RSSColored Eyeliner
March 7, 2009
So you like blue, green, and purple? Me too.
Taking yourself seriously is never recommended but, in some situations, you do need to be taken seriously by others. Colored eyeliner is not the way to get there.
While exuberant colors on your face might still not be the best choice for a professional setting, color is too much fun to reject altogether.
There are 2 ways to add blue/green/purple to makeup that I think look great. Obviously, these are eye makeup – in fact, eyeliner - techniques. They’re both subtle enough to still be tasteful. They’re fast. They’re easy to get right and surprisingly hard to get wrong, because the color is used on such a small area.
This is not a dark eyeliner look or a smoky eye look. The color has to be softer to work as a subtle accent in its own right. Someone looking at you should not be able to see the color right away. Too dark comes on too strong and winds up looking hard with the first technique and fierce with the second one.
Naturally, women with stronger, more intense coloring will choose deeper colors. Women with very soft coloring, like Michelle Pfeifer, would pick something that would be too washed-out on Eva Longoria.
InStyle shows a photo gallery of colored liner looks. I’m not a fan of most of these looks. The color is too obvious. Kate Hudson’s turquoise and Blake Lively’s gold – they’re just too much. Rebecca Gayheart shows a good example of how to use a light to medium color in a more subtle way – there’s a light color lining the inner rim of the lower lid (that’s called the ‘waterline’).
Be careful not to choose a color with a lot of red pigment or you may end up looking as if you’ve been crying. Those pigments can often be very irritating to the eyes as well. Blue-purple, medium green, violet – this is the time to play (and not spend too much money) so try out different colors. Rimmel’s Exaggerate Full Color Eye Definer in Aubergine is a nice blue-purple. The same pencil in Pine is a good medium green. ( Rimmel does conduct animal testing. These were bought at a time when I was less judicious.)
To help choose a color that will be great on YOU, consult the color palette for your season. (Visit Pretty Your World to learn a lot more about Color Analysis. Once you get this figured out once, you’ll never again make a color mistake.). See a color that you’d like to try as an eyeliner? Teal on an Autumn? Soft plum on a Summer. Sounds gorgeous to me. Use it in one of these two ways :
First eyeliner technique
This method begins with the colored liner and applies it in the usual way, as a line around the eye, top and bottom, inside corner (where the lashes begin) to outside corner. The line is barely noticeable on the inside corner and becomes progressively thicker as you go outwards, but still never very wide. No need to get precise or do any smudging here The softer color intensity is very forgiving and we’ll be covering it with an eyeshadow anyhow.
After applying the liner, apply your usual medium matte neutral eyeshadow. The color might be camel, taupe, or grey depending on your coloring and the shape of your eye socket. Put a thin wash all over the lid , right over the eyeliner. Go into the crease, and just above the crease, but not to the browbone. This is simply a thin layer on a bigger surface area to tone down any cartoon effect of the color in the liner.
Here’s another gallery of colored eyeliner looks at ElleGirl magazine - and none of them are much use in the real world, except the third, which is a good illustration of this technique.
With what’s left on the brush, go over the line of eyeliner that’s under the lower lashes, or maybe just below it. Don’t go over the liner with an eyeshadow of the same color or the effect will be too vibrant. We want to hint, nothing more.
Finally, apply another, very light, layer of the liner over the first, just to give the color a little more depth.
If you wish to apply a light matte shadow right under the eyebrow, that’s fine. I usually just use a little concealer there to get the lift effect without needing an extra eyeshadow, because it becomes too complicated of an eye design. Personally, I think it looks best with less mascara than you might normally wear.
It ‘s got to look like it might have just happened on its own, like a blurry smudged impression of something more. It’s the power of suggestion.
Second eyeliner technique
You can see this illustrated in the eye at the top. Here it is again. There is no other makeup here, just the eyeliner. Which eye pops out at you more?
This takes a little practice but no time. Your eye color will stand out nicely. The color is on too small an area for anyone to really perceive that it’s there as long as you choose a color that’s neither too dark or too glittery. Once again, the color of the liner is an accent to emphasize your eyes.
