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Healthy Eating–Chicago’s Raw Food Network

I love McDonald’s – and I’m not just saying that because they pay my salary. The filet-o-fish, with a small fry and water is my usual choice, but sometimes I branch out and get a cheeseburger (no pickles, no onions) or Chicken Selects or the Crispy Chicken Club sandwich… or (gasp) a McRib when they are available. I have always been a fast food junkie (see pics below for evidence of my early love affair with Ronald McDonald) and realistically, deep down inside, I believe I always will be.

That being said… my love for eating out and my distaste for working out, means I have to focus on one very important word – BALANCE. That’s right. I am one of those “eat what I want” people. But now that I’m 30 and my metabolism is about 75, when I eat out, I aim for smaller portions of fried (yummy), creamy (heavenly) and high fat foods (more fat usually tastes better)… and then I balance them with larger portions  and more frequent “meal swaps” with entrees and snacks that are of fruits and vegetables.

This year I decided to kick it up a notch and learn about Raw Food diets. No, I’m not leaving the work of meat and heat… but I was interested in learning more about food options and their benefits. So I went to Chicago’s guru of raw foods – Karyn Calabrese. Karyn owns 3 restaurants in Chicago, one of which is the city’s first raw food restaurant. You heard me. A menu full of uncooked items that will trick even the smartest of foodies. Poor Bobby took me to Karyn’s Raw Café for lunch, not believing me when I said there is no cooking – as the menu sounds like any normal boutique restaurant in the city. I ordered the “Ravioli” and he ordered the “House Salad”.

Basil Scented Ravioli

Half moon shells (turnips) filled with macadamia whipped crème dressed with an Italian olive marinara sauce $14

 

 

 

Karyn's Famous House Salad

Shredded Cabbage, Hearts of romaine, red onion, shiitake mushrooms, asparagus sunflower sprouts, candied walnuts, and teardrop tomatoes caesar dressing on the side $12

 

The flavors were interesting. In some ways its all tasted like “salad”, just varying types of salad.  Overall it was good (though quite pricey) and we could “feel the benefits” as our stomachs digested all the healthy veggies shortly after.

We went on a Saturday afternoon and the atmosphere was nice and calm and the presentation was very pretty. We stayed after our lunch for a 2.5 hour presentation by Karyn herself on her lifestyle as a Raw Foodist/Vegan/Entrepreneur. It was interesting to say the least. We were able to try a few food items, and I’d just say, I’m not converted and only liked 3 of the 6 items. While those three items were really good, when we left, I was starving and begging for a carb. Bobby wouldn’t satisfy my requests to stop and grab a Big Mac, he felt it was too soon after we had educated ourselves, so we went by his spot and made some of the healthiest tacos you’ve ever seen. I’m definitely interested in checking this place out again, but it seems like I might have to save up, cause that lifestyle is NOT CHEAP!

My item of the day, since we’re talking about food, is the Cuisinart Pressure Cooker. I can hear you know… “What the heck is that???” (Ok, if you’re not saying it I am). I have no idea what this thing does but it looks AWESOME. The geek in me wants this on my kitchen counter now. I have never cooked most of the things it claims to be perfect for (gnocchi, pot roast, short ribs) but I bet if I had one I’d be a roast queen in no time!

Lupus Alliance of America

We interrupt the “irrelevant” posts for a very relevant post… last year I announced my participation in one of the Michigan Lupus walks in support of my best friend, Sharon, who has been fighting winning her battle with lupus since 2001. Well, that time is here again and Team Cakesy needs your support! Below is her email.

Hey there,

First, I want to thank you for your love and support especially during the last year. My 2008 and 2009 was pure health hell but because of you interceding for me, lupus has grown and enlightened me is so many ways.

Two of the most wonderful ladies that I know, Cherish and April, have decided to continue on with the Lupus Walk this year on TEAM Cakesy's behalf and we are asking for your donation in whatever amount. No one has to tell me how tight times are and if all you are able to spare is $5, please give that $5 like it's a million. Last year, our fundraising goal was $3,000. We wound up raising more than $4,500.

