Happy Summer almost…I love this time of year and the way your body feels in the cool early mornings that are bordering on a scorching sun…you just feel like moving and being outside, being active, showing your skin and being joyful like a child. I think, like everyone, I attribute summer with playfulness. I think that is what we need to try to find this summer; our inner playfulness. As the season gets into full swing how can we all have a better time being ourselves? By connecting to what we eat, to how we move and how we find ritual in our lives. All of us need to remember to slow down a bit and set the stage for mischief & fun like when we were kids. We used to fall into bed after we exhausted our bodies after a playful day, it feels like we need to find that part of ourselves again. Now I realize that most of us are working or parenting or doing something responsible & adult during the day and that the flighty ways of a kid on his or her bike is not what our lives are orchestrated for (even if it is summer time) but who says we can’t take a little time to have fun?

For me I know that I am going to get up extra early now that the sun is hot and hike with my dogs while it is still a bit cool and then after that I’ll spend a few hours working at my home office then ride my bike to the local farmers market or run an errand in my neighborhood by foot. I’ll work some more, then I am going to take time to set a placemat wherever I am, be it my home office or film set and eat my lunch slowly. I am going to dine outside as much as possible this summer because there is nothing that says summer more than being out of doors. I have been recently taking a packed lunch in a reusable box with reusable containers to a park close to my house and I sit at a picnic table often by myself with my little lunch set out for me while I listen to birds or watch people pass by on their way to and from work, or dog walkers and consequent runners dodging poop on their noon day runs.

I smile as I watch them focused in their private worlds and I savor what I am eating… I have an avocado sandwich so simple made on a no-grain bread by a company called julian’s and my handful of raw nuts and seeds that I sprinkle with cinnamon and a little stevia by sweet leaf…and a sliced up cucumber as it is so great for hot weather and dehydration. I drink a bottle of water out of a metal container, (I don’t drink out of plastic anymore or at least as little as possible) and the simplicity of it is just right. This sounds like it takes a lot of time but I assure you that it doesn’t. It takes 45 minutes max and I can do it in 30 minutes too. I recommend that you don’t eat lunch in less than 30 minutes because it’s simply not good for you. This kind of time is so simple and it’s for me. It gives me a sense of peace and harmony that my life is not really designed to have but I MAKE IT HAPPEN anyway. I go against the grain and make sure that I come first in my life just by doing something that makes me smile like a solo picnic or an evening stroll during these super long light filled days. I don’t need entertainment or music I just need me, a great little meal whether a sandwich or a plain avocado and an apple just something that says I care about what goes in and I care that it is ingested in a setting that is nurturing to me. That is what makes my summer fun, like when I was a kid…I don’t have all day to play but the moments I take for a jaunt around the block or to go outside and sit up against a tree trunk and look up at the blue sky creating pictures in the cloud formations — that makes me happy. I always make a point of smelling the flowers in my neighborhood or if no flowers I’ll take a leaf of a tree and roll it around in my hand till I can smell something spicy and unique about it. I love nature and although I can’t be in Idaho where I grew up, all summer long and must bear the city, I find where the city serves my need for nature and I meet myself there. I know how to make the simplest things a joy for me to do and to see it through the light of when I was a kid and there is nothing more rewarding than that.

Here are some answers to some questions I was asked about this last month…

Green sauce will be in my new book, which is out in early 09. Green kitchen cookbook or you can log onto the food network and type in the show that I was on with Rachael Ray called the INSIDE DISH…

The cookies called BLISSCUITS will be in the market place early 09 along with the launch of my cookbook. And my cookbook is going to have easy and doable and delicious recipes. NOTHING complicated because I am not a chef… I am merely a cook who loves to make good easy food and I too don’t like to take a lot of time doing it.

About fruit…fruit is sugar in the system so unless you are not over weight and you exercise a lot see fruit as sugar and eat in moderation it is good for you because of it’s fiber content but fruit is sugar like table sugar is sugar and even carbs…so see it at a splurge if sugar is an issue in your diet. Also Juice is sugar, as my partner Dr. Ron Rosedale says if you juice throw out the juice and eat the fiber that comes out of the back end of your juicer as it is better for you. the juice is the extraction of sugar from the fruit. Drink juice sparingly. I personally see juice as a waste. I like eating to much and chewing and tasting are so much easier when you incorporate the whole fruit. Also in regard to Sultanas or raisins they are a dried fruit while again is high in sugar so use moderately. I like them in sauces or salads as a splash of flavor not as a full snack.

Peanut butter is not the best, there is a chemical in peanuts that can be toxic for some people so again I say if you love peanut butter eat it raw and organic and sparingly. And please be careful about eating airplane peanuts from bags or even the HOT ones they give out in first class they are filled with bad oil, too much salt and oftentimes there is MSG on them…not a good choice for flying and bloating YIKES.

The spice rack in my book, which was in my home was built into the kitchen. I am in a new house now and I miss that very much.

If you are coming to LA this summer and want to do yoga in Hollywood I would go to City Yoga or Yoga works in Larchmont both are excellent places to practice yoga.

My blender is called a VITAMIX…www.vitamix.com

One of the most important things you can do for your kids and getting them to eat well is to eat well yourself. If you model the right behavior and habits then you are doing them a huge service plus don’t make the “bad food” available to them…make it a once a day treat if you absolutely must. besides they get plenty of crap at school and friend’s home that is not good for them so I say eliminate the crap from your home. Eat the kind of food you want your kids to eat and they eventually have no choice and begin to have a taste for good food. Look, they are kids they will eat junk. just do what you can to limit it in their home environment. Make junk something you do once in a while…like only lucky charms with cartoons on a Saturday morning…WOW LUCKY CHARMS! I even ate those but my favorite was Captain Crunch but I could only eat it once a month because it was too sweet but I had to have my fix of being a regular kid…it just doesn’t have to be the norm. I think the issue of food and children is so critical in this country and the more attention you pay to modeling and training kids to eat real food the better off they will be in the future. the amount of diabetes in the US is getting out of control and kids are no stranger to that either…in fact childhood diabetes is still on a serious climb. We as adults must make the education of food a priority for their lives by making it a priority for our own.

Finally ON FAITH…I believe in faith. I believe that one must have faith to journey through our lives and try to find out who we are on a deep level. Sometimes as we try to be more conscious in our lives faith is what gets us to the next level…meaning that if we are growing spiritually and we don’t actually know what is ahead of us, we can make a schedule of events to follow but to truly grow on your path to faith is the key. You don’t know what is ahead only God knows that. You are guided by the Divine and faith is the only way to get through the unknown waters of your life. Faith gives you stability when you are confused, scared, worn out or impatient. I feel it is important to have faith when you try a new routine whether it be in the food you eat or in your relationships or even your exercise routine, having faith that what you are doing right now is serving you somehow and that the bigger picture of how it serves you is soon to be revealed. that is how faith plays a role.

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