Here, we’re placing the liner along the inside rim of the upper eyelid. That’s it. Just draw a line there tracing the pencil along the underside edge of the lashes.
The color above is Rimmel Aubergine.
A deep blue cleans up the white of the eye and looks nice on dark brown eyes in this second technique. It’s this (deepblueliner) .
It’s not this
or this
, and certainly not the metallic versions of these which is worse. Why are these colors such staples, especially on women with blue eyes? I think it’s a leftover from younger days. And yet, blue eyes are the easiest of all to accentuate with liner. Brown and gray (especially warm brown) look better on blue eyes than any other eye color.
On the rest of the eye, use your neutrals, though I think the liner’s effect is more noticeable if you use neutrals in lighter colors than usual – so camel instead of a deeper brown if you’re warm, or mushroom instead of taupe if you’re cooler.
These are not serious looks, so be playful. Try out various colors. As soon as you put green on your face, you’ve relinquished your gravity (in more ways than one).
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There are 2 ways to add blue/green/purple to makeup that I think look great. Obviously, these are eye makeup – in fact, eyeliner – techniques. They’re both subtle enough to still be tasteful. They’re fast. They’re easy to get right and surprisingly hard to get wrong, because the color is used on such a small area.
Read moreWhen Anger Is The Easiest Way
February 23, 2009
I used to be a very angry person. I wasted two years or so on allowing a poisonous emotion to get hold of me. How embarrassing.
Finding strength in anger
It wasn’t trivial. I think the culmination was that we were forced to sell our farm, and a great deal more besides. I was furious with the world for having taken away what my husband had taken 18 hours a day for 25 years to accomplish. I felt sorry for him. I was afraid that we would lose our home. I felt sorry for myself, plain and simple.
Anger is easier than confusion, fear, and hurt. It gives you enormous strength. It was also the easiest reaction, the “all-about-me “ comeback. Maybe it came from exhaustion. You don’t always have the energy to devise imaginative solutions. It’s easier to pretend that you’re born with a certain personality and you can’t control it, any more than where your freckles are.
It becomes a habit, part of your self-identity. It becomes too comfortable. It’s your crutch, always there when you need it, just waiting for you to call. It’s your new security blanket.
Defining point
Eventually, I refused to recognize that anything good could happen. If it did, I’d feel compelled to add some grudge comment like “Well, it won’t last”.
I had to reach for some kind of other feeling. We all know what that angry woman looks like, inside and out. Sometimes she’s very young. She trusts no one. She’s easily provoked. She’s quick to assign blame and can find fault anywhere. She looks for things to flare over so she can keep the fire stoked. Once the flame starts to go down, the fear of having to take a close look at herself is too destabilizing.
We have watched that too many times and seen what it does to her. It wears her down, keeps her alone, and kills her slowly. I recognize this woman now because I used to be her. It’s like writing about being a teenager… I remember it but I can’t fully understand anymore. When I meet her, I don’t know how to help her.
Anger became her relief valve (and her revenge valve) on a world that didn’t come through. Now, she’s worn out from fighting all the time, though her opponent is usually herself. She drains others of energy because she can’t contain all her anger and some sneaks out irrationally now and again. People are careful around her, and pretty soon, they sidestep coming round at all. She keeps them on eggshells to avoid her nasty remarks. She learned that power play so she got treated gently and her fragility was respected.
If she’s not mad at the world for failing her, then she’s mad at everyone around her for not doing what she thinks they should. Internal conversations are bent on getting them to see things her way. She imagines the world is trying to hone in on the remains of her little piece of the pie and she’s going to protect it if it kills her.
Releasing
I had to choose. It takes big energy to maintain that level of bitterness and exclude all that is good in the world. I was becoming someone I didn’t want to be. Rage excuses habits in the treatment of others that discredits Your Deeper Self, the real you. Feeding fury is self-defeating.
I forced myself to think about what was good. I didn’t begin seeing much of it but there was always something. For a year, all I said was “There’s food in the fridge, the house is heated, the family is fine. I have everything I need.”
