Are you a sucker for vending machine snacks or donuts and cupcakes that your co-worker always brings to the office? Or maybe most of your meals consist of buttery steaks, battered chicken and fries. Or maybe you don’t drink enough water which helps flush out toxins in the body. No matter what category you belong in, it’s good to put on your best face when meeting clients, customers, etc. But remember that healthy, glowing and clear skin begins from the inside out.

According to Mayo Clinic dermatologist Lawrence E. Gibson, M.D., a diet high in fat and carbohydrates can promote skin aging. Dr. Gibson recommends eating lots of antioxidant-rich foods, which have protective properties for the skin. So the next time you go to the market, remember to pick up the following:

• Carrots, apricots and other yellow and orange fruits and vegetables
• Blueberries
• Spinach and other green leafy vegetables
• Tomatoes
• Beans, peas and lentils
• Fish, especially salmon

Besides eating lots of fruits and vegetables, here are five best tips for taking care of your skin and keeping it clean and clear:

1) Drink water throughout the day.

It keeps your skin hydrated and flushes out toxins from your body. If you need some kick to the taste, add a few drops of lemon or lime squeeze.

2) Wash your face the right way.

1. Begin by washing your hands. You don’t want to have bacteria-laden hands and fingers touch your face.
2. Using warm water, wash your face with a good cleanser. (Warm water opens pores.)
3. Afterward, splash your face with cold water. (Cold water closes pores.)

Source: BellaSugar.com

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Recommended products:

• Cetaphil Daily Facial Cleanser
• Dr. Bronner’s peppermint all-in-one liquid soap

3)  Exfoliate at least twice a week with baking soda.

A natural, excellent and cheap way to exfoliate, baking soda helps slough off dead skill cells and unclogs dirt trapped in pores. It gives your face a brighter glow and feels fresh.

Instructions: After washing your face with a cleanser, take a teaspoon of baking soda mixed with a few drops of water and rub on face in circular motions. Rinse. Works best in the shower. Repeat 2-3 times a week.

Source: TheBeautyBrains.com

4)  Apply moisturizer daily.

Put on sun-block lotion before going out in the morning, and a night cream before going to sleep. Lotion keeps the skin smooth and helps seal pores to keep bacteria out.

5)  Treat your acne with the right products.

Never squeeze your pimples with fingers. It can cause painful infection and scarring.

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Recommended products:

• Mario Badescu drying lotion: Dries out pimples overnight. (Featurned in Allure, Men’s Health and other magazines)
• Clean & Clear Acne Spot Treatment:  A less messy alternative. Encased in a small tube.
• Aloe Vera on pimple overnight reduces swelling. According to Skin Care iHub, aloe vera is considered the best natural remedy for any type of skin problem.

So you just started your own business or worked your way into self-employment and now you’re on the hunt for new customers and clients. Wouldn’t it be nice if they just found you naturally on the first page of the Google search engine by typing in a general key term that described your service?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is no longer a recent phenomenon that only a few know about. It has taken web marketing to a whole new level in the past few years. If you’re self employed or a small business owner with a website and have never heard of the concept, you’re missing out on a powerful marketing tool, and the best part is that it’s free.

Search Engine Optimization is basically a marketing strategy that aims to rank your website high on the search engines. Google, Yahoo and Bing all use a different set of criteria to rank a page, but Google is the most used and offers the most tools. They use more than 200 factors in determining whether your website should be first or last when someone searches a key phrase in the search engine, such as, “wardrobe stylist in LA.” Some of those factors include the title of the page, who links to your site and which directories you’re listed in. (See Google Webmaster Central for more resources and info.)

If you’re not web savvy, it’s worth it to higher someone who is skilled in this area since it is a good long-term investment. In the meantime, here are five marketing tips that any small business owner with a website can quickly implement to help increase search engine rankings.

1. Make the most of free online resources. Google offers many tools for website owners to increase traffic on their page. The keyword tool is helpful in determining how many people search for a specific key phrase. For instance, type in “young professionals in los angeles” and the tool will tell you how many people are searching for that phrase and the trend. Find a phrase that is popular and best describes your site. Then use that as the title tag. (This needs to be changed on the back-end of the site.) 
2. Get listed in major directories like DMOZ.org and Yahoo. Don’t try to get listed in as many directories as possible. Quality is always better than quantity.
3. Build relationships with high traffic sites that are relevant to your content so they can link to your site. Domains that end with .edu and .gov have more value.
4. Start a company blog about your expertise and post consistently even if it means one photo a day with a short commentary. WordPress, Tumblr, or Blogger are good options to consider.
5. If you haven’t already, engage in social media even if you don’t want to. Hire talented underlings if you have to, but do it and be consistent. The goal is to build community and strong followers. (Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, Digg, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Google Buzz, etc.)

While relying on traditional media may be important to grow brand image and brand recognition, the best way to market your company with no budget and for long-term growth is through search marketing. So begin a web marketing campaign, be proactive and get crackin’. People are waiting to find you.

Resource:

• Search Engine Guide

(*Note: Due to the sensitivity of the region, all names have been changed to protect identities.)

So I’m standing in a village market in Darfur, Sudan. The sun splashes off the leaves of a giant acacia tree, canopy for the entire market. I glance from bundles of firewood and pyramids of leathery oranges to my companions. My co-worker Aisha wraps the end of her traditional thobe back over her shoulder and chatters with our three village friends as each swings a potbellied straw basket for weekly purchases.

I spot two rebel soldiers sitting by a tea stand. They are picture perfect: their yellow turbans coiled around their heads, their AK-47s slung over their shoulders in lazy threat, their camouflage jackets—none of this bothers me. It’s the stare, skimming the rims of their sunglasses, scalding the back of my neck as they stir their tea long after the sugar has dissolved. They hate me. I am as sure of this as I am of the shade, the tea, the oranges, and fear trickles hot down my throat.

