Lavender-Peppermint muscle relaxing & boo-boo balm

I can hardly believe it's September already—my favorite month of the year! The air's getting crisper, I'll need to refresh our tea selection soon and long weekend rambles are about to get ever so much more comfortable.

We've had a good summer, though. Yes, the usual citizenship shenanigans were definitely the lowlight, but in the midst of all that, so much to be grateful for. We kicked off the season with a bang on the Riviera Maya, had our fill of lazy weekends, Mexican fiestas, after-work picnics, and woolly knitting sessions. And while I concentrated on rediscovering cocktail culture, R decided to concentrate on some-might-say worthier pastimes, like taking up mixed martial arts again.

When he lived in Stockholm in his 20s he trained with one of the founding families of jiu-jitsu, but when he went back to Sicily and then came here, he couldn't find anyone that taught the same style that he grew up with. I found that a little suspect, especially when he moved to New York, but he doggedly went up and down and across the isle of Manhattan (and even into Brooklyn) to try out all the ones he found and pronounced them all not quite right.

Then this spring we noticed lots of construction on a corner a few blocks from us. There's always something going on, especially downtown, but wouldn't you know, a brand new gym specializing in Brazilian jiu-jitsu opened up two minutes away from our apartment.

R signed up for a membership as soon as we returned from Mexico and has been going by after work a few times a week since then. Afterwards he's completely tuckered out, but with that post-boxing, post-sauna soak blissed out look on his face that makes me so happy. You know I'm all set with my own DIY training, so I always felt sad that he hadn't found the right niche for himself. But now he's coming home with nicked knuckles and hardcore hand wraps and enjoying himself silly.

Until I walked in one night recently and saw him sitting in the corner of the couch with his gym gear on (so already I was freaking out at the thought of sweaty clothes on cream couch), but when my eyes adjusted to the dark I saw he had his foot propped up on our blanket-stacked footstool with a dishcloth-wrapped bag of ice on top. He was sporting a forlorn look on his face and he said to me in a 6-year old voice, "I hurt my foot".

I immediately switched from annoyed hausfrau into Florence Nightingale, bent to look and yep, his left foot was swollen and a not-so-pretty color. Nothing was broken or sprained, but through some combination of someone holding a bag wrong and the wrong angle of his kick, there was a mighty nasty bruise getting purplier as I stood and stared.

He asked if we had any Bengay. We don't, but I had something better.

Citrusy tweaks for you & your kitchen (+ a seafood tip!)

We tend to use lots of lemons and limes in the summer for slicing over fish before popping it in the oven and squeezing over avocado salads (or, to mix up a good Margarita). But rather than tossing those spent halves away, I keep a little crystal dish in the fridge to collect my used citrus bits and every few days I recycle them in the bathroom or kitchen. (Yes, crystal, because doing the mundane is so much easier—and fun!—if you do it with pretty things. Fact.)

Interested in how?

Somewhere else this week...

{ Grab a cup of coffee and head on over!  }

Y'all, I am so, so excited to let you know that the lovely Amanda of Pickles & Honey invited me to share some of my tweaks for a gentler day over on her blog—which if you've never been by before, is chock full of good food (she's a whole foods, vegan recipe developer extraordinaire!), cute dogs (um, are you aware that Puggles exist? And that they're adorable?!), and sweet writing about how she's also finding ways to make each of her days better, happier and fuller.

If you're interested in a few more of the types of tips I've shared here before, please click over for some new ones in the first of a 3-part series:

Gentler Days: Tips for a Gentler Morning

Coming up soon, Tips for a Gentler Work Day and Tips for a Gentler Evening/Night!