This goes beyond composure and restraint. Serenity comes from a deeper spring where no time is given to judging whether the world meets our expectations. We all worry about something but this moment, right now, is sufficient.
We know that angry woman. Don’t be her. Anger and disappointment are the most aging things out there.
Every hand’s a winner and every hand’s a loser. It just depends what you do with it.
-->We have watched that angry woman too many times and seen what it does to her. It wears her down, keeps her alone, and kills her slowly. I recognize this woman now because I used to be her. It’s like writing about being a teenager… I remember it but I can’t fully understand anymore. When I meet her, I don’t know how to help her.
Read moreMUST READ on Anti-Aging Treatments For Skin : The Surgery-Free Makeover
January 1, 2009
In Gifts For The Real World 4 and Botox For Christmas, I talked about the great website, Skin Tour. In that site, you’ll see the book, The Surgery-Free Makeover.
I was sent the book (but am not being paid for this review). I knew I’d find it an essential read because the website already is. I didn’t expect how much more information made it into the book. I finished it in 2 days. I was reading it in the bathtub.
The information cuts to the core of what you need and want to know.
Dr. Irwin is a scientist with access to and comprehension of the research. Would you take a pill that didn’t have solid research behind it? Not if you’re sane. Same applies for injections and lasers. And skin cream, of course!! Just because some company added Noni Juice or whatever magic potion to a cream doesn’t mean they did any research to prove it works (other than market research to see if and how they could sell it, of course!!).
There’s loads on the net. I can tell you that it is almost impossible for pet owners to find accurate information about their animal’s condition on line. It’s there but people can’t recognize it amid all the clutter and can’t put it in the context of their own pet. They’re as hopeless at choosing the right treatment option as they would be at reading their dog’s X-ray. You need help from a professional to filter out what’s true and how it applies to you. What happened to your best friend’s face or your neighbor’s cat has nothing to do with your face and your cat. Zero.
Plastic surgery seems too radical a first step. Anytime I’ve seen it (and known it), it looks odd. The skin on the neck is a different age from the skin on the face. Or the skin behind the ears is older. Or the face is 10 years younger than the voice/energy level/personality, and the whole person comes across as weirdly discordant. For some problems, this is the only answer. For most common concerns of aging faces, you can achieve gorgeous results without it. I still want to be able to see myself.
The Surgery-Free Makeover is written almost as a workbook, certainly not a textbook. This reads like straight-up talk at your own personal consultation. You’ll find yourself over and over. You’re encouraged to write your own specific list as you learn the various terms and types of problems.
You’ll be taken on a tour of your own face, including the neck and chest area. The most frequent complaints for each feature are discussed, along with real patients’ questions and concerns. There are 6 different problems for the forehead alone (including a brief but bottom-line discussion on thinning hair at the temples)!
You’ll get information throughout the book on the 6 most common anti-aging treatments. They are
- Botox
- fillers like Restylane and Juvederm
- lasers for redness, blotches, and age spots
- lasers for wrinkles, and imperfect texture
- skin tightening treatments like Thermage and Titan
- Peels and microdermabrasion
Which one is for you? How much can you expect it to do? You’re about to find out. If there’s a short-term fix or cream, it will be named. If there’s a question you must ask or a risk you should know, Dr. Irwin tells you. If only surgery will fix it, you’ll be saved a lot of time and money.
There is an entire chapter on menopause and skin. If you’re working towards a particular event or with a finite budget, you’ll learn what you can accomplish with realistic expectations of the near and far future.
I so appreciate the attention and space devoted to helping you find a good doctor and treatment facility. What if I live in a small town where the local M.D. has opened a Skin Center? Do I trust him? Or will I look like a clown for 3 months while a bad injection wears off ? You’ll be well armed, with the 7 most important questions to ask (and what answer you should get!), how to evaluate the facility and the staff, when to run screaming, and much more. One of my absolute favorite chapters.
With a final section on emerging technologies, this book was written for us. It’s the best.
My eyes have been completely opened to the possibilities in this field. I LIKE possibility. It’s what I am about. What I’ve learned will influence every decision I ever make about this subject, even which creams I buy. Once you’re done reading, you’ve got the last word. You won’t wonder anymore. I honestly get when and how this will fit into my life.