All funds raised go to benefit the Lupus Alliance of America Michigan Indiana Affiliate. It is the only lupus organization in Michigan that helps folks like me. Last year, due to the fact that I didn't have any insurance that covered my medication, this organization provided what I needed to keep me alive. At this point, I am unsure of who knows what about my ordeal but I needed chemotherapy to help Sharon get back to being Sharon. The Alliance stepped in and gave me what I needed and then a couple of months later, a job. I am currently the Media Director for the organization. Haha! Isn't it funny how things work out?!?

Just within the last couple of months alone, I have written and had 2 newspaper articles published. I have been in a Lupus Alliance commercial that was shown throughout Michigan and Indiana and I was also featured on PBS 'A Wider World' news show about my battle with lupus. I was also a guest on the CW50 television show 'Street Beat'. I have been to Washington, DC twice to lobby Congress on behalf of the Alliance. As a result of our hard work, we currently have two Appropriation's Requests both worth $650,000 each in the offices of the Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick and Congressman John Conyers. We should find out soon whether or not the requests were approved. If they are, the appropriations will change the dynamic of the Alliance drastically which is a good thing. We can help more folks and keep more daughters, mothers, sisters, grandmothers, cousins, brothers, fathers, everyone's loved ones alive.

I didn't mention my awareness successes in an effort to pat myself on the back. I mentioned them to remind you to never tell God how big the storm is but always tell the storm how big your God is. Things have a supernatural way of working out in your favor ;).

The fundraising page is here. http://www.firstgiving.com/sharonharris If you have any questions, contact me. Please forward this at your discretion. Thanks for all that you have done and will do.

Be Encouraged and Be Blessed,

Sharon ('Cakesy')

Please support us in anyway you can, even if its simply passing the word along! I posted a donation badge to the right of my page. If you are in the Detroit-area and would like to walk with us on September 25, or even start your own team for the walk, please do not hesitate to sign up HERE –> http://www.firstgiving.com/milupus.

Peace and love, Cherish (and Sharon and April)

 

Learning to slow down

I am definitely getting older...

While I'm holding up very well from a physical standpoint - meaning I'm within 15 lbs of my high school weight and still have most of my thick curly hair - mentally I am FEELING the age setting in with occassional bouts of forgetfulness (mixed with hurriedness). I was most recently reminded of this after a trip to Grand Lux Cafe in Chicago...

It was raining so hard when I left dinner and I would have had to take 2-3 buses/trains to get home so I decided to take a cab. When I got home I rushed out of the cab to change out of my wet clothing and prepare for a night of Hulu and wine juice.

As I setup my computer I gathered all of my electronics in front of me as always (2 Blackberry phones and an iPod Touch) so I would hear them if they range... and play Scrabble on the iPod while I watch TV. Lo, and behold, there were only 2! I was missing my work Blackberry!! *insert gasp*

I emptied my purse, shook out my business suit, groped at my coat pockets, walked every inch of the condo in serach of this pink Blackberry. No luck. I threw on some shoes and ran down to the lobby, even walked outside to see if it were in any of the street puddles where the cab let me out. NO LUCK.

Feeling defeated, I called the cab company to file a missing phone report. They were closed and an automated message informed me that someone would contact me the following morning. In a last ditch effort I made an outline of my evening, after that last Facebook post I made from the phone during dinner...

1 - Dinner Table? (check - I had it in my hand when I bought the cookies at the carryout counter)
2 - Carry-out Counter (double check - had it in my hand when I was on the escalator, PLUS I called the restaurant and they confirmed there was no pink BB found)
3 - Valet Counter? (check, I didn't stop there since I took a cab this time)
4 - Cab? (hmmm.... don't remember using it in the cab) 
5 - Home? (can't find it in the house)

So that means its between numbers 3 and 5... which leads me to the cab ride.... I ran out the restaurant... hugged my mom... darted across the street to flag a cab... struggled to combine my bags + carryout + purse.... oh, wait.... THERE IS IT!!!!!

