Thank you for such a wonderful and warm response to Heather’s Green Recovery story! I thought it was so enthusiastic and inspiring. I’m also glad that it prompted so many thoughtful comments on how important it is to be careful when commenting upon another person’s appearance. I personally try to comment on appearances as little as possible; if a friend seems particularly radiant or well, I’m far more likely to exclaim “you seem so energetic and positive!” than say “you look great!” Some might find this aversion to physical commentary a little extreme, but I’ve experienced firsthand how discomfiting aesthetic criticisms and compliments can be, and I file it under the category of doing unto others as I would have them do to me.

Here, as a community, we’ve all applauded each other’s recovery efforts and triumphs. But let’s also remember that we can contribute to a cultural dialog that is less likely to instigate and fuel eating disorders by avoiding “fat talk,” physical commentary, offhand remarks about weight loss, and judgments of how much other people eat.

Weeks ago, before returning home for my winter break, I mentioned that I’d be without a food processor or high speed blender. As terrifying as life without a Cuisinart may have seemed at the time, I can’t say it’s been too much of a problem. I’ve been eating out a lot, first of all. Second, I don’t give myself enough credit for creativity: I did, after all, “go raw” with only a decade old processor and a few sharp knives. I’m good at making simple soups, salads, and slaws the cornerstone of my diet. I always have been. These foods satisfy me profoundly, and they’re simple to make.

This recipe is a perfect example of the sort of raw food dish that anyone can make. It does not matter how big your kitchen is, or how much experience you have with raw: this recipe is as siple as shredded cabbage and whisking together a dressing. I personally like to marinade the collard leaves for this recipe, as I think it softens them nicely, but you could also flash steam them or leave them as they are.

If you do choose to marinade the collard leaves, you’ll want to do it about 3-4 hours (or more) before you make this dish. The marinade itself should be about 2 teaspoons olive oil, the juice of a large lemon, and a sprinkle of sea salt. Before I get a collective freakout for the oil, let me ‘splain: the leaves won’t remain covered in marinade! You’ll be wiping them off before serving. The idea is simply to soften them and to give them just a tiny bit of flavor. Again, you can skip this step if you want. I think the marinade enriches this recipe, but you could of course do as I do in my raw collard wraps, and leave them plain.

So: mix together 2 tsps olive oil with the juice of 1 lemon and a sprinkle of sea salt. Pour marinade on a plate. Cover with about 3-4 collard leaves (washed and dried), and flip the leaves around to coat them all. Leave on the marinade plate for about 3-4 hours.

When it comes time to make your wraps, lay a paper towel on your prep surface. Place a marinated leaf over it, and mop up excess marinade with a second paper towel.

And now, you’re ready to roll. Literally.

Peanut Cabbage Roll Ups (high raw, vegan, gluten free, soy free)

Serves 1-2

3 large collard leaves, marinated and removed of excess marinade (per above)
1 1/4 cup white cabbage, shredded
1 1/4 cup red cabbage, shredded
Generous handful cilantro, chopped
3-4 tbsp quick and easy peanut sauce

1) Cut each collard leaf in half

2) Mix the cabbages, and cilantro in a large mixing bowl with about 3-4 tbsp of the peanut sauce. You can vary how much you use depending on how “saucy” you want the filling to be (he he).

4) Layer about 1/3 cup filling on one end of a half leaf. Roll the leaf up with the filling inside; you don’t have to bother with the normal collard wrap process. The point of this recipe is ease!

5) Serve with a nutrient dense salad, a side of steamed vegetables and beans, or a whole grain!

Who knew that raw, vegan food could be so quick, so simple, and so tasty?!

Hope you guys try this recipe! It would also make for a very easy high-raw, vegan appetizer or party food.

Today is the week anniversary of 2012’s arrival. Doesn’t time fly? This year, I shared some cautionary thoughts about unrealistic dietary resolutions. In your comments, many of you pointed out that, while crash diets are no good, there are certain kinds of resolutions and commitments that can feel really inspiring at this time of year. In keeping with that sentiment, I’d like to share three approaches to resolutions and greeting a new year that really impressed me this week.

1) The Year I Stopped Chasing Skinny, by the sassy, sexy, and stupendous JL of JL Goes Vegan.

In this brave post, JL opens up about how 2011 was the year in which she stopped dieting, accepted a weight at which her body is comfortable and healthy, and learned to fall in love with her most authentic shape. Many of my readers have expressed to me that they have spent years and years pursuing a weight that is just below what their body can maintain naturally and effortlessly. If it seems to you that the weight your body seems to maintain on its own is always five or ten pounds more than the weight you want, and if you’ve been dieting, restricting, or over-exercising as a result, I urge you to please read JL’s words.