If you would love to have something done to improve your appearance, you have got to get informed. One of the chapters is entitled Knowledge Is Power. That is exactly what it is.
-->The Surgery-Free Makeover is written almost as a workbook, certainly not a textbook. This reads like straight-up talk at your own personal consultation. You’ll find yourself over and over.
Which treatment is for you? How much can you expect it to do? You’re about to find out. If there’s a short-term fix or cream, it will be named. If there’s a question you must ask or a risk you should know, Dr. Irwin tells you. If only surgery will fix it, you’ll be saved a lot of time and money.
How To Build Exercise Into A Holiday
November 7, 2008
Workouts are not put on hold when you’re on vacation.
Easier said than done. You’ve got lots of time but it’s busy time, visiting, shopping. I can’t get exercising done mid-day because by then the day is planned and I’m dressed and don’t want to get all sweaty again. Evenings are always overbooked with friends and dinners and relaxing conversation.
Create a time slot
You just have to wake up early. You just have to. I had to learn to do this year round, in a last ditch attempt to find an hour alone each day.
It’s easier on vacation. You don’t have to rush anywhere after. It doesn’t matter if you’re a little tired during the day. It’s an hour for you alone. Getting from horizontal to vertical can be tricky if it’s been a late night, but then it’s all about you. Part of the restorative power of a holiday is more solitary time to reflect. This is a glorious time to get that done too.
Start small
Don’t start by getting up early AND working out. That’s too many steps all at once. Just have a cup of tea and look at the ocean, or outside at the snow. Give yourself a pedicure. Make this time consciously and peacefully about building YOU. Every 5 minutes, think “This is MY time.”
Come week 2, your body has learned to wake up and feels a little sharper. Exercise is how you’re going to survive the year’s fattest month, but you have to start getting up earlier NOW. Come December, even if you can manage 3 times a week, your clothes won’t be any tighter by New Year.
Build strength safely
You don’t have to do complicated exercise programs. Go for a walk. Take a piece of elastic tubing.
Elastic tubing, or so-called Resistance Bands, are one of my favorite pieces of exercise equipment. Your muscles adapt to the same moves on the same machines, or with the same weights, so progress becomes very slow if not stuck. This is a terrific equipment search page at CollageVideo because it shows you the many forms that elastic tubing can take, as well as the videos that utilize each type of elastic.
To build beautiful definition and a powerful frame, learning new movements and/or varying the equipment is the answer. The same move feels surprisingly different done with elastic if you’re used to weight.
And, listen. As we get older, working strength is unbelievably important. I try to do as much Strength as Cardio. It gives you physical and mental resilience against the onslaught of aging. Forget feeble. Aim to be stronger every year.
8 Great aspects of elastics
1. It is much harder to hurt yourself because you are limited by your own power or lack thereof. There is no momentum involved, so the weight won’t swing out of control. This one is most important for me because I have a tendency to overdo just about everything.
Figure 8 band, bow and arrow.
2. Tubing works both sides equally. I have to focus hard on this to prevent my strong side from taking over. What happens next is the weak side gives in, and we’re back to #1, where injury occurs.
Figure 8 band, side leg lift.
3. You can take it on walks. Walking on vacation is the absolute best. You can feel like you’re on top of the world, like a model in a Nike ad. With tubing, a walk can become a circuit training workout, with strength and upper body moves added in even while you’re walking, so you have some core and multi-joint work as a bonus. Wrap the tubes around your waist when you’re not using them.
15lb band with handles, front arm raise.
4. Pack it anywhere. They’re light and flat and take up no space. When I travel, I take a few exercise videos and my tubing. If it rains or I don’t want to go outside, I can still do a little workout and feel great.
15lb band with handles, kickbacks.
5. They’re cheap!! And available in many levels of resistance. 5 lbs of resistance is a starting point. 15 lbs of resistance is difficult for me.
15lb band with handles, biceps curls.
6. You can work every muscle if you use your imagination.
Biceps curls standing on the band.
