First things first.  I’m really happy to report that, thanks to Oprah Winfrey, The Kind Diet has been helping lots of people.  Here’s a link to see some cooking videos starring Alicia and Laura Linney!

Second, here’s an interview I did at newnaturalista.com.  It’s a really cool site. 

THIRD… I want to give everyone time to make their plans for the cruise this year.  The WHAT, you say?  Yes, the cruise.

Seven years ago, Sandy Pukel decided to take veganism and macrobiotics on the high seas.  Since then, every spring, Costa cruises hauls just under a thousand of us pasty health food freaks out into the sunshine of the Caribbean.  If you’ve never been, I can’t recommend it enough.

Here are the five reasons you should go:

1.  The Food.  Commandeered by Mark Hanna  (total genius, cookbook author and my next door neighbor) and his crew, every meal is a multi-course, plant-based mouthgasm.  AND if you’re not feeling particularly virtuous, you can still order from the regular ship’s menu, even from our groovy dining room.  But that rarely happens.  The food is REALLY good.

Because the food is so good, and so healthy, instead of gaining weight and feeling like a weeble  by Thursday, you actually begin to feel fantastic come mid-week.  Smiles become spontaneous, steps lighten and skin glows throughout our half of the ship.

2.  The Classes.  This cruise is not just about the food, or the Caribbean.  All day, every day, there are classes given by some of the greatest holistic and plant-based thinkers in the world.  Dr. Neal Barnard, Dr. Colin Campbell, Marilu Henner, Dr. Joel Fuhrman and Yogi Amrit Desai will all be there.  Not to mention Ohashi, Christina Pirello, and um… yours truly.  All this amazing information, in the form of lectures, workshops and cooking classes, is a kind of mental and spiritual food that is deeply nourishing.  One walks around the ship thinking "I’m so glad I’m here!!"

3.  The People.  I try to sit with new people at every meal.  The stories that come out of them are mindblowing.  Recoveries from cancer.  Families just trying it out.  Longtime vegans with a passion for the planet.  Everyone has a story.  Everyone is interesting.  And everyone cares.

4.  The Ship.  Costa is an Italian cruise line.  In the spirit of La Dolce Vita, they go OVER THE TOP in many ways.  The design of the ship itself is romantic, colorful, and mischievious.  There are 11 bars.  5 dance floors.  Swimming pools.  A theater.  Water slides.  A gym, a spa and a casino.  Plus a whole club for kids!  And the cabins are great.  The staff, always pleasant and attentive, start really liven up by the end of the week and even put on singing/dancing spectacles at dinner.  I won’t wreck it with more details!

5.  The Caribbean.  Oh yeah.  I forgot.  Did I mention that you’re floating around on the bluest sea, stopping at ports of call throughout the region?   I know it seems crazy to mention it last, but the other stuff really–amazingly–trumps even mother Nature.  The Caribbean just becomes a breathtaking backdrop to a fantastic experience.  You can get off the ship and explore the islands as much as you want.  Or stay on the ship and take a class.  No pressure.  YOU’RE ON VACATION!

If you know me personally, you know that I am a horrible salesperson.  I’m usually like "uh… I mean if you want to try this thing… I mean, you don’t have to… it’s not a big deal…. really, don’t do it".  I’m usually sort of an anti-salesman, having been trained by Canadian culture to never step on any toe, real or imagined.  But the cruise is different.  It is 100% unadulterated, healthy, silly fun.  I recommend it to all my friends, veggie or otherwise.  You won’t regret it.

And the prices?  Very reasonable, considering everything you get.  Check it out.  And tell them I sent ya!  I’ll see you in March!

Jessica

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 at 7:35 pm and is filed under Blog, Photos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

I’ve been in bed most of this week.  I was felled by a sinus infection and it decided that my bed was the safest, comfiest, snottiest place to rest my painful head.  I’m just pulling out now, but I’d like to share some some interesting discoveries:

I found something this week you might want to look into.  It’s called a "book" (pr. like "look").  A strange little thing, it HAS NO SCREEN!!!  And even weirder, NO KEYBOARD!  And yet, it is filled with words, just like the computer! Upon finding said relic, I looked for its power cord to plug it in… but there was nothing.  I called an IT geek friend  and… get this… turns out you turn the pages YOURSELF!   Which was sort of fun, frankly!

