Transcription of Good News, #78
Speaker 1: You’re listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast, recorded at the studios of Maine Magazine in Portland, Maine. Summaries of all our past shows can be found at doctorlisa.org. Become a subscriber of Dr. Lisa Belisle on iTunes. See the Dr. Lisa website or Facebook page for details.
Speaker 1: The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is made possible with the support of the following generous sponsors: Maine Magazine; Mike LePage and Beth Franklin of RE/MAX Heritage; Dr. John Herzog of Orthopedic Specialists; Booth Maine; Tom Shepherd of Shepherd Financial; Apothecary by Design; and The Body Architect.
Lisa: This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you are listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast, show number 78, Good News, airing for the first time on March 10th 2013. Looking to tread lightly on the planet from healthy foods to earth-friendly household items, we’ve got you covered. Join our conversations today with Avery Kamila, Natural Foodie columnist for The Portland Press Herald and Sunrise Guide Publisher, Heather Chandler.
As the host of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast, you might imagine that I’m all about good news. I spent a lot of time thinking about what makes humans happy. Social media has proven to be oddly useful in determining what makes humans happy. It keeps us connected with others and aware of recent newsworthy events. It normalizes our human experience. It also gives us insight into people’s attitudes and emotional well-being. A recent study done by the University of Vermont uses Twitter as a means of identifying the happiest and saddest states in our nation. Sorting through 10 million geo-tagged tweets, they found that individuals from some parts of the country were more likely to employ words or abbreviations with positive associations.
More than 10,000 words were given a happiness score from 1 to 10. Positive words included those such as rainbow, love, beauty, hope, wonderful and wine. The happiest states: Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Utah and Vermont. A lifelong Mainer, I was pleased but not surprised to hear that we are happy. Over the course of my years spent doctoring, writing and radio show hosting, I’ve encountered a preponderance of people who believe in having the appreciative approach to life. I’ve also met many people who make it their business to bring good news to others. Through these individuals, Natural Foodie columnist, Avery Kamila of the Portland Press Herald and Heather Chandler of the Sunrise Guide are joining me this week. We’re fortunate to have guests such as Avery and Heather.
We’re equally fortunate to have a positive publication like Maine Magazine as our foundational sponsor. Life can be gloomy, few deny that. But outlook is everything. When all is said and done, we are what we tweet, whether you’re a Tweeter or a social media user in other ways, whether you use words to share love or other emotions with your friends and family members or whether you just use words at work. I encourage you to think about how your words are impacting others and how you’re bringing good news into your life and the life of those around you. Thank you for joining us this week.
One of my friends recently sent a note via Facebook asking my opinion about vegetarianism. He wanted to know where the science stands on this issue and if I had any specific concerns about being a vegetarian. Like my friend, I have eaten a predominantly plant-based diet for many years. As a doctor, I’ve come to believe that plant-based diets have much to recommend them. There are many health benefits associated with a predominantly plant-based diet. According to the China study done on 6,500 adults in 65 countries, a plant-based diet is associated with lower blood cholesterol, lower breast cancer rates and lower digestive cancer rates. This study also found that the plant-based diet results in healthy weight yet permits people to become big and strong.
Plant-based diets do not always enable people to become big and strong. Some individuals stop eating meat only to replace it with highly-processed greens such as bread and crackers instead of whole plant-based foods. This can lead to protein and vitamin deficiencies. Ironically, it can also lead to weight gain. The healthy plant-based diet is not difficult to achieve but it does take some planning.
Are you interested in exploring the possibilities of a plant-based diet, give me a call at The Body Architect, 2077742196. I’d be happy to help. I look forward to hearing from you.
Lisa: In the studio with me today, I have an individual that I’ve known for several years in different capacities. I think that’s what happens in Maine is you get to know people in one capacity. Then, they transform themselves into a different being. I really like this individual. This is Avery Kamila, who is a columnist for the Portland Press Herald. She writes the Natural Foodie column. She and I have a lot in common when it comes to how we deal with eating and health. I’m really happy to have you spend time with me today.
Avery: Well, thank you for having me.
Lisa: Avery, why is it that natural food and being a Natural Foodie columnist, why is it that this has sort of captured the interest and imagination of the readers?
Avery: I think that here in Greater Portland, we’re really lucky to have such a vibrant health community and people who are interested in maintaining their health and well-being. We show up on a lot of list of the healthiest communities and that’s great. I feel really blessed to meet so many people who are interested in health. As far as the food goes, there is such growing awareness that there is a real strong connection between what we put in our bodies and our health status. I think that that’s why people … When I hear from readers, that’s what they’re telling me, that they enjoy reading about others who are pursuing similar paths and new research and new books and people who are promoting these ideas out there.
Lisa: You were doing this before it became popular. If I remember correctly, you worked for Switch?