[ Updated Friday August 2nd: Tips for a Gentler Work Day is now up!  ]

[ Updated Tuesday August 6th: Tips for a Gentler Evening & Night is now up!  ]

Playing with pauses

{ A little Versace place-setting action at The Plaza Hotel  |  NYC  |  April 2013 }

I've been doing a little experimenting with Intermittent Fasting (IF) recently. May sound a bit nutso at first, but I did lots (and lots) of reading on the science behind it and the biologic and physical benefits that may come from it before I gave it a try. IF is the idea of giving your body a break from routine ("conformist") eating for a set period of time. The only "rule" you introduce into your daily life is choosing when to eat. If you already eat a clean diet, great, if not, well that's still okay—the only change you make is the times of day when you enjoy a meal.

[ This may seem faddish, but if you think about it, regular fasting is a way of life for many diverse religious groups (Catholics at Lent, Muslims during Ramadan, etc.), so it's not really a new idea. ]

There are tons of ways to do this, and naturally, many have created brands around their philosophies, e.g.,:

+ The Fast Diet / 5:2 Intermittent Fasting: Eating normally 5 days of the week and much less (i.e., 500 calories) 2 days of the week. This has taken off in the UK.

+ Eat Stop Eat: Eating normally apart from one or two 24-hour fasts each week. Doing this means you still eat every day, but the day you're fasting you don't have two meals, just one, i.e., you have dinner on Tuesday night at 7PM and then give your body a break until you have dinner on Wednesday at the same time. I like this premise because it means you don't go to bed on an empty stomach, which sounds like a whole lot of not-fun-at-all to me.

+ Leangains / 16:8: Geared toward athletic, muscle-building individuals and proposes 16-hour fasting windows and 8-hour eating windows every 24 hours. Followers also plan their workouts at the very end of their fasting window to break the fast with a feast right after intense physical exertion (the program also recommends specific ratios of macronutrients depending on your windows and workouts—it's a lot more involved than other "brands"!).  Most adherents eat their day's meals between 12PM and 8PM so this really just works out to not eating breakfast (or a different meal, depending on your "feasting" window).

+ Fast 5: Similar to Leangains, but they promote 19 hours of fasting and 5 hours of eating.

+ And then there are just people that listen to their bodies and eat intuitively, when they're hungry.

Waking from a deep sleep

{ Our former Police Headquarters—Google the current one if you want to cry  |  1 April 2013 }

This winter seems to be dragging on a bit, despite the sporadic bouts of warmth, and with it, I've definitely been dragging a bit, too. My hibernation mode means I'm not feeling as sleek (cold air and high heaters wreck havoc on the skin!), strong (have been quite the lazybones when it comes to weights and things), or flexible (ditto on yoga) as I did just a few months ago.

The only thing that has been somewhat countering this yucky situation I find myself in are the loooooong walks I've been taking—and even those I had to stop for a while because they were too painful. Watery eyes from blustery winds + freezing temperatures = Frozen face. You may think this doesn't bode well for any future move to Sweden, but at least there I'll be expecting it and will be prepared. Here I'm still in denial about the meteorologic state of things.

Clearly I need a little seasonal freshening up, so recently I've been:

Banished from the bedroom

{ The homemade pizza that fueled the change  |  10 March 2013 }

I've finally deemed all smartphones permanently verboten from entering our bedroom—something that should have been forbidden a long, long time ago—but, it took three things to finally prompt their exile now: my attempt to self-diagnose my (supposed) thyroid issue + common sense finally sinking in + my lil' ol' manifest project.

I always knew it wasn't a good idea to sleep with my phone so close. It just makes sense, right? A close phone means:

+ A constant source of radiation pulsing less than a foot from my head for 7'ish hours straight a night.

+ Saying "let me just check this one last thing" becomes entirely too easy. And, the more I check my phone, the more I see its harsh blue screen, which confuses our brains into thinking it's not nighty-night time, and that, plus frequent checks, means my bedtime is suddenly pushed back 30 minutes to an hour.

Knowing that, it still took reading that the electro magnetic frequency shooting out of our phones can affect my thyroid to get me to shift my habits around and wean myself off.