Now you might be thinking, “Of course they hate you, your American voice clanging off the butcher’s knife, his hook, his rusty table. Your white legs flashing in the sun.” Yeah, well unfortunately, that isn’t the problem. “Aisha, those soldiers think I’m Arab,” I say in Arabic, adjusting my headscarf over my hair. In many places in Sudan it would be fine to be mistaken for an Arab, but out here in rebel territory, where the fight is against the Arabized northern Sudanese government, they are not welcome. The soldiers saunter over to us, hiss at Aisha, and after she swears up and down that I don’t have a drop of Arab blood in my veins, the freedom fighters go back to their tea, leaving me with my pulse in my ears as Aisha jokes that next time I should wear jeans and a baseball cap, and keep my Arabic to myself.

Identity is everything. You know that. Why do you buy Prada instead of thrift store booty or vice versa? Why do you refuse to eat anything un-organic or spurn all but micro-brewed beer? Why do you study to be a doctor when all you want to do is play music, or settle into a teaching job you hate, all the while dreaming of field research? And why did I stay in Darfur, Sudan for almost three years as a humanitarian aid worker, intending to serve only one and move on with my life?

I started thinking about aid work those first seasons of LOST, with Kate so gorgeous in her cargo pants and tank tops, trekking the jungle, brave and ingenious, letting a tear roll off her jaw at just the right moments. I thought a year of roughing it might get me Kate’s tanned, perfect arms and courage without trips to the gym, all the while looking like I was, you know, doing something important.

Fast forward a year. Partway through season three Kate is choosing Sawyer over Jack when I get an invitation to go to Darfur, Sudan, to work with a development NGO. The country director is looking for Arabic speakers to facilitate health and development projects, and hearing of my language skills (I grew up in the Middle East), he wants to talk with me. I am soon standing in the non-Sudanese passport line of the Khartoum Airport, clueless that more than teaching me the design for a pit latrine, the recipe for Oral Rehydration Solution and an upgraded Arabic vocabulary including: “fistula,” “pick-axe” and “goat-killing ceremony,” the Sudan outside these airport doors, from modern Khartoum to my home base in rural Darfur, will claim me as its own.

It’s a funny thing to be a foreigner. People actually laugh at you, just because you’re walking down the street. Or kids scream when they see you. One little boy, forced to shake my hand, looked in terror at his palm to see if the white stuff had come off on his skin. Parents don’t help. “If you don’t shut up the foreign lady will eat you.” But there are those who make you feel at home. One day I was standing outside the corner bakery, waiting for my piping pita bread to be dropped in a black and white striped plastic bag when a little boy almost ran into me, open-mouthed and silent. Another boy, as he walked by, said with a shrug, “What’s the matter with you, bro? From the day God created you haven’t you seen yourself a white girl?”

The market at the center of town bustles with morning’s parade of schoolchildren as they scavenge for sesame cookies or falafel snacks. At noon, wheelbarrows of spinach resist wilting as newspaper boys resist sleep, until at dusk everything sways again with the flutter of moms plucking the best potatoes from a pile and squabbling with butchers for the plumpest part of a goat rump. Night falls on mountains of watermelons, lit by quiet candles, their owners on guard like white-robed priests, until morning rustles everything again.

A foreigner’s appearance on market scene always causes a stir, and triggers a round of the nationality guessing game. I have heard with absolute certainty these guesses trail behind me: from the tomato lady, “Italian!” from the butcher, “Lebanese!” from the lady bagging fried grasshoppers, “Indian!” and the man tending his bushels of dates, “Indonesian!” (The fact that I am 6’3’’ doesn’t deter that guess, or “Filipino!”)

“Palestinian,” “French,” “Pakistani,” “Dutch,” “German,” “English” and the favorite… “Egyptian!” Not once, despite the many Obama T-shirts sported in the market, has someone guessed “American.” To be fair, I complicate the truth by wearing long skirts, and a scarf draped loosely over my hair in the style of every respectable, unmarried Sudanese woman in town. So every once in a while, a spunky passerby will shout at me, “Hey, Sudanese lady!”

The first time someone gave me that label in seriousness I was squatting on a wooden stool, hunched over a tub of water, scrubbing dough balls and meat sauce out of the aluminum bowls that my colleagues and I had dipped our hands into for lunch. Omar must have thought that my busy, slobbering hands didn’t look American, so he said, “Kelly, you have become Sudanese!” It sounded like a bear hug, or a cup of hot cocoa pushed into my hand as campers shuffled and squeezed together to make room for me around the fire.

But it wasn’t just Omar. They all started to say it. The head of the midwifery school gripped my hand and declared, “You look so beautiful. Your headscarves, your skirts, I am sure you are more beautiful in these than in American clothes. When you go back you must keep wearing these. You have become Sudanese.” My favorite neighbor Hanan said it when, with her rolling laugh and billowing bosom, she received the plate I returned to her: given to me with donuts, now laden with cupcakes. We repeated together the proverb she had taught me, “Leave barrenness for an enemy, (this full plate is for a friend).”

Soon I caught myself saying it to myself, usually with a little head-shaking, “Kelly, you’re becoming…” After years of passing highway signs in the U.S. warning of littering fees, it drove me crazy that my Sudanese friends threw empty bottles on the ground seemingly at random, but one day as we drove from village to village on a health campaign, my friend Adam finished his last gulp of water and cradled the plastic bottle in his hands until we neared a thorn bush where three little boys were playing in the dirt. He poised it by the window and launched it their way as we passed, sending the three of them racing after that bottle like it was a shooting star. From then on, I found myself looking for strategic times to litter, to share my trash.

