Dr. Sugar Talks About Going Off the Pill

Check out this article from Dr. Sugar about going off the pill. I like her approach because she both discusses the general medical view and her own experience.

The Price of Beauty: Skin Whitening Creams in Thailand

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I'm fairly shocked that Jessica Simpson's new series, The Price of Beauty, is actually half-way educational. Certainly this clip regarding the dangers of skin whitening creams is.

This clip, of her giggling during meditation with a Buddhist Monk is less mature and respectful (but at least she admits to giggling in Church too--I guess she's an equal opportunity spiritual occasion giggler).

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Oh, one other segment that could have been better would have been the profile of the Karen Women, who wear neck-rings (see below). I would have liked her to go into further detail how the neck rings compress the ribs and spine and if these women remove them, their neck muscles can't hold up their heads.

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Let Them Eat Wild-Caught Salmon

So, Salon has an article up about "hipsters" using food stamps to pay for organic or locally produced food. The comments are predictably harsh and unforgiving. Salon is notorious for hateful comments (particularly on Broadsheet, the feminist blog where every man who has every been turned down by a woman for sex thinks its his mission to punish bitches for being uppity, or you know, talking about women's issues like domestic violence).

What the story is really about is young, urban professionals who are finding themselves unemployed, who find out they are qualifying for food stamps and using them at Trader Joe's and Farmer's Markets for the food they feel an ethical investment toward: organic and sustainably grown. This is a generation weaned on the "eat real food" movement and as the article points out, finding themselves unemployed means that they have even more time to cook from scratch. Yeah, maybe rice and beans (which is something most foodies do eat) would be a better buy, but choosing a whole and varied diet is important and that should involve some fish and eggs and whole-grain breads.

I've seen plenty of articles criticizing working-poor folks who use their food stamps for processed foods and soda--criticizing what foods government subsidized stamps or EBT cards may be used for is a frequent hobby of many arm-chair haters on the internets. "I'm working, you're spoiled" seems to be the thrust of their arguments, but here's the thing, these folks--whether they are the "hipsters" caught up in a bad recession finding themselves unemployed or working poor with dependent children--they work too or have worked and paid into the system to help you out when you are in need and it turns out, when they are in need. The so-called "hipsters" are less ashamed of pursuing government aid during their time of need then the grumps of earlier recessions, I'm thinking in particular of the recessions of the 1980's (oh, yes there were TWO during Reagan/Bush I--although the fat-cats did well then as they are today).

Although snarking about particular food choices is easy, what this is really about is a class and racial prejudice bubbling to the surface and white, male resentment of "the other" getting assistance (which naturally, in their deluded minds, must come from putting down the white man, particularly the working-class white man). Well, guess what? It isn't a zero sum game. Also, we subsidize the military industrial complex (60% of our budget) and the banking sector far more than we give out food aid to our own citizens in need. If you are pissed off about welfare, get pissed off about corporate welfare. Helping out the unemployed or working-poor with dependent children isn't taking away your precious power and privilege, voting in thieves (Reagan, Bush I & Bush II and their interests) who stole more from the working-classes and cut off opportunities through anti-labor legislation and anti-American trade treaties that destroyed our industrial base are why the middle-class is under such a huge financial crush, not "welfare queens" which they (specifically Reagan) made the scape-goats.

So, let then eat wild-caught salmon and get pissed off at the real source of the problem: the thieves of middle-class wealth and promise, the hedge-fund managers, the subprime mortgage lenders, the health-insurance exec's who are trying to take more than 12% of your income and the politicians who support the whole rotten matrix.

Femivore: Back to Earth Movement and a Feminist Sensibility

Check out this interesting article about femivore's (feminist locovores/do-it-yourself-ers) or radical homemakers.

Here's how Peggy Orenstein defines the movement:

Femivorism is grounded in the very principles of self-sufficiency, autonomy and personal fulfillment that drove women into the work force in the first place. Given how conscious (not to say obsessive) everyone has become about the source of their food — who these days can’t wax poetic about compost? — it also confers instant legitimacy. Rather than embodying the limits of one movement, femivores expand those of another: feeding their families clean, flavorful food; reducing their carbon footprints; producing sustainably instead of consuming rampantly. What could be more vital, more gratifying, more morally defensible?

