The Collective Roots non-profit has two key initiatives: Garden Based Learning & Food System Change.  These missions enable them to educate and engage youth and communities through sustainable programs that impact health, education, and the environment. Since 2000 they have been working to provide these programs and curricula with a hands-on approach for kids from kindergarten through 12th grade.

Garden Based Learning

Collective Roots works with children, youth and adults to design and sustain organic gardens on school and community sites.  These sites are linked with kindergarten through twelfth grade curriculum that meets California state science standards as well as health and nutrition curriculum that promotes school, community and state health/nutrition goals.

• Creating and managing the one-acre flagship garden at East Palo Alto Charter School, including integrated garden-based education for students in grades kindergarten through eighth;
• Running afterschool garden programming at Girls 2 Women in East Palo Alto;
• Conducting in-school and afterschool garden-based programming at Clifford Elementary School in Redwood City; and
• Developing a garden and garden-based curriculum for in-school and afterschool programs at the 49ers Academy in East Palo Alto.

Food System Change

Collective Roots engages residents and stakeholders in a full-scale initiative to increase access to fresh, local, healthy and affordable produce. Some of their accomplishments include:

• Operating the East Palo Alto Community Farmers’ Market for two successful seasons;
• Creating EPA Fresh Checks, an innovative coupon incentive program that makes fresh fruits and vegetables affordable to low-income families; 
• Sponsoring the EPA Regional Backyard Gardener Network, a group that supports the capacity of local residents to grow their own food;
• Implementing the Fresh Fest (Festival Fresco), a traveling suite of educational activities around fitness and nutrition; and
• Offering free cooking and nutrition classes for adults and children in partnership with Operation Frontline.

Wolfram Anderson, Executive Director of Collective Roots, states that “the city of East Palo Alto has not had a Supermarket or Farmers Market for nearly 20 years.  This has forced the community to rely on small neighborhood markets, liquor stores, or to leave the community for their food”. The direct result of this more consumption of processed, ‘fast’ food.

The city of East Palo Alto has not had a Supermarket or Farmers Market for nearly 20 years.  This has forced the community to rely on small neighborhood markets, liquor stores, or to leave the community for their food.

A food desert in East Palo Alto?  I may be too far away to frequent the EPAC Farmers Market, but I am encouraged to stop by to see for myself how this community has embraced change, and to find a way to help in some small way.

For more information about Collective Roots, the East Palo Alto Community Farmers Market, or to make a donation, visit http://www.collectiveroots.org

Caryn received her My First Organics Classroom Bundle free as part of our recent launch of www.RealFoodAction.org and the Real Food Action Campaign. Real Food Action is a culmination of years of research that we did on the topics of nutrition, earth science education, school food, childhood obesity, local food systems and much more.  We found that they are all tied together, and that U.S. children are having a disconnect from the concept of where their food comes from.  Real Food Action is a resource derived from this extensive research, a resource for anyone seeking guidance on how to get involved, get educated, and get going!  It’s a wonderful springboard that points you in the direction of numerous other organizations and individuals that can help you make lasting healthy changes for our nation and our planet.

Jamie Oliver

Our recent post on Jamie Oliver covered his acceptance speech for the prestigious TED prize.  The speech says volumes about Mr. Oliver and his dream.  Today we cover just a few of his achievements to date.  Let’s take a look at what motivates this young chef to help so many people.

James Trevor Oliver, born May 27 1975, was born into kitchen life.  His parents Essex pub (which you can visit today) was his playground and at age 16 he left school to attend Westminster Catering College.  After working several outstanding restaurants in England and the rest of Europe he was discovered by TV producer Pat Llewellyn and “The Naked Chef” was born.  The show was a hit.