One of the highest cultural values for Sudanese is generosity. If someone comes to your house and you don’t at the very least offer them water and a tray of candy or dates to choose from, you aren’t even a person. Sometimes your guest doesn’t eat their candy, they just hold it in their hand, but you shove another at them anyway. This is how even the poorest people get a supply of candy for their guests. Their candy dishes are a melted assortment of pre-owned candy.

KJ is a village where we run a health post, but their most urgent need, like most villages in Darfur, is water. Every day, representatives of the several hundred village families line up their plastic jerrycans, in rows and semicircles around the one working hand pump. It takes two women in their neon green and hot pink peasant dresses to lift the pump’s lever, then straighten their arms, falling with their full weight, to convince one gush of water up from the well. Clang, as the lever comes down. All through the day. The donkeys wait for a drink, the goats crowd in clumps for their turn. Clang, clang, little girls on donkeys lope from a village away and two villages away, places with no pump at all. Clang when the children sleep and the stars see themselves in the water.

In this village I met a woman named Hawa Mohammed Isa (Eve Mohammed Jesus, yes.) who after giving me a lecture on how wearing nail polish would prevent prayer ablutions from cleansing me, invited me to visit her home later that day. When I arrived she ushered me onto a straw mat, and sent one of her ten children to ladle water from their barrel. As I drank I remembered another villager who said, “Love means giving someone a glass of water when you know you don’t have any more.”

Last month, I finally said goodbye to Sudan, at least for now. On my Khartoum-Cairo leg I sat next to a man whose mom was Moroccan, and his dad Sudanese of Turkish descent. We chatted in Arabic, he asked me where I was from, and when I told him he shook his graying Afro in disbelief. Letting his bad eye roll away from me and turning to squint his good eye at me, he said, “I wouldn’t have known. I can’t see you, so I wouldn’t have known.”

A Czech proverb says that if you learn a new language you get a new soul. It’s true. And the minute you take a step away from home, you are becoming something, something braver and more generous, less yourself and more others, yet more yourself than your own culture could contain. I became Sudanese.

Meet Andrew Polsky, Brian Park and Steve Chon—the three young heavy hitters of Panamera Capital, which has been around for almost a year now. It takes guts, ambition, skill and dedication to quit a pretty good job and start your own global investment advisory firm at 28, or any age at that. After working successfully in the corporate world, they decided it was time to take matters into their own hands and become their own bosses.

It’s a hot Monday afternoon at 1pm and three suit-clad guys show up right on the dot like they mean business. We’re sitting at a homey cafe in LA called Heyri. The timing of 1pm sounds about right, just when the stock market closes for the day, Pacific time. This is the site where they chose to meet—a memorable spot where they used to spend many hours and days to lay the groundwork for their new venture.

I ask them a few questions about their now established company, the economy, what their office culture is like, where they like to hang and what “living the good life” means. Read on to find out in their own words.

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So in layman’s terms, what does your company exactly do?

Brian: We’re an investment advisory firm that specializes in foreign markets as well as precious metals. A big part of our philosophy is that you have to own things of intrinsic value such as gold. Our belief is that paper currencies, like the Dollar and the Euro, will continue to devalue, so we encourage our clients to hedge against that.

Steve: So in layman’s terms, it’s pretty easy. We have a bearish view [as opposed to bullish]—we don’t think America’s going to make it out of this recession. We believe there’s a lot of uncertainty out there, so we resonate well with clients that don’t trust the government. We’re not out there cheerleading stocks saying “Hey, you pay me X amount of money, I’ll get you five stocks that bring you 1,000 percent the next year.” We’re not shamwow. We’re completely fundamentals driven and we’re value investors.

Andrew: Sort of simply put… You’re an investor. Your goal is to not only hopefully grow the value of what you put aside. The goal is to make money. So the struggle is to maintain the value of what you put in. So let’s say you invest $100 and tomorrow it’s worth $110. In nominal figures you made $10, but if everything around you cost $20 more, your lifestyle cost $20 more per year and you’ve actually lost value in what you’re investing in. And so what we do is by going out and finding investments that are denominated in different currencies where there’s growth, we’re able to preserve the actual value of the money people invest.

What makes your company different from all the other investment companies out there?

Steve: We just think that it’s unsafe here, and we’re giving people an out …you know, it’s like the Titanic Ship sinking and there’s only so much room on the raft. We’re just going back and forth…that’s essentially what we’re doing. We’re giving them access to foreign markets.

Brian: There are a lot of companies that say they do foreign investing but they don’t have the type of access or research we have in certain markets. There are cultural nuances…… and we have access to that research. We’re not buying Canada stock with U.S. dollars, we use Canadian dollars. So when you invest with us, you’re achieving true diversification. Now you are diversified in all these different currencies and you’re not just holding on to the U.S. dollar. That’s what we’re really preaching. There are so many wealthy people out there but their wealth is in one currency. If the currency devalues, then so does their wealth—no matter how much their stock portfolio performs.

What made you want to start the company?

Steve: It’s what we struggled with all our career—to create a legacy for yourself. Create your own company, work for yourself. Essentially, that’s the American dream right? A lot of people wake up one day and say, “Hey I’m getting completely screwed here on my money and the big man’s making all the money.” But very few have the balls to do it. It’s that leap of faith… there’s tons of risks involved and especially after opening our own shop, we used to always talk about, “Now I understand why you work for someone else”—it’s tons of work… but at the end of the day…

Brian interjects: We wouldn’t have it any other way

Steve: Blood, sweat and tears goes into this and one day my kids are going to grow up … and hopefully Panamera gets to be something bigger than we have ever imagined it to be. And you’re never going to get there working for someone else.

