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One of the best things about New York is the energy and the life. No matter what time it is, what day it is, or what season it is, there is always something going on. It’s difficult not to feel part of that something – whatever it is – when you’re in this crazy city.
With so many things to see and do, the city could keep one occupied for endless hours. But, oftentimes, I like to wander. I like to walk around and see the people, smell the roasting peanuts on the corner, watch the dogs pull their walkers through the park, and just be.
Sometimes, I need a little kick in the ass to remember that I should take advantage of these simple pleasures. Life takes over and routines start to control. But, over the past few months, I’ve tried to reconnect with the city and spend more time out wandering and sipping tea in random spots. What better creative inspiration could there be than the characters of New York City?
And so, even on days when it would be so much easier to stay inside, snuggled with my cat and laptop, I try to pack up my stuff and head out into the big city. Sometimes, I only make it to my corner coffee shop. But, other times I’ve found myself on a rooftop overlooking the city as the sun starts to set or a modern cafe eating an overpriced salad. But, that pricey lettuce is worth it because it connects me to the other people who make up this big story called Manhattan.
First you take the peanuts and you pick em, you pick em, you pick em, pick em, pick em . . . Then you take the grapes and you squash em, you squash em, you squash em, squash em, squash em . . . Peanut, peanut butter and jelly.
Seriously, who doesn’t love PB&J aside from those allergic to peanuts (my condolences to you). I know I love it. I love peanut butter so much that this is my second blog post today on this amazing food. And it’s my love of the food that led me to this blog post on peanut butter activism, something I’ve never heard of before: http://strikingattheroots.wordpress.com/2010/04/21/peanut-butter-activism/ .
Apparently there is a movement called the PB&J campaign. The PB&J campaign hopes to help the environment through peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and other plant-based meals. I dig it. I’ve heard of the effects of animal products on the environment, but I’ve never come across such a unique, fun way to tackle this issue. Check out their website to learn more about this initiative: http://www.pbjcampaign.org/ . You even can pledge to eat a certain number of plant-based meals a week.
Then you take the sandwich and you eat it, you eat it, you eat it, eat it, eat it . . . Peanut, peanut butter and jelly . . .
A while back, Kate Moss shared one of her mottos: “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” (http://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/celebrity/NATL-Kate-Moss-Motto-Nothing-Tastes-as-Good-as-Skinny-Feels-70532827.html). I wasn’t a blogger back then, so I couldn’t share with the world my opinion on this quote, which is: UGH. That really sums up my feelings.
What is skinny anyway? There is a difference between skinny and healthy. Being healthy feels awesome. Keeping oneself active, eating healthy foods, drinking lots of water – all of these things are great and help keep us healthy.
But, I wholeheartedly disagree with you Ms. Moss. Eating a lipsmacking meal is an amazing feeling. Who said this meal can’t be healthy, by the way? My grandma pumps out some banging dinners that leave you begging for seconds, and they’re packed with veggies, lean meats and fish, and olive oil – yum! And, I don’t think there is anything wrong with taking a walk on the sugary or salty wild side now and then – can you think of anything better than a warm chocolate chip cookie, straight out of the oven, melting in your mouth? Oh, it feels pretty damn good.
You know what feel best: a good body image. Having a good relationship with your body and with food is an amazing feeling.
To be fair, I think Ms. Moss’ comment was taken slightly out of context by the media. If you keep reading, you’ll see that she says “You try and remember, but it never works.” So, she seems to be admitting that she caves and indulges. Still, I don’t think the message is positive. Instead, how about a little body love pep talk and a few cream puffs or a delicious fruit smoothie (call me if you want me to whip one up for you, Kate) – a little love and a little yum will blow your mind.
Sometimes it’s so satisfying to kick back on the couch, gorge on Doritos, and sip on a brewskie, especially on a cool November Sunday. Your ears perk at the sound of “de nanananana de nanananana” and those padded men run out on the field. What a life – sigh.
But, “sometimes” is the key word there. While I always enjoy a nice day of relaxation or some good junk food on occasion, I also love the way I feel after a great workout, followed by a really nice salad or an organic veggie burrito (see earlier post). Sure, we all have vices – what fun would life be if everything was done by the book? But, if we let those vices control our lives, they’re no longer fun – they just make us feel guilty and plunge us into unhealthy cycles.
There is an article out today discussing the effects of smoking, drinking, bad diet, and inactivity on longevity: http://health.yahoo.com/news/ap/us_med_bad_habits_survival.html . Basically, the combination of smoking, drinking too much, not eating enough fruits and veggies, and not exercising enough may age a person by 12 years.