After gathering my strength from a delicious homemade pizza night, I got to poking around behind our TV stand to figure out the wire situation and make room for another surge protector that I could turn on at night to charge our phones. Fighting with the cables to make sure they all worked and nothing was visible from the other side (I loathe visible cables) was the easy part. The hard part turned out to be trusting I'd be able to wake up from an alarm clock in another room—the first night I tried this I woke up every hour or so to make sure I hadn't overslept!

One week later, know what I've realized?

+ I actually DO feel like I'm sleeping better with two less blinkety-blinking lights in our bedroom and no phone screen glare attacking my eyeballs in the minutes before bedtime.

+ Having to get out of bed to turn my alarm off is an effective balm to my snooze-ing habits.

+ I've now gotten into the routine of plugging my phone in on its little shelf when I get home and then not looking at it again until just before bedtime to check messages and set my alarm (which was a February intention, under the "Energy" category, oddly enough). It's so nice to not be staring at another screen after 8 hours of staring at one at work, not to mention completely freeing to not feel the need to "check-in" every few minutes (something I learned recently). Plus: more time for other more enjoyable things!

+ Speaking of: minimizing digital distractions in the bedroom maximizes a whole lot of other things.

It's too early to know if this will have any thyroid benefits, but the other four are reason enough for me to be glad I finally booted those bad boys out of our bedroom!

Beating the winter blues

{ Fresh flowers  |  2 March 2013  }

Still winter.

And, yes, while I do like cold weather, I'm a bit tired of wearing boots and my skin misses sunlight! So, as usual,  I've been doing a few new'ish things in an attempt to beat-S.A.D. and attack-my-tiredness-(potentially-hypo-thyroidism?), like:

+ Color / Oxygen: Adding even more lush green plants to our windowsills AND more fresh,  saturated-tastic orange and yellow flowers in vases throughout the apartment.

+ Sleep: Aiming for 8 hours of actual sleep, instead of 8 hours in bed and only 7'ish of sleep, which means: getting into bed at 9:30PM and reading until 10PM'ish, instead of getting into bed at 10:30PM and reading until 11PM, AND getting out of bed at 6:30AM instead of 6AM. How funny would it be if my years of non-stop yawning was actually directly related to me only sleeping 7-7.5 hours a night? (Not that funny, actually).

+ Vitamins: Taking fish oil supplements with Vitamin D (see: "Still winter", above). I've still got some of my Pure Synergy Vit-Min-Herb supplements, but as I use them up, I'm phasing in some good oils. I've never taken fish oil supplements before, and after doing a little research, seems like a good thing to work in, especially since it's so hard to get good (as in: clean, humanely-raised, affordable) fish these days.

+ Turning back the clocks: Granted, this one isn't of my own doing, but am so glad that Daylight Saving's Time kicks back in this weekend. Whew.

Thyroidy

{ Pretty greens at breakfast  |  21 February 2013 }

A few years ago my mom began to have really odd health issues—she put on weight very quickly (without any lifestyle / diet changes), but it came on unevenly. It wasn't so much as getting "fatter", as it was that her face / neck / upper body got massively bloated. That was the biggest sign that something was happening (along with a few other more personal / TMI issues).

She finally went to the doctor and had a blood test which showed that her TSH (thyroid-stimulating hormone) indicator was at a 6.5, and at that time doctors agreed that a "normal" thyroid would return a result between 0.5 and 5.5, so she was definitely above even the "high-end", which lead to a diagnosis of hypothyroidism, an issue with the endocrine system.

With hypothyroidism your thyroid doesn't make enough thyroid hormone, which regulates your metabolism, affects protein synthesis, regulates long bone growth, and affects how your cells use energetic compounds (protein, fats, carbohydrates)—some pretty major stuff. This isn't like that lazypants appendix that hangs around slothily. To combat the serious complications she was facing (and would face, if left untreated), my mom was put on prescription medicine and the situation is under control now.

+ + +

I didn't even think about any of that until I went to visit a Functional Medicine / Integrative Medicine doctor last month. Ever since making drastic changes to my diet / lifestyle a few years ago, I've been interested in an holistic approach to medicine, i.e., treating the root cause, addressing every aspect of your life to make positive physical / mental changes, and using food / environmental adjustments as the first line of defense, rather than drugs.