I jumped up, ran over the refrigerator and pulled out my carry-out bag. Sure enough... the pink Blackberry was there. Nesteled between a bowl of soup and carton of bread where I had carefully placed it, as I ran to the cab. I guess it wasn't NEARLY as bad as the Minnesota bus-car incident, but still... reminds me of how fast I'm moving sometimes.... gotta learn to slow down. Makes me think of an India Arie song that I like. The lyrics in the second verse say:

Thinking the faster that I go

The faster that I will reach my goal
The race is not given to the swift
But to the one who endureth.
I thought that all of my obstacles were behind me.
Walking around like I'm made out of diamond.
I tripped and fell and it reminded me to move over and let the angels guide me.

Take a listen:

Slow Down - India Arie

Detroit Walks to Cure Lupus – and Team Cakesy Helps

A while back I mentioned the blog my best friend Sharon and I teamed up to create, after April signed us up for the ALR Walk for the Cure. Thanks to my family and friends, along with the awesomeness of Facebook and Twitter, Team Cakesy raised well over $4,000!!! The support was phenomenal! I had a lot of folks come through in the end with some great donations. Sharon designed a t-shirt that the walkers wore to show our unity. Featured on the back of the shirt are the names and logos of a number of people who donated to the cause. Here are some of our “corporate sponsors” as I like to call them… LOL:

Roy Wood Jr – comedian and awesome friend

MoDaddy’s Seasoning – My cousins TASTY seasoning mix. I use it on everything!

Game 7 Entertainment / Team Bravoh – My little brother’s company

Let’s Get it Records – For those who like hip-hop here’s an artist who is pretty popular in Chicago (FYI - music plays loud when link opens)

One Sweet Lady – The best Rum Cake and Lemon Cake you’ll ever find in the Detroit area (website coming)

All in all, the walk was fantastic. The weather held up, although it was a bit windy (see hair below) and chilly in the morning (thus the sweatshirt). Thanks to everyone who spread the word about the walk. We got a lot of supportive emails and blog comments over at Team Cakesy. If you want to donate to ALR and missed the chance to help Team Cakesy, there are more walks coming up and the ALR is always accepting your contributions. I also noticed there is a team CHERISH for the New York City Walk. You can contribute to their walk here…. I don’t know anything about them except they have a cool name and they are walking to cure Lupus so I hope you’ll donate a few bucks, if you can!

Here are a few pics from the event… there was a balloon laden finish line, a dj who played the violin and tons of people from all over the country who came out to support Sharon and the other walkers!

Guest Blogger – Sharon Teaches us about Lupus

One month from now I will be in Detroit with many of my family and friends for the Alliance for Lupus Research’s Detroit walk to raise money for Lupus research! I mentioned before that my best friend, Sharon, has lived with lupus for some time now. Team Cakesy, our walking group, has collected nearly $2,000 already and is hoping to raise at least $1,000 more in the next month! We certainly have our work cut out for us!! Please check out the link at the bottom to make a donation!

I want to say thanks to Rhapsody for leaving this in the comments for the Team Cakesy blog post of a letter I wrote about Sharon:

Perhaps you can do a blog on MSN breaking it down, what it is, what it affects and how, in simple layman terms. What are the symptoms? I know i sound naive and I can probable google it though sometimes the clinicalness of the writing sometimes water down the powerful impacts. Give it to me from your perspective. The "I" vision is always powerful.

Great suggestion!! I had Sharon do a write up for me, so lets give her a round of applause and welcome her to Windows Live Spaces!!

Sharon Teaches us About Lupus

The first time that I heard of lupus was on the "Martin" sitcom when someone made a joke about Santa Claus having lupus due to his spotty hair. The joke tickled me then and I can definitely relate to Santa's spotty hair now.

Lupus is a tricky disease because its symptoms mimic those of other diseases. The line between Crohn’s Disease and lupus is blurred just like the line between Irritable Bowel Syndrome. My doctors thought that I both of these diseases before I was correctly diagnosed with lupus at age 22. My diagnosis took two years. Nowadays, I hear the average time to make an accurate diagnosis is four years. That’s a terrible thing.