Avery: Yes, yup.
Lisa: You were doing a lot of social media stuff very early on before people even really knew what social media was and blogging.
Avery: Yes, yup. I’ve been a blogger. I’ve been on Twitter and Facebook for quite some time. I remember when I joined Facebook, I think it was, oh my gosh, it had to be 7 or 8 years ago. I remember joining and thinking, “What is this?” I did it because I had to do a story on high school students and need to reach out to them through Facebook. After that, it just took off. I found people that I actually knew on Facebook. It’s an interesting tool. It’s a great tool I think for writers and journalists because you can reach so many people. You can hear what people are up to and kind of get a sense of what’s going on. It’s great to be able to connect with people that way.
Lisa: I believe you worked for Maine Health or Maine Medical Center before you did that job?
Avery: Yes, yup.
Lisa: Did you find it very different between the work that you were doing with communications in a larger health-related institution and more of a popular mainstream type of approach?
Avery: When I worked for Maine Medical Center, I was working on a lot of different things there. One of the programs that I worked on was very much focused on community health. We had a variety of different things that we were doing. We had a cooking program. We had television segments that we did. I found that very fulfilling and interesting because I got to work directly with community members and patients and healthcare providers talking about health and often talking about the relationship between healthy behavior such as exercise and eating right and living a healthier lifestyle. That was great. It certainly is different as far as working for one organization and really talking about what that organization’s doing, whereas now, I’m not just looking at any one particular organization is doing. I’m looking around the community and seeing what’s going on and what variety of people are doing.
Lisa: I do remember that when you were writing for Switch, you were really out and about. I remember a lot of photographs that you were taking of food and places that you were. It seems like that has been a good fit for you, to be, excuse me, out and about and really connecting with people.
Avery: Yeah, I mean I think that I enjoy meeting people and the thing as you kind of sort of mentioned earlier here in Greater Portland is we are all so connected. It is such a small community in a good way and that you run into people that you know at the grocery store, at the video store, on the street. It’s fun to connect and find out what people are up to. I really enjoy that. I enjoy meeting people. I think that there are just a lot of really fascinating people here in the local area. I’m always so charmed when I meet folks who have moved here from other places often with very high-profile careers. They’ve come here for the lifestyle and the fact that Maine is a really special place and Portland is a special place.
We have a certain vibe that people enjoy. There’s a niche for everyone here. I think that they can tap into particularly creative communities whether they’re into art or music or food. It’s all here and available for folks. I do enjoy being out and meeting people.
Lisa: Tell me about growing up. You grew up on an organic farm here in Maine.
Avery: Yes, yes. My family moved to Maine in the early 70’s. My parents purchased a piece of property that they then turned into a farm. This was very early in the health food organic food movement. It was right around the time that the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association was forming. There wasn’t any certification. It was very early days. My parents proceeded to grow huge gardens and a lot of vegetables. They also had chickens and pigs and goats. They sold at a farmer’s market in Augusta. I believe that farmer’s market still goes on, on Water Street in Augusta. As a young child, I was around the farm. I was seeing what it took to grow vegetables, to raise animals, to go to market.
I remember going to the first Common Ground Country Fair which was held in Litchfield which is the town that I grew up in. it’s very different than the fairs that they hold today up in Unity but it had some of the core kernels of what it has become. I had a really early exposure to the fact that you could have a different kind of food than maybe what mainstream America was eating at the time. Now, it seems like so many years later that the sort of stuff that we were doing is becoming much more mainstream and is much more available which I think is really, really wonderful.
Lisa: You’re a vegan I believe.
Avery: Yes, yup.
Lisa: I think you’ve been a vegan from my remembering of all of your writing, you’ve been a vegan for a very long time.
Avery: Since I would say 1991 so I guess that translates into about 20 years.
Lisa: It was before it was popular, it was before there was lots of people doing it before people … there were cook books, before there were resources. Why did you make that decision?
Avery: I had been a vegetarian already. I became a vegetarian in high school. It was actually sort of interesting. I wanted a job in high school. I didn’t have a car at the time. The only job I could get to was a fast food restaurant that was on a highway. But because where we lived, we had sort of a back road access to the back way into this fast food establishment. I could get job there because I could ride my bike. I had this job there and was very quickly exposed to a very different sort of food than what I had grown up eating. I remember a number of eye-opening situations, one being a chicken sandwich that I bit into and all this bluish whitish stuff started oozing out. I like “okay that’s a little disturbing”. So all of that coupled with a project that I had to do for my sophomore English class and I wrote about animal rights.