Combining all four of these bad habits is pretty extreme: smoking + 2-3 drinks each day + less than 2 hours physical activity a week + less than 3 fruits and veggies daily. In some instances, it makes me think that there is something else going on in that person’s life – these unhealthy habits are manifestations of something that a Yahoo article won’t be able to help.
In other instances, I think it’s just pure laziness and a feeling that one is so far deep, s/he can’t change. I get it. When you have a vice and it starts controlling you, it’s really hard to take back control. You could try Ben Stiller’s method in Dodgeball and shock yourself each time you reach for the vice, but I don’t recommend that. From a non-expert view, of course, I think that a little will power can go a long way.
In my opinion, the easiest of these vices to fix is healthy eating. This study only calls for 3 fruits and veggies daily – only 3! The study says that a person could consume 1 carrot, 1 apple, and 1 glass of OJ and be in the clear. That seems pretty simple – I could consume all three in 20 minutes. But, why stop there? Why not try to integrate healthy foods into all of your meals. I love to think of new things to add to healthy food to make it more appetizing or even healthier. For example, add some bananas or raisins or berries to your cereal or oatmeal in the morning for some fruit power. Spice up your salad with fun ingredients that make you want to keep eating like nuts, pumpkin seeds, feta cheese, pears, apples, dried cranberries – whatever gets your taste buds going. Add some mixed vegetables to your pasta bowl at dinnertime. It seems pretty easy to conquer this bad habit.
What about exercise? All I can say here is, get off your ass. Seriously – just get up and move. Walk everywhere you can. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Get a gym buddy and go. Or, bring workout clothes with you to work so that you will go right from work to the gym. Afraid to workout in public? Buy a workout DVD and sweat it out in the living room! Just find some kind of activity you love and move, move, move. I think half the battle is actually motivating yourself to work out.
Smoking and drinking are the more difficult habits I think because those can be habits of serious addiction. I don’t know what it’s like to smoke or what it’s like to quit. All I can say is try or at least try to cut back.
With drinking, this study didn’t say to quit drinking altogether; it just said that moderation is key. Women shouldn’t drink more than 2 a day, and men shouldn’t drink more than 3 a day. So stop pouring at 2 or 3 and try to savor each glass for longer! Of course, if you have an addiction, that is a completely separate issue.
Reading this study made me really sad. It’s difficult to know that people struggle with so many bad habits on a daily basis and that these habits, when combined, can reduce their lifespans so drastically. The question really becomes, is it worth it? All it takes is removing one of these bad habits. It could mean an extra 12 years.
I think my favorite thing about Europe is the cafe culture. Many of the European cities that I’ve been to host streets lined with cafe after cafe, all with tons of outdoor seating. These little outdoor tables are flanked by chairs that face the street ready for people-watchers. I can’t think of a better way to spend time than to sip on a cup of tea or a glass of Prosecco and gaze at the scenery and people walking by. You learn more about a city by watching its people and observing than anything else. I also love being around fellow people watchers – those who enjoy taking time out of their day to relax and are curious about life around them.
Sure, we have cafes here in America, and New York has plenty of outdoor seating venues. But, it’s different. Most of this outdoor seating is for eating and then moving on. There isn’t the same appreciation for kicking back with a coffee or a pint. And, the outdoor seating is pretty limited. There are usually people waiting on the sidewalk to be seated, and they stare at your plates willing you to eat faster so they can take your spot. Unless you’re looking for a spot at 3 p.m. on a Tuesday, you might have trouble leisurely sipping and watching the city.
Of course, I still do my best to get a prime outdoor table in the city, even if it is only for 45 minutes, and even if hungry onlookers are tapping their feet impatiently on the sidewalk. But, it’s never quite as relaxing as those European cafes – always on the top of my list when I travel.
As long as it doesn’t fall into the meat category, I like to try new food and new combinations of food to keep my diet interesting. No one likes to be bored with food. My usual breakfast in the morning is a pack of plain Quaker Oatmeal (and then I usually munch on a piece of fruit). Plain oatmeal is not that exciting, so I like to add something to give it a little oomph. Sometimes I add cinnamon, and I love to add dried cranberries. Dried cranberries are really sweet, and plain oatmeal is very plain, so they complement each other perfectly!
Sadly, today I had no dried cranberries. But, I had read somewhere that peanut butter can be a good addition to plain oatmeal, so I decided to try it out. I stirred one teaspoon of my pb into the warm oatmeal and watched it melt away. I am a huge fan of peanut butter, so I thought I was in for a really big treat until I tasted it. “Bleh” is all I can say. My oatmeal was gooey, and the peanut butter did not mix well with the watery oats. My taste buds weren’t thrilled. I’m sure others like it though, but for me, this was a bad something new. What a way to start the day!
