Tea Time

and what it stands for.

Rituals are so sweet.  They keep me tethered while life happens.

Edible rituals can be a delight.  As the temperature drops I often crave a hot cup tea or a beautifully crafted cappuccino, usually paired with some kind of sweet treat.

I woke up Sunday morning and wanted that comfy ritual, so I went to a cafe and ordered a cappuccino and a chocolate croissant.  With my treats in front of me – I opened my journal and I realized I didn’t even want the coffee or croissant.

I wanted what they represented instead:  leisure, relaxation, idle time, & indulgence – all so i could contemplate.

I drank the cappuccino, had a few bites of the flaky, buttery pastry, wrote in my white moleskin, and then hit the pavement – with a wrapped up half eaten chocolate croissant in my purse – onto the next thing.  I was hungry for more time in that cafe, not necessarily for the treats they serve.

It was interesting to realize do I actually want what I am eating – or what it represents? Could I access that feeling in a different way?

Some examples: Do I want the freedom that exists in a bottle of beer or the irresponsibility that lies in between the crust & cheese of the pizza pie?  Or can I find that elsewhere?  Do I need the comfort of rich & creamy vanilla ice-cream – or would a call home, a snuggle, or hug do the trick?

Not to say cappuccinos & croissants, pizza, beer, and ice-cream are no longer in my future.  For that would be a bleak future indeed.  Instead I will tune into what it is I really want.  And in the meantime  create space for tea parties with friends, foamy cappuccinos in solitude, delectable pastries, with circular conversations, journals open, and hearts wide receiving the warmth.

Be Smart

We all have a pretty good sense about what we should and shouldn’t eat for our health and wellness.  Eat more vegetables, eat less potato chips.  Drink water, forget the soda.   Cook real food, forget the packaged stuff.  So then why is it so hard?

Maybe we need more information, or to look more closely at our habits and what they are telling us, or maybe there is something bigger in our life that is calling for our attention and disguising as overeating, undereating, etc.  There can be a lot of reasons, and as a health coach I work with my clients to get to the root of what’s working and what’s not working.

A few months ago I was featured on bSmart and had my very first video interview.  Skip ahead to 3:22 to hear about primary foods and how they can impact the choices you are making with your food.

You’ll see my eyes are blue, I permanently tilt my head (because that’s just the way I was made), and I had a pimple – blast!  But I hope you gain some insight as to what it means to be well fed.

Food Snob

My husband thinks I am a food snob, and perhaps I am.

Mussels on Monday

Or maybe I am aware enough to demand an increase in the quality of the food that is served in this world.

It is easy to have my ‘food snob’ preferences met while living in Brooklyn, but when I travel (which I have been doing recently) I’m not as in control of the choices I have to eat and my food snobbiness begins to surface.  Here are some recent examples:

• We go out for barbecue and I genuinely wonder where the meat came from.  I wished with all my might that it was local, grass fed, and hormone free.  Pretty sure that wasn’t the case so I turned a blind eye and ate it anyway.

• I saw hot chocolate advertised outside a cafe, and dreamed of drinking a mug of thick, creamy, and rich hot chocolate made of real ingredients only to find out it was made with nesquik and milk – I politely declined, and was thankful I inquired.

• While at brunch the waiter asked if I wanted orange juice.  I asked if it was freshly squeezed, he replied yes, no sugar added, and poured the orange liquid from the carafe – it was from a carton.  Who knows when those oranges were actually squeezed.

I’m disillusioned by supermarkets, I’m disenchanted by the dwindling quality of what can be called and referred to as food.  I want to eat real food, made by real people, with real ingredients – because that is the equation for GOOD FOOD, which is what I’m all about.

Food Mantra

I’m starting to wonder if that is really such a preposterous request?  Is it absurd to desire local apples that are minimally treated if not straight up organic, real chocolate made with cacao +  sugar – nothing else, bread made from flour, yeast, and water  – that’s it.