7. They are a brilliant addition to your strengthening arsenal. Elastic tubes are a highly effective to tighten, tone, and build strength.
Pushups, planks, leg to the side, band on the foot and under the hand.
8. Using a tube is a nice way to stretch. Somehow my muscles relax better than when I’m using my own force or gravity.
Front shoulder press.
The challenge at the beginning is learning how to use these elastic bands. Some are flat and wide, others are tubular with handles on the end. I recommend you have both because they work the muscles differently. Also, those with handles can be looped around your feet or around a weighted body bar, increasing the movement variety.
Rowing, elbows up or down at your sides, or both.
Begin by purchasing a few DVDs using tubing or bands to see the various ways that fitness professionals use them. If you search elastic tubing, and resistance band at Collage Video, you will have 75 to choose from. This is worth doing to get some safety guidelines. I’m not a fitness instructor. The moves I’ve shown here are some of the ones I’ve learned from videos to work a variety of muscles but you still have to be sensible. Assess your own fitness level. Learn how to protect your back and stabilize your shoulders and pelvis (Pilates is great for this) before you add external resistance.
On the Collage site, you’ll see how each video makes use of time, how others have reviewed it, and the difficulty level. There is also the all-important 1 minute video clip of anything you are considering buying.
Your workout’s done. Have a spectacular day.
Workouts are not put on hold when you’re on vacation.
Easier said than done. You’ve got lots of time but it’s busy time, visiting, shopping. I can’t get exercising done mid-day because by then the day is planned and I’m dressed and don’t want to get all sweaty again. Evenings are always overbooked with friends and dinners and relaxing conversation.
Get up early. Go for a walk. Take a piece of elastic tubing. Feel like a goddess.
Hold Your Ground
September 27, 2008
Exercise is a great metaphor for life. How you look is the minor payoff. The grand prize is its effect on how you think.
The mind-over-body challenge provides an ongoing simulation of asserting an intention and meeting the challenge at every workout. You have to dominate the demon that would keep you sitting on the couch. Get used to conquering demons and pretty soon, they start looking puny. Face down an obstacle every day and overcoming obstacles becomes familiar territory.
The expression “Hold Your Ground” has real meaning in movement, as well as being an analogy for strength and determination.
Literally, pull the ground
It means to grip the ground beneath your feet. Grip the ground when you move, like the tread on a bulldozer, and pull yourself along it. The ground you stand on? You own it.
I bought an elliptical machine at Canadian Tire. It was $299, on sale for 119 ( yes, 119, not 199!). Seemed like a good deal, with just-warmer-than-lukewarm reviews on the CT site. I agree with the reviewers who said the stride is short. But that’s not a bad thing. This feels more like running than stair-climbing or elliptical work. My body deeply dislikes running, and my knees abhor it. This is a great way to get the huge toning and calorie burn of running without the pain. 85% of the reviewers agreed that it was worth it for the price and I concur. Watch your CT flyers, women!
If you kickbox, picture being hard to tip over and impossible to lift up. It means you have to consciously set and harden your pelvic muscles. You can’t solidify your entire body from your legs alone. It has to come from deep in your middle.
If you remember the article Where Strength Begins : Hold Your Body Together, you’ll have seen the analogy of the cross hairs of a rifle in your pelvis (spine Y axis, Earth and Water line X axis). Tighten along the crosshairs and hold the whole thing together. Don’t let it rock unless you’re in control of it.
Take a few Pilates classes. Learn how all movement begins and is empowered from your pelvis. Once you get how to do this, your limbs work smarter, not harder, because the power is coming from your core. Your limbs are then free to move with more grace and yet, more force. A powerful, rock-solid center is the origin for everything you do – in your head as well as your body. Imagine yourself hard to displace.
Here are a couple of brilliant ones with excellent instruction. Both are linked to their page at Collage Video.
Play with your feet
When only one foot meets the floor, feel the ground connecting with the entire surface of a strong, relaxed, and conscious foot. Feel your foot spread out and give your weight to it. Think about a secure, broad, comfortable foot. Have you ever really thought about how your feet connect to the ground? It’s a very calming thing to do and great for balance.
