YES, WE GOT THE BECKWITH RAW CATERING JOB!!!

Hiya Folks,

Yay! We had the conference call this morning with Rachel, the woman in charge of the event, and were very pleased to have been selected as the caterers for the Michael Beckwith event in Philadelphia on Friday, Sept 18th, 2009! Yay, yay, yay!!!

Here is the link to the info for the event! http://commonground.eventbrite.com/

Susan and I call ourselves "MOSTLY RAW CATERING with Chefs Michelle and Susan." We'll soon be having a tasting party at Arnolds Way to road-test our recipes for the event, write down recipes, and hopefully get the THUMBS UP on all of the dishes from everyone!!!

Perhaps we'll even write up the recipes and make a little ebook to sell at Arnolds Way! We've been wanting to write a recipe book together.

Have I ever told you about Susan?? She is SO amazing. She is a Registered Nurse. And now a raw foodist. She lost a tumor on her back, and 50 lbs. She's a former model with Ford and Elite in NYC!!! She is such a natural beauty inside and out. I LOVE Susan. She also has a great palet (great taste buds) and knows what tastes good. She's also a great business woman. Susan runs raw healing classes in her home and these have become so successful. If you'd like to contact Susan, here is her email: susanaman@comcast.net

Anyway, after much deliberation, Rachel finally chose the menu for the event, so this will be our menu for the Test Dinner soon at Arnolds Way. We'll have a date and details soon if you'd like to come!

The menu is almost totally raw with the exception of one or two dishes, a cooked bean salad Susan makes that I am told is soooo delish, and the hummus may be of the cooked variety as well (using cooked garbanzo beans and roasted sesame seed tahini). We thought it might be nice to have a few selections for people who might be allergic to nuts. We are told Micheal eats mostly raw food, but also eats some cooked vegan selections so such a menu will be fine. We'll decide soon if the Hummus will be raw or not....

MENU FOR VIP RECEPTION WITH MICHEAL BECKWITH

• Hibiscus Iced Tea, accented with fresh citrus slices and mint
• Creamy Ginger Garlic Broccoli Salad (raw)
• Black Bean, Wild Rice and Spring Vegetable Salad (not raw)
• Crisp Vegetable Crudite with Tri-color Raw Hummus: Lemon, Spicy Red Pepper and Spinach (raw veggies, hummus may not be raw, not determined yet)
• Veggie Cabbage Rolls with Spicy Thai Dipping Sauce (raw)
• Mini Southwestern Chili Nutmeat Collard Wraps (raw)
• Toona Celery Boats (raw)
• Pesto Peetza (raw)
• Herb Walnut Pate Stuffed Baby Bellas (raw)
• Key Lime Parfaits with Vanilla Kreme (raw)
• Assorted Dessert Platter: Pistachio/Walnut/Honey 'Baklava' Stuffed Dates; Vanilla Kreme Stuffed Dates in lemon, cacao nib, coconut and cinnamon; Chocolate Bliss Balls
• Fresh Strawberries dipped in Chocolate Kreme

I'm excited about the event and am excited to make the trial dinner soon!

If you are local, please attend the tasting dinner....and the Beckwith event!!

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STRESS/FAT
Work was stressful for me today. I didn't do that great with the food. Not awful. But, not that great. I had a strawberry kreme shake for breakfast, a nori veggie wrap as a snack, a toona wrap as a snack, an avocado nori wrap as a snack. Lots of snacks. I had a chocolate raw vegan cashew based icecream, no green smoothies, only 2 peices of raw bread, some more toona.

I didn't realize that when i overdo fat, like i do, i'm trying to calm myself.

Here I thought i was so on top of my emotions. I'm not. I'm self-medicating.

No wonder i haven't had much success moving forward with my weight loss when i get into the fat....

I WAS able to finally lose on the 80-10-10 diet. And i was in control of food then.

It's starting to feel like this whole attempt to legalize gourmet for me is...not really working.

I turn to fat when i'm stressed, and i've been stressed. When i start to eat fat, i crave fat.

I've gained those 10 lbs since i've been stressed the past few weeks. This morning i weighed in at 259 and i was happy with that. At least i broke 260. My lowest weight on this blog has been 249.

On 80-10-10, the fat is so low, you don't really get a taste for it, and coping with food is a cinch. No compulsions. No out of control eating episodes. The weight just drops OFF of you.

I did notice when i did 80-10-10, i was forced to deal with my emotions instead of stuff them. I often suffered mini panic attacks, and i'd have to breath deeply, count, and just overcome it.

Eating the fat, i don't get panicy. I just feel attracted to food, constantly, and then feel really bad physically afterwards.

Us folks with eating disorders have a way of focusing on bad physical feelings as distractions to dealing with our emotions. If i feel badly about having overeaten or feel tired, i don't have to actually FEEL what's really disturbing me. It helps us deny and switch the focus.

80-10-10 is sooooooo pure. Could i really do that for the rest of my life??? When i was on it, i certainly enjoyed it alot. And enjoyed losing weight. Yet, i have such a feeling of melancholy that comes over me thinking of giving up gourmet...forever.

My dear friend, Talia, sent me a very thought provoking video of Dr. Douglas Graham, the founder of the 80-10-10 diet speaking about how fat and gourmet raw numb the emotions. I guess everyone will be walking around like zombies at the Beckwith event!!!!! They'll all be feeling...real good!

No wonder I grab for the raw bread and nutspreads when i am under stress. Flax seeds and olive oil and nuts.

The do rob me of physical energy. And i suppose if they block energy in the physical realm, they must be blocking energy of the emotional realm. Making food in a busy kitchen is a stressful thing. I calm myself.

Dr. Graham is such a kind of unlikeable annoying kind of guy probably because he has no fat numbing his miserable personality. HAHA. Sad, but true. I don't particularly like Dr. Graham's personality, and found some personal contact with him lacking in feeling, but the video had a very big impact on me. I thought of it many times today.

If you'd like to watch the video, this website seems to be a wonderful resource - just scroll down and enjoy!: http://shealynnbaird.wordpress.com/

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Yet, there are those in the raw world that seem to have it all. Angela Stokes indulges in gourmet sporatically, but doesn't seem to beat herself up when she does. In fact, she revels in it. Yet never overdoes it. My friend, Dustin Kellogg, www.hundredthmonkeyeffect.net has lost a HUGE amount of weight and eats gourmet daily. His wife is THE MOST GIFTED RAW CHEF I KNOW. www.therawseed.com Meredith makes incredible foods and Dustin gets skinnier and skinner. Tim Arnold has lost 140 lbs in less than a year eating gourmet daily. He even chews on himalayan rock salt all day.

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So, there. And then there's me. Gourmet is so yummy. But i have such poor eating habits. And a binge eating disorder. So, what's the answer for me??? I've been trying to determine that!!!

I'm sure I'll eventually figure it out. And until then, i'll just keep truckin'.

I sure would like to have it all. To learn to be in control with gourmet raw. To lose weight. It's something that would need ALOT of focus. Alot of focusing in on hunger. Eating small portions. Exercising.

After the Beckwith event and the opera, things will look clearer.

Thanks for being here for me.

Enjoy your day, lovelies!

xoxox michelle joy