We’re all socialized to think “thinner is better”: this year, accept that all of us have a spectrum of healthy weights, and that the lowest number is not always the healthiest or most honest.

2) 10 Questions Animal Activists Should Ask Themselves, by Jasmin Singer of Our Hen House

An essential post for early 2012. Jasmin, one of the two energetic and innovative co-founders of Our Hen House, encourages all activists to question whether or not they’re doing everything possible to help animals this year (and in general). What I’ve learned from Jasmin and Mariann is that we all have the power to be activists, so I believe this post is relevant to everyone who cares about animal rights (or another important personal cause). Aside from the big, leading question—Am I effectively doing what I can in my life to change the world for animals?—Jasmin also asks more subtle and thought-provoking questions, like “Do I have a safe space around me — through my romantic relationship or my social circles, or even online — in which to express my fears and desires as they pertain to my animal activism?”

3) Resolutions (and Chocolate Rice Pudding) by Alyson Kramer of Manifest Vegan

The brilliance of this characteristically aesthetic and articulate post (Alyson, if you don’t know her already, is a fabulous vegan chef) is its effortless avoidance of superficiality. Rather than launching into a laundry list of ways in which she intends to shed pounds or tone up, Alyson avows basic self-acceptance, and then lists a few ways in which she hopes to enrich, but not improve, herself. She intends to learn French, do more art, work on a second book, and tune out naysaying about her lifestyle in 2012. I can’t think of better and more well rounded intentions.

I hope that we can all take inspiration from these fabulous ladies’ and their hopes for the new year. And of course, I’d love to hear how you intend to deepen your activism in 2012, and enrich your life?

xo

Last Friday, on my way back from upstate NY, I stopped into the cozy and warm Our Hen House HQ in Soho to do an interview with Jasmin and Mariann, the energetic, hilarious, and passionate co-founders of this innovative non-profit. Jasmin and Mariann are incredible activists: they are outspoken yet compassionate, and they marry their reverence for animal life with their convictions about LGBT rights, health, and many other topics. Jasmin has taught me that being an activist means using your unique talents and convictions to spread the world about veganism. I’m passionate about health, feminism, and fostering positive body image, so I try to write about veganism through those three prisms. Whatever your passions are, you can use them to help animals now.

The podcast will air on Saturday, and it will be available for download here. As you’ll see, we spend a lot of time talking about my decision to become a post-bacc, my Green Recovery series (and the links between ED histories and plant-based diet), and my own eating habits. But right now, in the spirit of our upcoming New Year, I wanted to focus on one of the questions that Jasmin asked me: “Do you have a New Year’s resolution?”

“No,” I answered immediately.

I don’t like resolutions. Sorry, world–I know everyone loves them, and I understand why they can be inspiring, but I like to see every day–heck, every hour–as a moment to resolve to do great things. Using the New Year as a focal point just stresses me out. More importantly, the rash of diets and “cleanses” that spring up each January tend to dismay me. So much so, that when Jasmin reframed her question elegantly to “do you have a hope for the new year?” part of my answer became, in not so many words.

“I hope people will stop setting short-term dietary goals for themselves.”

This was actually tricky territory for me to talk about, because I realize that many of my readers have been inspired to improve their health or try veganism because they did a “detox” or a challenge. I also know that dietary experimentation has helped many of my readers to find better health: it was the thing that gave them the courage to question a doctor who had dismissed their symptoms, or allowed them to uncover a food intolerance that had been plaguing them, or it helped them to inch closer to a vegan or raw diet. Experimentation and short-term goal setting can be deeply empowering, because it helps us to break pre-existing patterns of behavior, and to explore a lifestyle change without becoming overwhelmed by the notion of “forever.” So, dear readers, don’t get me wrong: if there’s a vegan challenge you’re particularly geared up for this year, I’ll be cheering you on all the way.

With that said, I cannot count the number of emails I get each year at this time, detailing the fasting, calorie restricting, food group eliminating, and wacky beverage drinking that people intend to start their new years with. And it makes me sad, because these “plans” are not nourishing, they’re not always pleasurable, and most of all, they’re just not sustainable.

No, this isn’t an expression of concerns over fasting, which I know that many of you do find truly rewarding. It’s more gentle reminder not to let short term dietary goals eclipse long term goals. For me, the beauty of the last decade of my life is that I stopped with the constant dietary experiments, the wacky fads, and the eliminations of one thing after another. Instead, I found a way of eating that I knew would continue to be rewarding not only for a day, or a month, but the rest of my life. As liberating as it is to try new things, it is also tremendously liberating to feel that one has found one’s own “identity” as an eater.