Anytime you leave the ground, land like Catwoman. We all remember the old record players in our parents’ living rooms, right? When you land, don’t let the needle skip. To do that, you have to tighten your pelvic and leg muscles before you land. Land softly, soundlessly, but securely. Much easier on the joints too.
Figuratively
Visualize these sensations as determination and resolve to get what you want. Whatever gets in the way better move because you don’t intend to. Be as steady metaphorically as you are literally.
Know the calm place in your mind that allows your body to find balance. Practice clearing your mind to make yourself secure. The inner calm that leads to mental stability will also be found faster each time you search for it. That sensation is stored in the same place in your head, whether the situation is mental or physical.
Visualize your foundation deeply rooted in the earth. I lose this when I wear heels. I feel wavering and erratic in my movements and how I think others see me. Though they can look nice if you’re standing or sitting, I seldom wear them. I expect it comes with practice but unless the shoe has a solid heel and comfortable toe, well…too often, the walk looks pinched and wobbly, not empowered. It sends the wrong message.
On the front page of the Allure magazine site, there’s a poll asking whether you feel more powerful in heels. 85% of women do! That’s interesting because they don’t look it.
Develop a strong core. Once the center is empowered, whether in movement or life, the actions that follow can be stronger, tougher, and more intense.
Gains, mental and physical, are guaranteed.
--> Exercise is a great metaphor for life. How you look is the minor payoff. The grand prize is its effect on how you think.
Hold your ground means to grip the ground beneath your feet. Grip the ground when you move, like the tread on a bulldozer, and pull yourself along it. The ground you stand on? You own it. The determination you need to get what you want? You own that too.
… So Damn Afraid Of Who I Am
September 19, 2008
My friend Nathalie said those words in a comment to Are You A Toned-Down Version Of Yourself?
She said,
Every so often, I ‘ll go back to read it again. I find it helps me gain strength in who I want to be and to not be so damn afraid of who I am. I guess the word is “confidence”.
When I began this venture, one goal was to understand what it is that women are so afraid of. Can you feel it, in yourself, or your friends, that holding back? I sense the caution in me too. I can only go so far in my self-discovery journey before I get uncomfortable and antsy.
Women (not girls) and fear
Is there a genetic switch on the X chromosome that flips with puberty?
Is it the female collective unconscious, the buried memories all women share of having been made to suffer physically and mentally for centuries that makes us so hesitant?
Is it just easier to be dutiful and obedient? Are we still listening to our parents’ warnings?
I don’t see it in girls before they’re 15 or so, but it is certainly there once they reach the late teens. Everyone appears to be born equal. Where does our confidence go?
Nathalie gets it in 1
But Nat’s just figured it out. She said it all right there. Are you amazed or is it just me? I was rooted to my chair.
It’s not anything external that we women are afraid of. It’s ourselves! It’s what we know we could be. It’s the knowledge that we could be all that we want to be. We are torn to distraction by the conflict of knowing we’re good enough and thinking we might not be.
It’s the need we have to apologize for everything and doubt ourselves so much. This is not wishing you were someone else. It’s dumbing ourselves down because it’s easier than coping with the fallout of having it all. We’d rather broadcast “don’t notice me, I’m not that great” than turn the spotlight on ourselves.
Living a life without limits is scary. We paint ourselves into a corner that keeps our truest selves, our Deeper Self, secret and guarded.
Grow in your own eyes
You don’t have to be who your parents expected. Or wanted.
You can try something and screw up completely and not be less than who you are. You can change your mind as often as you like and not apologize.
Women care more (or actually notice) how others feel. We are programmed to smoothe and unite. Now and then, overlook the discomfort of others for the sake of your growth and theirs.
Ignore the ‘on the rag’ comments, the “bitch” and the “dizzy” comments. People are not really being negative about you, just reacting to unease in themselves as you change the rules. Others become a little afraid of who we are too. It takes time to learn.
Is it the shift in the balance of power in the relationship that they sense? Is it anxiety about what else you’re planning to torpedo them with?