I knew about animals. I had grown up with animals. What was most shocking to me in the research that I did was the information about factory farming which I was blissfully unaware of having grown up on a small farm. I’d seen animals. I’d seen animals slaughtered. I knew that’s slightly unsettling but on a small scale, it’s very different than what happens in the factory farming setting. That was really … I just couldn’t stomach it. I didn’t want to be a part of it. I became a vegetarian at that point which again was not a trendy thing to do back at that time. Then, when I went off to college, I went to Syracuse University. My roommate was also a vegetarian. She and I joined a campus vegetarian group and through that, I was introduced to John Robbins’ writings, Diet for a New America specifically. That book was also eye-opening to me. He was an heir to the Baskin Robbins ice cream family business and didn’t really want to go into that because he had found out himself about some other aspects about dairy and animal proteins that aren’t … that they maybe are not the best for us in the quantities that Americans eat them.
At that time, because I was eating in a campus dining hall that was very vegetarian and vegan friendly, it was really easy for me to make the switch. I knew other people there who were doing the same thing. It was easy for me. I have to say when I stopped eating meat, I didn’t really notice any difference physiologically but when I stopped eating dairy, I noticed a big change. I had a lot more energy. I felt lighter. I felt a lot different. Personally, I think that if I needed to make any changes again, dairy’s probably something that I would never really go back to which is sort of ironic because my grandfather had a dairy farm that he operated after he retired. It was sort of a hobby farm.
I grew up also very exposed to commercial dairying and how that works and having a lot of dairy products around. I don’t think I’m allergic to dairy. I just don’t think that they sit that well with me.
Lisa: We’ll return to our interview in a minute. First, let’s take some time to explore the connection between health and wealth, something that I firmly believe in and have tried to promote on the show. Joining us is my friend and personal financial advisor, Tom Shepherd.
Tom: The good news is that we may all be saved by figuring out what to invest in. For the last several years, we’ve been trying to help get out the message that safe and save are not the same thing. Keeping something safe usually means that it loses some of its usefulness. For example, if you try to keep your money safe through traditional means, you’ll not spend it or risk it but instead, simply hoard it. When we do this to the things that are valuable, a certain amount of purpose is lost. The good news is that if you use your money to invest in good food, you may have more abundant energy.
If you invest your time in the pursuit of kindness and goodwill, you may have better relationships. If you invest your assets in unsafe things that hedge your risks, you just might end up with a life that is more exciting and in some ways more worth living. Isn’t that what safe is really all about, preserving our purpose?
To learn more about how to connect your resources to the purpose of your life, please send us an email to [email protected]
Speaker 1: Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA SIPC. Investment advice offered through Flagship Harbor Advisors, a registered investment advisor. Flagship Harbor Advisors and Shepherd Financial are separate entities from LPL Financial.
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Lisa: When I was growing up, I also became a vegetarian pretty early on and at a time when other people weren’t vegetarians. I was in high school also. One of the things that I remembered was actually my grandfather, my Pepe, my French grandfather from Biddeford, kind of wondering why would you do that. Here’s some perfectly good food and he came from the generation where you eat what was put in front of you and it almost seemed ungrateful that … Here you are coming from a family with a grandfather’s got a dairy farm and how did your family respond to your dietary changes?
Avery: I think that in general, my family both older and younger generations, tend to be pretty open-minded. That said, like any family and like your experience, I encountered the same sort of things like, “Really? You’re not going to eat this?” A lot of the older generation, they went through the Great Depression and really valued whatever you could have for food. I think that the other thing that I’ve noticed, not so much in my family but often with other folks is that there is a real emotional reaction when people hear that you’re a vegetarian.
I completely understand that. I mean food is very emotional. It’s tied to our families. It’s tied to tradition. It’s tied to culture. When you see someone who’s doing something different, even if they’re saying … even if I’m not saying you should do this or I’m trying to make people do what I’m doing. It’s just what I’m doing personally, I think people can feel as if they’re being threatened in a way and that the overall message is that they should do what I’m doing. If that’s what they feel, I can’t really change their feelings but I can completely understand because food is such an emotional experience for us. It’s tied to family. It’s tied to memories and specific dishes evoke certain times and places in our lives. I wouldn’t want to take that from anyone or change anyone.
I think that everybody has to make their own decisions about what they’re going to eat and what’s right for them. I don’t think there’s any one particular way. There’s definitely a lot of research out there about plant-based eating and its health benefits. That said, I don’t think that that necessarily is 100% plant-based diet is what everybody needs to do. I think everybody should be eating more plants and fruits and vegetables and nuts and grains. I think that those are all in their whole form are good for folks but that’s not to say that people have to do that exclusively. I think that the problems that we’re encountering in health and maintaining health and the prevalence of disease in our society have more to do with people eating way too much animal protein, too much meat, too much dairy and way too much processed food.
If people can move away from those and move towards more plants in their diet, they’re going to be doing a good thing for themselves. I don’t think that everybody needs to become a vegetarian if that’s not what they want to do.
