Thursday, May 28, 2009

Bits and Bites

We all gotta eat, right? And even though I am constantly watching what I eat and how much I cram in my mouth, I like to let go every now and then. Here’s one of those times where you can enjoy me at my face-stuffing best (or worst, depending on who you ask):

Artichoke Eatin’ (Mike at the 2009 Artichoke Festival)

The good news is most of those foods I scarfed down at the Artichoke Festival were pretty healthy, save for those fried artichokes. The burrito, stuffed with ‘chokes and peppers and cheese, was more nutritious than it looked. True, it was large and I was shoving huge amounts of it into my ravenous maw, but the stuff inside that monster was loaded with fiber and veggie protein. I had a great time and am in the process of putting together another video that takes you behind the scenes at the festival, showing how all the food was prepared. Stay tuned.

While you’re staying tuned, here’s another video showcasing my ability to cram food in my mouth:

Sometimes You Feel Like A Nut

One last video of me chewing food while talking, but one that has a healthy message:

Reward Your Weaknesses (By Turning Them Into Strengths)

Remember, we’re only human, we gotta eat. We all enjoy eating good foods, sometimes foods that we know are not the healthiest choices. The key is to give into your weakness at times, and then:

“Exercise control, control your weaknesses, and your weaknesses will become your strengths.”

Until next time…

peace,

Mike

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Summer Beauty Tips with Lanc=?UTF-8?B?w7Q=?=me's Tarek Abbas

Summer is finally here and that means it's time to update your look! Are you in need of a few makeup tips to kick-off the season? Lancôme National Makeup Artist Tarek Abbas is hosting one-on-one appointments at Nordstrom Chicago on 5/29 and 5/30. Space is limited so book your appointment now to get an inside look at the season's hottest beauty tips and how to create a flawless finish for summer.

Tarek has been creating glamorous looks throughout the years and has touched the faces of the most beautiful celebrities and models including Elettra Wiedemann, Juliette Binoche, Selena Breed, Eva Longoria, Goldie Hawn and many more. He is one of Lancôme's go-to makeup artists and has become Lancôme spokesmodel Arlenis Sosa's favorite artist. Tarek created Arlenis' fabulous look for the Met Ball this May.


Nordstrom Michigan Avenue on 5/29
10:00 am – 6:00 pm
55 East Grand Avenue, Chicago IL 60611
Number to book appointment: 312-464-1515 ext. 1427

10:00 am – 11:30 am – General appointments. There is a $50.00 reservation fee fully redeemable towards Lancôme products.

11:30 am – 1:30 pm – One-on-one appointments. There is a $100.00 reservation fee fully redeemable towards Lancôme products.

1:30 pm – 6:00 pm – General appointments. There is a $50.00 reservation fee fully redeemable towards Lancôme products.

Nordstrom in Oakbrook on 5/30
10:00 am – 6:00 pm
10 Oakbrook Mall, Oakbrook , IL 60521
Number to book appointment: 630-571-2121 ext. 1064

10:00 am – 12:00 pm – One-on-one appointments. There is a $100.00 reservation fee fully redeemable towards Lancôme products.

12:00 pm – 6:00 pm – General appointments. There is a $50.00 reservation fee fully redeemable towards Lancôme products.


MAC Naked Honey: Initial Thoughts, Swatches and Review

NOTE: For official images and product information, CLICK HERE.

Naked Honey is one of the usual mid-year, summer offerings of MAC that focuses on summer and all the good things that come with it. Naked Honey is all about highlighters, hand creams, body washes and moisturizers that celebrate nature’s gift from a most unlikely source: honey. It is well-known for being a humectant (captures moisture in the air and binds it to the skin) and a healer, both externally and internally. MAC takes advantage of the benefits of honey by creating body products based on this natural substance.

I am very interested in the Naked Honey Hand and Body Cream, described as “a sensuous cream made from bio-converted honey, shea butter, and vitamins C and E derivatives.” I am a huge fan of shea butter, so I really would like to try this out and see how the combination of shea butter and honey can help heal my dry skin. More than the hand and body cream, though, I am interested in the Skin Salve- “formulated from honey, beeswax, sunflower oil and other natural ingredients, this rich honey-scented and flavoured salve instantly moisturizes and helps recondition dry skin. Multi-purpose. Use everywhere.” I am glad to know that MAC is slowly getting into the natural bandwagon, especially in these environmentally conscious times.