Now a celebrity, he was asked by Tony Blair to become Britain’s ‘Food Tsar’, and approached by Nestle and Coca-Cola to endorse their products -- all declined in favor of loftier ambitions.  But he wasn’t waiting for a bigger deal.  He wanted to cook up his own destiny.  Jamie decided to instead create a new TV show and a charity.  The show, Jamie’s Kitchen, opened a new restaurant called Fifteen and a new commercial business with a purpose.  The shows premise was to follow the training of 15 disadvantaged youth in the field of catering.  The show was another hit, and there are now 4 Fifteen location: Amsterdam, Cornwall, London, and Melbourne.  The work continues to aid the youth in the employ of these restaurants under the arm of the Jamie Oliver Foundation, and profits feed their apprenticeships.

From here Jamie Oliver moved into a more public arena, launching into a new endeavor.  Creating a new show, Jamie’s School Dinners takes a step into the schoolyards of Greenwich Village to address childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes.  He simply showed how easily we could get the processed junk food out of schools and feed kids REAL food again.  The success of this show led to the acquisition of a 300,000 signature petition, numerous headlines and the eventual agreement of Tony Blair to allocated $1 Billon in government cash to equip and train Britain’s schools to wean themselves off of junk food.

Which brings us to the here and now.  www.jamieoliver.com averages about 70k hits per day from U.S. traffic alone. Americans have been watching his shows, reading his books and downloading recipes for years.  But what prompts this high profile Chef to care about us yanks?

Simple really.  Americans are sick.  And getting worse by the day.  ABC television has teamed up with Jamie and will be airing a show that they filmed in Huntington, WV.  At the time of shooting, Huntington was named “the unhealthiest city in America”.  Premiering Friday, March 29th at 8/9pm CST we’ll see first hand how this man is on a quest to eradicate obesity and help humanity reclaim it’s dignity and health.  I’ll be taking notes to see how he does it.  The resistance to change is powerful and everyone here in California has a tendency to announce our common defense:  It’s too expensive and too difficult to change.  Often we agree that something should be done.   But our fiscal crisis seems to always paralyze us.  So, how do we do it?

Community.  Local family support.  Parent volunteers.  Donations.  These are OUR kids.  Not the Federal Governments, or the States, or the School Districts.  We need to realize just how much power we have to change the system.  Once we get this epiphany, we need to ACT, and follow through.  We cannot rely on support from government.  There is just too much at stake.

Linda and I struggle with this every day.  Just like everyone else, todays food system has fueled a lifestyle on the run -- we are just as trapped by the simplicity of it, blinded by it.  We grew up straddling 2 worlds.  One foot in childhood memory of home-cooked meals and lunchboxes and cafeteria’s that had real kitchens, and the other foot in today’s food system:  One of fast, corporate junk food, extraneous packaging, and failed labeling.  And my opinion is that our generation, Jamie’s generation, is the only one that can stop it before the art of growing, cooking and eating whole food is a lost art.

I believe that food education, as Jamie puts it, does need to be brought back into the school system.  I also believe that growing food is an integral part of food education.  Creating a sustainable, local food system so that we feel empowered when it comes to nutrition, not shackled by cheap (or rather, expensive…) ‘food’.

Our 1st grader eats government issue twice a week.  He likes it.  Then again, it’s engineered to taste good.  So it’s not a shock.  For weeks we have been on a quest to bring a true, healthy lunch into his school.  It’s hard work.  But we have angels coming out of the woodwork, joining us along our journey.  We are gathering strength, ideas, and momentum!  And you realize you are on the right track when someone sends you the news that Jamie Oliver wins the TED prize -- and it’s right in line with our quest.

There are a lot of well-meaning people like us out there who are Certified Organic because we believe in what Organic was originally meant to portray.  Before we even went through the expense of organic certification, we were practicing organic principals. But now, an industry has been created to police what we naturally should be doing in the first place — growing and raising whole, healthy food in a humane way that is good for us and the planet.