Lisa: That’s what I read when I see your columns in the Portland Press Herald or online is that you’re presenting information in informative and interesting way. You’re giving people other options. You’re not judging or saying you have to be what I am. You interviewed Dr. Kevin Strong who also has been part of our show. He’s doing Dunk the Junk. You’ve interviewed Jeff Peterson who’s a sportscaster. He’s done vegan eating. But you’re not saying you have to do these things. You’re just providing a possibility.
Avery: Right. I think that it’s interesting that there’s so many people in our community who are doing interesting things. With Jeff Peterson, people know him from Channel 13 in watching the news. He has this other side to him. It’s his own personal choice. At home, he and his wife and their kids, they eat a certain. They’ve had a lot of success with that. They’ve lost weight. He’s improved his cholesterol. He’s been very vocal about that and sharing that story with people that I think that’s an interesting story.
I’ve talked to other folks who’ve had similar stories. I think that people need to hear that sort of thing that it’s not … you don’t need to always get a pharmaceutical drug to cure your issues. There are other ways that are less expensive, less taxing on your body and are probably going to have a better overall outcome in the end. That’s what I try to share with people is other stories and research that supports that.
Lisa: What have some of your favorite stories been?
Avery: Oh gosh, it’s kind asking like who’s your favorite child right?
Lisa: Yeah, I know.
Avery: One of the stories that I wrote recently, it was a funny story. Our Food and Dining section runs on Wednesdays. This past Halloween fell on a Wednesday. I knew that I had to have some sort of Halloween-themed story. I was joking around with some friends at work. One of the running jokes is that people will mention something about food. I was like well, do you really know about the behind-the-scenes story of this food product. It shocks people. They said, “You should really do a haunted house tour of some of these foods.” I said, “Okay that’s kind of a funny idea.”
In a tongue-in-cheek command, I did a tour of a supermarket basically saying that I don’t need to go to a haunted house to be scared on Halloween, I can just go to my local supermarket and have all sorts of scary sights to see. I talked about different things. There’s been a recall of peanut butter, a lot of it organic peanut butter which people would think would be good but produced in a factory and contaminated. I talked about that. I talked about the recent issues that consumer reports has uncovered with rice and arsenic levels. I talked about the factory farm meat and particularly hamburger when that’s ground, it’s really ripe for pathogens and various other things.
That story provoked a lot of response. We got all kinds of letters to the editor, both people saying, “Oh great, thank you for running this,” and people saying, “This is not true.” It was really interesting. I’m happy to have people write in and say that they don’t agree with me. I think that’s great because it continues the debate. I think that people should be talking about this. They don’t need to agree with me. I just think that people should be examining these issues and looking a little bit more deeply into what they’re eating and where it’s coming from. I thought that was fascinating that this … To me, it was just going to be this funny story. It sort of really provoked a lot of response in the community.
Lisa: Yeah, you never know when you put something out there in written form, what’s going to come back and how people are going to respond to it.
Avery: Exactly, exactly, yeah.
Lisa: Avery, how can people read more of your work?
Avery: Well, my food column appears in the Wednesday Food and Dining section of the Portland Press Herald. I often write in other sections as well. Folks are certainly welcome to friend me on Facebook. I do post my stories on there. If they don’t live within a place where they can get the Press Herald or have easy access to it, I do post stuff on there. They also can follow me on Twitter. I like to post links to my stories on Twitter but I also … There’s so much being written these days about health and food. I like to post links to things that other people are writing and interesting studies and that sort of stuff. I often post that information on Twitter as well. That’s another way people can connect with me.
Lisa: And the Press Herald website is?
Avery: Is pressherald.com.
Lisa: We’ve been speaking with Avery Kamila, who is a columnist for the Portland Press Herald and the Natural Foodie writer. We’ve really enjoyed spending time talking about your background here in Maine, not only as a child of a farm but also child of parents who live on a farm, I should say, but also someone who’s really spend a lot of time thinking about food and its impact on your own personal life and the community. Thanks for coming in and …
Avery: Thank you for having me. I’ve really enjoyed it.
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Lisa: This time of year, we’re starting to see the sun in the sky more and more. We thought it would be appropriate to bring in someone who puts a little bit of sunshine in people’s life on a regular basis. This is Heather Chandler, the founder and publisher of the Sunrise Guide. Thanks for coming in and talking to us Heather.
Heather: Thanks for having me. It’s great to be here.
Lisa: Heather, this is the 7th edition that you’re putting out this year. It’s been quite a journey I would imagine.
Heather: It’s been a whirlwind of 7 years for sure.
Lisa: How did this start up in … I mean I’m fascinated. I have been purchasing the Sunrise Guide pretty much every year. I love what you put into it. I pick it up at the Royal River Natural Foods or at Lois’ Natural Marketplace. I love getting the coupons out. My kids love getting the coupons out. It’s a very interesting concept. How did you come to decide you wanted to put this out in the world?