Right now, though, I will be focusing on a few items from Naked Honey that I’ve tried: the Golden Nectar highlighting powder, Creme de Miel eyeshadow and Buzz lipgloss.

See swatches below the cut….


Golden Nectar is a muted gold tan highlighter with gold shimmer. It has an embossed honeycomb pattern that is jet-milled and has superfine, pearlized particles that create soft highlights on cheek, brow, shoulders, or anywhere on the body. The operative word in the description is “muted”. The glow is not at all like the mineralized skinfinishes. It has noticeably low sheen that is neither frosty nor metallic. In short, the glow is subtle but quite noticeable. People who prefer subtle highlights would love this product because it doesn’t give an in-your-face shimmer - just a nice, soft sheen that doesn’t look fake or greasy.

Creme de Miel is a gorgeous highlighter because I love yellow-white shades. Creme de Miel is a frosty light yellow gold that is very similar to Ricepaper. When you put these two side by side, Creme de Miel looks a tad darker, but swatched on the skin, the latter is lighter with more white undertones than Ricepaper. Since Ricepaper is a staple highlighter for me, Creme de Miel is a must in my book.

Buzz is a dark copper brown with multi-dimensional pearl. This is a unique color for me as I don’t have copper bronze lipglasses. It has definite red undertones and would go well with my golds, bronzes, yellows and browns. I love how it lights up the face as well.

I can’t give a full review until I check out the other items from this collection. Suffice it to say that as of now, I believe the highlight powders will be the winners in this collection, followed by Creme de Miel eyeshadow and the body products. The fragrances look promising as well. Watch out for Part II of this review.


MAC Naked Honey: Initial Thoughts, Swatches and Review

NOTE: For official images and product information, CLICK HERE.

Naked Honey is one of the usual mid-year, summer offerings of MAC that focuses on summer and all the good things that come with it. Naked Honey is all about highlighters, hand creams, body washes and moisturizers that celebrate nature’s gift from a most unlikely source: honey. It is well-known for being a humectant (captures moisture in the air and binds it to the skin) and a healer, both externally and internally. MAC takes advantage of the benefits of honey by creating body products based on this natural substance.

I am very interested in the Naked Honey Hand and Body Cream, described as “a sensuous cream made from bio-converted honey, shea butter, and vitamins C and E derivatives.” I am a huge fan of shea butter, so I really would like to try this out and see how the combination of shea butter and honey can help heal my dry skin. More than the hand and body cream, though, I am interested in the Skin Salve- “formulated from honey, beeswax, sunflower oil and other natural ingredients, this rich honey-scented and flavoured salve instantly moisturizes and helps recondition dry skin. Multi-purpose. Use everywhere.” I am glad to know that MAC is slowly getting into the natural bandwagon, especially in these environmentally conscious times.

Right now, though, I will be focusing on a few items from Naked Honey that I’ve tried: the Golden Nectar highlighting powder, Creme de Miel eyeshadow and Buzz lipgloss.

See swatches below the cut….


Golden Nectar is a muted gold tan highlighter with gold shimmer. It has an embossed honeycomb pattern that is jet-milled and has superfine, pearlized particles that create soft highlights on cheek, brow, shoulders, or anywhere on the body. The operative word in the description is “muted”. The glow is not at all like the mineralized skinfinishes. It has noticeably low sheen that is neither frosty nor metallic. In short, the glow is subtle but quite noticeable. People who prefer subtle highlights would love this product because it doesn’t give an in-your-face shimmer - just a nice, soft sheen that doesn’t look fake or greasy.

Creme de Miel is a gorgeous highlighter because I love yellow-white shades. Creme de Miel is a frosty light yellow gold that is very similar to Ricepaper. When you put these two side by side, Creme de Miel looks a tad darker, but swatched on the skin, the latter is lighter with more white undertones than Ricepaper. Since Ricepaper is a staple highlighter for me, Creme de Miel is a must in my book.

Buzz is a dark copper brown with multi-dimensional pearl. This is a unique color for me as I don’t have copper bronze lipglasses. It has definite red undertones and would go well with my golds, bronzes, yellows and browns. I love how it lights up the face as well.

I can’t give a full review until I check out the other items from this collection. Suffice it to say that as of now, I believe the highlight powders will be the winners in this collection, followed by Creme de Miel eyeshadow and the body products. The fragrances look promising as well. Watch out for Part II of this review.


