Archive for the ‘Gluten-free living’ Category
Friday, August 22nd, 2014
By Mary Duggan
Today is our summer intern Talie’s last day with the Sisters and Clare is baking a low-sugar/gluten-free coconut and almond cake to mark the occasion. Oh yeah, our Talie is a lucky girl. We do things up big here at the deodorant factory.
If I remember college at all, I know about six weeks into dorm food Talie will be remembering this healthy treat fondly.
Talie has been a tremendous help to us and has balanced the fine art of packages out the door, with data bank updates and Quick Books input. No matter the strange summer weather, she has carried sunshine in the door each and every morning with her sweet and gentle nature. She is the product of what used to be known as “good home training.” Does anyone even call it that anymore? Those intangibles of yes, please and no, thank you and so much more. She is opinionated and well-spoken and a credit to the superb school she has attended. It’s no surprise that Sarah Lawrence has snagged her for their graduating class of 2018. (more…)
Tags: #RedEyeRemix, Amy Guth, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Sarah Lawrence College, WGN Radio
Posted in Clean & Green Living, Eating with the Sisters, Gluten-free living, Holistic Health & Healing, Life at the Rose Cottage, LifeStinks® deodorant, Women in Business | No Comments »
Thursday, August 21st, 2014
By Mary Duggan
I know you are sick to tears hearing about my new anti-inflammatory diet. But please, bear with me. This is not a tale of me having to let go of my beloved snack – popcorn – but just for awhile. This is a simple and heartfelt congratulations to a fellow Chicagoland start-up.
But first, in addition to sharing with you that I have a leaky gut, I also have to confess another trait- I have a jealous heart. I watch all the rapid-fire growth and big investors and IPOs happening daily in the tech community here and I think, what are we doing wrong with our tortoise of an enterprise? It’s true, I covet their collective success. And I begrudge their youth and all the press they get. I resent their communal digs in the Merchandise Mart and I know its wrong to do so. My sisters always tell me so. But I am not jealous of Skinny Pop.
Yesterday’s Chicago Tribune reported the big news that Skinny Pop, creators of the amazing healthy alternative to Chicago’s famed Garrett’s Popcorn, has garnered big investment bucks. Already in more than 25,000 locations, this can only mean big growth for this special organization. But why you are reading about this in a Duggan Sister blog post? Because the Sisters love enchanting businesses and Skinny Pop has so enchanted us. Here’s the brief back story. (more…)
Tags: enchantment, Entrepreneurs, Guy Kawasaki
Posted in Clean & Green Living, Eating with the Sisters, Gluten-free living, Women in Business | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, August 20th, 2014
By Mary Duggan
Robin William’s death from suicide was announced the morning following my big brain meltdown. One of the dearest hearts and most amazing brains had come undone and the loss left me shaking my fist at the talking heads and the grieving friends and colleagues. It is not, I raged, that suicide needs to be viewed with compassion because it is an expression of mental illness. It is because, I screamed to my tiny little forum of two sisters, it is the final and fatal expression of a sick brain improperly treated by a medical community that just doesn’t get it. It is a brain disease – not a mental illness – and it will continue until we move beyond the psychotropic inadequacies of the pharmaceutical industry and re-connect our brains to our bodies and feed them. (more…)
Posted in Clean & Green Living, Eating with the Sisters, Gluten-free living, Life at the Rose Cottage, Raw & Living Foods, Truth Telling | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 19th, 2014
By Mary Duggan
I was 48 hours from the Grand Finale of our Summer Boot Camp – the rigorous Candida Cleanse Diet that had been the centerpiece of our summer experience. Yet I was anything but looking forward to the easing up of the very real discipline we’d adhered to for the last 90 days.