This book (pr. like "took", not "spook") is called Born To Run and it’s by a guy named Christopher McDougall.  Now I know most of you assume that I am an ultra-jock, and well, when it comes to driving around LA, I am.  But running has never really been my thing.  I did it for a while when I was acting school but I found that the 2 packs of cigarettes I smoked everyday (at the time)  got in the way.  It was especially hard to keep them lit on windy runs.  I had to pick… and I was desperately cool… (cough, cough).

I bought this book (pr. like "nook", not "frook") because it is about a tribe of people in Mexico  called the Tarahumara from deep in the Copper Canyon .  This is what they looked like in 1892: .  The Tarahumara like to run.  Like, a lot.  Sometimes a couple of marathons a day.  Or… four.  All through rocky, steep, canyons.  Wearing sandals made from rubber tires .  I learned about the Tarahumara originally when Alicia Silverstone and I were doing research for The Kind Diet .  Their diet contains very little animal food and their principle food is a form of corn called pinole .  Oh, and they also drink a lot.  I think Tarahumara means "PARTY!!!" in their language, but I might need to get another book (pr. like "cook" not "kerplook") to find that out for sure.

So this author, fascinated by the mystery of the Tarahumara, and a runner himself, goes to investigate.  He not only finds a community, but delves deep into the history of running, the counter-intuitive problems of running shoes , and whether humans are actually meant to run.  Like, maybe we ran down our prey way back in the day?  Just outran antelopes?   Get the book (pr. like "kindle", not "spindle") to find out. 

By the way, and I hope this doesn’t ruin the story for some of you, it all ends in a race that includes Scott Jurek, basically the best runner anyone in our generation has ever seen .  An Ultramarathoner who does things that seem… nay ARE… humanly impossible, Scott is a humble dude, who lives in Seattle and is (drumroll) VEGAN.  Seems going easy on the animal food works for running!

Well, that was my week.  I’m very interested in using more books (pr. like SHUT UP!) but now that I’m back on the computer… we’ll see.

P.S.  Let’s all donate to first responders in Haiti.   

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 16th, 2010 at 2:40 am and is filed under Blog, Photos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

January 2nd is my favorite day of the year.  I mean, I don’t want to get all scroogey about it, but personally, I find all the buy-the-perfect-present pressure a little much.  I have a hard time keeping the kitchen clean, let alone organizing an orgasmic cadeau for every special person in my life.  Forget wrapping them well… and cards?  I’m lucky if I have a sharpie lying around to scribble "ox jess" on each one.  Add to that the pressure of delivering on time, and I’m bordering on a cardiac event.  It’s only around 5:30 p.m. on December 24th that I fill with Christmas cheer and actually get into the vibe of the season.   

My younger sister Catherine, who juggles two kids under four, a husband, a household and writes a column three times a week for The Toronto Star (check her out)… she LOVES Christmas!!  Has half her presents bought by mid-October!  Cracks open cookbooks and bakes newfangled cookies!!!  You know what Catherine did on her year of Canadian maternity leave?  The second leave, when she had TWO kids to cart around?  Oh, START A FARMER’S MARKET!!   Oy.  When I try to run my "but it’s my birthday the day after Christmas!" excuse past her when comparing our polar opposite attitudes toward the season,  I get no sympathy from her.  She was born on my sixth birthday!

So there’s yin and yang in a nutshell. Vive la difference.  I did manage to get things in the mail for her kids, and I’m so glad I did.   And on the day itself, we could all just relax and enjoy the spirit of community and the lovely beginning of the post-solstice boomerang.

I’m still cleaning up the kitchen, but it’s early January, and this is how I like life.  Simple.  Less pressure.  Just each one of us being ourselves in our own little rhythms.  Dirty kitchens.  Clean kitchens.  High drama.  Low drama.  No biggie.  Just nature doing its thing through all of us.

Because every day is precious.  And every person in our lives.  And every meal can build us up, or tear us down.  And extending our vibes out into the world is a daily practice.  Forget presents!  Practice presence.

Happy New Year

Jessica

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 at 4:32 pm and is filed under Blog, My Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.