you eat walnuts, you increase both omega-3 and omega-6 intake.
NUTTY STRATEGIES FOR BALANCING OMEGA-3'S AND OMEGA-6'S 1. Don't eliminate walnuts! They still, in moderation, have a lot of great health benefits.
2. Eat a variety of nuts. I like to shop at a store that has bulk food bins. Every week they have a different nut on sale. I went to IKEA and bought a bunch of see-through canisters. Every week I purchase a pound of whatever is on sale and add it to my collection. That way I can snack on almonds, cashews, macadamias, pecans…and always have them on hand for cooking or salads. That way I get the best each nut has to offer, while minimizing potential problems that might arise from getting too much of one kind of nut.
3. Know your anti-inflammatory nuts. If correcting your omega-6 to omega-3 ratio is your current most important goal, get friendly with the following nuts: macadamia, hazelnut, pecan, pine, pistachio. I ranked them in order of which ones have the highest ratio of omega-3 and monounsaturated fats compared to omega-6 and saturated fats. (Thanks to friend and colleague Johanna Roth for helping with that analysis).
Each of these types of nuts, has an anti-inflammmatory benefit related to its fat profile. Peanuts, peanut oil, and old-fashioned style (no trans fat) peanut butter are pretty neutral, won't hurt your ratio, but won't really improve it. (Peanut butter is a great and inexpensive choice, and is perfect when eaten in an overall diet that also includes fish, flax, and other omega-3 balancing choices.)
(Monounsaturated fats are mathematically neutral and healthfully beneficial. They are the type of fats also found in olive oil and avocados).
Most people who recommend walnuts as part of their Top Ten List of Foods have not taken the time to do all of the math. They simply stopped at the basic analysis.
One of the things I notice about sodium, in people who are watching it, is that they often overdo what they restrict. I think part of the problem has to do with the fact that sodim content is expressed in hundreds, and that sounds like a lot. Here's my favorite rule for evaluating sodium content, which helps to put it into perspective.
Milligrams of sodium and total calories, over the course of a day, should be roughly about the same. Here are some examples of foods that stand alone as being low sodium.
Calories Mg sodium
Apple 65 1 Carrot 52 88 Rice 205 2 Chicken breast, 3 oz. 231 104 1% milk, 8 oz. 102 107 1 c avocado cubes 240 11 Peanuts, dry roasted, unsalted, 1 oz. 164 2
Note that these are all foods that are pretty much occuring in their natural state, unadulterated. Look what happens when you start to process food
You can see that the ratio between sodium and calories climbs up, the more processed the food.
You can also see that even a Quarter Pounder would fit into a day's sodium count, provided…and that's a very qualified provided (for those of you looking for someone like me to justify your fast food habit!)…the rest of the food you eat, the rest of the day, is pretty much unprocessed. In my world, people either eat junk and fast food or they eat unprocessed food, and that kind of diligence simply isn't commonplace.
This is one of the reasons you hear so many nutrition experts advising to shop the perimeter of the store. It's the sodium-poor region.
I’ve done a great deal of volunteer work for an organization that helps the families of those who have died by suicide. In their newsletter, there’s a column called “The Gift.” At first, I thought, “how crazy, how obscene, how downright blasphemous – there’s nothing connected to suicide to be grateful for!” But as I read the column for a while, I began to see that even in the darkest acts, there are many unexpected things to be grateful for.
And so it is with PCOS. When I suggest to my clients that there might be something about PCOS that they can be grateful about, I usually get a similar response to the one I described above – or at least a look of disbelief and wonder. Then I explain that there’s always something to appreciate in a medical condition, a job loss, a car accident, or anything else you find unpleasant or undesirable. Sometimes, though, you have to look hard – but if you try hard enough, you can start to name the gratitude items. And when you’re feeling grateful, you’re feeling more positive, and less mired in the depressive, negative thoughts.
