Living the WELL Life

The great Swedish botanist, Carolus Linnaeus christened the cacao tree…food of the gods…and boy, was he right! We’ll never know what nirvana is…well, most of us won’t anyway…maybe the Dalai Lama (but I hear he loves chocolate, too)…but chocolate is about as close to ambrosia that we mortals will ever experience. For most of us, a mere taste of chocolate on our tongue can trigger a flood of fond memories…our first Hershey Kiss, licking chocolate ice cream off our wrist during the summer, dipping our fingers into rich chocolate frosting meant for a birthday cake. But hardly any of us think of chocolate as good for us…sinful, surely…decadent, definitely…but healthy? Never…but just this once, you’ll love being wrong.  Read more

We are all one.  As I sit here on the first day of 2010 (pronounced “twenty-ten;” it sounds more futuristic), I contemplate the next decade, as well as the future beyond.  Will we (the human race) advance as a species and survive on this planet…or will we become extinct like the many animals and plants before us (dinosaurs, dodo birds, and hundreds of vegetable species )?  One thing I believe is that unlike previous members of the “extinct club”, if it happens to humans, it will be our own fault.  With our brain power, we have a greater ability to adapt and control our environment than anything else on the planet ever has.  We have manipulated our world through advances in technologies, medicine, etc., but as a whole, we have failed to learn on the thing…WE ARE ALL ONE!  I believe that until our “advanced brains” learn this simple concept, we are doomed to follow the dinosaurs and become part of Earths’ evolutionary history instead of its future.   Read more

In our house, 1998 has a pet name…the year from hell.  Everyone has them…those years that you literally count the days until they end…even living a macrobiotic lifestyle does not guarantee immunity to such years.  We may like to think that it does, that living natural, whole lives makes us somehow magically immune to disease and other natural disasters.  Well, maybe not everyone thinks this, but I surely did. I thought that having had…and survived cancer through macrobiotics (trial by fire, in my case) ensured that the rest of my life would sail smoothly along.  I was ‘all in’ in the tragedy department.  Read more

As an off-shoot of my cooking show, my husband and I own a travel business.  We organize holidays for people who want to continue their commitment to health even while on vacation.  We organize tours of Europe, scuba trips to the Caribbean and retreats in the U.S.  My staff and prepare meals to keep our guests sated and healthy.  The challenges of cooking in varying locales can be exciting and daunting.  Read more

‘…A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou…’
–from The Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam


In my last blog I wrote about wine and the one before that, bread, so now its time for thou.  As in ‘How art thou?’  Really.  Before you answer, I want you to reconsider your lifestyle.  Yes, really.
That’s what I did.  I spelled it out, one letter at a time and before I knew it, I had my very own LIFESTYLE acronym.  Sounds silly, I know.  But it focused me, very clearly, on the way I live my life and what my real priorities are.  This may seem like over thinking it to some, but both of my parents died from lifestyle diseases (Type II diabetes)… so yeah… I do think about it a lot.  Maybe you should too.  Making your own anagram is way more fun than burdening your brain with more phases like ‘…I should do more blah, blah, blah…’  Really.  Read more

I don't know if you've noticed, but there has been an energy shift happening over the last few months. We are moving into a new age where having a meat-centered diet and using animals as commodities will no longer be acceptable. People are ready to take an honest look at their dinner plates and see the bigger picture staring back at them. Here's a list of things I think would be great to get on your plate this year.  Read more

I’ve been in bed most of this week. I was felled by a sinus infection and it decided that my bed was the safest, comfiest, snottiest place to rest my painful head.  I’m just pulling out now, but I’d like to share some some interesting discoveries:  Read more

Well, here we are…the New Year. Don’t let another one pass and find yourself still not making healthy choices…time for change, baby. And with delicious menu plans like this one, how can you resist?  Healthy and delicious? It’s a fresh start, my friends.  Read more