Archive for the ‘Diet’ Category

I’m from Tulsa, so I can ask it like this: Did any of y’all happen to catch Paula Deen on Doctor Oz a while back? The episode in which she revealed her deepest, darkest health secret, which was that she smokes like an effing chimney?

Not that she had diabetes, which she’s known about for three freaking years – and easily could have shared with the good doctor, and by extension, us. Nope, that little bombshell she saved for now, when the holidays are behind us and many mamas, myself included, are grappling with the remnants of all that pumpkin pie and fruit cake welded to our asses.

Anyway, back to that Doctor Oz ep. I’ve never really watched Paula Deen’s own show, so for me, this was my first real television encounter with her. And I have to admit I was a little charmed. (I’m not now, which we’ll get to in a minute.) She was working the Fun Southern Granny schtick to the max, and when she finally quasi-copped to the ciggy thing, she said, basically, “I really only hold ‘em Doctor Oz.”

“Well, how many do you ‘hold’ every day?” he asked.

“Oh, about 20,” she shot back, to guffaws from the audience, and much fluttering of her inch-long falsies.

I think it was 20 – but I wouldn’t testify to that in a court of law. I’m up early because I have a ton of “real” work to do, and I don’t have time to go and fact-check meticulously. This is more of a soap-boxy, riffy ranty blog post; if you’re demanding top-notch journalism right this second, please look elsewhere.

Anyway, the net-net of the Oz ep was that Deen wanted to stop smoking – her hubby had already done so – and Doctor O promised to help with that. Both of my three-pack-a-day parents died really early – and I struggle with not smoking myself, which I’ve blogged about - so I wish her luck with that. It’s insanely hard to stop smoking, some experts believe it’s even tougher than kicking heroin. Grrr…

Cut to yesterday, and I’m rushing around like a madwoman trying to get the Wee Lass ready for school, and myself ready for work in the Big Apple. Flicking on The Today Show, I see a teaser for Deen and her big sit-down with Al Roker about her recently-revealed diabetes. “Oooh, Momover Lady sooo wants to see that,” I said to myself, stripping for the shower, clicker in hand.

And I did see it, just enough to make me want to vomit up my flaxseed organic oatmeal.

If you guys didn’t see the segment, and would like to, here’s a link to it.

So here’s what put such a massive bee in my bonnet: Deen refuses to admit that her crazy-ass high-fat, high-cal cooking is the key, key, key reason she now has full-blown Type 2 diabetes. She essentially tried to pin it to genetics and age, and said she’s always practiced “moderation.” Bull–t, babe. Consider me no longer charmed by your Fun Southern Granny, Mile-Long Falsies routine.

Huge, huge props to Al, who basically called her on every last bit of her bull—t, including the fact that she’s now being heavily compensated by a diabetes-drug manufacturer. It was in his lovely Al way, but he was tough nonetheless.

Fun, gratuitous factoid about Al and Momover Lady: Back in the day, we both used to work out at the same private gym, and he was such a sweetheart, huffing and puffing away on that elliptical, and greeting everyone with a hearty howdy. Al knows the value of exercising and eating well. He’s had to learn it firsthand.

And also, huge props to Today Show contributor Dr. Roshini Raj, who also did her bit to burst Deen’s “moderation” bubble. Dr. Raj point-blank said that being overweight is “the most defined risk factor” for Type 2 diabetes.

So there you go, Paula Deen. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

I think I must have been a lot chubbier last year at this time, or at least not in the state of denial I am right now, because I blogged about the calorie count in a single slice of pumpkin pie, and how a rigorous half-hour on the elliptical doesn’t do jack to mitigate that.

This year, however, I’m like eff it: I’m gonna eat the dessert I love most in this whole wide world for breakfast, lunch and dinner if I so choose.

The funnest part – okay, the second funnest part – is how obsessed the Wee Lass is with my pumpkin pie intake. In the run-up to this week, we’d been chatting about how pumpkin pie season was fast approaching, and how Momover Lady really can’t be trusted within a 10-mile radius of my beloved treat.