Brian: And I think it’s what all professionals struggle with. Whether it’s in your respective field, you become a master, you become [good] at what you do…And at some point you realize, “Hey I could replicate this and do it even better” and create a version 2.0 that’s more efficient that provides a better service to clients. But you reach that path and there’s a lot of balls required to jump ship and start on your own. I think a majority of the population doesn’t end up taking that leap of faith and…it’s hard.

Is it pretty stressful?

Andrew: Yes. All day, everyday. We trade on foreign markets…so there are only four hours every day where something’s not going on so we don’t get really good sleep when I do sleep. And it’s not only about being awake to know what’s going on everywhere, but we’re also responsible for the livelihood of people who are twice our age…or sometimes three times our age. So there’s a level of stress that comes along with that…

Brian: It’s a privilege, but with it comes a lot of responsibility

Do you guys invest in foreign markets personally?

Andrew: Absolutely. We invest alongside our clients. So just to elaborate on that a little bit…There are different types of companies that do what we do. You have brokerage firms like Merrill Lynch, Smith Barney and all these other companies that people know about. Then you have hedge funds—what people consider to be exclusively for the wealthy, and they are, for a reason. And we’re something in between. We’re not a hedge fund but we’re not a brokerage firm. Our business only applies to wealthy individuals, but what people like about a brokerage firm is that their assets are held within their own name. A hedge fund is a company you own a piece of so you don’t necessarily know what they own. We manage a few different strategies…We run our client’s money like it’s a hedge fund so they get the benefit of a hedge fund, but they also get the benefit of a brokerage firm, which is the transparency…. I have the exact same percentage of assets that another client with a balance portfolio has. We run it as one big portfolio but everyone has mirror image of each other’s accounts, percentage wise.

What do you guys do on a daily basis?

Brian: Since I’m mainly sales driven, a lot of my time is spent on the phone following up with clients, managing our sales team. And we’re just starting up a gold part of our business so a big part of my responsibility is heading that department.

Steve: My day and Andrew’s day, it’s pretty simple. It’s actually just two things. We’re always looking for capital so we can grow our AUM. Other than that, we bicker like married people about stocks or investments. Oh, there is a third—compliance and legal. Those are the two areas of our company you never want to hear from because it’s always bad news. Well, not bad. They’re just annoying, but you need them. So dealing with them, looking for money, and keeping our investments alive.

What are some of the challenges of working together? Three guys, same level. Do you guys fight?

Brian: Surprisingly, no.

Andrew: I’m really sort of tired of hearing Steve talk about Verizon twice a day. A solid 20-minute bragging session about how good his cell phone is versus mine. But other than that I don’t really have any issues. [Laughs from Steve and Brian]

Brian: I’d imagine if we were all female, there’d be a lot of issues.

[Yeah, imagine that: Andrea, Stevette and Brianna. Let’s not go there.]

Steve: There are a handful of things in life I preach to the death and Verizon is one of them…Apple products is another.

So out of all you guys, who’s the neat freak, anal one, laid-back one or any other obvious trait?

Brian: Neat freak.

Steve: I’m definitely anal.

Andrew: I’m definitely laid-back.

Steve: No, I’m meticulous.

Andrew: A.k.a. “anal.” He’s our list maker.

Steve: I am the…oracle.  I know exactly where Panamera stands, to the penny how much we’re worth, what clients we have and everything else. He [Andrew] likes to keep the bigger picture.

So you guys all balance each other out.

All: Definitely.

So when you guys get to the office, what’s the first thing you read on the computer?

Brian: Each of us subscribes to various newsletters that keep us up to date, what’s been going on in the global market. I don’t know what these individual guys do but I read the newsletters I receive so it’s about three to four newsletters every morning but before any of these readings, I do my daily devotionals to get my day started on the right path.

Andrew: You want the fun stuff or the business stuff? I love the Drudge Report. Matt Drudge is awesome. I wouldn’t need another news source. He takes care of me. I like him, but there’s also Real Clear markets, Real Clear Politics. They both have a lot of information that people like us would like to read.

Brian: I like Curbed.

How long does it take?

Andrew: To be honest with you, there’s an endless amount of things we should read. Not could read, but should read.

Steve: We read all day.

Do you listen to background music at work?

Andrew: I was listening to gospel music this morning. I don’t know why I wanted to…[he’s Jewish] it’s just inspirational.

Brian: I listen to my Pandora radio station. This guy [Steve] right here is into techno and house.

Steve: I’ve been known to have house music on really loud in the office. So every time these two guys come into my office… it’s Club Chon [that’s his last name] every time you come to the office. And KROQ early mornings, Kevin and Bean is awesome.

Do you guys love what you do?

All: Yup.

Brian: We’re all entrepreneurs and I’m sure as time passes by we’re going to have other ventures and things to keep our attentions.

Andrew: I wouldn’t trade it. I love it. I mean even from the time I was at Merrill Lynch just sort of as a little trainee, I absolutely loved it. It’s exciting, there’s a lot of money…When you’re handling millions of dollars, its sort of a rush that you feel when you know that you have control over an important piece of people’s lives.

What did you guys want to do when you were little? This?

Andrew: Fireman.

Brian: No, not at all. Police officer or car salesman. I knew I wanted to do something that involved cars.

Andrew: Actually I told my parents when I was ten years old I wanted to be a stockbroker. Before that it was a fireman.

Steve: Man, I don’t even remember…I think I wanted to be a doctor. You know, Asian family, your parents are kind of steering you that way.

Andrew: I had a stock account when I was a little kid. I had an account at Edward Jones and I always wanted to be a stock trader.

Brian: And that’s why he’s our portfolio manager.

Is it hard to balance work and life?