When these things aren’t available I eat crap and then I just end up wanting and eating more crap. I grab a bag of peanut m&ms for that 4:00 pick me up and crave more, because I’m not satisfied.  My body isn’t full of real ingredients & nutrients – just fake stuff trying to appear as real food, made by machines & labs rather than people.

So if you find yourself making ‘bad’ choices, give yourself a break.  With all the chemicals and additives it’s very hard not to be addicted to all this junk.  Instead add in some real food (veggies, fruits, beans, grains, etc), and see what happens.  Your body will begin to crave REAL food and it will feel so good.

vibrant veggies

There is no sincerer love than the love of food.
(just remember to love food that loves you too!)

– George Bernard Shaw

So go ahead and be a food snob.  Your body will thank you.

Overheard at the Coop

I am a member of the Park Slope Food Coop and for those of you haven’t heard me either complain or rave about it (I do both), well that’s another story.  The Coop has really great produce, cheese, bulk items, raw chocolate, etc.. that are fresh and affordable since each member has to work a shift.

While working my shift last week I overheard another member say, “I’m giving up sugar…and when I say sugar I mean maple syrup, honey, agave…  I’m giving up wheat…and when I say wheat I mean bread, pasta, pizza and only having 2 tablespoons of grains: quinoa, amaranth…  I’m giving up dairy…and when I say – well you get the idea.

While although that way of eating is extremely healthy, what’s the point of living? Shortly after that, another woman asked if I was a vegan – I then went out for a meatball sub.

I even had a few sips of Coke

Aware this was certainly not one of the healthiest things I could have eaten, I ordered anyway – and savored half of the warm, gooey, sandwich.  Do I eat that way every day?  Nope.

I shoot for something like more like this – colorful nutrient dense eating.

When it comes to food, as it comes to anything else in life, it’s all a balance. And finding your unique balance is essential to your health and enJOYment of life.  You can have a vegan diet filled with green juice & algae – but if you’re not enjoying it – what’s the point?  I’m all about green tonics and seaweed, but I also enjoy a pizza and beer every now and then.

The thing I find troubling is when we ‘indulge’ we often then bear the wrath of our inner critic, “I can’t believe you did that, that was so gross, you have no self control, you are a fattie and always will be” ….at least that’s what mine sounds like.  Then we end up feeling worse about ourselves and our self worth.  Did eating a bowl of ice cream really make you that much worse of a person?  I don’t think so.  I’m interested instead of food being right or wrong, finding a well balanced approach to eating.

There are many reasons behind what we eat and how we eat, and that can give us a lot of information about our relationship to ourselves – which is the most important relationship we have in this world.  Take a look and see what comes up when you reach for what you reach for – and be as gentle as you can be.  Be a detective, use your food choices as evidence as how you are feeling, drop the judgement and replace with patience and forgiveness.  Because it’s always changing, just like the weather.

On Yoga

I like to think I practice regularly.  But if I actually think about it, a good week is if I get to class once, and that doesn’t happen often.  I also like to think my morning yoga routine is satisfactory – but it is so brief, with a few cat/cows and down dogs to wake up my body that I can hardly count it.

I was reading an article about the countless benefits of yoga, and each study included that the participants practiced 3 times a week, or at least once a week regularly.  That got me thinking about how much more I’d like to actually practice yoga regularly, rather than think about it, read about it, or look at yoga pictures.

Then my brain begins to play the incredible mind game once I start thinking about unrolling my mat: ‘You don’t have enough time to dedicate to yoga now – you have emails to write, sessions to plan, dishes to clean, etc, etc.’ And it is so convincing I often buy into this banter.  I do have all those things to do.

But here is the sparkling gem.  When I make time for yoga, the rest of it gets done with more ease and grace than otherwise would have without yoga.   So now I am subbing this banter in: if you want to do this ‘to do list’ gracefully – get your butt on the mat for at least 30 minutes three times a day lady.  And don’t even try to listen to the excuses the mind will fabricate – because the mind is veeerrrryy good at making excuses.

Take a look at see where your excuses are giving you a way out either with exercise, diet, relationships, career, etc – and do what you know is going to be the best for you.   Because we all know what it is that we could be doing.