Over the weekend, we bought one. And guess who just ate the last tiny sliver? And guess who, on a grownup playdate with my new pal Julia “Somewhere In Transition” Barclay yesterday, ordered both a pretentious artisanal beer and an entire mini pie at the cute little café by her house? (FYI, Julia was kind enough to help me out by eating a few nibbles. Thank you, Julia.)

Until I demolished the last bit of the one here at the house, my little lady has been getting the biggest kick out of going into the kitchen and playing Pie Cop. “Mommy!” she wails, mock-indignantly. “You are a pumpkin pie monster!”

I chuckle and say, “So what? I’ll just buy us a new one!”

I may or may not – buy us a new one, that is. After all, I’m not a massive fan of having pie-fat welded to my mid-section. But it’s fun not to sweat the small stuff. Or the not-so-small stuff – 300-plus calories per slice before the mandatory | obligatory | essential whipped cream.

Life is short and pie is delicious. Happy Thanksgiving my lovely Momoverettes.

Before anyone gets their knickers in a twist and starts going all Occupy Wall Street on me, let me just state upfront that this blog post is mostly aimed at preggos and new moms who have a bit of disposable income at their….disposal. Maybe not Petra Ecclestone-level dough, but definitely a bit of pocket change.

I know people get really pissed about that these days; I can’t tell you how many blogosphere wrist slaps I’ve gotten for admitting I belong to Harry & David’s Organic Fruit Of The Month Club. Sheesh, the venom. You’d have thought I’d traded the Wee Lass for a Birkin.

Anyway, the only reason I’m being so gauche as to discuss money is that I’m about to tell you about a very smart – if indulgent – plan called FIT MOM that can help you ace your pregnancy and | or new mommyhood feeling vibrant and energetic and up to the challenge. That’s really important. Given how much our hyped-up, modern lives have cut us off from a more natural, slower approach to having babies and recuperating postpartum, a qualified support team can be a godsend.

So first, I’d like to tell you the specifics of FIT MOM, which is brought to you by FITiST, the members-only “one-stop booking website for wellness and fitness,” based in New York and L.A., that offers a range of curated regimens and access to many top fitness studios and spas. Then I’ll summarize some very useful advice I got from the press event to launch the program.

FIT MOM

Monthly Plan

* 12 classes customized by Pregnancy Fitness Expert Andrea Orbeck. Via Skype, Andrea will tailor a program perfectly suited to your body, goals, lifestyle and needs.
* Weekly nutrition advice from Dr. Oz Garcia
* One private yoga session
* Caudalie Limited Edition Spa in a Bag: Tone and Slim Collection
* Price: $525 for New Yorkers; $440 for Los Angelenos

FIT MOM PRESS EVENT

There was a panel of super-smarties at the press event, including Orbeck, whom I’d never met before, and celeb nutritionist Oz Garcia, whom I’ve known for years and have blogged about several times. Rounding out the group were Pilates whiz Brooke Siler; yogi Kristin McGee and Mathilde Thomas, co-founder of the lovely French skincare brand Caudalie.

Here, excellent preggo + postpartum tips from each:

1. Andrea Orbeck: Having whipped Heidi Klum into shape after baby number four (!), Andrea is known as “the Pied Piper of sexy bottoms and long, lean legs.” She’s all about re-orging your fitness routine to fit your new post-newborn life. Only have 10 minutes to work out? Go for it, no excuses. “Intensity is a surrogate for duration,” she says. “You have to re-invent and be creative,” breaking one long mega-session into do-able chunks.

2. Oz Garcia: I felt vindicated when Oz mentioned that pregnancy can wreak havoc on our thyroids. Since my own GP scoffed when I posited this theory, I loved hearing this über wellness guru basically tell me that I wasn’t insane. According to Oz, a lot of what gets diagnosed as postpartum depression may in fact be thyroiditis. So to that end, he suggests that every new mom who isn’t feel up to snuff get her thyroid tested. Wearing his nutritionist’s hat, Oz urges a largely plant-based diet, with a bit of low-mercury seafood thrown into the mix (or fish oil capsules) for the omega 3 essential fatty acids they provide. “Eat small,” he says, “trout, bass, grouper, salmon and sardines.” Other healthy musts: Nuts, lentils, beans. But if you’re pregnant, he says, stay the hell away from coffee. Caffeine easily leaps the placental barrier, and you don’t want to subject your little Miss or Mister to that.

