stressing.

Sometime last week I noticed that instead of feeling like this balanced warrior:

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I was feeling more like these gals:

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So this weekend, I tried this:

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And I learned:

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On a serious note, acupuncture feels great. Sure, there is a brief sting with each needle, but the deep relaxation that follows is heaven for a girl who gets blurry-vision-headaches.
Entirely worth a little prick.

going green [tea].

Let me preface this by saying that I've spent a significant amount of time trying to convince people that I am not Japanese. It's an amazing culture, but it's not mine. My ancestors came from the lands of borscht, pierogi, rugelach, potatoes, bratwurst, and baguettes.
Yes, I think that more or less encapsulates my mutt pedigree from a culinary standpoint.
However, moving forward with this post, I'm about to completely diminish my credibility.

I shall make the sacrifice for the sake of my beloved green tea.

It's delicious, smells good, looks good, and is good for you. Harvard even says so. Okay, so maybe the green tea macarons and cupcakes don't contain enough antioxidants to make a difference, but we can pretend. For the real thing, I recommend a hot or iced green tea latte, which uses matcha powder and is laden with some seriously potent EGCG stuff. Don't let the color fool you, it's wonderful. And you'll love the silly looks that people give you if you're drinking it iced, i.e. in a clear cup. Have I hooked you yet? Tough crowd. Alright, there's a restaurant in Chicago appropriately called Waffles that apparently serves up a green tea version of - you guessed it - waffles! Everyone loves waffles. That will be happening some Sunday in my future, you can count on it. And outside of the edible, Bulgari makes a green tea perfume that has a fresh and slightly citrusy scent to it. Bottom line, it's about time that you embrace this versatile little leaf.

all images via pinterest

veg 101: sorry in advance.

Are you ready for my mini-novel? Don't worry, I'm not about to go all PETA on you.

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We don't even need to talk about these little guys. They're purely there for decoration. I will, however, give you a very brief history of my quick and painful journey from carnivore to herbivore, whether you wanted to know or not. Rewind to November in Nashville during a weekend trip with a friend - the setting was a local BBQ joint, the meal was smoked chicken, and for reasons that I'll leave out for fear of grossing y'all (that's what they say in Nashville) out, let us just say that I did not enjoy the look or the feel of my dinner. I had to stop eating before I passed out (which I've done many a time before, so no one's to say that I won't do it again), and ever since that night I have been meat-free, except for the very sporadic fish.. which has been pared down even further since a post-Bahamas ciguatera diagnosis in the family. I'll just apologize again right now because this is reading like a Debbie Downer skit. Bottom line, the idea of eating an animal is not really an option for me since my brain has completely rejected the idea, so it's been my mission to find other things to eat aside from celery with peanut butter, and also to remain healthy and proteinized. I'm not trying to change any opinions about eating meat, just documenting my own voyage into the land of herbivores.

Correction: I would be an ABYSMAL hunter.

STEP ONE - GO COLD TURKEY (GET IT?!) OR EASE ON OUT
Decide which way is best for you. Stop full-stop or set some kind of a schedule to phase meat out of your diet.

STEP TWO - PREPARE YOURSELF
Unless you're tofu's biggest fan (which I consider to be an impossibility), you'll miss out on some key nutrients from this point forward. A good list to go by is here, and below is my own personal arsenal of horse pills. About three months into this lifestyle change my reserves of D and B12 had been emptied and I was practically falling asleep at work. Whoops.. take your supplements, yo! And then the Biotin was something I added in after hearing a horror story about someone who went veg and lost their hair. No gracias.

STEP THREE - MEAL PLAN

Time to get creative, or at least it's time to start relying on the creativity of others. In the last few months I've found a few fab resources, and between a magazine, a couple of veg-heavy websites (here and here), and a bible of a cookbook, I feel like I'm covered for the time being. Also, it's not difficult to find a frozen vegetarian meal in a pinch, my personal favorite being Amy's.

STEP FOUR - ENJOY IT
Benefits include better heart health, lower blood pressure, cancer prevention, and you're even less likely to get osteoporosis. Aside from all that mumbo jumbo, I've heard that meat-eaters consume an average of one hundred animals per year, so it's a nice little bonus to know that you're no longer a part of it. But if none of that works for you, at least you'll be able to compare yourself to some well-known faces, like Gandhi, or.. Pam Anderson? Sorry.

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