I’m addicted to burritos. Is that strange? I’m not sure. I feel a little weird having my insane burrito cravings. I think it stems from the word itself. “Burrito” just sounds dirty, doesn’t it? When I tell people I want a burrito or like burritos, I feel like they look at me differently – maybe start associating me with the dirty word. To make myself feel better, I try to make the word sound less dirty by elongating the “o” at the end: burritooooo. It makes the delicious wrap sound so much cuter.
Anyway, I’ve had this addiction since childhood. Most kids serve pizza at their birthday parties – I asked my parents to serve burritos. One time some bratty girl in my class asked if I could have pizza at my party instead because she didn’t like burritos. I gave her a dirty burrito look and walked away.
My addiction continues to this day. I probably eat a burrito at least 3 times a week if not more. The thing about burritos though is that they can go terribly wrong health-wise, especially fast-food burritos (http://www.divinecaroline.com/22177/93851-eight-fast-food-burritos-that-ll-make). First of all, most burritos are way too big, and you can’t stop eating them because burritos are that good. So, size is a major issue. Secondly, a lot of people make burritos with processed flour tortillas, processed white rice, heavy cheeses, sour cream, and beans fried in lard.
So what’s a burrito-loving gal to do? Well one easy answer is to make your own burrito with healthy ingredients like a whole wheat tortillas, brown rice, fresh beans (I love putting black bean salad in my burrito), and fresh tomato salsa – yum! If you need a cheesy umph, add a little bit of reduced fat or fat-free cheese.
While I love a fresh-made burrito, I don’t often have all of those ingredients in my house, and there are no burrito markets nearby. So, my main burrito source has been Amy’s (http://www.amys.com/products/category_view.php?prod_category=10). I always stick to the bean and rice or the black bean vegetable ones, and they are delicious! Plus, one of these burritos only costs me around 300 calories, and I love that Amy’s uses organic ingredients.
As of yesterday, though, it looks like Amy’s might have some competition in my freezer from a new burrito I’ve discovered: Evol (http://evolburritos.com/). Yup, I took a something new burrito plunge and was quite pleased. These burritos are made from scratch and use lots of organic ingredients. Many of their meats and their eggs appear to be antibiotic-free and products of more humane farming. The other cool thing about the company is its focus on green manufacturing. Burritos are good for the environment – who knew? I tried the veggie fajita burrito, and I was in burritoooo heaven. I was amazed by how fresh a microwave burrito could taste. I will definitely be trying more of these. My only wish is that they would use whole wheat tortillas in more of their burritos, like they use in the veggie fajita one.
Have you ever noticed that when you learn something new, that tidbit of information starts popping up everywhere around you? Perhaps it was always there, and you just never noticed it before. Or perhaps there is some magic brain wave action that pulls reminders of this new information to you.
Whatever it is, I love when this happens. It shows me how valuable each experience is to me and reminds me of this new little part of the world that has been opened to me.
A few weeks ago, when I was in Verona, hubby and I took a walk over to Juliet’s house. In case you’re not familiar, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet takes place in Verona, and the supposed houses of the two lovers can be visited there today. Juliet’s house is complete with a balcony, and there is a statue of Juliet that people grope for luck (I did not partake in violating the poor statue). I had heard that lovers write their names on the wall of the house and witnessed the mess of graffiti for the first time in person. But, I had never heard that people also send letters to Juliet seeking love advice.
I learned this snippet of trivia while I was on a bus tour of Verona (I’m a very thorough tourist, okay?). Apparently, people send letters to Juliet each year, and volunteers work hard to respond to each of these letters. I’m not a hopeless romantic, but I like a good love story or love note now and then (I like to keep my many love notes in a box in my room so that I can easily find them and remind myself how wonderful I am). So, I was pleased to find out that the bus tour was not lying, and this group of volunteers really does exist: http://www.julietclub.com/index_en.asp . What a fun job!
Anyway, getting back to my initial point, when I was back home a week later, a movie preview popped onto the TV advertising a film about Verona. Exciting – I was there! I love watching films set in beautiful European landscapes that I’ve visited. But, this film isn’t just about Verona, it is about this letter-writing tradition (http://letterstojuliet-movie.com/). A few weeks ago, I wouldn’t have had a clue about these letters or these volunteers, and I’m sure I would’ve stayed awake at night trying to figure out why some lady wrote a letter to a possibly fictional, or at least definitely dead, character and why this random blonde girl was replying to the letter instead of staying home to keep tabs on her father’s multiple wives.
But, now because I have learned all about these letters and all about these great volunteers, I can sleep without wonder. I always love when new information comes right back to me.
