Phil's Home Journal

I'm trying to do more writing now that summer is upon us so here's a little excerpt from my War Journal er Food Journal same thing as far as I'm concerned.

Friday: I didn't have time to prepare a salad for school so I went to Organic Forever (2053 Frederick Douglass Boulevard, NYC) and had a little of the sprouted brown rice, chick pea salad (w potato and spinach) and steamed veggies with a veggies black bean chipotle burger on sprouted wheat bread w/ sprouts and lettuce and tomato.

there was a baby shower for the Assistant Principal of the school and I contributed to her gift but originally didn't want to go to the party because "there's gonna be a lot of food there so I should avoid it" luckily I thought better of it and came in and hung out. It was completely decorated in a checkerboard motif, flags and tablecloths (that's always an indication to me something is approved by the universe) I had fun, spoke to people. I felt a part of. We shouted "surprise!" I had some water with ice and when the food started getting doled out it was time for me to cover a class. so I bid the guest of honor a hearty farewell and was out. and I felt good.

I was at MNN working behind the scenes on "Something To Offer" i did my best. I did audio, character generation and some camerawork. I felt good about it. Reminder to take that final cut class this summer!

Her first guests were Jeremy Taylor (Step Up!) and Richard Speziale (DVTV) who were the Director and Editor of Burma: An indictment I highly encourage everybody to check the documentary and go to the website: FreeBurmaAlliance.org

In contrast to the starving in Burma, the hallway s of MNN had every single tempting food laid out for me in mass quantities, junk food, munchies, candies I liked, even bunches of apples and bananas, grapes. The second show had as guest, Joyce White made a great salad but with big healthy slabs of chicken. I had to calm down and relax I was scheduled to eat later and i gotta stick to the plan. never deviate from the plan.

For dinner I went to my absolute favorite restaurant Empire Schezuan Kyoto, I had my normal design your own dish: steamed vegetables (broccoli, spinach and green beans) with tofu, cashews and brown rice with black bean sauce on the side. I had a nice conversation with two eighth grade boys who engaged me in conversation during dinner over the book I was reading (Napoleon Hills Laws of Success) over 1000 pages! We discussed literature summer reading plans and artistic pursuits. they were sharp and will go far in life. it gave me optimism for the future of youth.


Saturdays food:
Breakfast: 1oz shredded wheat, 1oz raisins, .5oz milled flaxseeds, 1 banana, 8oz unsweetened soymilk

Snax: Granny smith apples

Lunch: steamed vegetables and tofu with cashew nuts, brown rice and black bean sauce on the side.

Dinnr: if I go to a diner I will have a veggie burger on whole wheat bread with lettuce and tomato, pickle and baked potato (if they offer a salad or steamed vegetable, that too.) If not I will go home and have my regular home meal of salad with cucumber, 4 color peppers, tomatoes, radish, alfalfa sprouts, capers, balsamic and olive oil. Perhaps some quinoa with beans and tofu, 1 baked yam, 2 slices of wheat bread and if I'm feeling crazy a lil steamed kale.

Mercury Rising

Safe among the vegetation: Jason Trachtenburg from the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players and the Pendulum Swings strikes a pose with me and my Mercury t-shirt at the 4th street Food Co op.


For the past couple of years I had cut out all meat except for fish. this was going well i was feeling healthy (with the exception of a strange lung thing that wasn't going away and and an itchy feeling all over that my doctors could not find the origins of or proof I was even feeling this.) was I going nuts? then it dawned on me puritis is a symptom of mercury poisoning so is insane thinking. so I got tested. I got a phone call from my doctor while i was on my way to buy more white albacore tuna in water for i only had 7 cans left an was in constant fear of running out (insane thinking) He asked how much fish do you eat. I said 7-12 servings a week over about a year. He asked if I could pare it down to 2 times a week and not eat tuna. (I was still trying to figure out ways I could sneak in some tuna into my diet until I realized that was insane thinking) .5 nanoliters of mercury in your blood is ok I had a whopping 29nl in my blood I received a letter from the Department of Health and spoke to the person in charge of Mercury. They also have one for Lead and other elements he informed me. He said when I got tested, anybody who hits over a 25nl of mercury on their blood sets off a red flag and he interviewed me to see if I had been exposed to anything like neon lights and other things. i told him how much fish I ate and he ran down a list of what I was not to eat

HIGH MERCURY Eat three servings or less per month:
Bluefish, Grouper, Mackerel (Spanish, Gulf), Sea Bass (Chilean) Ive had it, Tuna (Canned Albacore) a staple to my eating, Tuna (Yellowfin) no more sushi!,

HIGHEST MERCURY Avoid eating:
Mackerel (King) holy mackerel!, Marlin, Orange Roughy, Shark (I had it in Hawaii), Swordfish (I had it twice), Tilefish, Tuna (constantly)

this list can be found http://www.nrdc.org/health/effects/mercury/guide.asp plus a list of fish you can eat (Wild caught salmon is ok farm ones has PCBs) but considering the current oil situation maybe I will stick to advice from Jason Trachtenburg of the 4th street food co op. (open to the public) and roll cruelty free. Here is a list of top 10 vegetarian protein sources. http://www.womenfitness.net/protien-option.htm

Personally, I enjoy quinoa (Inca red or plain) with beans is considered a complete protein.

Incidentally when I stopped messing with the mercury laden items, the itching and lung thing both went away. the insane thinking is still up for debate.