What Eating Local Really Means

One of these things is not like the other…

Anna Wintour - Vogue magazine’s editrix-in-chief - made headlines earlier this month in an interview where she said, “I’d just been on a trip to Minnesota, where I can only kindly describe most of the people I saw as little houses.” In an bit of irony that says God loves Vogue as much as I do, Minneapolis/St. Paul was just named the second healthiest city in the nation, after Washington D.C. All jokes about The Devil Wears Cornbread aside, Ms. Wintour brings up an interesting point: the variability of food cultures, even within the same country. There is a huge coastal food divide in the US that nobody ever talks about.

California exports health & fitness advice like China exports lead-covered baby toys. And, most of the time, said advice is generalizable to the public at large. However, I sometimes think that all the personal trainers and health gurus forget that many of us don’t live in the land of eternal sunshine (A.K.A. the place where food actually grows on trees).

It’s not just that the tanned & toned ignore our inability to run outside in a -35 windstorm or the fact that the local grocery store thinks purslane is a new line of designer handbags made just for Target. It’s that they overlook the differences in the entire food culture.

The family that blowdrys together, stays together.

Coastal Culture vs. Midwest McDonalds
I moved to the Midwest from Seattle - a place where you can get organic produce at the farmer’s market year round and salmon right off the boat. (Oh and that nonsense about it raining all the time? Lies to keep all the rest of you from moving there. New York gets more rain than Seattle.) I never knew how good I had it until I moved out here and discovered tiny shrivelled apples on “sale” for $1.49/lb.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love it here. People on the street actually meet your eyes and say hi. And not even just tin-foil hatted homeless crazies! Normal people will talk to you in the check out lane. Teenagers hold doors open for grandmas. There’s a playground on every corner. And the local honeycrisp apples, when they are in season, are the closest thing to Apple Heaven I’ve ever come (even if they do still sell for $2.49/lb). But. If I were to follow the current food craze to “eat local”, it’d be snow cones and sausage six months out of the year.

In addition to the physical limitations, there is also a prevailing food culture here. I hesitate to bring it up lest I conjure perverse images of Fargo or America’s Next Top Model and thus blaspheme against my new and much-loved home but it is the simple truth. The PTA here opens the year with a beer-n-brat tent. Almost every birthday party my children are invited to is in a fast food establishment. All fish comes fried. HOTDISH (read: casserole based around Campbell’s Cream-o-whatever) is the regional delicacy and shows up at every function. The schools hand out Pizza Hut certificates for reading, McDonald’s Happy Meals for math, and Culver’s Custard (ice cream) for playing sports. And we have one of the highest rates of drunk driving in the country.

As much as we like to believe in a TV-homogenized America, there simply is a difference between the way people on the coasts and people in the middle think about food. Disclaimer: the one place I’ve never lived is in the South, so I can’t speak to their food culture but I have been told that it is very distinct and about as far from the Cali-sushi-veg aesthetic as you can get and still stay in our borders.

Why is it that we can accept that the French have their own way of eating and the Italians and the Swedes and yet fail to see and appreciate the differences in their own country? I expect that some of you will answer (or at least think) “Well, it’s because the Europeans are trim and healthy whereas somebody better put you Americans out to pasture before milking time.”

And yet, Minneapolis is the second healthiest city in the nation for the 4th year in a row! That’s right, somehow it all balances out - the vicious weather, the McDonald’s birthdays, the freaking hotdish. We exercise indoors. We take vitamin D tablets. We eat a lot of frozen fruits and veggies. (Bonus: you don’t even need an extra freezer here! Just throw it out your back door.) We make it work but it ain’t the California way.

Is Dad a clergyman? Or a postal worker?? And what does Junior have against Mom?

What To Do?
Now that my rant is over, what’s a produce-loving girl to do? Well for starters there is Local Harvest - a nation-wide community that puts consumers into direct contact with the local food providers. It may not get me strawberries in February but it definitely opened my eyes to what is available (homemade grass-fed goat cheese anyone?).

Try a CSA (community supported agriculture). I just signed up with one and I think I’m in love. The way it works is you buy a share of a local farmer’s crop before the season starts. The farmer then delivers a bushel basket full of picked-that-day seasonal produce to you every week. True you don’t get to pick what ends up in your basket but, hey, you needed a reason to branch out past broccoli and carrots, right? It can also be affordable. My experience with my CSA last year wasn’t great but I haven’t given up all hope yet!