Lupus flares occur when the body’s good antibodies turn on each other and fight. A healthy person’s antibodies fight off colds and other maladies whereas a person with lupus antibodies’ fight each other. When there are no or minimal signs of lupus symptoms then the disease is said to be in remission.

Lupus can attack any organ in the body including the skin, eyes, heart, nerves, liver and kidneys. The symptoms range just as far. They include feeling fatigued, anemia, muscle pain, purple fingers and toes, bruising easily and rashes.

There are two forms of lupus, systemic and discoid. Systemic lupus is of the blood and discoid lupus is a skin disorder. In order to accurately diagnose lupus, bloodwork has to be completed. If discoid lupus is suspected then a skin biopsy may be required.

There is not a cure for the disease. There aren’t any lupus specific drugs and have not been any new medications in over 50 years. There are just ways to manage it which include knowing your physical limits, keeping stress to a minimum, eating a balanced diet and staying out of direct sunlight.

Lupus is not a death sentence and folks can live healthy, full and productive lives. Additionally, some people have been in remission for decades and lupus is just a distant memory. It is all in how you take care of and nurture yourself! If you want more info about lupus: www.milupus.org

Sharon, A.K.A. Cakesy

 

Item of the Day…. is…. *now for a shameless plug*…. If you would like to send a donation to Team Cakesy you can click here to do so: http://walk.lupusresearch.org/site/TR/Events/MID?px=1814235&pg=personal&fr_id=2210

Walking for Lupus

I’ve mentioned my best friend Sharon in numerous blogs over the years, but i don’t believe I’ve ever talked about her living with lupus. She was diagnosed in 2002, while we were at the height of enjoying our final year in college. Talk about a life changing disease! I have watched her, strong as ever, fight off random flare ups over the years. The most recent having one of the greatest impacts of all and forcing her to leave the new life she had built on a dream she pursued, to return to our hometown of Detroit where she’d be closer to family.

To help lift her spirits I practically forced begged her to join Facebook to get reacquainted with old friends. She ended up loving it and has some of the funniest status posts and conversations on there (along with that First Grade picture Marquis posted that is absolutely hilarious). April came up with the great idea of signing up a team for the 2009 Detroit Alliance for Lupus Research (ALR) Walk with Us to Cure Lupus Walkathon. To get us started on our “team expansion” and “donor solicitation” we created a really cool blog to tell her story and encourage others living with lupus by showing them they are not alone. If you get a chance, check out the blog at the link below….but we warn you, you may need a few tissues when you read her story in the right column!!

http://teamcakesylupuswalk.blogspot.com

Here are a few pics my Dad took of us playing around on the Riverwalk…

and my favorite photo of the bunch…

Please feel free to pass along this post or the link above to anyone you know that may be interested. The responses have been overwhelming and we’re already getting donations and pledges to walk with us from all over the country.

As for the Item of the Day, I recently made my “investment” purchase of the year. I had been looking for a black purse and narrowed it down to 5 choices. Turned out, one of the choices came up in a Gilt.com sale recently! I was soooo excited! If you haven’t checked out gilt.com yet, its a website where you can purchase high end designer items up to 70% off of retail price. The “sales” are announced at noon each day, include a limited number of hand-picked items from select designer labels, and then last only 36 hours. So my purse that was originally listed at $580 (currently on sale at botkier.com for $297) cost me even less than the current sale price – WITH shipping!!

If you’re interested in checking out the sales on gilt.com go to my sign up link to set up your own account and brose the daily sales.

I am so in love with this handbag, and really happy I got it at half of the price I had budgeted for my 2009 investment piece. I decided to take a portion of my savings (is that really considered savings????) and buy these Coach Gillian gladiator sandals in the color “Sand”, with Gold hardware. They were half off during the Macy’s sale and after trying on nearly 30 pairs of gladiators, these were by far the most comfortable I found.