Brian: I feel like life has become work. I think when you’re an employee it’s easy to separate because you just switch into different modes, but being a business owner, you’re always thinking of new ways to grow the business. You always come up with new ideas to market this and that.

Andrew: Because we’re nimble and small and we’re young, we can incorporate fun into our work. Brian, a lot more than Steve and I, go to a lot of fun business events with USC alumni and has a good time, sort of with his work hat on but also enjoying life. I’m personally married unlike these two so it’s different. I can separate work and life to a certain extent but I have a wife…my wife’s a doctor so she understands the work ethic that’s required to do the work that we do and she’s very supportive so my work definitely infiltrates my home life, but it’s cool.

Steve: When you’re single, it works out well…

What are your favorite restaurants? Where do you guys like to hang out?

Brian: Well I just moved to downtown a year and a half ago so I’m in downtown quite a bit. Bottega Louie is probably up there.

Steve: …Mastro’s.

Andrew: I like Takami. Yeah it’s really good. You wouldn’t even know it existed by looking at the rundown building it’s in. But you get to the top floor and it’s gorgeous…and the food’s good.

So what does living the good life mean to you guys?

Brian: For me it’s to get to a point where I don’t have to work because I need to. Just being at a financial position where you choose to work. With the way things are going with the organization, hopefully we can achieve that at a very early age—I think you become more powerful of a professional because now you’re doing it with true passion and not to just makes ends meet.

So after you get all the money you need, and you don’t need anymore, what would you do?

Brian: I’d still lead a simple lifestyle. I’d definitely want to have a big family… so that’s one area in my personal life that I want to get reconciled with—finding a wife…

We’ll let the readers know…

[A round of laughs]

Steve: You could put his work email on there.

Andrew: What’s the good life for you Steve?

Brian: Steve and I are heavily involved at church too, so that’s a good part of our social life.

Steve: It keeps you balanced.

Brian: We enjoy it too.

Steve: I got the good life…You make it what it is. The good life is what I’m doing now compared to what I did before.  We have our own company at a fairly young age and to be your own boss—that is the good life. And to be excited about where Panamera Capital’s going to go in the future, how high it could really be, sky’s the limit, it’s exciting.

Andrew: I think I’m already living the good life. The only thing that can make it better would be a nice sailboat, throw a couple kids in the mix, and as nice as it would be to have a nice big house—I live in a condo right now—but if I had a really big kitchen that was fun to cook in, throw that in there too and I’m a happy camper. Doesn’t take much.

Do you have any advice for readers—for those who want to start their own company or maybe even an investment firm?

Steve: Don’t do it! [In jest]
Andrew: Definitely do it. Because although there’s another level of stress you have when you’re your own employer, the stress you don’t have any longer by being an employee is worth it—100 percent.

Brian: And especially at times like this where people are so concerned that their days are numbered at the organization, if you have the knowledge and the resource to start your own company—I mean we’re a special case I think, everything just kind of lined up. But if someone has that kind of opportunity, I would definitely do it.

—

To find out more about their company, visit www.PanameraCapital.com.

If you recall season five of Top Chef, you’ve probably seen Alex Eusebio in the first four episodes. A number of ex Top Chef contestants have opened their own successful eateries, which seems to be a common, logical pattern, e.g, Grub in Hollywood, The Gorbals in downtown LA—and now, Sweetsalt in Toluca Lake.

Sweetsalt is a new gourmet sandwich shop that Eusebio (trained in French and Spanish cuisines) opened with his wife, Sara Mann, at the start of 2010. It can be described as small and charming with a rustic and no-nonsense appeal with long lunch lines and only a few tables to spare. Tucked in between several shops along the Riverside Drive strip next to Burbank, it’s a stone’s throw away from I-think-it’s-worth-trying Malbec Argentinean restaurant and Yuzu Sushi. It’s a strip where locals and media industry people like to frequent since the Warner Bros. and NBC Studios are close by.

Getting to the thrust of what this review is really about, I tried the highly popular Braised Short Rib sandwich that garnered the chef many praises on Yelp. To my disappointment, it didn’t meet my expectations. The stringy beef was tender and moist but lacked some flavor at the time of my review. It was good, but not wowing, though it’s still worth a try. (Maybe it’ll be different another day.) Instead, the Lavender Duck sandwich fared much better. It was deliciously sweet and savory, just like the shop’s name, which included duck confit, alfalfa sprouts, onion confit, goat cheese and lavender honey.

The Grapefruit Truffle salad is also a good option if you’re looking for a light refreshing meal. It included red ruby grapefruit and navel orange pieces, crunchy braised pancetta bits, shaved sottocenere cheese slices and wild mushrooms all lightly tossed with citrus truffle vinaigrette dressing.

They’ve also got an array of olives, cheese and pastries on sale, not to mention their interesting next-to-the-counter items like the Komforte Chockolates that have flavors like tortilla lime and salt, French toast and ramen noodles. I decided to go with the Ramen Noodle bar with 53% dark chocolate. It was two thumbs up for me, though they could’ve added more noodles to crunch on.

Born in Madrid, raised in the Dominican Republic and New York City, Alex Eusebio wasn’t always a chef. What he did before couldn’t be more opposite and surprising. In an interview on Huffington Post’s Chef Speak column, Eusebio revealed that before becoming a chef, he was an FX trader on Wall Street working for Lehman Brothers at the World Trade Center until August 2001. He quit his stressful job and decided to go to culinary school, which was exactly a month before 9/11 happened.

The moral of the story? He boldly followed his dream, which also saved his life on the way—not only physically, but also emotionally and professionally.

So if you happen to be in the area to visit a friend, watch a taping or attend a meeting and want a quick bite to eat from an inspirational chef with skill and passion, you know where to go.  www.sweetsaltfood.com

10218 Riverside Drive
Toluca Lake, CA 91602
818.509.7790

Mon-Fri | 10am – 8pm
Sat-Sun | 10am – 5pm

Friends, family and boyfriends: be aware.