Since the days of J.I. Rodale, Lady Eve Balfour, and Sir Albert Howard, we’ve come a long way—deviating from a path so simple, and turning it on its head.  Organic, as a way of life and a way of growing, was born out of an idea that we could not continue to deplete our natural resources and still produce healthy food.  That pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and monoculture were NOT the new and improved agriculture, but just shortcuts to profits for an industrial complex that wants us to consume, consume, consume.

So what happens when the term ‘Organic’ starts to take hold in the minds and hearts of millions of Americans (and the world)?  What is a giant food processor like Dean Foods, Kelloggs, or General Mills to do when this movement starts to slowly eat at their profits faster than you can gobble up a bag of Cheetos?  Well, they gobble up small farms and organic businesses, of course.  Acquisition.

I recently discoverd an article at The Cornucopia Institute that shows who owns what, and it’s changing all the time.  Dr. Phil Howard, an Assistant Professor at Michigan State, creates and updates his organic food business chart and tracks the big box corporations acquisitions of organic business, as well as our food chain overall.

Notice any familiar names?

The type is too small to read so here is a link to a PDF version.

In essence you are looking at a small snapshot of a much bigger picture of the ‘industry of organic’.  Not only is acquisition part of the process, but it is the deceptive pastoral image that is being sold to you. The notion that you are buying from a small, family farm business is all part of the game. Pictures of a farmhouse, an old lady with a pitchfork, cows walking gracefully through verdant, lush grasslands?  All part of the show folks.  But it is what’s behind the curtain that counts.

Do you notice any familiar names in the chart that end up in your shopping cart? Cascadian Farm, one of the founders of organic agriculture, is now owned by General Mills.  Horizon Milk – Dean Foods.  Bear Naked and Kashi – Kelloggs.  Odwalla…none other than Coca-Cola.

But these corporations have not just stopped at acquisition.  Since the USDA got involved a few years ago, and decided to turn the USDA ORGANIC label into a icon of superiority, these corporations have petitioned hard that certain ‘restricted’ elements be allowed under the label since they ‘can’t find a suitable substitute’.  I guess ‘organic’ things don’t hold up as well in a TV dinner.

And here’s a scathing little video that shows the utter failure of the Organic Certification process in arguably the largest purveyor of organic products:  Whole Foods.  Whole Foods supplies 175 stores nationwide with natural and organic products.  Unfortunately, these products and their certifiers are dubious at best.  Especially when items are coming from other countries such as China.

So, what can we do?

Buy Local
When I say buy local I mean really local.  Know your grower.  Even join a CSA.  Visit their farm, take the kids, work with them picking snap peas for a couple hours.  Shop at a farmers market nearby.  When you go there, ask the farmer where his farm is.  Sometimes farmers markets have vendors from over 100 miles away.  Depending on your taste, this might exceed your idea of ‘local’.

Grow Your Own
Even if it’s in a couple pots on the back porch, it’s really amazing how much food you can produce with a little water and a couple of bucks in seeds.  The kids love to get involved and it’s been shown that when they grow veggies, they are more likely to eat them. Since none of the states in our union are meeting the daily requirements of fruits and vegetables, and one of three of our children are obese due to the processed foods we are feeding them, it’s an easy way to educate them and introduce healthy produce into their diets.

Be Vigilant
Read labels.  Where is it from?  Is it 100% organic?  Made with some organic ingredients? Is it in season (if not, it’s probably coming from a country far away from the organic ideals)?  Don’t necessarily trust the pictures and graphics you see on the label?  If it looks too good to be true…it probably is.

Personally I would love to see a label and certification system for Locally Grown or Local.  A small badge that would, for instance, say “Locally Grown 25″ (meaning that it comes from within 25 miles of where you are purchasing it), etc.  Why the need for a badge?  I believe that the term ‘local’ is becoming the new ‘Organic’.

The not-so-distant future

My fear is that it’s already being abused.

If someone were to ask you what you thought local meant when it came to your food, most people would probably say within 100 miles or less.  The word local and locally grown is already being used in supermarkets across the U.S.  for food that is coming to one central distribution center supplied by several nearby states or even further.  It has no true definition. Local to your supermarket might even mean grown in the USA.  Most likely at a great (and unnecessary) distance.