I was not eagerly anticipating what treat would cycle back into our restricted food lives; maybe Clare would approve apricots or peaches being added to our small daily portion of blueberries. Maybe we could really splurge with a gluten-free hard cider. Maybe we could go completely nuts and enjoy some bean soup! I wasn’t the least bit excited about swallowing fewer yeast-and-parasite-killing pills, drinking fewer than the requisite 7 cups of Red Clover and Pau d’Arco tea daily, or finally being able to whiten my tea-stained teeth. I wasn’t proud that each sister was down a clothing size, that we had adhered closely and successfully to a rigorous discipline, or collectively dropped some sixty pounds. Instead I was so deep into one of the scariest brain meltdowns I have ever experienced that all I could do was hold on to the walls of the pit I had fallen into and watch as my sisters reached deep down to pull me out.
Is this really how we ask for prayer in our brave new world? Yep.
I was in too much pain to pray for a remedy. So Clare reached out in my stead and requested prayers from facebook family and friends for “a very special intention” – ME. I finally had the good sense as Day 3 of the meltdown loomed ahead of me to crawl into a bed, do my umpteenth round of self-healing Reiki and surrender – while Clare’s prayer warriors prayed for her “special intention” who BTW was feeling anything but special. Unlike my slimmer, healthier, happier sisters, all I could think was that the cleanse had wrecked me. Despite my absolute best efforts, I had failed boot camp. (more…)
Posted in Clean & Green Living, Eating with the Sisters, Gluten-free living, Holistic Health & Healing, Life at the Rose Cottage, Raw & Living Foods | No Comments »
Friday, August 8th, 2014
By Mary Duggan
The summer of 2014 has been distinguished by two forces intersecting. First, we are doing a very significant Candida Dietary Cleanse to address our collective health woes. And secondly, but in no way less importantly, right smack dab in the middle of our huge health endeavor, our dear friend Kathy dies oh-so-unexpectedly from cancer. Those two points of convergence are keeping me awake nights lately as I try to make sense of it all. Yes, I am grieving – terribly. And yes, I am cleansing. And so I have staggered through the painful process without so much as a soothing glass of wine, a coma-inducing brownie, or a gluten-free pizza devoured somewhere in between. I have faced it all stone cold sober- no dairy, no booze, no sugar, no nothin. And it hasn’t been easy.
Through it all work has remained as consuming and demanding as ever. Finally late last week we put on the brakes and made a decision to take some quiet time for ourselves. We added a Friday to the weekend, and made a conscious decision to rest for 3 days. And for the sisters that always means one thing; first and foremost – get me to the chiropractor. Ours is a Master Adjuster who combines a degree in Naprapathic with gentle, precise and skillful Chiropractic adjustments, including cranial sacral, delivered as we lay atop a far infrared pad that is infused with healing amethyst crystals. That kind of doctor. (more…)
Posted in Clean & Green Living, Eating with the Sisters, Gluten-free living, Holistic Health & Healing, Life at the Rose Cottage, LifeStinks® deodorant | No Comments »
Friday, June 6th, 2014
By Mary Duggan
BOOT ‘EM TO THE CURB CAMP is our top priority this summer. How about you? Would you like to join in? Have you considered the possibility that parasites might be the cause of your appetite and bloating? Are you consistently feeding more than just you? Do you have an actual diagnosis of an auto-immune disorder that is leaving you feeling exhausted, in pain, infertile and afraid of a dismal future? Is Candida Albicans rearing its ugly head – AGAIN!? Didn’t we all clear that years ago? Is inflammatory “itis” of any and every variety (colitis, bursitis, tendonitis, arthritis, etc.) leaving you feeling old and more and more limited in what you have the energy to do? Welcome to the club and join in on the fun. (more…)
Posted in Book Suggestions, Clean & Green Living, Eating with the Sisters, Gluten-free living, Holistic Health & Healing, Life at the Rose Cottage, Raw & Living Foods | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, May 14th, 2014
by Mary Duggan
I think shut and up are the two ugliest words in the language – any language – when they are used together. Afforded an opportunity to speak up, I perk up, or so I thought. That is until recent developments found me standing shell-shocked in the middle of some sort of open-talk-portal. Requests to speak began to present themselves so quickly that I found myself scrambling to determine what exactly it is I have to share. Radio, TV, print media – even, God forbid, reality TV have all come a calling. It has all been a bit much. A blessing and if not a curse, then at least a curiosity. (more…)
Posted in Gluten-free living, Life at the Rose Cottage, LifeStinks® deodorant, Lifetinks® in the Blogosphere, Women in Business | 3 Comments »
Friday, April 11th, 2014
by Mary Duggan
Let’s start with the complaining. When the request came in for an on-air interview from WGN Radio at midnight I immediately went to that place of ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I haven’t been awake and coherent at midnight for years. But the girls, as they are so often called upon to do, did an intervention with me. Translation: they explained RedEye Remix to me and gave me some background on hostess Amy Guth: social media professional, novelist, journalist, funny person, pop culture mover and shaker. I stopped them there. I reminded them that I am technically in adrenal distress (per an actual physician) and should always be in bed when the streetlights go on and then I relented and said, let’s go for it. Thank God for that or I would have missed out on some really big fun. Hence this post and my message for the day. We have to make sure that little girls know how fun work really is – at least some of the time – when you get really lucky and the warm and funny and smart people reach out to you.