Ah, finally, a lazy day. The sands of Malibu are golden and the sun beams down on the ocean. It’s 100 degrees. I absorb the scenery while sipping a cold glass of Rosé at a friend’s beachfront pad. Sounds a little cliché, I know, but truthfully…being away from the hustle and bustle of the city is exactly what I need.

My friend, Maher, on the other hand, is enticed with people-watching. He grumbles under his breath, making comments about wafer-thin bodies, which he finds unattractive. I walk over to catch a glimpse of what’s profusely fascinating him. He isn’t people-watching. He’s female-watching.

I gaze at the beach. All I can see are three girls with thin, skeletal-like bodies. I wonder if they have some sort of health condition or are, perhaps, suffering from eating disorders.

Does appearance still remain the momentum of human perfection? 200 years ago, voluptuous women were considered attractive. A few generations later, that conception considerably changed. Heroin chic (popular in the ’90s, characterized by protruding jaw bones, pale skin, dark under-eye circles) became a roaring fashion trend. Society’s been driven by appearance since day one and the definition of beauty has determined individual social status.

I know we’ve heard it all before, but eating disorders are on the rise. A whopping seven million women in America have an eating disorder because of their obsession to remain thin. But friends like you, family members and boyfriends can help by educating themselves.

Most Common Types of Eating Disorders

1) Anorexia Nervosa

What it is: self starvation. Anorexia sufferers have a distorted body image and are terribly frightened at the potential of becoming fat. They struggle with low self esteem and depression and count calories. The troubling part is they don’t know they have a problem. The National Association of Anorexia reports that 5-10% die within 10 years, 18-20% die after 20 years and only 30-40% fully recover. Early detection (usually starts during adolescence) is critical since it can become a lifelong problem that leads to further health risks (bones, kidney, heart), and eventually death.

Signs to detect: Severely underweight and in denial; strictly limits their calories; develops odd food habits such as cutting all their food into tiny pieces; purplish skin color on arms and legs from poor blood flow. (See WebMd.com for a complete list.)

2) Bulimia Nervosa

What it is: recurrent binge eating followed by actions and behaviors that prevent weight gain. According to National Alliance of Mental Illness, it’s an invisible eating disorder because people are of normal weight. Girls tend to purge by induced vomiting, use laxatives or diuretics and engage in excessive exercise.

Signs to detect: Frequent weight changes; often talks about dieting, weight and body shape; looks sick; erosion of tooth enamel; thin or dull hair; teeth marks on the backs of the hands or calluses on the knuckles from self-induced vomiting. (See WebMD.com for a more complete list.)

Less Common Types of Eating Disorders

1) Binge Eating Disorder (BED)

What it is: A relatively new diagnosis, BED is similar to bulimia—uncontrolled impulsive eating. It leads to a binge varying from 2,000 – 3,000 kcals (a kcal is a kilocalorie; 1 kcal = 1000 cal = 1 Cal). It is not an extreme form of purging. It is most common among the middle-aged population and up to 25% are male. This disorder tends to take place in private. When they are in public, the food intake is normal or subnormal. Eventually it contributes to development of obesity. Again, the increase in occurrence is accredited to societal and environmental influences.

Signs to detect: uncontrollable eating in abnormally large amounts; eating as a coping mechanism to alleviate stress and depression; fluctuations in weight.

2) Night Eating Syndrome (NES)

What it is: night snacking. This is a binging disorder. It results in morning anorexia. It involves the intake of over half of the daily calories after the last meal in the evening (dinner). A person with NES tends to indulge in 400 kcals per episode and has multiple episodes throughout the night. NES is very common among obese individuals.

Signs to detect: gets up frequently in the middle of the night to eat; 50% or more of the day’s calories are consumed after dinner.

Misconceptions About Eating Disorders

According to the Academy of Eating Disorders, the problem also affects men. Of the estimated 8 million Americans who have an eating disorder, 1 million are men. An estimated 10 – 15% of men have anorexia or bulimia. For example, some men suffer from Muscle Dismorphia disorder, which causes them to obsess about having an immature body size. They also perceive their body to have decreased muscle mass. The age distribution is also changing with more cases among those in their 30s and even 40s.

Eating disorders are motivated by society’s interpretation of beauty and are common among dancers, models, actresses and athletes. Other factors that contribute include those having a personal history of obesity, family history of affective disorders (e.g. manic or depressive) or family history of substance abuse.

If you know anyone who seems to be suffering from an eating disorder, be the help. Eating disorders are most successfully treated when diagnosed early. Treatment is essential and it can’t be emphasized enough. Fortunately there are plenty of resources to assist in regaining a healthy lifestyle. The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders and National Eating Disorder Association are great places to start (click link).

Truthfully, we all want to look attractive, have sex appeal and self appeal. As an advocate for healthy living and a soon-to-be Doctor of Chiropractic, I truly believe in pursuing it with a well-balanced diet, drinking plenty of water and maintaining a good fitness regimen. Also, individuals seeking optimal health can also contact their chiropractors who are also highly knowledgeable in nutrition and leading a healthy lifestyle.

Source(s):

• Academy of Eating Disorders
• National Alliance on Mental Illness
• American Psychiatric Association, 2006

If you’re in a bubble, you desperately need to get out. You’re missing out on a thrilling adventure. What is a bubble? Essentially, it’s staying in your spaghetti-and-meatballs comfort zone. And no, your eating sushi with chopsticks or eating Panda Express doesn’t cut it or make it any better.