Most importantly, we need to start realizing that we are dependent on a food chain that is connected by thousands of miles.  What if you were cut off from this source of food by a union strike or natural disaster?  What would you do?  How would you feed your family when everyone around you, thousands of people, are all cut off and seeking food as well?

Do you think I’m crazy? Check out my Transition Town post from a year ago for a reality check!

Chef, writer, blogger, speaker, activist, and TV’s ‘Naked Chef’…these are just a handful of the things Jamie has done over the years, but it’s his passion for changing the way we eat that has captivated us here at EcoFare.

Jamie Oliver has tackled childhood obesity head on.  As a small ‘mom and pop’ shop, Linda and I need someone with his verve to lift us up and encourage us to continue our own quest to educate our youth about gardening and where whole, real food comes from.  His passion is contagious.  If you weren’t a believer in an inevitable food revolution, he will make you see the light.

Last week Jamie won the prestigious TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference award of $100,000 for his campaign to fight childhood obesity.  So, sit back, take 20 min to watch his TED acceptance speech and then decide how YOU want to make a change -- and start by heading over to Jamie’s website to sign his Food Revolution Petition.

Just a few days ago, USDA agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack announced several new initiatives to assure the safety and quality of food purchased by USDA for the National School Lunch Program, stating, “Nothing is more important than the health and well-being of our Nation’s school children”.   Glad to hear it. This announcement came just two months after a scathing USA Today article declaring that fast food standards for meat are far superior to those the USDA has for meat in your children’s school lunch.  The USDA was sending chicken slated as compost or pet food to our school cafeterias!  Alarming to say the least.

President Barack Obama signs a memorandum on childhood obesity in the Oval Office. From left are, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, First Lady Michelle Obama, and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar February 9, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton)

One of Michelle Obama’s biggest supporters is her husband and President, Barack Obama.  President Obama signed a memorandum February 9, 2010 that establishes a task force on childhood obesity to address this growing health epidemic. The new task force is charged with developing an inter-agency action plan to solve the problem of obesity among our Nation’s children.  Within 90 days, the task force is to develop and submit to the President a comprehensive inter-agency plan that details a coordinated strategy, identifies key benchmarks, and outlines an action plan. Members of the task force include: the Secretary of the Interior; the Secretary of Agriculture; Secretary of Health and Human Services; Secretary of Education; Director of the Office of Management and Budget; Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to the First Lady; Assistant to the President for Economic Policy; and heads of other executive departments, agencies, or offices as the Chair may designate.

I’ll be sure to keep you updated on our First Lady’s work.  We’ve been tickled from the beginning that she was carrying a torch for ‘growing your own’.  This kind of campaign is exactly in line with our own efforts here at Surf City Growers and our new organic curriculum for preK-3rd graders.  The direct link between growing wholesome food, education, exercise and nutrition for children in order to create lifelong habits of health for our nation is at stake.  Some of us argue that it’s a national health crisis of proportions we cannot fathom.

Let’s join together to stop it in its tracks.

Visit Michelle Obama’s website at LETSMOVE.GOV

Food What?! Youth Dig In

A big reason why more of us don’t buy organic food is because of the price. Of course, growing your own sustainable garden is an inexpensive option. The National Gardening Association’s recent study “The Impact of Home and Community Gardening in America” cites that a well-maintained food garden can yield an estimated 1/2 pound of produce per square foot of garden area over the course of the growing season. At in-season market prices, this produce is worth $2.00 a pound. That means the average 600 square-foot garden that costs an average of $70 can produce an estimated 300 pounds of fresh produce worth $600!

This is great news for those of us who have yard space for a garden, but many of us don’t. And while container gardening is an option, patio space — and the amount of sun exposure it gets — might limit the bounty to just a few plants.