Grow your own. Even in our 1000-sq ft condo in Seattle, we grew tomatoes and strawberries in large pots. Gardening is the new black! I know you think you have a black thumb - I do too - but you really can’t mess up radishes, spinach and squash. Plus, it’s good exercise. My husband and I just planted our garden for this year and while we planted lots of fun stuff (6 different varieties of tomatoes!), I’m keeping my expectations low. I consider our garden a raging success if we get a handful of cherry tomatoes and cucumber the size of a pickle.

Anyone else noticed this difference in food cultures? What makes your local food special? What challenges do you have to overcome?

For more painfully yet hilariously awkward family photos, check out AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com.

What Eating Local Really Means

One of these things is not like the other…

Anna Wintour - Vogue magazine’s editrix-in-chief - made headlines earlier this month in an interview where she said, “I’d just been on a trip to Minnesota, where I can only kindly describe most of the people I saw as little houses.” In an bit of irony that says God loves Vogue as much as I do, Minneapolis/St. Paul was just named the second healthiest city in the nation, after Washington D.C. All jokes about The Devil Wears Cornbread aside, Ms. Wintour brings up an interesting point: the variability of food cultures, even within the same country. There is a huge coastal food divide in the US that nobody ever talks about.

California exports health & fitness advice like China exports lead-covered baby toys. And, most of the time, said advice is generalizable to the public at large. However, I sometimes think that all the personal trainers and health gurus forget that many of us don’t live in the land of eternal sunshine (A.K.A. the place where food actually grows on trees).

It’s not just that the tanned & toned ignore our inability to run outside in a -35 windstorm or the fact that the local grocery store thinks purslane is a new line of designer handbags made just for Target. It’s that they overlook the differences in the entire food culture.

The family that blowdrys together, stays together.

Coastal Culture vs. Midwest McDonalds
I moved to the Midwest from Seattle - a place where you can get organic produce at the farmer’s market year round and salmon right off the boat. (Oh and that nonsense about it raining all the time? Lies to keep all the rest of you from moving there. New York gets more rain than Seattle.) I never knew how good I had it until I moved out here and discovered tiny shrivelled apples on “sale” for $1.49/lb.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love it here. People on the street actually meet your eyes and say hi. And not even just tin-foil hatted homeless crazies! Normal people will talk to you in the check out lane. Teenagers hold doors open for grandmas. There’s a playground on every corner. And the local honeycrisp apples, when they are in season, are the closest thing to Apple Heaven I’ve ever come (even if they do still sell for $2.49/lb). But. If I were to follow the current food craze to “eat local”, it’d be snow cones and sausage six months out of the year.

In addition to the physical limitations, there is also a prevailing food culture here. I hesitate to bring it up lest I conjure perverse images of Fargo or America’s Next Top Model and thus blaspheme against my new and much-loved home but it is the simple truth. The PTA here opens the year with a beer-n-brat tent. Almost every birthday party my children are invited to is in a fast food establishment. All fish comes fried. HOTDISH (read: casserole based around Campbell’s Cream-o-whatever) is the regional delicacy and shows up at every function. The schools hand out Pizza Hut certificates for reading, McDonald’s Happy Meals for math, and Culver’s Custard (ice cream) for playing sports. And we have one of the highest rates of drunk driving in the country.

As much as we like to believe in a TV-homogenized America, there simply is a difference between the way people on the coasts and people in the middle think about food. Disclaimer: the one place I’ve never lived is in the South, so I can’t speak to their food culture but I have been told that it is very distinct and about as far from the Cali-sushi-veg aesthetic as you can get and still stay in our borders.

Why is it that we can accept that the French have their own way of eating and the Italians and the Swedes and yet fail to see and appreciate the differences in their own country? I expect that some of you will answer (or at least think) “Well, it’s because the Europeans are trim and healthy whereas somebody better put you Americans out to pasture before milking time.”

And yet, Minneapolis is the second healthiest city in the nation for the 4th year in a row! That’s right, somehow it all balances out - the vicious weather, the McDonald’s birthdays, the freaking hotdish. We exercise indoors. We take vitamin D tablets. We eat a lot of frozen fruits and veggies. (Bonus: you don’t even need an extra freezer here! Just throw it out your back door.) We make it work but it ain’t the California way.