Who cares? Unfold a new piece of you every day and let it flex its muscles. Practice thinking about yourself in bigger terms that you do now.
Tulips smiling up at the sun, just for you, Nathalie.
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My friend Nathalie said those words in a comment to Are You A Toned-Down Version Of Yourself?
She said,
Every so often, I ‘ll go back to read it again. I find it helps me gain strength in who I want to be and to not be so damn afraid of who I am. I guess the word is “confidence”.
Sites To Know : ChefMD
September 15, 2008
Since finding Dr. LaPuma through Heidi Swanson’s 101 Cookbooks site (see the article Sites To Know : 101 Cookbooks), I find myself visiting ChefMD often. I get the weekly recipes in my Inbox. I’ve looked at all the video clips and searched inside his latest book, The Big Book Of Culinary Medicine.
This book is now on my Christmas list. The Table of Contents knocked my socks off. If there’s a healthy food you’ve wondered about, it’s in here. Now, learn the best way to use it to reap its fullest benefit.
Dr. John LaPuma, M.D.
Rebecca Powell Marx
Dr. John LaPuma and Rebecca Powell Marx
I place more faith in his advice because he has such impressive medical credentials. He understands the implications of your medical test results or condition in ways that someone without the M.D. training, let alone a boarded internist, just can’t.
I’m not saying that a nutritionist needs an M.D. to be effective. But, perhaps because I’m also a product of North American medical training, I don’t believe that the scope and depth of comprehension about health and disease that an M.D. provides can be replaced by any other teachings. An internist takes it many levels beyond that, with a truly staggering understanding of the human body. (In Canada or the U.K., his designation would be M.D., F.R.C.P. (Internist).)
Since he’s also a professionally trained chef, and not some guy who taught himself to cook on Sunday afternoons, he can provide recipes and cooking tips to create truly delicious dishes.
You can read about Dr. LaPuma’s medical and culinary training and accomplishments on his About page . You’ll also meet Rebecca Powell Marx, the co-founder of Chef MD. She is a writer, TV producer, and marketing executive. Together, they bring you the art and the science of foods that can heal.
Food as pharmacy
Pills certainly have their place. So do acupuncture, SOME supplements, and many other conventional and less traditional treatments. However, we look to them all too quickly and bypass the power of food as medicine in the process. For many conditions, especially common ones like joint pain and depression, your medicine cabinet begins in your refrigerator.
Just generally feeling great is hard to measure, except by comparison to when you’re feeling rotten. Immunity is hard to see; it’s not like a broken bone or a rash. It doesn’t actually hurt in the moment when it’s not working well, like cramps or headaches. So we forget how much it matters, but it’s the cornerstone to health, present and future. By being satisfied with it working at half-strength, you’re using yourself as the gambling chips.
Overboard on pills and supplements
Why don’t we exploit the capacity of food for fighting disease all the time? There are no side-effects to diet and there’ s not a pill out there that you can say that about. It’s money you’re spending anyhow and it’s not more costly to eat this way. I’ve decided the problem is four-fold :
1. Not believing how much food can actually do to improve how you feel next week. Either you don’t believe food alone can do that OR the payoff doesn’t outweigh the effort (or it’s more fun to complain). And, after all, you don’t feel that rotten.
2. Feeling you just don’t have time to learn a new way of cooking. Life is too busy as it is. And cancer in 20 years is just too far away to take seriously.
3. You might be like my husband who combines the philosophies of “Nobody’s going to tell me what I can and can’t do” and “I might die tomorrow so I plan to enjoy every minute”. He would prefer not to live with back pain, but he’s not willing to do a thing to prevent it. He’d be anti-cancer if you give him a choice, but he doesn’t really believe the choice is his to make. I tell him he’s 70% wrong but he doesn’t want to hear it.
4. You have to take a little responsibility. That implies that some of this not feeling so good is your fault. And if the diet change doesn’t work, will that be your fault too? so maybe it’s easier to not play the game at all than risk defeat? Pills and supplements… if they don’t work, can you blame the pill?