As you may know, many things in America have become “culturized.” Take, for example, fortune cookies. It’s not a dessert in Mainland China and many people there are still not familiar with the term. “A what cookie you ask?”

Go to any of the 120 + McDonald’s chains in India and find it contrary to normal expectations—there is no trace of beef or pork in their hamburgers. Hinduism, the majority religion of India considers the cow to be sacred, so butchering one would be considered sacrilegious. Instead, they use mutton patties consisting of potatoes, peas and spices.

Those are only food examples, but what many people tend to do is apply what they see and know to judge everything else around them—the self reference criterion (SRC). International Marketing–12th Edition by Philip Cateora and John Graham define SRC as “an unconscious reference to one’s own cultural values, experiences, and knowledge as a basis for decisions.” In layman’s terms: living in a bubble.

Staying in your comfort zone means you’re not living on the edge, and as the famous quote says, “If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much space.” If you can relate to any of the following characteristics, now’s about the time to take a pin and pop that bubble.

1. Only making friends or associating with your “type” or “level” of people (e.g., racially or socioeconomically).
2. America is the only world you know and you consciously or subconsciously buy into most stereotypes.
3. Not making much of an effort to learn and grow mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

Cures: How to Get Out of the Bubble

1.  Develop a global awareness.

Traveling is a good start. Seeing another culture in its own country shifts perspectives and opens your mind with different foods, dining etiquettes, types of greetings and ways of interactions. Consider volunteering abroad for one or two weeks during your vacation. Cross-Cultural Solutions (CCS) is a recognized program that has short-term volunteer opportunities available from 1-12 weeks with 12 countries to choose from in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe.

2.  Be open, adaptable, curious and inquisitive.

Go out and mingle. Be open to meeting new people. Educate yourself about a culture that you encounter frequently, whether it’s because you’re dating someone outside your race or your neighbors are from another country. If you’re going on a work business trip to a foreign country, conduct prior research on the cultural taboos, gestures, communication styles, greetings and personal space. Visit CultureCrossing.net to find country guides on cultural facts and etiquettes.

3.  Learn from everyone you encounter.

Stay humble. Don’t dismiss the down and out and carry that haughty and patronizing attitude because you have more materially. You can learn a thing or two from them or lend a helping hand.

Parents often tell their kids that they can be anything they want to be when they grow up, and many people have the leeway to decide what it is they want to do. While this freedom to choose is powerful, the push and the pull of today’s current economic state is causing people to give up on those dreams, making it almost impossible to achieve balance and satisfy both the personal and professional life.

Although I only recently graduated college, I have already come face to face with this dilemma. My goal is to attend law school next year, so I’ve been studying for the LSATs. During this time, I received a full-time job offer that would not only offer me excellent pay, but with full benefits. Do I take it or leave it? Friends and family told me to take the job and leave my aspirations for law school behind, but what no one seemed to consider was that I had no interest in the job (it was a marketing position). Ultimately, I decided to stick with my plan to attend law school, but sometimes I can’t help but think about the opportunity I may have missed.

We always hear “Do what you love” (Henry David Thoreau said this), but in today’s economic climate, it’s becoming harder and harder to follow. New graduates and young professionals are constantly struggling with new jobs or the job search process, posing constant questions about whether or not a more practical or higher paying job should take the place of one’s dream. With so much emphasis being placed on staying afloat during the recession, dismissing what makes a person truly happy within their careers seems to be the initial reaction to staying ahead.

Having a Positive Perspective

But is saying “I hate my job, but the money is good” a reason to keep going? Maybe, but some kind of happy medium should exist such as, “I hate my job right now, but when I’m done with graduate school, I will be doing what I love” or “The money I’m making now may not be enough sometimes, but if I keep going in my career doing what I’m passionate about—I know I will be successful.”

New grads are really feeling the burden of money with student loans. According to the New York Times, during the 2008-2009 academic school year alone, parents and students took out more than $95 billion in loans, both federally guaranteed and private. The pressure to pay off these loans may push aside long-term goals and interests, making people turn to more practical ways to pay them off.

But you might not need to stray too far to get help in making payments. For example, if an English major wants to become a teacher, he might be making $30,000 or less his first year—not nearly enough to cover paying his student loan debt of $80,000. One way to get the teacher into his dream job is to join programs like Teach for America and the Peace Corps—not only will his loans be deferred and interest paid off by the government, he will be doing what he loves—teaching!

Looking elsewhere in the career market can also be a good opportunity to compromise between doing what you love vs. working solely for financial benefits. HRWorld.com lists of 25 recession-proof jobs that exist in health care, public safety, international business, and even bankruptcy law.

If you have always wanted to try your hand at some interest, now could be the time. Have you always wanted to become a nurse or a web designer? Maybe going back to school could be the answer to keeping ahead during the recession, all the while ensuring a good future ahead of you. Despite times being hard, people need to think about long-term effects and how they will feel ten years from now.

I have a confession to make. My cell phone is old. I mean really old. My cell phone is so old that once when I took it to the Verizon store for a new battery, the girl behind the counter audibly chuckled upon seeing my device. OK, it’s only about four years old but in the world of cell phones, that’s ancient—especially when you consider that I’m on one of those “new every two” plans and could have replaced my phone eons ago. So why, in this time of the Android, iPhone4 and iPad, do I hang on to this relic?

It’s simple. I have a problem with throwing something out that works as well as it did when I acquired it. There’s always going to be something newer and better but that alone does not assuage my guilt over throwing out something that works perfectly well.

The corporate push compelling us to dispose of products that are still perfectly useful is called perceived obsolescence. Where planned obsolescence is the design of things to stop working over time, perceived obsolescence is the process of getting us to dispose of things even though they are still working fine.