Thanks to the resurgence of community gardens,  sustainable food is becoming accessible to those who don’t have the space to grow their own or simply can’t afford it.

We’re excited and proud to announce the ground breaking of one in our town — the Aptos Community Garden. Hosted by Christ Lutheran Church, a bunch of volunteers are donating their time and money to make it a reality. Trent and I will sit on the Board, donate the starts, and document its progress.

But we’re not doing write-ups to toot our horn. By telling the story as it unfolds, we hope it inspires every community in America to roll one out, too — at a school or somewhere in the neighborhood. Why? Other than enabling the satisfying experience of growing and harvesting fresh food, community and school gardens encourages healthier eating habits. It brings our neighborhoods together and reconnects us to the source of our food — nature itself. It also encourages environmental stewardship, self-reliance and confidence in the safety of our food. According to the American Community Garden Association, it can even reduce crime!

We live in Santa Cruz County; if you don’t know, we’re very big on environmental issues and natural foods. I have to point out a few great local programs that are community gardens, but not in the traditional sense. Food What? educates youth and is driven by our friends at Life Lab. The second is the Homeless Garden Project, an amazing nonprofit organization that gives purpose and financial support to those less fortunate. These are a few innovative examples of the power of community gardens; consider these aspects when building yours. How can we get our youth involved? How can we give back?

I did some research on the history of community gardens. The study I found cited their importance during and after both World Wars, providing increased food supplies which required minimal transporting. During the Great Depression, city lands were made available to the unemployed and impoverished by the Work Projects Administration (WPA); nearly 5,000 gardens on 700 acres were cultivated in New York City alone through this program. During WWII, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that national health as well as personal well-being were dependent on the consumption of fresh vegetables, which led to the Victory Gardens Program and the production of approximately 40% of the fresh vegetables consumed in the U.S. from an estimated 20 million gardens.

WHAT?! Did I read this correctly? What happened to us? Now, our food travels an average 1,500 miles. Only 1 out of five fresh fruits and vegetables are grown in the Unites States. And NO U.S. state is meeting national objectives for consumption of two fruits and three vegetables a day.

I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that Americans are battling obesity and Type II diabetes at an alarming rate. Did you know that 1 out of 3 kids in the US are considered overweight or obese? Folks, these health risks are caused by poor dietary patterns and sedentary lifestyles.  In other words, they are reversible.

Ah, yet another benefit of gardening — physical exercise. How many calories can we burn? I just went to Internet Fitness and found out that personally, I can burn 307 calories an hour doing general gardening activities!

Readers, I hope you’re motivated to get a garden going — at home, at your kids’ school, or in your community. Do it for your health and that of your family, community and planet! And if you need help, check out how we did it here in Aptos.

Afterwards, we enjoyed some BBQ chicken and a whole wheat pasta salad with tomatoes, black olives, cucumbers, parmesan and a homemade balsamic vinaigrette. Before you say “that’s not too bad,” I also ate a slice of cake from Porto’s, a Cuban bakery based in Southern CA. I know, I know. But you need to understand that my parents were down there and drove an extra 150 miles to go to this place. I’m first generation Cuban-American, so NOT eating a slice (or one of the guava pasteries) would be blasphemy. Oh, and we had it with coffee. Probably the most delicious cup I’ve ever tasted! However, my body responded in the familar ways to the food — bloating, gas, discomfort. And the caffeine affected me in ways it never had before — we were up until 2 am, and it took about 30 minutes to fall asleep.

Let’s get to the results of the cleanse. I weighed myself on Friday morning, and lost 4.6 pounds! After my indulgences, I went up .8 pounds the next morning. Net = 3.8 pound loss. Yes, I’m thrilled about that but it’s what I learned that has made the biggest impact.

I didn’t think I had the willpower. And now that I know that I can do without coffee, alcohol, dairy or meat for an extended period of time, I have shifted the way I look at food.