The thing is, food change works for everybody. Is it going to happen in a week? No way. Pills are what works in a week.
You can’t change your weight in a week with diet. You can’t change your cholesterol in a week either with food alone. But you CAN change it appreciably in 4 or 6 weeks. In the long run, it’s the better thing, the cheaper thing, the safer thing.
I love dessert too
Sometimes you just need sugar, right? Believe me, you’re talking to a woman who gets it. I mean, really gets it. But I don’t need it all the time. Dr. LaPuma’s is not just a world of barley casserole here.
The Ginger Snap Apple Crisp with Sweet Cinnamon and Walnuts : fabulosity.
Warm Spinach Salad with Chicken, Grapes, and Toasted Pecans : So good , and cool to make; it cooks in white grape juice!
The Food As Medicine News is my favorite. Quick bits of information I can absorb into my life. I like the “Do this , don’t do that” style. Like “Add fat to your salad to absorb way more nutrients”. Oh, OK. Avocado and olive oil. Easy.
His blog is in Video format. He’s so into it that you can’t help but get a little excited. Like “yeah, yeah, I can do that”. He CARES about food as medicine like I CARE about skin care. I love this guy.
Can you tell I’m a true believer? Instead of salt and pepper shakers on my table, there are turmeric and pepper shakers. I’m finding places for fresh oregano in just about anything. I’m doing salmon twice a week (Pacific only). We all know about my commitment to quinoa. And I believe I make the Healthiest Smoothie out there, so I’m posting the recipe tomorrow. Wait till you see it! It’s not for everyone, but ChefMD’s recipes are.
In every recipe, as you browse the list, he’ll tell you what is special about the ingredients chosen from a health perspective. The same is true of the weekly recipes that can be delivered to you by email. The Health Tip and Cooking Technique Tip are included.
Some of the recipes are a little too fancy to feed the army of 4 that I have to fill up every day. The techniques are simple but the tastes are a little sophisticated. I have had kids for dinner that squeegee the sauce off each individual spaghetti noodle. So, adapt it. Triple the amounts to last the week and leave out the arugula, or substitute it for another food from that family.
The key is always about gaining knowledge to make better decisions in your daily life. It’s what you do every day that adds up to create the biggest impact. The 30 minute workout you get everyday counts; the hour every 3 weeks barely does. The flossing you do each day makes a big difference. Will the hour at the dentist once a year reverse the 340 days you didn’t floss?
All lasting change begins with learning. It is consummated in baby steps and the awareness that you never have to be perfect.
Make EVERY day count. Time is passing.
-->Since finding Dr. LaPuma through Heidi Swanson’s 101 Cookbooks site (see the article Sites To Know : 101 Cookbooks), I find myself visiting ChefMDoften. I get the weekly recipes in my Inbox. I’ve looked at all the video clips and searched inside his latest book, The Big Book Of Culinary Medicine.The Table of Contents knocked my socks off. If there’s a healthy food you’ve wondered about, it’s in here. Now, learn the best way to use it to reap its fullest benefit.
Read moreAdvice For Girls Of All Ages
September 5, 2008
-->1. Never let a boy tell you what you think. Let yourself graduate.
2. There are no last chances. No last chances to get in on a game. No last chances for amazing jobs. There is always another chance.
Book Review : Play Like A Man Win Like A Woman
August 22, 2008
-->The traditional, male way of doing business is not better than ours. Nor is it worse. It may be out-dated. It may not be productive or imaginative from a woman’s perspective. In fact, it may often be ethically and morally wrong. It is still undeniably real and it is a language that women need some functional understanding of to leverage the male corporate establishment.
Read moreSites To Know : 101 Cookbooks
July 24, 2008
This site is a blog born of Heidi Swanson’s decision to stop buying cookbooks and explore some of the other recipes in all her books. I think we can all relate.
But listen to the focus of her book, SuperNatural Cooking : natural oils, natural sweeteners and alternatives, uncommon grains, cooking with color.These recipes are remarkable for being delicious and supernaturally healthy.This is how to eat to feel clean, light, and strong.
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A Greener Tea
Web Maintenence by Rick Beckman
