This is a hard post for me to write… because I am a bit shy (believe it or not) and humbled by the fact that Creative Loafing chose me to grace their cover to represent Charlotte’s hottest democrats.  Thank you Amy and Heather for nominating me, and for anyone else out there that did too!

You can read all about me and all my crazy blue spreading antics in the story here at Creative Loafing Lust List 2012…

>

I thought it would be interesting to dedicate this post to the “Behind The Scenes” of getting ready for the cover photo shoot.  It was nerve racking to say the least…

When I found out Creative Loafing selected me to be on the Lust List 2012 and to be on the cover, I jumped up and down like a bunny rabbit high on carrot and beet juice. Creative Loafing is one of my favorite publications in Charlotte, and I’ve been reading it for at least the last 16 years…

However, my high quickly came down after hearing the exciting news and my stomach got really queasy.

Oh no, I thought, I haven’t really talked about my personal political views on Food Babe and would hate to alienate any of my readers – because you know, health and understanding what’s in your food goes beyond political views and should be everyone’s business whether you are democrat or republican.

I quickly came to my senses and realized that being on the cover would definitely attract more attention to Food Babe, which in turn would help me reach even more people and share information about what’s in our food and what it does to the body. Helping to spreading the word louder about companies like Yoforia, Givaduan, Chick-Fil-A and Pop Chips.

Besides, there’s nothing wrong with being a democrat. Democrats are sexy, who ever heard of wanting a piece of elephant?

I don’t know the overall impact of being on the cover yet – but I’m all smiles now and the butterflies are gone. The reaction from friends and family thus far has been absolutely heart warming – Thank You. Thank You. Thank You.

I woke up early on the day of the photo shoot, a bit nervous, and a bit excited…. Looked through my closet and picked out 4 outfits that weren’t red.  Red was a big no no for the shoot.  Like, duh.

I did a serious stress busting workout  – Insanity iMax Cardio Conditioning (An hour long, kick your butt into shape dvd). I followed up my session with a big giant glass of Rainbow Bite Juice. Can you see all the colors from the rainbow chard in the glass?

I followed up the juice with a heafty serving of Earth Fare’s tabbouleh salad, avocado and arugula. This was perfect fuel for what lay ahead…

Luckily – I had a very supporting companion to accompany me to the photo shoot, in the form of “Mini Me,” my cousin Reeva…Here she is drinking a Hari Shake

…and here she is smoking’ hot on New Year’s Eve – Can you tell I stayed in?!

Having Reeva with me, really helped calm my nerves… not to mention her feeding me so many “you are awesome, stop worrying” reassurances so I wouldn’t be so hard on myself…

I got to the photo shoot clean faced, having the luxury of getting my makeup done by the photographer Jeaumane McIntosh’s wife, Claire…

Claire was awesome to work with, so sweet, incredibly skilled, and didn’t mind the fact that I wanted her to use some of my makeup (you know – without all the toxic chemicals and junk…)

The photo session took just a little over 2 hours with 4 different outfits. The whole experience was very fun…Jeaumane kept telling me really stupid jokes so I would loosen up… When LMFAO’s “I’m Sexy and I Know it” came on the radio, it made me totally crack up and I quickly got into the spirit!

As you can see from the front cover above, CL picked the picture with this white dress (The last time I wore this was to my rehearsal dinner over 5 years ago! It was great getting it back out of the closet and exciting to know it still fit!)

After the shoot I went home, made this pizza for dinner to celebrate…however, I was still really nervous about how the cover and article would turn out. Who wouldn’t be!?

Luckily everything turned out just fine and exceeded my expectations!

Thank you Megan Hartsell, the writer of the Creative Loafing Lust List 2012, Photographer Jeaumane McIntosh, Makeup Artist Claire, and the staff at Creative Loafing for an incredible opportunity and experience.

Before I end this post… I want to share one important thing. This is rare footage from an event where President Obama promises to label genetically modified foods during his campaign in 2008.

As you probably understand, this promise has not yet been fulfilled in the last 3 years. Big food companies continue to get away with putting genetically modified foods in our food without us knowing it. The United States is only developed country in the world that doesn’t label GMOs. The long term health effects of GMO’s are just now being studied and the disastrous health consequences scientists have found thus far are extremely disturbing. We have the right to know what’s in our food.

You better believe – I am going to hold President Obama to this promise, especially in his second term. Being a delegate for him in 2008, I had many opportunities to speak with him about the issues. This time around, I hope to have even more opportunities since the DNC will be coming to Charlotte – Can you guess what my first question for him will be?

If you’d like to support this movement, visit Just Label It and sign a growing petition to the FDA.

In the Best Health Always…

Food Babe