Yesterday was my first day back on a regular diet, and I had one cup of coffee. We brewed some later in the afternoon, but we only ended up drinking half a cup! Because I’m committed to keeping that hard-earned weight loss off, and shed another 10 pounds, I started up the Weight Watchers routine that I used to think was hard to do. It was no problem! I used to believe that I’d never lose those last ten, now I have the confidence that I will by July 9 when we take a trip to Lake Tahoe for my best friend’s 40th.

What I love about Weight Watchers is that it teaches you how to make healthy choices within the world of convenience food. Although we switched to brown rice, whole wheat pastas and breads years ago because of WW, I realize that we don’t need to consume so much meat or dairy. So we’re going to eat veggie meals most of the time. For example, we’ll substitute tofu in our stir-fry dinner instead of shrimp. Or make our split pea soup without the ham.

Let’s expound a bit on the confidence I’ve gained. On Wednesday, two days into the cleanse, I went for a swim. You can read about that experience in my previous post, but lap-wise, I was only able to complete about eight of them freestyle in between kickboard and pull buoy drills. That’s my usual, as I only learned to swim competitively last year to complete my first triathlon for Team in Training. And since I turned 40 last year, I decided 3 more — to total 4 — would be a good way to say neener, neener, neener to the big birthday. No, I did not complete an Ironman. They were simply Sprint distances, but I can say “I am a triathlete!” You must admit, that’s pretty cool.

Why do I bring this up? Yesterday, I swam 1,000 yards freestyle without stopping. Folks, that’s 40 laps, 3 days later.

It’s obvious that the cleanse did more than restore my body’s natural balance. It eliminated mental obstacles too.

I’m walking around with more confidence, less stress, and a positive attitude. Things that used to freak me out, simply don’t. As a marketing consultant on the side, the check from my client hasn’t arrived. This would typically take me over the edge, but I realized that there is nothing I can do about the US Mail system. I just have to send prepaid overnight postage along with my bill next time. And if it doesn’t arrive on Monday, well, I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. I have a life to enjoy and it’s sunny outside today. The weather has been cloudy and dark for the last few weeks. I’m going for a bike ride and perhaps hit the beach afterwards with my family.

Super Cleanse is a great book because it gives you 9 choices. The Laughing Buddha is great, but it does take a lot of time to prep, prepare and clean up. However, you can prepare a bunch of servings of your favorites and eat them every day. Or, you can choose another cleanse that is predominately juice-based so there’s less to do.

What’s exciting is that the cleanse made good on it’s promise. I quoted the author in my first post about the cleanse: “A good cleanse reboots our whole being. It provides a magnified awareness, a fresh perspective, spiritual renewal and physical rejuvenation. When we get rebalanced, we get clearer about who we are and who we’re committed to being. That’s the miraculous and healing power of a cleanse.”

Bottom line: I feel I can do anything. And I’m not sweating the small stuff. If you want to shift your life, try a cleanse.

Trent McNair

If you have been following along, Linda and I have been doing a 5-day vegan cleanse.  Previous journal entries can be found here, here (day 1),  and here (day 3).   Unfortunately, you are missing some entries from myself due to the fact that I had to leave the realm of cyberspace to attend a funeral with family.   But this is a normal thing in our daily lives; speed bumps due to schedules, emergencies, and travel are all factors that affect anyones diet.  Luckily I saw the trip coming and was able to prepare myself for it with the food I would need for the 2 day trip (thank you Linda for all your hard work in the kitchen!).

Preparation for each meal is probably the one big drawback here.  It takes an exhorbitant amount of time to prep your meals.  Unless you don’t mind the monotony of sticking to 2 or 3 dishes, this will take up time.  We spent probably an average of 2 hours a day prepping and cleaning.  No joke.  If you are just starting out on your endeavor, make sure you give yourself plenty of time to do this.

