Milkshakes and French fries on this road? Probably not, huh?

The JFP Road to Wellness came at a wacky time for Todd and me. It started the week we were closing the new BOOM Jackson, as well as the summer arts preview issue. And we were preparing for a long road trip for our bargain vacation. He and I have long suffered from workaholism—we don't go home soon enough, we eat late, we're often too tired to exercise by the time we leave the office. We are fortunate that years ago, we chose a more healthy lifestyle by going vegetarian (no meat, but we have dairy and some eggs), by converting to mostly organic choices, and by starting to walk, meditate and actually take weekend days off (I take off more than he does, but he's trying). So we have a good base for wellness. But it's our workaholism that tends to hurt us. When we do leave the office by 7, it's usually to attend an event around town -- many that we too often have what I call "little blocks of cheese" for dinner as we graze the party snacks.

But we are on the road to wellness, even if we're not traveling as fast as we need to be. I started walking in the mornings a year or two ago, and I had to improve some of my habits because I had developed fibroids, which I chose to manage with better habits rather than surgery (which worked sometimes better than others). These days, I'm feeling good because the problem has been in "remission," so to speak, for about four months, which helps my energy level immensely. That, in turn, helps me do the things I need to do to feel better. It's all circular. For instance, stress causes the fibroids to act up, and the acting-up stresses me out. So I've really had to practice some Zen habits to keep it in check.

I'm pleased to report that I have been eating a lot of fruit, which tends to be a weakness. I also like to make smoothies in the mornings with organic juice, fresh or frozen fruit, soy-rice milk (get the mixture at Rainbow), low-fat vanilla yogurt, soy protein powder and ground flax.

It's also been a challenge because we left last week on a road trip to the northeast for a wedding and to stay with friends for a cheap, delightful stay in New York City. Traveling usually brings out the worst in our habits -- and often by necessity, as sometimes milkshakes and fries have to be a meal for traveling vegetarians -- but we've managed to eat pretty healthy so far on the trip. We brought a lot of fruit and healthy bars (Luna, etc.), and we drink water constantly. We even stopped at a little health-food store in Virginia and then went to a Whole Foods in D.C. for the fixins for Todd's post-wedding quesadilla feast that he prepared for his tired family.

Here in Brooklyn, it's great to discover that everyone is into bikes and urban gardens. Our friends Amy and Karl are growing all sorts of delicious organic food in their private rooftop garden, which is also great to sit in and just breathe deeply -- something else I need to do often. And they have a great kitchen so we can prepare healthy snacks. The weather has been great (rainy today, though), so getting out and walking is a delight. We plan to do much more as the week goes on.

So far, so good, I suppose.

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