I had never seen one of these types of doctors before because insurance (of course) didn't cover it. But, my company switched plans in December and the first thing I did was to see if any of the Functional Medicine doctors in NYC were now covered and hoooboy, hit the jackpot. The Continuum Center for Health and Healing here in New York was mostly covered! I immediately made a few appointments for yearly check-ups.

When we showed up for our appointments (I dragged R along, too) they allowed us to be checked out together—I'm a firm believer in needing support to make big changes, so I wanted us both to hear what the doctor had to say to the other—so that was a good start. The questions about our medical history / life included "how do you like your job?", "what do you do to relax?", "are you religious / spiritual?". I loved the focus on our environment and the understanding and belief in how everything affects us.

My blood test results came in a few days later and here's where things get interesting.

Monday meanders: 6

{ Lower Manhattan...or Paris?  |  January 2013 }

Monday meanders: my somewhat-regularly-posted collection of online goodies.

+ Why is doubt spelled with a b? Is anyone else as interested in the root of words/historical meanings? I probably wasn't always, but after I began learning languages, I realized how helpful etymology is for making connections across linguistic divides. This animated video about why doubt is spelled with a b is interesting (and not too long, don't worry!). [via]

+ Making tiny cool (and workable!): the winner of NYC's tiny-apartment competition was just revealed and...it looks pretty nice!

+ Finally on the Downton Abbey bandwagon: How could you all keep this from me? I'm completely obsessed and have just petered into Season 2 (so don't spoil it for me!) and saw this gorgeous picture of Mary and Matthew and had to share. I could maybe be a country lady. Maybe. If the gig came with a grand library and a slew of dogs and horses, then perhaps definitely.

+ The right of way for Swedish mammas and pappas with little ones and dogs: of course there's a separate subway turnstile just for them. Ah, Sweden. I heart you.

+ Simple home: Y'all may already know how interested I am in simplifying, cutting-back, whittling-down, etc., and that I really enjoy reading Sarah Wilson's blog and e-books, but now I'm even more excited because she's just bought her first apartment and is about to start "My Simple Home", a series on "sustainable, ethical, minimal, efficient, toxin-free and economical"living. I love how much she researches different topics (whether it be autoimmune diseases, cycling, toxin-free living, etc.) and then does small tweaks here and there to see how she can improve her life (a philosophy I'm very much in agreement with).

+ French provincial in Brooklyn: I cannot even believe this prosaic gorgeousness exists a stone's throw from my apartment in Lower Manhattan (via).

+ Made-to-order Balinese furnishings: I now know two couples (one in real life, and one through their blog—so I'm using the word "know" lightly for the latter, of course) that have traveled to Indonesia and had furniture made to their specifications and sent back and they're just gorgeous! Our friends in Williamsburg have a huge industrial loft that is warmed up by all their incredible teak furniture (that was shipped across the world and right up the East River to the pier in Brooklyn at the end of their street!). And, I just saw these beautiful lights on Hither & Thither (and check out the outdoor fireplace, wouldn't mind that, either!). Gorgeous, no?

My one-day juice cleanse with Juice Press

{ Juice Press juices for my 1-day "cleanse" | January 2013 }

So here's the thing: I don't like the idea of juice cleanses (too restrictive! no chewing?! so boring!).

But here's the other thing: I'm always up for trying something new.

Which is how I ended up stopping by an outpost of Juice Press before heading into work two weeks ago to purchase the 5 juices + 2 nut milks above. One of the reasons I never did this before (besides being somewhat anti-juice cleanse) is because juice places in NYC are super expensive and a lot of them, like BluePrint and Cooler Cleanse are chock full of sugar (which made me shy away even when there was a great Gilt City deal available).