So, the big question; did I stick to it?  I did!  And how I felt as the days progressed was a marked difference to how I felt normally.  I would wake up refreshed when I usually awakened tired.  Coffee had been eliminated from my mornings but it really wasn’t the needed crutch to getting my day started like it used to be.  This alone was something of a shock.  For those of you who think that they need a cup of coffee to get through the day, I say you are wrong.  It’s really not that big of a deal, and if you are like me and drank coffee throughout the day, you are going to find that you  feel energy and clarity that you thought could only come from a hot cup ‘o joe (which in my case was a short-lived sensation because I drank so much coffee).

I also lost over 6 pounds in those 5 days!

Conclusions
For me, there are so many pros to a cleanse like this.  I feel better.  Linda and family say that my skin looks better.  I lost weight, most of it probably loaded with the toxins I accumulated over 40 years of abuse.  My mental clarity and energy have returned to levels I vaguely remember having 20 years ago.  And most importantly, I realized a level of willpower that I didn’t realize that I had.  At Day 4 I really wanted to throw in the towel and join my family in heaping plates of lasagna and garlic bread soaked in butter, but I didn’t.  And I didn’t die.  It was ok.  And it made me feel so awesome to say no to these urges, despite how hard it was at times.

I broke my cleanse about 14 hours early since we had company come over Friday afternoon.  I BBQ’d chicken and Linda made a delicious whole wheat pasta salad with a vinaigrette dressing.  Afterwards we made a small bonfire and had smores and coffee.  And I felt like a bag of hammered crap afterwards.  I had tons of gas, bloating and overall complete lethargy.  And the cup of coffee (sweetened with agave nectar instead of refined sugar), kept me up until 2 a.m. 

So now, Linda and I are making new adjustments to our menu – discussing ways to only eat local, sustainable meats on less nights per week, and sticking to a high fiber natural vegetable diet in all of our other meals.  Who knows, I might find that I begin to eliminate meats altogether!  I’ve decided to only drink one cup of coffee per day, and stop eating dairy as much as possible. 

So that leads to my next journey;  How hard is it to find local, sustainable meats?  Stay tuned!

Yesterday was tough because Trent had to take off suddenly due to his grandmother’s death. We frantically made a bunch of recipes to send him off properly so that he could say true to his cleanse. I’m happy to report, he’s stuck to it so far! Even among his non-organic, carb-, butter-, cheese-, meat-, sweets-eating family. I’m so proud!

I have to note that I went to my monthly lunch with the girls and ordered a salad with greens, mango, apples and cranberries — no dressing. I brought my own that I made (sounds tacky, I know). And drank water. Now, that was a bit tough sitting next to friends indulging in fresh tex-mex. But now I know it’s possible, and I can live through it.

Although I still get hungry in between meals, I have to say how amazed I am at how I feel. My skin has cleared up substantially, I continue to be much calmer. Not so nervious and frantic, although life is crazier than ever due to the additional stresses of a death in the family and the last week of school.

I even went for a swim yesterday! I figured I had to since I’m doing a sprint triathlon to support a friend in 16 days and I haven’t started training. I went into the sauna and steam rooms for a total of 20 minutes; it’s something Adina recommends, as the sweating pulls out toxins. I thought I’d be dizzy, as I’m trained to believe you have to eat carbs and protein for energy when you workout. Nothing. Nada. Whoa.

The only complaint is the amount of time it takes to prep, cook and clean. Hours I don’t have. But based on the results so far, it’s well worth it.

This morning I woke up refreshed. I’m more focused. My vision seems to be clearer. I went to Starbucks to buy a gift card for Aidan’s teacher — big temptation for me. But  when I walked in, I didn’t even SMELL the coffee. I got Zen Tazo tea in my reusable container and left. Yes, there was an urge. But it subsided. Yes, this is Linda typing. This is VERY weird.

Just 2 days left. I may choose to break the cleanse 12 hours early on Friday night. My best friend is visiting with her daugther, and while she’s on a no red meat, no alcohol diet right now, it would  be wrong to not share a glass of red wine over conversation. Some traditions cannot be broken.