First, your readers are awesome!!!!! It was great to see so many responses to my Worst, Better, Best post! The more I think about it, the more I know that focusing on living a less toxic life for 1 month is going to be worth the effort!

A few questions that came out of the post that I wanted to answer:

• She did not talk about deodorant,but I am willing to bet deodorant with aluminum is in the “worst” group! Anyone have an alternative that actually works!
• She spoke a lot about green juicebecause she is quite passionate about it and even has a book about it (which I won!). She explained that it’s not that green juice has caffeine, it’s that the goodness from all the nutrients gives you an energy that caffeine cannot.
• And about coffee, she only spoke to its acidity, not other health claims related to it. She did mention that if you are going to drink coffee, get organic because of all the chemicals sprayed on the beans.
• Everyone has an agenda. I completely understand skepticism about Dr. Ginger’s ideas (her new book reference above), which is why I want to take the time to try to weed through and learn for myself. Like many people said, sometimes the more you know, the more confusing it gets. I think that’s because you can find a study or article supporting any health claim!

And on an interestingly related note, my Girl Crush on Jillian Michaelswas confirmed today when I finally listened to her podcasts that I learned about from Maggie. I listened to bits of a few episodes and she is so fun and down to earth. I mean I was always impressed with her skills on The Biggest Loser, but now I want to be her friend and realize that she is probably just as annoyed about some of the things they make her do on the show.

Anyway, there were so many good discussions, but in this episode (4/20/09) she talks about two cool things. First, she talks about the part of her book, Master Your Metabolism: The 3 Diet Secrets to Naturally Balancing Your Hormones for a Hot and Healthy Body, about how chemicals in plastics and products we use affect our health and metabolism. Quite fitting, no?

She also talked about her food issues,which I had no idea existed! She talked about her problem with using food as a reward and some of the other things she needs to work on herself. I was shocked! I thought Jillian was perfect, but I guess no one is! Anyway, the best part was that she said that thinking of food solely as food is not entirely realistic because food is for enjoyment as well.That was music to my ears! I know the purpose of food is to fuel me, but I just love it so much! It was great to hear someone I truly think is healthy and fantastic echo my sentiments!

I don’t have many interesting pictures today! I spent most of the day walking around NYC to pick up my race bib and T-shirt.I was supposed to go to the gym for some ellipticizing, but I think I walked 6 or 7 miles today! I picked up my stuff in this fancy schmancy location on the Upper East Side.

For dinner, I had a big salad with my broccoli and Dijon mustard obsession & a Sunshine Burger.

I also did my fair share of carbo-loading in the form of two sweet treats. A small brownie and a big piece of Veggie Girl’s Caramel Banana Bread.

I have to go watch all the extras on the Firefly DVD before I can watch Serenity, so I must be going. Night!