I had been to Juice Press before to buy one-off juices or one of their raw/gluten-free dishes and was pretty familiar with them and their products. So when I thought about trying drinking juice for a day just to see what would happen, I checked out their suggested one-day cleanse. While it was significantly better (both price and sugar-wise) than others, it was still too sugary for me. The good thing is they had enough variety of mostly-vegetable juices for me to put together my own one-day plan and cut the sugar down from more than a cup to about 10 teaspoons (still much more than I'd like, but manageable). I also wanted to put together my own little plan because their suggested one had ZERO nut milk (I don't know how any one could get through a day of just swilling vegetables). Craziness.

Here's my haul and the order I had them in:

• Cardamom Coconut Milk: coconut water, coconut meat, ginger juice, spices, sea salt
• Mother Earth: celery, cucumber, parsley, kale, dandelion, swiss chard, lemon, ginger
• Spanish Fly: cucumber, olive oil, lime, red peppers, parsley, cilantro, jalapeno, garlic, amino acids, onion, chipotle, black pepper
• H2 Gravity: cucumber, celery, kale, lemon, aloe e3 live
• Drink Your Salad: carrot, celery, tomato, beet, lemon, spinach, kale, parsley, sea salt, garlic, onion, cayenne 
• Almond Milk: almonds, filtered water, coconut oil, vanilla, sea salt

My favorite blends were the Cardamom Coconut Milk (insanely good) and Spanish Fly (a feisty, slurpable gazpacho!).

How did it go?
Well, turns out there's a reason I don't like the idea of juice cleanses. They aren't fun.

The juices were tasty and the first few were fine, but around 3PM I was dying to chew on something, anything! I couldn't even stomach the last vegetable juice because I'd had enough, so I saved it for the next day. And...I'm not going to lie. When I got home I had a piece of dark chocolate and a few spoons of cashew butter.

I also didn't notice any difference in my energy or sleep or...bodily functions (sorry—just trying to give the whole picture!). I suppose one day isn't enough time to see any difference...or that my intake wasn't that different from how I normally eat, so maybe no major results? Even though I didn't really get anything out of it, I'm still glad I tried it.

But, I was more than ready to tuck in to my plate of sauteed kale, poached pastured egg and feta cheese the morning after.

Verdict?
I'll stick to my usual routine of only-one-a-day green smoothies (not juice) made at home, but will definitely still stop by Juice Press for a fix of raw and gluten-free treats or when I want some variety in the green juice/smoothie department (I have a 1,000 watt blender, but even that's not good enough to pulverize tough greens completely).

Have you done a juice cleanse before? How'd it go?

1 month of Pure Synergy vitamins & superfood powder

{ Mmm, green! | January 2013 }

Remember how I was going to do a little tweak to my daily routine and start taking a vitamin and nutritional supplement? Well, I ended up purchasing the Women's Wellness Pack A (daily vitamin/herb supplement in tablet form + superfood powder) from The Synergy Company because I liked that none of their ingredients were synthetic, everything was organic, the company is a small business in Utah and their business and wellness philosophy were inspiring.

{ Pure Synergy Vitamin Supplement }

{ Pure Synergy Superfood Powder }

Here's how it went:

Day 1: Took 1 vitamin (recommended dosage is 6 daily) and made a green smoothie with a teaspoon of the superfood powder for breakfast (recommended dosage is 1 tablespoon). I eat a LOT of vegetables, but that initial whiff of the powder was tough even for me to take. Yawned all day, no change in digestion, energy, etc. Feeling majorly bummed and wondering if I just wasted $100.

Day 3: Still suspect about the amount of money I spent on this stuff. No change in energy level/digestion/etc. Sigh.

Day 5: Status quo.

Day 7: Coming down with a cold—think it's a mixture of non-stop work and wonky weather (a 30-degree day followed by a 60-degree day and I had the wrong outerwear)—and I'm averse to taking NyQuil/DayQuil or any of its ilk, so when I woke up all funky Saturday morning I made a larger-than-usual glass of superfood drink and took 3 pills.

Day 9: I followed the same sick-girl routine as Day 7 and I feel the cold/flu whatever it is going away. So, maybe there's something to this stuff? Don't know yet.