As you may know if you've followed this blog, I love to garden, I like to compost and I'd love to keep bees and chickens, but that's not going to happen for me for quite a while (as I've decided to return to graduate school to get a Ph.D. and I'm back to urban apartment living). I enjoy these things and I'd like to get more self sufficient in terms of learning how to can/freeze my produce, I'd like to learn how to made cheese and soap, but I know that sewing is just not in the cards for me, let alone trying to be a completely self-sufficient homesteader. Sometimes I think that "radical homemaking" especially in cases when the "wife" starts to homeschool is far too close to traditional (read: oppressive with little economic self-sufficiency) homemaking for me. I generally view all extremes with suspicion. So, what do you think? Are femivores really radical homemakers or just Betty Draper's grandmother in the making?

Rielle Hunter Finds Her GQ Spread "Repulsive"

Rielle Hunter isn't pleased with her GQ spread.

"She said she found the photographs repulsive."

In one photo, Hunter has her tummy exposed as she lays with Frances Quinn, her 2-year-old daughter with former Democratic presidential candidate. John Edwards.

I think this is a perfect example, of why women need to have more control of their image. I feel that all women should request that they have the final say of all printed photos.

I also think that we should also say no to suggestive pictures. This would solve many problems if the sexy photo was never made in the first place.

Food Blogging: Monday, March 15th

Oatmeal with vanilla agave and some walnuts.

Falafal Veggie Burger in a whole-grain tortilla.

Red Pepper & Tomato Soup, I never tire of this delicious soup!

Baby carrots and lite blue cheese dressing.

& Yes, you can see a dreaded diet coke can in the background of the first lunch picture.

Feeder Fetishist Try to Go Mainstream, Go to Daily Mail, Naturally

So, Donna Simpson belongs to the feeder fetishist sub-culture and she's trying to get famous by become the world's fattest woman as recorded by the Guinness Book of World Records. She makes $750 per week via her feeder website in order to pay for the 12,000 calories a day she must consume in order to reach her goal. Her 150lb hubby is also part of the community. She is currently the record holder for fattest woman to give birth four years ago.

I read the Daily Mail piece, which you can read here and I read Jezebel's short take down, which the comments are way more interesting and indepth than the article itself, here. The Daily Mail, which never fails to take the most grave issues and turn them into some sort of parody of chattering biddies, once again is sensationalist and limited in its ability to dig one teaspoons depth into what really is going on here.

The comments section of Jezebel is for the most part remarkably sensible and thoughtful. That this behavior is certainly part of the ED spectrum is apparent and that it is not about basic rights for fatties is certain. If she were trying to become the world's thinnest woman and she had a pro-ani site, most would certainly say she is sick. The same is true for Ms. Simpson, but anti-fat bias has the comments on the Daily Mail in an uproar.

Feeder fetishist have been around for a while, but this piece is bringing them out of the shadows. I don't know how I feel about that. Its a dependent/codependent relationship gone to extremes and it preys on mentally and physically ill or at least compromised individuals. If mental health treatments can be designed to help out individuals engaged in this destructive behavior (which is a dubious option considering that binge-eating is only recently being classified as an ED in the latest DMV). For now, it looks like the media (for the most part) is much happier as showcasing these sub-cultures as freaks to be looked on and ridiculed rather than as mentally ill people in need of treatment.

Weekend Food Blogging

Friday, I went out with my mother to a Japanese restaurant. We got bento boxes. They start you out with a simple salad and miso soup. The miso is amazing and the salad has this great miso/ginger dressing that I love.

Then you get a main course (the salmon), a side (the three pieces of veggie tempura) and a roll (in this case an Alaska roll) oh and of course rice. I mixed some of the rice in with the salmon, but left the vast majority of it, I ate the tempura and I took the Alaska roll home for dinner. Isn't the orange pretty?

Saturday morning it was an Amazing Meal smoothie with 1/2 a banana and mixed berries.