Heather: It was sort of a confluence of a bunch of things happening at once. I was working in another career and coming to the realization that it was time to make a change. I was doing all those things you do, reading books, What Color is Your Parachute and all of that. Around the same time, I traveled to the Northwest and visited friends in Portland, Oregon and Seattle. Both of them had a similar publication on their dining room tables. Of course, I was on vacation. I had plenty of time to sit and read.
As soon as I picked it up, just fell in love with the idea. It just seemed to bring together so many of my interests and experience. I’d always had a background in marketing and publications. I’d always been interested in healthy living and ecofriendly lifestyle. Light bulbs went off and I thought, “Oh my gosh, we have got to do this in Maine.” That’s really how it started. I initially contacted the company out there to see if they would come to Maine and do something like that. They were wonderful but ultimately decided that was a little too far for them and so put it down for a few months, continued on my journey of trying to figure out what was next for me. I kept coming back to the book and just realized it was the only thing I really wanted to do, that I was really excited about. That’s how it all started.
Lisa: What was it about this book that you kept picking up that kept saying Heather, you need to do this?
Heather: It was really … It represented so many aspects of things that I was interested in. I love that. This publication, the Sunrise Guide, is modeled pretty closely after the publications I found in the Northwest. I loved that it was a resource kind of a one-stop shop that pulled together all of those aspects about my lifestyle that I enjoyed, yoga and healthy foods and constantly learning about sustainability. It pulled together all of those resources in one place combined with coupons so you had a motivation to go out and try new businesses that maybe you hadn’t before. Back 7, 8, 9 years ago when I was developing the business plan for this, green and healthy products weren’t as prevalent as they are today. There was some hesitation I think for people to try something new like that, that they hadn’t before.
There were perceptions that green products didn’t have the same quality, that they were more expensive. The idea of pulling all these resources together and giving people financial incentive to try them and realize that wow, these are great. They work. It was that and then I also saw it as a way to support the businesses in Maine that I love and I want to see continue to be successful and prosper. It just made sense. It brought it all together. Yeah, I felt like it was sort of like taking those community bulletin boards that you see in natural food stores and yoga studios and putting it all together in a book where you could in one place figure out where to find all of those things.
Lisa: Tell me about some of the businesses that you have brought into the pages of this book?
Heather: Specifically some of the businesses?
Lisa: Yeah. Tell me what the range is for people who are listening who have never picked it up. I can’t imagine that by the way. Everybody has one of these on their coffee table. We’re just telling them what they already know, but for people who aren’t familiar with the Sunrise Guide.
Heather: It ranges from … There are 6 different categories of businesses that are included. Food and Dining is probably the most popular because we all eat. There are coupons for natural food stores, local markets as you said Royal River Natural Foods, Lois’, places like the Rosemont Market. There are coupons for restaurants that have a commitment using local and organic produce, vegetarian restaurants, restaurants where you can find a selection of gluten-free options, where you can also find natural meats and sustainably source seafood so really trying to pull together those places so that if you care about that, you know where to find them. That’s Food and Dining.
It also ranges to there’s a whole bunch of home-related businesses, whether it’s the Habitat ReStore. It’s a place where you can go and get building materials that are either surplus, new materials that are donated to the ReStore or maybe they’re gently used but still fully functional at a discount, so places like that. There are garden centers, home services. If you’re looking for a lawn care company that uses greener methods or home cleaning company that uses greener methods, you would find them in the Sunrise Guide. A whole bunch of health, there’s a huge health and outdoor living section. That’s bike shops, kayak outfitters, yoga, massage, chiropractors, acupuncture, all of that sort of thing.
Then, there’s a personal care section. That’s consignment clothing stores, maybe cloth diaper companies, that sort of thing. So really runs the gamut, the whole goal is to be comprehensive and what do you need for your life in Mane if you’re interested in healthy and sustainable living.
Lisa: What are your criteria? I know that you don’t let just anybody advertise in the Sunrise Guide?
Heather: Right. Basically, we’re looking for businesses. Criteria’s applied on a product-advertised basis. We are asking businesses to promote their products or services in the Sunrise Guide that are more environmentally friendly than the average competitive product. You may see businesses in there that cover a whole line of products. But we’re asking them to put their greener products upfront. For example, Hammond Lumber Company, they promote their FSC certified wood products in the Sunrise Guide. They carry other products but that’s what they put upfront.
In a nutshell, that’s what we’re looking for is products that are greener than their average competitor. We have a pretty elaborate matrix of how in the past, we have figured that out. Nowadays, it’s just sort of … We kind of know it. You just suss it out. We also understand that there are a lot of things that go in to … For example, one of the things that we recognize are third-party certifications. In a food example, that might be that they’re organic-certified. We also know that there are lots of farms out there that don’t have the organic certification but they operate in as organic a way as they can, maybe they just don’t pay for the certification.