Those of you born in the 80s may not remember this, but there was a time before wireless when the phone in your home would basically last until you sold your home. In fact, the phones in common, high traffic rooms such as the kitchen were so permanent that they were actually bolted to the wall. Remember that? I’m sure you’ve seen it in a movie…or on the History Channel.

When I was growing up, there were two phones for five of us. One phone was upstairs and one was downstairs. That’s it. And they would last 15 to 20 years. Today, that same family of five would consume and dispose of between 35 and 50 phones during that same 15 to 20 year time period.

Sound like too many? Let’s do the math. Five people consuming a new phone every two years for 15 to 20 years equals 7.5 to 10 new phones per person times five people – 37.5 to 50 phones consumed and disposed of for one family! This doesn’t even consider the fact that almost all of these phones still work perfectly fine when they are replaced—not to mention the fact that with their batteries and components, they are much more toxic than their predecessors bolted to kitchen walls across America.

Cell phones are just one of the most obvious examples of perceived obsolescence, but this could be said of much of what we consume—which brings us to The Story of Stuff.

The Story of Stuff is a fantastic 20-minute, animated documentary that illustrates where all of the things we consume come from. Referred to as “the materials economy,” The Story of Stuff looks at the whole supply chain including extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal. But the key to the narrative is that this is a system in crisis. The film focuses on how our current way of doing things is not sustainable and needs to be re-evaluated. We cannot keep consuming at the rate we are because the environmental and human costs are just too high.

Some of the facts highlighted in the film:

• 99% of all things we consume are thrown away within six months.
• In the past three decades one-third of our planet’s natural resource space has been consumed.
• In the United States, we have less than 4% of our original forest left and 40% of our waterways have become undrinkable.
• The U.S. has only 5% of the world’s population but we’re using 30% of the world’s resources and produce 30% of the world’s waste.
• If everyone consumed at U.S. rates, we would need three to five planets to satisfy the consumption.
• The average person in the U.S. consumes twice as much as they did 50 years ago.
• In the U.S. we shop 3 to 4 times as much as our counterparts in Europe.
• Each of us in the United States disposes about 4.5 pounds of garbage per day, twice as much as 30 years ago.
• For every garbage can of waste an American disposes of, the equivalent of 70 garbage cans of waste are created just to produce the stuff you are throwing away. The implication: recycling alone is not the sole solution.

The Story of Stuff is a slightly acerbic, highly entertaining and immensely educational look at where all our stuff comes from and where it all goes. Please take 20 minutes to watch this very important film.

Go to www.storyofstuff.com to see the short video and Stephen Colbert’s interview with Annie Leonard, the founder of the project.

(The film is also viewable on YouTube)

Introducing Mia Kim, an indie rock-pop artist—who she is, how she got started and her latest project.

Photos: © Collaj Magazine

Blue streaked hair, paint daubed nails, and a refreshing iced green tea soy latte at her grab is what you can expect to see in an encounter with Mia Kim at, say, Starbucks. Creating and being an artist is at the forefront of who she is. Not confined to the title of a musician, Mia can also act—and she does it well. She was, after all, a theater and dance major in college. But not to mistake her energetic personality as her being an extrovert—it’s a big misconception that people have, and she wants to set the record straight: “I’m actually a severe introvert who had to learn how to be outgoing.”

Pennsylvania is where Mia Kim hails from—Philly, to be exact. When asked about one major thing she doesn’t like about LA , it’s a close tie between traffic and the smog: “The traffic I can deal with, but the smog is awful because it makes me want to scrub the sky and I can’t.” Her metaphorical response to the sky as a canvas or surface is a telling fact—a true artist.

Her name may be common, but ask her how she got it. “My mom studied opera and voice and so she named me Mia, which is based on the Italian [word] for ‘mine’”—bringing us to her innate love of music. All that singing she heard when she was in her mother’s womb must’ve had an effect. Mia Kim wrote her first instrumental song on the piano at 7 years of age and her first full song, complete with melody and lyrics, in high school. “The inspiration was a made up story in my mind, which is my usual inspiration when writing songs,” she says.

Mia Kim’s latest album Who is Sukey Rose? is one of those stories in her mind. Sukey Rose is an introspective fictional character that reflects snapshots of Mia, except in an exaggerated and beyond-extreme self who raises questions and issues about life, truth and love.

This is her second album, produced by Jason Martin of Starflyer 59. It carries added sweetness since it is her first fan-funded album for which she raised over $8,000. An impressive feat? I think so. Expect a mix of indie pop rock with varying shapes and textures. Her EP (artists usually release “extended plays” that contain fewer tracks than a full album as a foretaste of what is to come), which is planned to be released in the fall, will be a style that is “indie synth from outer space.” If you can imagine, it sounds like a unique blend of Radiohead and Eisley.

Some of her musical inspirations include Mute Math, Imogen Heap and Death Cab for Cutie, as well as nature. “God’s creation inspires me, especially natural sounds and natural scents of the air.”

A few months ago, Mia Kim was featured alongside singer David Choi on Arirang TV, an international, English-language network from Seoul, Korea. She has also been featured in Audrey Magazine, Performer Magazine, MTV Iggy (a blog about global pop culture, latest trends and new music) and Keyboard Magazine, in which music critic Michael Gallant nicely sums up two of her tracks:

“Oh, Sukey Rose” uses tremolo electric piano, soaring trance-like synths, and driving low-range piano to help tell the title character’s story, while “Safe” rides on energetic surf organ and shimmering Wurlitzer, propelled throughout by Mia’s powerful vocals. Equal parts sugar and edge, pop and rock, Mia’s album poses a question well worth listening to.”

Visit www.SukeyRose.com to listen or buy the artist’s CD. Mia Kim’s music is also available on iTunes.

For more photos from the shoot, visit our Facebook fan page.