3. Brooke Siler: A Pilates pioneer of sorts – not that she isn’t totally young and amazing! – Brooke says to make the playground your new fitness studio. In other words, instead of sitting on that bench yakking with the nannies and checking your CrackBerry, do some pull ups on the monkey bars, or run a few laps around the perimeter. Just move it. Also: If you’ve never done Pilates before, pregnancy is not the time to start. Wait until you’ve delivered – and fully recuperated – before you embark on a beginner program. Another cute tip: Use your baby as a weight for squats. Trust me, they’ll love it.

4. Kristin McGee: While standing balance poses can really help shore up your confidence around carrying your ever-growing bundle of joy, McGee says that Plank, an all-over toner that’s fairly easy to execute, is pretty much her desert island must-have move. And to keep your energy high, she recommends keeping an empty Altoids tin packed with almonds.

5. Mathilde Thomas: To prevent the dreaded “mask of pregnancy,” Mathilde says SPF is crucial. And make sure to OD on body moisturizer, despite the fact that your face might actually be producing more oil during pregnancy and require a lighter formula. Not gaining too much weight while pregnant is also a great idea, she says. I happen to agree with her. But bear in mind she’s French, and as we all know, French women don’t get fat.

More on Mathilde in an upcoming blog post. I’m going to visit the gorge Caudalie spa at the Plaza Hotel, so I’ll report back on my yummy experience. Just because the Wee Lass is pushing six doesn’t mean I don’t need to pamper myself, oui?

Okay, so staging the first and only Momover giveaway – in conjunction with my Mama Guru slash fitness goddess LaReine Chabut – five seconds before A) Labor Day and B) Really Horrible Tropical Storm Irene probably wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever had in my life.

But my decision to make it a “show us your fitness stuff” contest rather than a straight-up giveaway was actually borderline genius. Because then I got to pick a winner and share her post-babies getting back in shape tale with all of you.

So here’s my girlie. I swear I didn’t pick her because her name is exactly like mine.

Rather, lovely Daina is the mama of the moment because of her spirit and her commitment to making her health and wellness a top priority.

And as you’ll soon read, that’s what it took: A pledge to herself that despite everything else that’s going on in her crazy-busy life, she would still carve out the time to exercise and eat right.

So let’s hop right into our happy little Q & A. It’s so inspiring you’ll be zipping up that tracksuit:

MOMOVER LADY: How have you re-jiggered your schedule to fit in your workouts? Are you being more time-efficient at work? Or have you hired a cleaning lady or asked your husband to make dinner a few nights a week? Something had to go, right?

DAINA: My greatest barrier to working out was (is) a lack of time. I juggle a full-time job, which requires me to travel at least once a week, two children (ages 1 and 3), a dog, a household and myriad other duties and obligations. My a-ha! moment was a realization that time would never magically appear. I had to make time. If working out was something I wanted to do, I had to push aside, re-priortize, pay a babysitter or do whatever I needed to make that commitment.

As for specifics, I committed to twice-a-week TRX class that starts about 30 minutes after my daughter’s bedtime. On those nights, I put on my workout clothes, get the kids fed and bathed a little earlier, and my husband puts our son to bed so I can rush to class. Is it a rush rush rush evening? Yes, but I get to my workout.

On one or two other days, I block my workout time (plus some time for travel to and fro) in my work calendar, usually around lunch time. I hustle off to the gym for a condensed (45-minute) workout.

I also picked a gym that offers inexpensive childcare, though I haven’t used it yet.

MOMOVER LADY: What’s been the greatest benefit so far? More energy? Sleeping better? Less stressed? Or is it purely superficial, like an inch off the old thighs?