We’ve sort of learned over the years that there’s a lot of grey area. We really just try to determine whether that they’re being authentically greener than the average. I hope that answers your question. It used to be a very specific criteria and it’s gotten a little bit more just developed a general sense of really who’s doing something that rises above the norm.
Lisa: Do you think that that’s an important point? We’ve had other people on the show who have talked about organic certification or we’ve talked about fair trade certification and the process entailed and how that can have interesting and not necessarily positive ramifications on individual businesses. I think the fact that you’re able to evaluate these businesses or their products on a sort of person by person or business by business in a manner that that’s more consistent with the type of living you’re espousing anyway.
Heather: Right. I think once you … when you’re involved in the community and you sort of get to know people as individuals and you get to know what’s happening in each of those fields, you can develop a sense of really where is the bar and who’s really striving to be above that.
Lisa: Why did you think that it was important? Why is that you’re interested in yoga and sustainable living? What was it about your background and growing up and your earlier years that caused you to head in this direction?
Heather: That’s a good question. I was raised by very … I’d say I was raised by hippies in Western Massachusetts in the 70’s. We lived in North Hampton, Mass which I don’t know if you know anything about Western Mass but pretty liberal gathering place. My parents raised us on really healthy food that I did not appreciate when I was a child at all. When we were kids, we volunteered at the food co-op. my siblings and I, we just laugh at the people we volunteered with at the food co-op. I think at the time, we definitely didn’t appreciate that. I think it really developed a great foundation for me to when I became an adult, choose that because I knew that it was right for me.
I think that those roots helped guide me in this direction. I don’t think that I would necessarily have had to have those roots to go on this direction but on my particular path, I think it was significant coming from that background.
Speaker 1: This segment of the Dr. Lisa Radio and Hour Podcast is brought to you by the following generous sponsors: Mike LePage and Beth Franklin of RE/MAX Heritage in Yarmouth, Maine. Honesty and integrity can take you home. With RE/MAX Heritage, it’s your move. Learn more at ourheritage.com and by Booth, accounting and business management services, payroll and bookkeeping. Business is done better with Booth. Go to boothmaine.com for more information.
Lisa: What’s interesting to me is looking at the Sunrise Guide and also at the other guide that you produced, the Green & Healthy Maine which is a visitor’s guide to Maine. Have you been doing this for very long?
Heather: That’s our first edition, the summer of 2012 is the first year.
Lisa: I happen to pick this up in the airport. It’s very nice.
Heather: Thank you.
Lisa: Both of the guides that you do are very good. It strikes me that you’ve had to go beyond the traditional natural foods coop way of promotion because we’re not just all hanging around the dusty barrels at the Good Day Market on the West-end anymore. There’s a lot of … people are very aware. There’s a lot of good marketing being done whether it’s a green product or a non-green product. How have you found in terms of … How challenging has it been to wed those 2 ideas, staying green but also being eye-catching, marketing the products that you want to market but staying consistent with maybe FSC-certified paper or having some of the business ideals that you’re trying to espouse?
Heather: That’s a good question too. I would say it’s a delicate balance. We have always published the Sunrise Guide on FSC-certified paper that’s 100% recycled, post-consumer recycled content. Then, when we did the magazine for the first time and I should also say we’ve always published the Sunrise Guide with a Maine-based printer. That’s been really important to us to do that even though we knew that we could publish it for less money in other places. We’re very committed to that with the Sunrise Guide.
When we put together the plan for the magazine, the type of printing, so it’s printed on a web press. There aren’t web presses in Maine that were an option for us. We actually had it printed in Vermont. It was the first time we ever printed outside of Maine. That was a pretty significant decision to do that. We printed this on 50% post-consumer paper. You’re always making those decisions of how are you going to be able to meet your bottom line needs and be true to your ideals. It’s definitely a delicate balance. We, as I said, we’re very committed to keeping the Sunrise Guide a Maine-printed publication but where this was a tourist publication and we couldn’t find that technology to print it in Maine. We had to make the decision to go to Vermont, which feels like family anyway.
Lisa: Yeah, it’s pretty close by.
Heather: Yeah.
Lisa: Yeah, just a few states over. But you’re right, it is interesting because … this is talking more technically but Sunrise Guide has more of a matte feel to it. It’s not quite as glossy as the Green & Healthy Maine publication. On the other hand, if by creating a publication for people who are coming into the state as tourist, that actually raises the awareness of local green businesses, then aren’t you contributing to a greener and healthier Maine anyway, in a different way?