Is Dad a clergyman? Or a postal worker?? And what does Junior have against Mom?

What To Do?
Now that my rant is over, what’s a produce-loving girl to do? Well for starters there is Local Harvest - a nation-wide community that puts consumers into direct contact with the local food providers. It may not get me strawberries in February but it definitely opened my eyes to what is available (homemade grass-fed goat cheese anyone?).

Try a CSA (community supported agriculture). I just signed up with one and I think I’m in love. The way it works is you buy a share of a local farmer’s crop before the season starts. The farmer then delivers a bushel basket full of picked-that-day seasonal produce to you every week. True you don’t get to pick what ends up in your basket but, hey, you needed a reason to branch out past broccoli and carrots, right? It can also be affordable. My experience with my CSA last year wasn’t great but I haven’t given up all hope yet!

Grow your own. Even in our 1000-sq ft condo in Seattle, we grew tomatoes and strawberries in large pots. Gardening is the new black! I know you think you have a black thumb - I do too - but you really can’t mess up radishes, spinach and squash. Plus, it’s good exercise. My husband and I just planted our garden for this year and while we planted lots of fun stuff (6 different varieties of tomatoes!), I’m keeping my expectations low. I consider our garden a raging success if we get a handful of cherry tomatoes and cucumber the size of a pickle.

Anyone else noticed this difference in food cultures? What makes your local food special? What challenges do you have to overcome?

For more painfully yet hilariously awkward family photos, check out AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com.

The Top 10 Best-Skin Cities



TotalBeauty.com
The Top 10 Best-Skin Cities

These towns all have perfect conditions for smooth, clear, wrinkle-free skin

In a perfect world, we’d all have flawless-looking skin. In reality, few of us are that lucky. However, some of you are fortunate enough to live where the conditions are ideal for skin. We looked at pollution levels, amount of sunshine, tanning beds per capita, humidity, number of smokers, stress, diet and more to find the places best suited for your skin. Check them out, maybe it’s time to relocate?

See cities


Summer Beauty Tips with Lanc=?UTF-8?B?w7Q=?=me's Tarek Abbas

Summer is finally here and that means it's time to update your look! Are you in need of a few makeup tips to kick-off the season? Lancôme National Makeup Artist Tarek Abbas is hosting one-on-one appointments at Nordstrom Chicago on 5/29 and 5/30. Space is limited so book your appointment now to get an inside look at the season's hottest beauty tips and how to create a flawless finish for summer.

Tarek has been creating glamorous looks throughout the years and has touched the faces of the most beautiful celebrities and models including Elettra Wiedemann, Juliette Binoche, Selena Breed, Eva Longoria, Goldie Hawn and many more. He is one of Lancôme's go-to makeup artists and has become Lancôme spokesmodel Arlenis Sosa's favorite artist. Tarek created Arlenis' fabulous look for the Met Ball this May.


Nordstrom Michigan Avenue on 5/29
10:00 am – 6:00 pm
55 East Grand Avenue, Chicago IL 60611
Number to book appointment: 312-464-1515 ext. 1427

10:00 am – 11:30 am – General appointments. There is a $50.00 reservation fee fully redeemable towards Lancôme products.

11:30 am – 1:30 pm – One-on-one appointments. There is a $100.00 reservation fee fully redeemable towards Lancôme products.

1:30 pm – 6:00 pm – General appointments. There is a $50.00 reservation fee fully redeemable towards Lancôme products.

Nordstrom in Oakbrook on 5/30
10:00 am – 6:00 pm
10 Oakbrook Mall, Oakbrook , IL 60521
Number to book appointment: 630-571-2121 ext. 1064

10:00 am – 12:00 pm – One-on-one appointments. There is a $100.00 reservation fee fully redeemable towards Lancôme products.

12:00 pm – 6:00 pm – General appointments. There is a $50.00 reservation fee fully redeemable towards Lancôme products.


The Top 10 Best-Skin Cities



TotalBeauty.com
The Top 10 Best-Skin Cities

These towns all have perfect conditions for smooth, clear, wrinkle-free skin

In a perfect world, we’d all have flawless-looking skin. In reality, few of us are that lucky. However, some of you are fortunate enough to live where the conditions are ideal for skin. We looked at pollution levels, amount of sunshine, tanning beds per capita, humidity, number of smokers, stress, diet and more to find the places best suited for your skin. Check them out, maybe it’s time to relocate?

See cities