DAINA: I’m happier after I work out. Much happier. I don’t know if it’s the “me” time or the fact that I’m getting stronger or just the post-workout endorphins, but the happiness glow lasts for quite a bit. Last week I missed two workouts because of travel and houseguests, and I was feeling grumpy and anxious. On Friday, when I finally sweated it out, I felt great.

MOMOVER LADY: TRX sounds scary. Like P90X kinda scary.

DAINA: It’s a Navy Seals type of workout. It’s great. A killer workout. But I’ve also been been trying to get my head around adding some more cardio. I used to love running, but that hasn’t been as appealing after having two almost-10 lb babies and nursing for two years.

MOMOVER LADY: On the food front, what’s been the biggest hurdle? Are there “trigger” foods you just can’t stop eating? Like me and my godforsaken Kettle chips?

DAINA: Ah food. Here’s the rub: food is what really matters. Eating clean and lean changes your body. I *know* this, but for me, what I eat is the hardest thing to change. I think it’s because exercise is fun (see post-workout high), but limiting food is about, well, limitation. Limitation isn’t fun.

For me, the first step has been realizing that what I put in my mouth matters. Every. Single. Bite. I love my ice cream, wine and Nutella, but where I really fall down is the little bite here, the little bite there, the handful of almonds, my kids’ leftover mac & cheese, etc.

My goal for next week is to start a food diary. Not because it will show me some patterns (although it probably will), but to force myself to be HONEST about those bits, bites and handfuls that add up over the course of the day.

MOMOVER LADY: Bingo. In my book, I have an entire chapter on the importance of keeping a food diary or journal. Seeing it in print is the real deal. But what about cooking? Do you cook for yourself? And if so, how has your food preparation changed since you started being more aware of calories and fat and such?

DAINA: This is the one area where I’ve always been good. I love to cook, and I cook for my family almost every day. My habits haven’t changed that much since I’ve always been a pretty healthy, whole-food kind of chef.

Also, as an aside to your post about “cheating” by using store-bought ingredients for lasagna, that’s not cheating! It’s smart, and there are celebrity chefs devoted to semi-homemade food.

I’m not a huge Sandra Lee fan, but check out A Twist of the Wrist: Quick Flavorful Meals with Ingredients from Jars, Cans, Bags and Boxes by Nancy Silverton. She’s an amazing chef and baker, and this cookbook is all about using ready-made sauces, soups, pastas, beans, rotisserie chicken, etc. Everything I’ve made from that book is delicious, and makes me look like a gourmet cook. Seriously.

MOMOVER LADY: OMG, I’m Amazoning that tonight. You’re like a walking, talking tips machine! But I have one last question before you sail back into Daina-Ville: How has your outlook on life changed since you started taking better care of yourself?

DAINA: Taking care of myself = happier mama.

MOMOVER LADY: Well I feel happier just having met you, even if it’s only digitally. You are really, really inspiring. Thank you for sharing your story. Yay!

Man, that Mercury retrograde is so over.

How else to explain this: I file a blog post yesterday about which fruits and veggies you should freak out about not being organic, and I use an image of a lovely avocado as a happy example of a fruit (wait, is it a fruit, right?) that you don’t need to get your knickers in a twist over.

It was the first and only time Momover Lady has run a pic of an avocado. I mean, hello, I like them and all, but it’s not like they’re a major factor in my life.

But then – shazzam – no sooner had I hit “publish” then I receive this yummy and youthifying recipe from my new favorite food guru, Beauty Detox Solution author Kimberly Snyder.

I’ve been writing about Kim a lot. Just a few days ago, in fact. She’s funny, and smart and knows so much about nutrition you kinda can’t believe it. And she’s gotten me to stop eating roasted almonds (big meanie), because she says the roasting process is like really bad for you. I forget why, exactly, because I was so traumatized when she told me, but here’s the takeaway: Nuts = good. Roasting = not good. So stick with the raw variety.