For lunch, I went to Buddy's with my Sister-in-Law and we split the Red Bean & Chickpea burger and a cuban pork panini. I took off the bun of the veggie burger and I ate most of it, 14 fries (a serving size) and most of the 1/2 of the panini.

Here's the "burger" close-up--notice lots of veggies and some blue-cheese. Instead of pickle, it had fresh cucumbers on it (which I liked quite a bit).

Then Sunday, prior to church I went to the co-op breakfast bar. I didn't eat the potatoes because they were over-done, but the poached egg over a tomato was good, as was the mushroom gravy on the super small biscuit and I had a few tablespoons of cheese grits. The bacon was steamed or something, so it must have been cooked, but it really didn't look cooked so I didn't eat that either. I think next time I'll just get the poached egg and biscuit and complement it with some fruit.

So, yeah this was a weekend of eating out (and I'm too damn poor for that).

Vintage Beauty: Diana Dors

Seriously: Study finds median wealth for single black women at $5!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's an excellent breakdown at Jezebel about the median wealth of women of color in comparison to white women and men of all ethnic groups. There's graphs, pie charts and tables to help illustrate this, but the main take-away is that wealth is your net worth minus all debts and the average single Black woman's "wealth" is $5, this is not a typo.

Married couples of all racial groups fared better than their single counterparts. See chart below for comparison:


Marriage appears to be a money-maker for all racial groups. Wealth is often passed down from generation to generation, so the lack of social justice and fair wages that most deeply impacted racial groups in the past (although, hey, check out the income chart in the story and you'll find wage discrimination is alive and kicking today) have repercussions for their descendants and confer privileges for others (read: white folks). At the same time, I think that this also speaks to the burdens of single-mothers carry (which impacts women of all colors), but is a proportionally more heavy burden for Black women.

Now, I can already anticipate all the "oh, dear" shaming articles and news segments that this will generate and I can already predict what they'll say: Women of Color need more Financial Literacy and Education. Like, somehow WofC are really all at fault for this predicament because they use their credit cards for sort-term purchases, like food. I love that particular piece of advice that shows up in every pamphlet on financial literacy--don't use credit cards for disposable or short-term purchases like food/eating out. If you are using your credit card at the grocery store, its probably because you need food to live and using credit is the only way you can at that particular moment. Yes, financial literacy is important, but a living wage, universal health care and affordable housing are more important and would do much more to increase the personal wealth of every American except for the top 1% who own 95% of the wealth currently.

Anyway, check out the article in full and/or leave a comment.

Food Blogging: Thursday, March 11th

Chia Oatmeal made with a dash of Vanilla Soy milk (no Smart Balance) and agave. I thought it wouldn't be as good without the Smart Balance, but a dash of the soy milk really dresses it up!

English Breakfast tea made with the rest of the Vanilla Soy milk and a bit of agave. I'm really trying to ease up on the sweeteners and its working. I'm liking with a hint of sweet, but mostly not lately.

This really isn't as bad as it looks. I took the taco meat, lettuce and cheese and mixed it with the rice, discarding the shell and I ate all of the beans, 1/2 the rice and 2/3 the tamale. I also had an unpictured, ginormous Diet Coke.

Food Blogging: Wednesday, March 10th

They were all out of vanilla and fruit-flavored Greek yogurt at the store the other day, so I bought a standard blueberry yogurt and some plain Greek yogurt to mix. I figured I'm share out the plain Greek yogurt out over two days worth of standard yogurt. The mix was pretty good, especially since so often fruit flavored yogurt is too sweet for my taste. I also mixed in 1/3 cup granola and I had a coffee with milk and raw sugar from Starbucks.

One more view.

Then for lunch, I went to a steak house and got a lean-ish pork-chop and veggie skewer. There's also fried apples in the image, which I didn't eat. Pork-chops really aren't all that bad in terms of calories. The skewer was great!

For dinner, I lowered myself to the dratted frozen dinner, in this case a Grilled Fiesta Chicken. Here it is according to the picture on the box.

Here it is in reality, along with some "white trash salad" and a piece of rye toast with melted cheese. Oh, unpictured are the two girl-scout cookies I had, Peanut Butter Patties. I actually only had the serving size, two for 150 calories.