So, this January, I would invite you all to continue exploring your dietary identities. If this means taking a month long vegan challenge, or even eating one more plant based meal each week, then go for it! But my hope is that many of you will reject dietary patterns that are short-term by definition. Back when I was taking clients as a nutrition coach, I often asked, “Do you think the way you’re eating now could possibly stand the test of time? Are you really sure you won’t get sick of it?” This was almost always a response to a client telling me that he or she had embarked on a diet that was hopelessly restrictive. And the answer was always “I doubt it.”

Instead of flirting with diets that promise you a new beginning, but deprive you of pleasure in order to get there, try, for a change, to greet the new year by being generous with yourself. Envision a way of eating that will feel rewarding–not just this week, or this month, but for years and years. Remember that finding pleasure in the way you eat is just as important as being healthy, because without the former, the latter won’t last.

I can’t tell you exactly what I mean by an “eating identity” that will last, because this is different for all of us: we all need and want different kinds of tastes and textures and rewards from our food. 100% raw foodism might be feasible long-term for some people, for example, but it’s not feasible for me. Instead of doing a “raw month,” I simply commit to an eating style that prioritizes and celebrates raw food. Figure out what your own long-term needs are, and put them first.

And if you already find pleasure and health in the way you eat, do something really revolutionary this year, and don’t make a dietary resolution at all. Commit to reaching out to family and friends, to enriching (and perhaps reevaluating) your professional situation, or to doing more to help animals. Articulate a hope for yourself–this year, my hope is to be more forgiving of my academic struggles–and do your best to see it come to life. New Year’s may be a time of self-examination, but that needn’t necessarily mean examining the way you eat. It may actually mean accepting that the way you eat is fine just the way it is.

Pursuant to all of this, two recent and fascinating articles have detailed the dangers of weight gain after calorie restriction and dieting. The first is this one, courtesy of USA Today, and the second is Tara Parker Pope’s excellent piece on the difficulties of weight loss from the New York Times Magazine. In spite of the challenges outlined in both articles, neither should be taken to mean that you should not try to lose weight (slowly, healthily) if you are dangerously overweight. But if you do not need to lose weight, and are flirting with the idea of a diet for aesthetic reasons, you may think twice.

And even though I’ll be back here tomorrow and on New Year’s Eve and Day, I want to send you all my warmest and most loving wishes for 2012.

xo

Hey all,

Thanks for the kind words about my little tree!

I’m excited to share early news of a special New Year’s initiative I’m participating in along with two fellow health counselors. One is my friend Hadley, a Holistic Health Consultant whom I was fortunate enough to meet over a year ago, as I was just beginning to set up my own practice. Hadley is a fellow blogger (at Hadley’s Holistics), and she’s a founding member of Spark! Wellness, a collective of health practitioners (two holistic health consultants, one acupuncturist, and one massage therapist) who emphasize whole body wellness, self-empowerment and positive, lifelong change. I’ve watched proudly as Hadley and her partner, Andrea Moss (who also writes a blog), expand Spark! into a uniquely supportive and collaborative resource for men and women here and around the country.

While Hadley and Andrea and I each have different approaches to our work, we all focus on helping our clients to achieve self-empowerment, renewed energy, freedom from emotional eating, and vibrant health through clean, plant-focused diets. And so I was thrilled when Hadley and Andrea asked me to be a part of their 2010 New Year’s cleanse.

Now, you all know by now that I have very, very ambivalent feelings about words like “detox” and “cleanse.” Certainly, I believing in cleansing, and in detoxification – these are processes to which I devote a great deal of my energy as a counselor. But I believe that they’re processes that take a long time, and a lot of patience, and consistency. They aren’t processes that can be completed over the course of days or weeks. I also cringe when I see the exact protocol that’s recommended in so many “cleanses” or “detoxes.” Grapefruit diets, cookie diets, master cleanses, poorly supervised juice fasts, cabbage soup: these sorts of radical protocols are not the way to internalize and jump start healthy eating patterns. Why? Because they don’t show you how to eat!! They show you how to take extreme measures that aren’t ultimately sustainable. And it’s learning how to eat healthily, day in and day out, how to plan and organize, how to recover from missteps, and how to maintain consistency that helps people achieve permanent change.

My final issue with terms like detox and cleanse is that they often emphasize short term goals, rather than long term change. Each New Year’s, we’re bombarded with immense pressure to set resolutions. I have always been of the mind that each new day is the time to set goals, and to achieve them: hold yourself to a high standard all the time, rather than seesawing between three week spates of perfectionism and then alternate periods of indulgence.