Day 20-something: Faithfully taking my dosages, but don't feel any different.

Day 30-something:  Well, I'm sad to say that perhaps this wasn't the best investment. I really haven't noticed any major difference after about a month. I'll finish up my supply, but I wouldn't buy it again.

Of course if something changes (like maybe it's not built up in my system enough and I'll soon feel burst of energy/clear skin/better digestion/stronger hair and nails, although that seems unlikely), I'll come back to update you, but I'm a bit disappointed.

Some tweaks

{ Admiring my anti-winter colors a few weeks ago }

So here's the thing, even with all the goodness I've been adding into my daily life, I haven't quite experienced all the results I wanted (namely: more energy and continuously clear skin). At the same time as I've been thinking about this, I've been spending my weekends working on a side project that has me reading/familiarizing myself with the wellness philosophies of Kris Carr/Crazy Sexy Wellness and Dr. Mark Hyman/Functional Medicine. (Randomly amazing that I—finally—get to read about things I'm interested in for work, no?).

With all these thoughts jumbled about in my head, I decided there are a few more small changes I can make that might up my energy, clear my skin, and help me take better care of myself. So here's what I'm thinking of doing:


Play with the balance of my diet:
My diet is almost entirely made up of: vegetables (organic when needed and affordable; local when possible),  whole milk/non-homogenized dairy products from happy cows, meat from humanely, non-toxically bred animals, eggs from pastured chickies, and lots of nuts/seeds/coconut oil/spices.

+ But, I'm thinking one thing that might be a good way to experiment would be to dial back the dairy products a teensy bit.

+ And, add in even more vegetables (which would in effect make me eat less meat).

My thinking here is: I'm still a little lethargic and I still get a few inflammations on my face now and then. These could be the product of stress, a dairy intolerance, or not enough vegetables, so perhaps weighing my diet more towards the vegetable side and a wee bit off the dairy/meat side might make a difference. (Definitely not removing anything, just playing with the balance).

Being gentle with myself

{ I think the kids these days would call this a "selfie"  |  La Colombe Soho }

Here's a semi-covertly-snapped pic of me at my local coffee shop. I figure this kind of post deserves a personal picture because I'm about to get real (and hopefully not preachy) with y'all and share my attempt to be more gentle and good to myself with a couple of changes I've made in the last 18 months or so. These didn't produce the magic fix that I was naively hoping for, but I do think that my life has gotten better.

This is just how I try to live, what's working for me and what I believe in...not at all meant to be a list of "you should be doing this, too!".

+ + +

I think a lot about what it means to be healthy. Growing up in the US we're given a lot of things to do and not to do and oddly enough, the more the USDA, FDA, APHA, etc. inundate us with new rules, the less healthy we become as a nation. And, more often than not, the advice we're given is heavily paid for by industry organizations that want to pad their wallets (what does it mean that the daily nutrition guide is backed by the USDA?). Then there are all the side diets and exercise plans that are heaped on top of the government recommendations and no wonder we're all wandering around, lugging our guts and high blood pressure with us.*

Now, I don't have any significant health problems (not even insignificant ones, really, which I know is already a blessing in itself), but there is some history of cancer and heart disease in our family and that coupled with a pervasive lack of energy/obnoxious yawning all day and a persistent stomach ache got me thinking about what the heck I'm putting into my body and what I'm putting it through.

+ + +

The first thing that had to go was the nasty tummy aches that I used to get practically every week. I had no idea what caused it so about a year and a half ago I started taking things out of my diet for 10 days or so to see what changed. Luckily removing dairy had no effects whatsoever but removing flour? Oooo boy, it was like I was given a new stomach (and all the other things connected to it). When I do something, I go all in, so I cut out all gluten. My timing was perfect (ahem), since my little experiment was just before a month of international travel (a trip to India for work and then to Sicily to play). Going gluten-free in India wasn't actually that hard, but in Sicily? Not as easy.