Kendra: My Post-Baby Body Was "Such a Culture Shock"

Kendra Baskett admits in the new issue of Us Weekly that she struggled to accept her new body weeks after the Dec. 11 birth of Hank IV, her son with husband Hank Baskett.
Having a different body was such a culture shock. I'm so used to being hot and fit." Although "it wasn't that extreme," the reality star says, "I did go through some depression."

The one-time centerfold adds that her body confidence remains shaky. "I love my legs, and I love my butt, but everything else I hate."

Even when pregnant, she was smaller then most of the people at my Walmart. Yet, I think she is the text book example of how celebrities get a warped sense of what one should look like that the biological act of giving birth is overshadowed by 00 desire.

Help Me Out Here Readers, What to order at a Mexican restaurant?

So, I'm trying to stick to about 1400-1600 calories per day (and I've been writing them down). But what is relatively low-cal to eat at a non-chain Mexican restaurant? Any hints or ideas. I'll go do some research now and update the post, but in the meanwhile, leave me your suggestions in the comments section, thanks!

Update #1: It looks like my best bet would be tacos with Mexican rice or tortilla soup. Or, fajitas sans the tortillas with Mexican rice. I have 910 calories already, so it'll be a close call with either orders. I'll let you know how it turned out tomorrow.

Update #2: So here's what I decided to have. Its shrimp on skewers with onions and peppers served with rice and tortillas. I didn't have any of the tortillas and about 1/2 the rice. I'm not sure what the calories would be on this dish, so I'm not going to fudge that data in my food journal, but I'm pretty sure that shrimp, veggies and rice = not bad at all! I didn't eat all!

Check out the photo:

Food Blogging: Tuesday, March 9th

Lunch was salad with two tortillas with left-over stir-fry. Lots of veggies, some meat and one piece of 30 calories swiss "cheese."

Close-up!

For a snack, I had exactly a 1/4 cup of a light trail mix that is only 120 calories. Its quite good.

Breakfast: Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Chia oatmeal with a bit of agave and vanilla soy milk. Also, English Breakfast Tea with agave.

Food Blogging: Sunday, March 7, 2010

Amazing Grass Blueberry and Pineapple Smoothie (no banana, so it wasn't as smooth as I'm used to and I made it with plain yogurt instead of vanilla, but the pineapple sweetened it up).

Cranberry-Juice flavored Iced Tea, tortilla with some of the left over garlic chicken and a bowl of the great veggie soup I made with a bit of cheese (1/4 cup split between the tortilla and the soup). The tortilla is only 60 calories!

My brother and sister-in-law "grilled out" and so I had some of the "white trash salad" and steak on Oscar night. We call mainly iceburg lettuce served with either ranch or blue cheese dressing "white trash" salad. Its not very political and my SL who is Black was confused by the term. Notice that I quoted "grilled out" because growing up in California, we said BBQ for any activity involving cooking with fire out of doors. In the south, that is blaspheme. I'm quoting the words to demonstrate that I'm trying to fully integrate this correct terminology into my personal lexicon.

Food Blogging: Saturday, March 6, 2010

So, I'm back to food blogging (this time with a new camera). Above, you'll find an orange, a piece of millet toast with Laughing Cow and a BIG OL' cuppa English Breakfast tea.

For lunch I had some of the veggie soup I made before my trip, but never got to try (I had two bowls, actually).

Baked garlic chicken breast, a small potato with Smart Balance and Fat-Free Sour Cream and sugar snap peas. Yum!

I'm Back!

The Lady & Sons, Savannah, Georgia

Sorry for my MIA status! I went on two business trips last week--to Savannah, GA for a conference and then to Cincinnati for a morning meeting followed by 5 hours blissfully spent at IKEA (aka Disney Land for Adults). Then, coming back into the office Monday, I actually had work to do! Crazy, I know.

