Category Archives: My favorite things

Healthy Living, My favorite things

Why I love selling tahini

Something you may not know about me: at night I moonlight as a tahini saleswoman.

Okay, that’s a gross exaggeration. But I have now helped out the fabulous women at Soom Foods sell their products on two occasions, and both times I have had a blast. I like to help them for a few reasons:

  1. Soom Foods was founded by three sisters, one of whom is my former boss, mentor, and dear friend, and consequently have grown to love the other Soom sisters.
  2. I truly believe it’s the best tahini you can buy in the USA.
  3. It aligns with my values of healthy, clean eating (if you don’t know, tahini is made from sesame seeds, a super food with wonderful health properties such as lots of protein, calcium, iron, and omega 3-fatty acids).

And their product sells itself, because it’s that good. It’s healthy, delicious, and inarguably something you need to have in your pantry if you are dedicated to that lifestyle.

Today it became obvious to me the reason why I love helping them selling their products:

You stop “selling,” and start inspiring, when you are selling something you believe in.

This sentiment extends well beyond the sale of tahini. It extends into the work we do and the things we love. Work no longer acts as “work” when it’s something you love, something you believe in. When you are working for a product, service, organization, or otherwise that you must share it with other people, that it beings you joy or excitement to spread the gospel, and that you genuinely believe in, things are different.

Let’s work towards finding that thing. Because time is precious, and your talents are not worth spending on anything that is otherwise.

 

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General troublemaking, Healthy Living, My favorite things

Returning to Local

One of the more disappointing first-world moments of my life was when I asked a person in Switzerland what their best and most famous chocolate was, and he said Lindt. “LINDT?!,” I thought, “the one that I get at CVS back in New York?” Unfortunately, that was one of my many rude awakenings as a travel seeking to experience the best of “local” life. I am fortunate to live in a city where I have access to the world at my fingertips, but it makes traveling sometimes quite the bummer. Lately it seems that as the world grows more connected, the less we are able to really appreciate the novelty of traveling to a new place, experiencing a new culture, and tasting a type of food we’ve never tasted before.

I find it interesting that after years of globalization, at the all time high (and perpetually growing) level of global connectedness, many are now seeing a shift back to the importance of shopping and eating local. People are interested in knowing the source of their produce and proteins. Many people care about where the fabric for our clothes came from, and who made it. Websites such as madeclose focus on just that— helping individuals gain access to where their purchases are coming from. The new CUPS app here in NY aims to have New Yorkers frequent small, independent coffee shops, shifting the focus away from ever-present Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts. Grub Street wrote a fabulous article a few months ago about why you should not eat at the new Dairy Queen that just opened in NYC. My friend Kristin of Seamly.co just made the decision to only source fabrics made in the USA or Canada so that she can trace back their origins.

With the world becoming increasingly transparent, it is important to many people, including some of the worlds most dominant troublemakers, to buy local and understand the ecosystem our food, clothing, and the like exist in. We no longer have the luxury (excuse?) of ignorance. It’s something I aim to be consistently cognizant of– stay tuned to learn more about my sustainable fashion challenge– and I am curious to hear what you have to say.

Do you go out of your way to support local businesses? If not, is there something in particular that is stopping you?

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General troublemaking, My favorite things

Feeling Whole

Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans
When that’s where you left your heart?

Is there a place in the world that makes you feel whole? A place that when you are there things just feel right, you smile, and you just know that on some level that’s where you are meant to be?

I spent last week in New Orleans, a city that will always have a piece of my heart. After living there for my college years, including living through Hurricane Katrina (though quite fortunately in a very safe way), I can say with confidence that is truly one of the few places in the world I feel at home. Jazz permeates society, the food is superb, the people are friendly, and every day life is appreciated, which is quite different from New York City living. I feel light when I am in New Orleans. Anyone who has spent a significant amount of time in NOLA knows there’s a lagniappe (Louisiana French creole for “something special”) that exists in there, a lagniappe which lives in you long past the time you spend in the city.
For me, it’s important to incorporate the lagniappe of New Orleans, the feeling of lightness and friendliness, and the overall jazz into my every day life, even back in bustling New York. That’s the way I’d love to live.  So I am working on channeling New Orleans into my New York life (which, for now, includes a lot of NOLA artwork in my apartment!).
 What places, activities, jobs, or projects make you feel whole? How can we focus on things that fill us up versus things that wear us down? That’s where the magic happens. Those are the spaces in which we can start taking on the world.
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