I’m going to start the list for you, with some of my personal gratitude items, and then you can continue from there with your own list:
*Some men like curvier women more than skinny women – score one for the plus-size women of the world! *PCOS isn’t exactly a hot topic yet for the rest of the world, but there’s vastly more research interest in 2011 than there ever was, and that means HOPE. *There are so many delicious, healthy, PCOS-friendly foods to eat, shop for, explore, and experiment with – today, I made an awesome salad plate out of Italian olive-oil packed tuna, heirloom tomatoes, farmers’ market fruits, and half an avocado with a lemon vinaigrette. That’s not suffering, by any measure. Quite the contrary. *We have this amazing support system called the internet (and I’m old enough to be able to compare that to a time when I was stuck going to the local library and searching the card file and the dusty biology books to try to figure out what was wrong with me). *There ARE some people out there who really do get it – especially inCYST’s very own Monika Woolsey, and her team of supportive, interested, and educated psychologists, dieticians, dermatologists, and exercise physiologists who comprise the balance of the inCYST crew. *We have allies in the most surprising, unexpected, and, dare I say FUN places – how about that hottie Hollywood trainer Craig Ramsay who’s doing the fundraiser for us in August? *PCOS has made me assert my health as a priority. If I didn’t have PCOS, it’s unlikely that I would be practicing this level of self-care – and I know that what I do is only going to benefit my PCOS in the long run.
I hope my list has given you a couple of laughs, a little inspiration, and a shift of perspective. I encourage you to start your own PCOS gratitude list or journal, and see how it shifts you into a more positive mindset.
Gretchen Kubacky, Psy.D. is a Health Psychologist in private practice in West Los Angeles, California. She specializes in counseling women and couples who are coping with infertility, PCOS, and related endocrine disorders and chronic illnesses. If you would like to learn more about Dr. HOUSE or her practice, or obtain referrals in the Los Angeles area, please visit her website at www.drhousemd.com, or e-mail her at Gretchen@drhousemd.com
6:30 a.m., Miami International Airport, feeling jet-lagged and just about destroyed from over 24 hours of travel, I looked through my stupor at the people who have come to reside in my head as “The Airport Couple,” a poignant lesson in what happens when you don’t take care of yourself. I love to people-watch at the airport, but this was not my usual people-watching.
They both have canes, are morbidly obese, and have extra-large sodas and pound bags of candy – plain M&Ms for her, peanut for him. The breakfast of champions, especially if it’s Diet Coke. They are struggling to breathe, to move, to walk, and even to eat the candy, yet they persevere. They both have an unhealthy pallor that comes more from poor health than bad airport lighting. Neither one makes eye contact with anyone else, not even their spouse. Their isolation, even in the midst of dozens of people, is profound.
Their misery and shame is palpable, and I feel like I should avert my eyes from their pain, and the practice of their addiction to food/sugar. It hurts to watch them, but I am unable to stop glancing sideways at them, in the way that children do when they notice a grotesquely fat or deformed person and simply cannot keep themselves from staring. I am wondering how they are going to make it onto the plane, and if they’ll even survive the flight, let alone whatever comes next. Selfishly, I hope I won’t have to spend the next six hours stuck sitting next to one or both of them. I feel intense sadness for the way that they’re trapped in their bodies, in their diseases, and their disconnection. I wonder which diseases they have, and how many. I make assumptions about diabetes, thyroid disorders, cholesterol problems, and heart disease. As time passes, and my flight is delayed, I add gout, emphysema, and of course depression to the list.
She is probably 52, but looks closer to 70. Walking is laborious, studied, and painful. Her thighs are so fat that her ability to walk a straight line is distorted. Yet she proceeds to the nearest shop to purchase more snacks for him; clearly, this is a form of care-giving. I think he is older, although it is hard to tell. He is almost immobilized, stuck in the confines of the narrow, hard-railed bench/chairs that are uncomfortable even for people of average size. I look for an oxygen tank, certain that must be part of their apparatus. He is wearing extra thickly cushioned diabetic shoes. I wonder about toe amputations. I think long and hard about this human catastrophe, and how preventable almost all of it is.
We struggle, day in and day out, to manage our PCOS, and whatever other diagnoses come with it. We get tired of eating right, limiting sugar and other carbs, avoiding alcohol and grain-fed meat, getting up at 5:30 a.m. to make it to the gym, taking supplements, and going to the doctor quarterly for check-ups. We complain that it isn’t fair that we’re stuck with this condition. We deal with, or don’t deal with, our depression, our anxiety, our obsessions and compulsions, or the thoughts that we might be bipolar. We adhere to diets and violate the diets. We struggle, and wonder why. I’ll tell you why – you don’t want to be The Airport Couple.
Gretchen Kubacky, Psy.D. is a Health Psychologist in private practice in West Los Angeles, California. She has completed the inCYST training. She specializes in counseling women and couples who are coping with infertility, PCOS, and related endocrine disorders and chronic illnesses.
If you would like to learn more about Dr. HOUSE or her practice, or obtain referrals in the Los Angeles area, please visit her website at www.drhousemd.com, or e-mail her at AskDrHouseMD@gmail.com. You can also follow her on Twitter @askdrhousemd.