Okay, on to that recipe:

Kim Snyder’s Beauty Guacamole

Ingredients:

2 medium avocados

1 medium garlic clove, chopped very finely

Cayenne pepper, to taste

Juice of ½ a lemon

¼ tsp. Celtic or Himalayan Sea Salt

1 cup chopped tomatoes

Directions:

Slice the avocados lengthwise and remove the pit. Scoop out the green avocado flesh and add to a medium-size mixing bowl. Add the lemon juice and mash the avocados, using a fork. Make it as smooth as you like, or if you like your guacamole chunky, then don’t mash too much! Add the garlic, sea salt and cayenne pepper and mix well.

Add the chopped tomatoes last and mix well again.

Enjoy the guacamole with veggie sticks as a filling, wonderful afternoon snack during Labor Day weekend! You can also serve the guacamole on top of a large green salad for a great lunch or dinner.

I think I told you that I’m taking a home study course with organizing whiz Sue Rasmussen, right? With the intention of excavating my office?

Well, the re-org isn’t going well, and it certainly isn’t Sue’s fault.

Turns out that the spendy wood Kathy Ireland filing cabinets I bought didn’t fit, and had to be shipped right back. That was tons of fun. They weigh about 2000 pounds apiece and my office is on the second floor of our pad. Suffice to say that Hubby was not happy about this sitch, especially when he found out I hadn’t even bothered to measure the area in which they were intended to live.

Oops!

But according to my (imaginary) bestie Nate Berkus, not breaking out the tape measure before ordering costly and extremely heavy furniture for one’s home is a very common problem. So take that, Hubby!

Anyway, until I make other arrangements (I just ordered this gorge desk in Antique White) I really need to keep on trucking, and tossing unnecessary files, projects, etc. That way, by paring down the mountain of existing paper, I’ll make way all sorts of groovy new hobbies and obsessions! Oh, and “real” work, too. Grrr…

Yesterday, during my daily dig-out, I came across this handy little wallet card, the contents of which I’d like to share with you.

It’s a list compiled by the Environmental Working Group (that DC-based watchdog agency that monitors dodgy chemicals in our foods, beauty prods, sunscreens, etc.) of the produce we absolutely should buy organic, and those that we can purchase without worrying our pretty little heads about.

Before I get into the list, you can go here to print a PDF or download it to your phone. If you’re a Luddite like moi, you could always scribble them on the front and back of a plain white index card chopped down to wallet size.

So here it is:

High Pesticide-Load Fruits & Veggies (Buy Organic)

1. Celery

2. Peaches

3. Strawberries

4. Apples

5. Blueberries

6. Nectarines

7. Bell Peppers

9. Spinach

10. Cherries

11. Kale & Collard Greens

12. Potatoes

13. Grapes (Imported)

Low Pesticide-Load Fruits & Veggies (Aka Don’t Worry Your Pretty Little Head Abouts)

1. Onions

2. Avocado

3. Sweet Corn

4. Pineapple

5. Mangos

6. Sweet Peas

7. Asparagus

8. Kiwi

9. Cabbage

10. Eggplant

11. Cantaloupe

12. Watermelon

13. Grapefruit

14. Sweet Potato

15. Honeydew Melon

Isn’t it cool that the low-pesticide list is longer than the one of the fruits and veggies that have been sprayed to smithereens? I think so. But I’m still keeping a big bottle of my favorite produce wash on the side of my kitchen sink in case I blow it from time to time.

Because as my Kathy Ireland Filing Cabinet Fiasco clearly shows, I am not always the smartest shopper.

*As well they should be.

But we’ll get to that in uno momento.

On our kitchen counter, in a Tupperware container sans lid, we have this really scary stash of “treats” the Wee Lass has collected in her travels. I just did a quick inventory, and here’s what’s in there:

1. AirHeads Xtremes, which she nabbed at the evil concession stand at the town pool.

2. Edible Legos, procured at a bday party she attended at this adorable Hoboken candy shop. Er, shoppe.

3. M&Ms and Hershey’s Kisses, housed in pastel eggs, obvi left over from Easter. Gross.

4. A massive pile of her new retro obsession: old-school Bazooka. (Grrr…she keeps asking us to read her the stupid comics that come with, which are in like microscopic, negative-5 point font.)