Heather: Sure. There’s so many ways that you can measure whether something is green. Looking at cars, you’re going to purchase a car, does it have the highest miles per gallon, the highest fuel-efficiency? Yes, but what’s the life cycle analysis when the car was produced? Is it produced in the greenest way as other cars? There’s just so many factors that come into making a decision about whether a product is green. I think we tried to weigh as much as possible and make the best decision we can to that end.
I think your other point about appealing to folks who may be outside of the born and raised and food co-ops and sort of more mainstream, I think something that I’ve always felt is important with the Sunrise Guide is good design. I really just have always believe that no one’s going to pay attention to it if it doesn’t look nice and that’s not visually appealing. That’s pretty important. I don’t think it has to be one or the other. I think you can have a really green product and have it looked really nice and be appealing to everybody.
Lisa: I want to be really careful because I have a lot of respect for anybody who’s listening, who’s familiar with the Good Day Market and what it used to represent here in Portland. I think it was a great place and fostered a lot of community and a lot of awareness very early on of organic foods and natural foods. I think there’s a lot of that that did take place in a foundational level. It’s just that when you’re trying to move out into the mainstream and create more awareness amongst people who maybe don’t want to have … or people who needs something a little bit more glossy. I think you need to fit into that paradigm a little bit more.
Heather: Right. It makes me think of … I recently read an article about the greenest car in America this year. The Ford, I’m not going to remember the model. Is it the Fiesta? Anyway, it’s their compact wagon was chosen as the greenest car in America this year over things like the Prius or other hybrids. The reason they stated was that when they looked at all factors considered, it was most likely to have the biggest impact because more people would buy that car than people who could afford to buy the hybrid. They looked at the big picture. I think that gets to your point of if you’re able to bring folks into Maine from out of state and bring them to our great green and healthy businesses, then overall, it’s doing more good than appealing to a smaller segment of the audience.
Lisa: Is there also a process that takes place over the course of 7 years. I’m asking you this personally but I guess it could be more … a larger question of first staring out with a very stringent set of ideals like it has to be this, it has to be that. Then, over time, sort of having to evolve the way that you think about things and maybe … I don’t want to use the word judgmental. I’m not sure. I don’t think that I would apply that in your case but having to be more broad thinking about all of this. Did you find that to be true?
Heather: Yeah, I think it was probably related to my transition from being in the non-profit world which is my background where the bottom line is mission and values 100% to being a business owner and my bottom line is multiple things now so I think that transition definitely happened over the years for me and I very early on approached my business with a non-profit mindset because that’s what I knew and have really had too learn how to be a business owner and really look at everything from multiple perspectives. We’re not going to achieve our environmental and social mission if we don’t achieve our financial mission. I definitely have seen a lot of transition in that over the years.
Lisa: Isn’t that the definitely of sustainability?
Heather: Sure, yeah.
Lisa: For the long term.
Heather: Right.
Lisa: Heather, in both the Sunrise Guide and also the Green & Healthy Maine Visitor’s Guide, I’m struck by the stories that you’ve put in place whether they’re about wind power, local artisans or acupuncture and they’re inspiring. They inspire us. I think they inspire me to want to live a more ecologically balanced and centered life. There are the pressures, the external pressures of being a business owner. I know things are probably different than they were 7 years ago when you started. What keeps you on the path? What keeps you waking up in the morning and saying I still want to do the Sunrise Guide, I still want to live the kind of life that I live. I still have these values and this mission.
Heather: Lots of things. Certainly hearing people’s stories so when readers write into us and tell us how various aspects of the publication has affected them and impacted their life, that is really inspiring and that can drive you for a long time. I think I’ve also learned over the years that it’s important to take time off. That took a long time to learn that lesson. I don’t think I took my first vacation really my first vacation until 5 years into the business. I was really burnt out. What happens when you’re burnt out is you start to lose that inspiration. You start to question what am I doing? Why am I working so hard? All of my advisors for years said the same thing. They all said you have got to take a vacation. When you’re in the middle of it, you just think how am I going to find this time? How am I going to get away?
I started working with a business coach. I think that was very helpful for me and finally talking a vacation. Two years a go, I took a 2-week vacation to Italy. Just a month ago, I just got back from my second 2-week vacation to Italy. I think that helps a lot. I really do think that time off helps get perspective and recharge your own batteries so that you can remember why you’re doing what you’re doing. I also think a healthy lifestyle for sure factors into it. Healthy eating, yoga, meditation, time spent outside, they seem really simple but I really think it helps. Those are the things that come to mind. It’s a constant effort to do that. You don’t just do one thing and be set on course forever. You have to kind of keep coming back. I think it’s a combination of all those things.
Lisa: People who pick up the Sunrise Guide or the Green & Healthy Maine Visitor’s Guide, they can find little businesses and little piece of inspiration, little coupons that can kind of keep putting them back on course I think.