Fresh flowers, birthday cards, and pedicures – all left over from Annie’s birthday just days before. The green smoothie was fresh.
A bit of Saturday evening napping, followed by the Duggan Sister make everything possible elixir of life – a Green Smoothie with whey powder stirred in – and we were good to go for some Late Night Fun! That and the selection of our most pajama-like outfits, more commonly referred to as our IKEA ensemble, for obvious blue and yellow reasons. Fortified and almost in-bed-cozy, we were off to the city lights. And that’s when the iconic city at night, skulking in the bowels of the metropolis, fun of it all began.
Yes, I felt like Bat Girl (more…)
Tags: #RedEyeRemix, Amy Guth, Gluten-free cupcakes, WGN
Posted in Eating with the Sisters, Gluten-free living, Life at the Rose Cottage, LifeStinks® deodorant, LifeStinks® goes to market, Women in Business | 2 Comments »
Monday, March 24th, 2014
Just joining us? Be sure to read Part one of our #EXPOWEST adventure.
By Mary Duggan
It’s almost time to talk about the French food. It’s our favorite end of show blow-out food ALWAYS, no matter what the city, and made wonderfully simple and delicious by the folks at Bistro Bleu. Technically, it was only the end of Day Two, but that is typically the roughest day of all.
I know. This is hardly Parisian fashion. We call these our IKEA outfits. So we won’t get confused with Michigan fans.
And it’s probably time to say no to the dairy-rich delights of creme brulee. For us g-f types, it messes us up pretty much the same way. But Lord have mercy.
And ooh la la, we have worked so hard. Don’t tell anyone it’s Lent. For us Irish Catholic types, this is what’s known as a dispensation, or to non-Catholics, heavenly chocolate mousse.
And it’s almost time to savor our final and few moments (more…)
Tags: #EXPOWEST, Natural Products Expo
Posted in Eating with the Sisters, Gluten-free living, Holistic Health & Healing, LifeStinks® goes to market | No Comments »
Friday, March 21st, 2014
Just joining us? Be sure to read Part one of our #EXPOWEST adventure.
By Mary Duggan
Truth be told, this was my sixth nosebleed in about a month. The stress of the show, no doubt, and the insanely dry winter air in Chicago, were major contributors. The drought-like conditions in California had offered no respite. But still I had never had a nosebleed in my life when they started up a few weeks earlier and they scared the bejeebers out of me. What horrible harbinger of forthcoming illness were they? A physician friend had guided me through the necessary steps to take; but I had dreaded having one at EXPO. And now here I was having a nosebleed – and a real gusher – in the final moments of the second day. My sisters sat me down, got me the necessary supplies and headed back to sell, sell, sell – as the booth was still hopping – even though our floor had technically been closed for close to an hour.
It was not just the nosebleed that was so embarrassing. It was that – per doctors orders – I had to jam a tampon up my nose to get the bleeding to stop. Okay? (more…)
Tags: #EXPOWEST, Natural Products Expo
Posted in Gluten-free living, Holistic Health & Healing, LifeStinks® goes to market | No Comments »