5. Rock candy – also retro, and sooo pretty. But she doesn’t really seem into it, probably because it isn’t fluorescent.

6. And a bunch of other cavity-producing crapola, including Nerds and Skittles.

Clearly, she consumes her fair share of chemicals. Not all day long, mind you, but she usually dips into her loot for a little somethin somethin once a day. Hubby has passed down a family tradition of a before-bed snack of her choice, and – shocker – she isn’t often hankering after a pear or a piece of string cheese.

Still, under no circumstances will a sip of soda pass her lips. We could be stranded in the middle of the Sahara, and if I whipped out a Coke, she wouldn’t partake.

And she’s hardly the only pint-sized people-person who shuns the stuff. Whenever I eavesdrop on her and her gang in a refreshment setting (i.e., one of these endless birthday bashes – even ones held at candy shops, er shoppes), it’s always, “I don’t drink soda because it’s really bad for you.”

Don’t get me wrong; this is a good thing. A really good thing. I grew up in 1960s Oklahoma, and you couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting a big ol case of “pop.” And I use to curse my own (Connecticut-born and raised) mama for making us drink milk 95 percent of the time, while my cousins could crack open a bottle of grape soda any damn time they pleased. Deprivation much?

Over the weekend, post-earthquake and pre-hurricane, I was frantically stockpiling all the feel-good stuff I thought would help us weather the storm in a “fun” way. And along with the only bottled H20 I could get my mitts on (electrolyte-laced AriZona Vapor Water, which I’d never heard of, and is probably pure marketing bullshit), I slipped a pack of Diet Dr. Pepper in my cart.

The DP made me feel happy for about five seconds because it’s so gosh darn tasty, but it’s now giving me a case of the guilts. Why? Because soda actually really is bad for you. Especially the diet kind, which ratchets up the carcinogens a few notches. Between the aluminum cans and the chemicals, I’m asking for trouble.

That’s why I have a bottle of the bullshit electrolyte water on my desk right now as I type this. The earthquake and the hurricane are behind us, and I (hopefully) gotta a lotta healthy living to do.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been eating like shite this summer. Come to think of it, I ate like shite last summer too. Detecting a bit of a pattern here. Summer = eating like shite.

Anyway, I’ve decided to wrest control over the situation (and my not-especially-svelte thighs) by doing something that worked like a charm for me all spring: Eating only fruit before noon.

This is not a new concept. And it’s not especially earth-shattering, akin to, say, the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus. Or Amerigo Vespucci, or whoever first landed on these fine shores lo all those years ago.

And speaking of ancient history…

You’re probably too young to remember a seminal diet book from the Eighties entitled Fit for Life. Well, I’m not. And that puppy was a game-changer. It was the first of the genre to get into the nitty gritty of proper food-combining, and the then-radical notion that eating fruit on anything but a completely empty stomach is a baaaad idea.

Why? Because – and please excuse the utter grossness of this theory – if you dig into a slice of watermelon or pop a handful of grapes in your mouth after inhaling a steak or a bowl of pasta, the fruit just lays there on top. And then the whole big blob of food (the steak, the grapes) starts fermenting and rotting. Blech. The personification of gnarliness, in other words.

According to the Fit for Life authors, fruit needs to fly free. And the best time to OD on it is in the morning, after a good solid eight hours of shut-eye, and before we’ve started shoveling in any other food.

Flashforward several decades and Hollywood’s hottest nutritionist – Kimberly Snyder - is banging the same fruit-only drum in her info-packed Beauty Detox Solution book.

I love the whole premise of Kim’s work, which is that what we eat – and when we eat it – plays a massive role in what we look like. That’s a really smart way to get us wanna-be hot mamas to load up on our fruits and veggies – appeal to our vanity and superficiality!

Which brings me, finally, to the BIG IDEA behind this blog post. I’ve completely bought into the fruit-needs-to-fly-free concept. I was on that bandwagon way back in the Eighties. But now, after re-reading Kim’s book – and remembering how much frigging energy I had all spring – I’m hooked again.

And most most most importantly, I’m considerably less chubby when I’m fruiting before noon. Fruit is insanely good for you, and it’s de-chubbifying. So much to love.