There has been a flurry of “news” stories lately about celebrities baring themselves raw. Jessica Simpson (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/07/jessica-simpsons-emmarie_n_528195.html) and Demi Moore (http://www.limelife.com/blog-entry/Britney-Spears-Demi-Moore-Jessica-Simpson-Unretouched-Without-Makeup/41460.html) without makeup, Kim Kardashian in the buff (http://content.usatoday.com/communities/entertainment/post/2010/04/kim-kardashian-bares-all-for-bazaar/1), and Britney Spears’ Candies Ads before and after retouching(http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b176358_britney_spears_unretouched_candies_ads.html) . The stories applaud these women, honoring them for these courageous steps. I say – so what?
Here at something new, we’re always raw. These words are like a colorful sushi bar with nothing holding back their fresh grittiness . . .
But seriously, the world is raw. Everyday people do not parade around with makeup artists, airbrush professionals, and photograph touch-up experts. Sure, some people wear makeup, but plenty of people don’t. When we don our bikinis and board shorts at the beach, our “flaws” are there for all to see. Does that make us everyday heros? Or, does that just make us people who are human and have bodies that are built for living, not for posing? Bodies grow and bodies stretch, each one differently – why is it so difficult for us to see the beauty in this everyday rawness, rather than the “imperfections”? Whether it’s motherhood, puberty, athletic training, or aging, our bodies change and develop. Isn’t it amazing how versatile our bodies are to allow these changes? The beauty of the stretch mark that allowed some one to give life or to grow into an adult, the beauty of a muscle that shows the body’s athletic abilities, the beauty of curves that show femininity, the beauty of a scar that tells a tale from the past, the beauty of the wrinkles that show a lifetime of experiences – our bodies are incredible.
Yet, instead of acknowledging and respecting this natural beauty, we turn to the media, which is inundated with airbrushed, made-up celebrities and models – bodies that are impossible to achieve because these celebrities and models haven’t even achieved them, technology has. We kill ourselves trying to reach these imperfect goals – but why would we try to reach goals our bodies weren’t meant to reach? Don’t get me wrong – I think we should all strive to eat healthy foods and exercise often – but keeping your body healthy and in shape is much different from trying to make it perfect.
And now, I guess we’re supposed to be happy that celebrities are stripping away the makeup and the touch ups. Hurrah! Now we have role models to look up to – now we can be secure in ourselves because these people too are imperfect. That’s fine. I don’t think it’s a bad thing that these celebrities are embracing their natural beauty.
But, my real question is, why do we need to look up to them when we can just look to each other. We can see natural beauty in our friends and family, the raw people in our everyday lives. Because the bottom line is that until we accept healthy, natural, raw bodies and faces as beautiful, we’ll never see those kinds images in our media. Our world runs on supply and demand, and when we demand perfection, that is what the media will deliver. But, if we learn to admire the rawness surrounding us and start the difficult task of loving the rawness of ourselves, maybe these raw celebrity images will become more commonplace. Doubtful, but you never know.
Who doesn’t love wine? The sound of the bottle popping, the site of the rich-colored liquid filling a glass, and the taste of the sweet grapes are all true pleasures. I think that one of the great things about wine is the culture surrounding it: the regions that flourish with grapes, the vineyards that produce the juice, and the families who work so hard to make it theirs. I’m sure that there are plenty of mass-produced wines out there, but there still remain many wines created by individual, family-run vineyards. In a world of corporate giants, it is refreshing to see an industry in which families can successfully work together.
My point? Well last week, hubby and I traveled to Italy for an annual wine exhibit in Verona, Italy called Vinitaly (http://www.vinitaly.com/index_en.asp). Hubby attends this exhibit every year, but I’d never had the pleasure of attending. It definitely was not what I was expecting: a sprawling center with building after building filled with booths of winemakers from all regions of Italy. But, the term “booths” doesn’t do justice to this setup. These “booths” were creative masterpieces, like stages to show off these great wines. Each booth was unique, some with wine bars, some with individual conference rooms and kitchens, some with two levels – all with unique personality. Certain of these booths even had personal chefs ready to cook up a yummy Italian dish or serve up a bowl of gelato. It was truly an incredible site and experience.
Of course, the point of the event was not to eat gelato. Hubby met with various accounts, talking business and trying their wines. Luckily, I had the opportunity to meet some of the wonderful families behind these wines as well. I’ve never felt so welcomed in my life – sitting down and sipping wine with them was like being part of their families.
One of the main things I noticed was the pride that these families have in these wines. The wines are not mere widgets, not just something to sell. The wines are the backdrops of their lives – their work, their families, their every day living. And the pride was contagious – I couldn’t help being proud of these families for what they had created and for the bonds they had with each other.
It was a great something new!
A Little Something New 