Heather: I love that you see it that way. That’s wonderful. I like to think of it as being inspiring. That’s one of our goals is to help inspire healthy and sustainable lifestyle so it’s really nice to hear you say that.
Lisa: Where can people find out more about the Sunrise Guide? What are some places that are in the local area that are selling it?
Heather: We have a website, thesunriseguide.com and so all of the stores are listed there. That’s one location. To folks who are in the Portland area, they’re in over 100 different stores now. Everything from the local natural food stores to Longfellow Books, the Whole Foods carries them. You can purchase them pretty much from Kittery to Belfast, depending on where people live. There’s probably a store near them. If they’re just outside of our distribution area, they can also purchase them online. We can mail them.
Lisa: They’re pretty inexpensive actually. I think it’s … it says still just $20 on the cover. I’ve myself I think already used at least 2 coupons out of the 2013 book. I know that every year before this, I basically made up the cost of the $20 so that’s worth it.
Heather: Awesome.
Lisa: It’s pretty good trade from what I can tell. I thank you for putting the guide out there and for giving my kids and I something to look forward to every year and little adventures that we can do based on that. I’m really glad that we’ve been able to speak with you Heather Chandler, the founder and publisher of the Sunrise Guide and also the Green & Healthy Maine Visitor’s Guide.
Heather: Thanks for having me in. This was fun.
Lisa: Today, we’ve been talking about good news. Next week, we will continue this conversation with Michael Chase of The Kindness Center. Here’s a few words from next week’s show.
Michael: It’s interesting, The Kindness Center, people first of all, they think The Kindness Center, that must be nestled in the mountain, surrounded by unicorns and rainbows and pixie dust. It sounds like a magical place. We did originally think, okay it will be a physical location some day. It still may. If the right opportunity comes along, then I would love to have a place where people could come. It quickly turned into a mobile center where I started to take this idea of creating a kinder world and putting it in a vehicle of doing large scale random acts of kindness events. We’ve taken them all over the country.
The first one was right here in Portland called 24 Hours of Kindness. It’s this marathon, 24-hour marathon of just performing random acts of kindness with no sleep, no breaks, just doing good things for other people. Last summer, I did this event in New York City. I did the 24 Hours there. You want to talk about … there’s a difference between Portland, Maine and New York City. Let me just tell you, you don’t wear your Red Sox hat there if you want to perform acts of kindness. It was amazing. The people are really wonderful actually.
We’ve done 3,000 miles of kindness across country road trip. All these events became a big part of sharing the message of kindness. The primary thing that I do now is I speak. I speak to people all over the world now. I’ve been so blessed to be able to travel, to share this. The wonderful thing is that kindness is a universal language. It makes no difference whether I’m speaking to a group of middle school students, which I do. I speak to thousands of students every year using kindness as an alternative to anti-bullying. It brings something positive. Here’s what you can do instead of what not to do. It’s been extremely effective.
Whether I’m speaking to middle school kids or a group in Corporate America, everybody understands it. It doesn’t step on any toes. It doesn’t offend. Some people … I speak to Christian groups. I speak to Buddhist groups. I speak to people that are just totally non-believers. We all can connect with that message of kindness. The Kindness Center just continues to be a vehicle for creating these events, sharing the message. We have other people that get involved with those events. It’s been amazing, absolutely amazing.
Lisa: We know that in medicine, we’ve done work on compassion. We’ve done work on kindness. We’ve seen actual brain changes and brain physiology. We’ve seen changes in the way that the heart works. We know that actually being kind to other people comes back to benefit us positively.
Michael: Absolutely. It is so simple. How can you possibly make a living in kindness? It’s the most basic thing but sadly it’s the thing that’s missing from the world so often. Don’t get me wrong. I believe there’s far more good out there. Unfortunately, the media shows us a lot of the ugliness in the world. There is a tremendous amount of unkindness happening. I believe that unhappiness is for the most part the cause of the unkindness in the world. When we’re not happy with who we are, if we don’t love ourselves first and not in egotistical way but in a spiritual sense, it’s very difficult to be kind to others. Kindness toward yourself is where it all begins. So many spiritual teachers have told us over the years that world peace must develop out of inner peace. It starts with you.
As you said, that science is showing. An act of kindness towards someone, if you perform an act of kindness, your level of serotonin goes up. It gets more interesting because not only does your serotonin going up but the person on the other end, their level of serotonin goes up as well. But then someone just observing the act of kindness, just the observer witnessing a kind act, their level of serotonin goes up as well. It’s that simple but at the same time it’s that incredibly powerful.
Lisa: For more of our conversation with Michael Chase, join us next week on our emotional intelligence show. You have been listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast show number 78, Good News. Our guests have included Natural Foodie columnist Avery Kamila from the Portland Press Herald and Sunrise Guide owner and publisher Heather Chandler. For more information on our guests, visit doctorlisa.org.
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