Gads, I’m wracked with diet guilt. Not only have I been eating chicken and turkey lately (why? why? why?), but I’ve also been a big ol’ dairy queen. In fact, I think we may have actually dined at an actual Dairy Queen during Road Trip 2011.

As someone who loves critters, I am not thrilled about this situation. Even the dairy, which is theoretically a byproduct, has put a massive guilt-bee in my bonnet. Although I’d like to believe that there’s such a thing as a humane dairy farm, I don’t think one really, truly exists. As I scrutinized the Horizon egg carton in our fridge the other night, I was hoping the fact that they say they give their chicks plenty of room to roam means they do in fact do that.

But how could I know?

Anyway, I figure that if I can’t critter-guilt my way back to my vegan-wannabe ways (and I’m sure I can if I read enough depressing chapters from my vast library of vegan cookbooks and such), I can definitely health-guilt my way into more optimal food choices.

Allow me to connect the dots in my usual round-about, mind-racing-at-a-million-miles-an-hour Momover way:

Because it’s summer, I’ve been slathering the Wee Lass with sunblock. Which led me to thinking about my own multiple skin cancer scares, which led me to thinking about redoubling my efforts to balance my pH level.

Although there’s debate about this in the medical community, a balanced pH level is considered – by many health gurus and holistic practitioners – to be one of cancer’s worst enemies.

Soooo…I fired off an email query to Dr. Susan Blum, one of my Mama Gurus and my unofficial integrative wellness mentor. Are there any easy, do-able shifts I can make to tilt my pH level in a more alkalinic / less acidic direction?

“Eat less animal,” Dr. Blum shot back, “and more vegetables and vegetarian proteins” such as beans and legumes (and even some grains and fruits).

Grrr…had she installed a hidden camera in my kitchen???

There was more to our conversation, which I’ll share with you tomorrow, along with other tips. But right now, I have to go pick up my little meat-lover from day camp.

Weirdness: After we returned from Road Trip 2011, and I slid slooooowly into my first few weeks of not-working/part-time Wee Lass-watching, I was sleeping really badly. Like wake up in the middle of the night for HOURS badly.

Grim. And completely mystifying. Why, with zero stress, was I having such a hard time staying asleep? (That’s the kind of insomnia I’m prone to – the staying-asleep variety. I have no problem initially drifting off.)

Of course what I did when I rocketed awake circa 2 a.m. didn’t help matters: crack open my iPad and start downloading Vogue Knitting e-books.

Bad move. Here’s why:

During one of my snooze-less stretches, I came across a très excellent website, Helpguide.org, packed with great info about insomnia and other stress-y conditions. And ironically, it’s on that site – which I was reading on my iPad in the dead of night – that I was advised to “avoid screens of any kind – computers, TV, cell phones, Kindles, iPads – as the type of light they emit is stimulating to the brain.”

So in other words, you’re much better off reading a good old-fashioned book- with actual pages to turn – than a new-fangled contraption that blasts white-hot light beams into your eyeballs.

Of course, the piece also included some more obvious tips, including the avoidance of caffeine. And the timing couldn’t have been better. One, I’m not on deadline on the moment, so I don’t need to be that mentally dialed-in. And two, our Keurig coffee-maker konked-out and needed to be “de-scaled,” so I couldn’t ply myself with endless cups of high-test Newman’s Own. That means I had to dust off the Cuisinart and – gasp – make a pot of the old-school stuff.

Since I’d also been reading no fewer than three books that heap major abuse on caffeine…

Veganist by Kathy Freston

Revive by Frank Lipman, M.D.

The Beauty Detox Solution by Kimberly Snyder

…I decided to take advantage of this probably very short window of jobby-lessness and scale back. To do so, I nabbed the low-test version of my much-beloved Chock Full O’ Nuts.

Bingo.

I’ve been sleeping brilliantly ever since I made that shift. Even when Thunder and Lightning wake me up in the middle of the night for a little kitty snicky-snack. I just stumble out to the kitchen, give them their grub, and sleep-walk right back to bed. No iPad, no knitting e-books, no nothing but snoozing. Happiness.