I'm going to start Food Blogging again! But before the healthy food blogging, I'm going to share the dangerous and delicious fare from my trip to Savannah! I got to go to Paula Deen's restaurant, The Lady and Sons and oh, my god/dess it was delicious. We all got the buffet, which sounds low-rent, but it allowed you to try all of her magnificent sides. The fried chicken and ribs were pretty much just good fried chicken, not so good ribs, so even though they're on my plate I ate only a couple bites of the ribs and half of the piece of chicken.

Prior to ordering, they bring you out a sizzling hot hoe cake (kind of like a pancake made out of corn meal) and a garlic cheese biscuit, even better than the Red Lobster garlic cheese biscuits. They were seriously worth difficulty of having to come down at lunch to get a reservation for dinner alone!

Since I was in the Deep South, I ordered Sweet Tea which my Kentucky colleagues called me out on--our sweet tea, they exclaimed is just as good as Paula's--its all Lipton's after all!

So, we went with the buffet, which was $17, instead of ordering off of the menu, probably $34. Truth is, I've heard wonderful things about her sides and the buffet offers more of those. Seen here, the MOST AMAZING COLLARD GREENS I'VE EVER HAD! Supper yummy green beans, corn puddin', mac-n-cheese, yams. There's also the fried chicken and ribs--the chicken was really good, I didn't like the sauce on the ribs, but I didn't really eat much of either in the end because the sides were so darn good! I also had (about two hours later) a couple bites of "butter cake" which was included in the buffet price but came from the dessert tray--it was really like a bar of butter & joy, not so much a cake, but I wouldn't mind looking at the recipe.

So, if you are heading to Savannah anytime soon, I'd definitely recommend Paula's. I also got some yummy Shrimp & Grits at the Shrimp Company on the trip, image below!

Post Oscar Complaints

1. It is awful all we can talk about post Oscars are the dresses. I feel that all those celebrity women need a round of applause for fitting in the dresses in the first place. That was not an easy task. It is very difficult to walk around in a mermaid skirt.

2. I am sick of them dogging Miley Cyrus. I know very few 17 year olds with good posture. I know even fewer adults with good posture.

3. Why isn't the focus on the acting?

Vintage Beauties: Carol Landis

How Kirstie Alley Lost 20 Lbs. – Organically

Since ballooning back up to 228 lbs. after a successful stint as the Jenny Craig spokesperson, Alley says that over the past few years "my two biggest hurdles in weight loss and maintenance are cravings and too big of an appetite."

So this year Alley, 59, launched Organic Liaison, the country's first USDA-approved organic weight-loss program that specifically targets those two problem areas.

I wish Kirstie the best of luck but I don't think anyone should be trying her supplements without some doctor supervision. It might sound stupid but I think weight loss really comes down to balance diet, reduced intake, and lost of exercise.

Kelly Osbourne and Fat Discrimination,

Kelly Osbourne checked into rehab for drug and alcohol addiction three times.

But the singer, 25, tells the new Us Weekly (on newsstands now): "I took more hell for being fat than I did for being an absolute raging drug addict. I will never understand that."

It is so sad that this world has so much hate for overweight people. It is self destructive as a society. In the Nightline FaceOff: Is it ok to be Fat?, Marianne Kirby, co-author of "Lessons From the Fat-O-Sphere" makes the best point of the night. Why do we attack the faceless fat bodies in advertisements instead of focusing on diet and exercise.

I agree, if it is about obesity talk about diet and exercise. Don't make moral judgements about me because of my appearance.

Rachael Ray Shares Her Exercise Secrets

Linda Marx of People.com reports the following on Rachel Ray's new Exercise Routine:

"[She] started running 3½ miles every morning after throat surgery to remove a cyst last year,"

She spends about 30 minutes running, then heads for the gym for 45-60 more minutes of elliptical training before choosing from a circuit of machines.

I am happy for Rachel Ray's new healthy life style choices. She seems to be doing it for health and not just vanity reasons. I respect that. I wish more celebrities would focus on the health benefits of exercise and not just the vanity aspects.

Sucide Help

With the rash of celebrity suicides and the many unpublished suicides this week. I want to post the suicide help line for those who may need it one day.



Are you feeling desperate, alone or hopeless? Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), a free, 24-hour hotline available to anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress. Your call will be routed to the nearest crisis center to you.