In spite of these many cautionary words and reservations, I do also understand that short-term goal setting can be an important part of effecting change and improvement. Many of my clients have told me that they find the siphoning off of a discreet time period (four weeks, three months, six months, whatever) a helpful means of self-motivation. Setting a goal (such as, “I’ll be eating mostly vegetarian by February”) can be a really useful way to initiate change. And the idea of a “challenge” is very, very heartening to many people.

Hadley Seward and Andrea Moss

With that in mind, I am so, so pleased to be a part of the Spark! Wellness and Choosing Raw January 2010 Cleanse. We–Hadley, Andrea and I–all hope that this will be the anti-fad cleanse. We’re not offering gimmicks, powders, products, or fasts. We’re offering three nourishing, reasonable, ten-day dietary programs (each developed with a particular audience in mind) that will help instill new and improved eating habits for 2010 and beyond. All three levels will exclude coffee, alcohol, nicotine, soda, and processed food. All levels will minimize or eliminate most common food allergens (dairy, gluten, soy, corn, wheat). And all will emphasize the restoration of bodily alkalinity through an increase in the consumption of plant-based, cleansing foods: think veggies, veggies, and more veggies! The result? Increased energy, the re-examination of un-ideal habits, and a sense of consistency and balance that will follow our participants into the new year.

The key to this program will be its immense flexibility. For those who have been eating more mainstream diets, Hadley has constructed a gentle, entry-level meal plan that excludes all major allergens and addictives. It’s primarily vegetarian, but a few animal protein options are offered, with the hopes that participants will get to experience the ease and fun of a mostly vegetarian diet! Andrea’s plan will go a bit further, emphasizing a filling, yet easy to digest morning meal (smoothie lovers, get ready!), and support in the form of a few recommended supplements. My level—level 3—will be an introduction to the world of plant-based eating. It’s an all-vegan, semi-raw plan that’s customizable to one’s own level of experience and comfort zone. I’ll offer three breakfast options (ranging from very light to more filling), a raw lunch, and either raw or cooked meals at night (again, participants can choose what to eat based on their comfort levels). It will not necessitate a juicer, dehydrator, or food processor, though a blender will come in handy.

All levels will include instructions on how to wean oneself off of addictives and allergens in the days prior to the cleanse, detailed meal plans and recipes, a shopping list, and general tips for troubleshooting. Upon signing up, each participant will receive instructions on how to begin slowly eliminating addictive foods, such as sugar and caffeine, from their diets before the cleanse.

Best of all, we’re offering our participants the chance to embark on these changes in a warm, supportive group setting. There will be two thirty minute conference calls over the course of the cleanse, as well as an introductory call for all those who are thinking about participating on January 6th at 8 PM. At that time, Hadley and Andrea and I will answer individual questions about the program and what to expect from each level. During the cleanse, we’ll have an online forum where participants can chat and share tips and recipes—as well as meet new friends who share similar health goals.

The cleanse will last from January 18-27. Regular cost is $60; people who sign up before 12/31 get $10 off; people who sign up with a friend each get $5 off. Bloggers who participate in the cleanse and mention it on their blog receive $10 off. Holistic Health practitioners receive $10 off. To sign up, all you have to do is email info@sparkyourwellness.com specifying the level you’re interested (Level 1, Level 2, or Level 3). You can also wait for the free teleclass on January 6th to learn more details of the program.

You may be wondering: which level is for me? Again, I encourage you to check in on January 6th to determine this for certain. But in general:

• Level 1 is designed for people who have never done a cleanse before or who currently eat a diet high in meat, dairy, sugar, processed foods, and/or caffeine.

• Level 2 is a great cleanse for those who already eat moderately healthy and are ready to take their wellness, energy levels, and metabolism to the next level.

• Level 3 is for those who have some familiarity with a plant-based diet, but who are seeking to enhance digestive health and break lingering addictions to processed foods and animal products.

So, is Level 3 for you? Well, I realize that my readers have a very wide array of diets and lifestyles. If you’re already rocking a high-raw lifestyle with ease, and if you’ve already found true comfort with a mostly or all vegan diet, then the cleanse may not be the best investment for you. But if you’re curious about a vegan diet, and need guidance and support to get over some of your lingering fears, then I think it’s a great program to try. It will be the gift of ten days of structured, sensible vegan eating, and it may be the motivation you’ve needed to make a lasting switch to veganism. Yay!

I’ve already talked your ear off, guys, but if you have further questions, please email info@sparkyourwellness.com, or feel free to ask me in the comments section of this post.

For some of us (and this includes me), setting goals within limited time frames doesn’t work. For others, having a particular goal or challenge to look forward to can serve as a much needed catalyst. No matter who you are, and no matter what works for you, I hope you plan to treat your bodies and healthy well in the new year—with good judgment, integrity, forgiveness, and care.

xo