LIVE Magazine TV June 2018

perfect. I think hot yoga is the perfect metaphor. It’s always a
struggle. But it is a rewarding one that often feels good, while
you push yourself to the day’s limits. Breathe, stretch, and release
simultaneously. It’s yoga practice; not yoga perfect. We
start from where we are. It also helps that many of the places
I work in Southern California are beautiful. I feel like I’m on
vacation if I let the day’s stress go…….I sneak in a bike ride,
a kayak, a hike, a sunset, a beautiful meal, a glass of wine,
or just great music while working at the computer and a fluffy
bed. It turns a grueling travel schedule into a mini-vacation almost
every day. Most of the time, it creates a work/life rhythm
that flows into something which feels like joyful productivity.
Its practice not perfect!
Juli: You have not only built an empire but your body rocks!
What is your workout and food routine?
Charissa: Ha! It’s a struggle. I have trained for certain goals
over the years, but now, I’m a little older and my obsession
is more about getting Farley Pavers from a successful entrepreneurial
entity to a professionally managed firm that will
be able to sustain economic change and provide for the the
next generation. The challenge is to figure out what you don’t
know and do what you aren’t good at. Having said that,
it’s all in vain if you fall apart in the process. I’ve lost some
dear friends along the way. And the thought, “do not waste
this life”, is always in my psyche. But what does that mean?
Have fun? Achieve something? Drink the wine? Fast? Climb
a mountain? Draft the strategic plan? In the words of my exhusband….”You
just want everything”. And yes, I do. What’s
wrong with that? But sometimes you also need to just sleep.
You’re going to regret asking about food. If the strategic plan
is an obsession….. Food is the other one. But it’s more than
what it seems. I love to cook, I love the farmer’s market (Saks,
the Palm Springs Airport, and the farmer’s market are my
favorite places in the desert). I love wild foods. And I love to
forage wild foods…...but all plants. I went “plant based” at
midnight on my birthday almost a year ago, and it is something
I am extremely proud of.
Throughout the last 20 years I have randomly trained for different
goals but now my goal is to elevate the business from a
successful entrepreneurial activity of a professionally managed
firm that can sustain economic instability. Just when you think
you’ve figured out the maze they move the cheese. And I’m
getting older. So with working out it’s not a routine with my
crazy schedule but how do I try to get something physical into
my day as many days as possible. I swim, bike, jog, walk,
train at the gym, kayak. Just anything I can. My ex asked me
about using a trainer and said, “when will you be trained?”. I
guess I am now.
Anyone who knows me read the food part of your question
and groaned out loud. Food is my other obsession, but in a
deeply personal way. As I said earlier, I’ve lost more than a
few people I was very close to; and it has impacted me deeply.
I sat on the board of Desert Cancer Foundation for many years
as well. I had an epiphany in the middle of the night on my
birthday almost a year ago. There is so much data coming at
us that you hear random information and you see documentaries
like “Food, Inc.”, “What the Health”, “Plant Pure Nation”,
but you don’t really hear it, or you don’t really understand what
to do. It such a big thing to change your eating. And there are
so many voices in your head. And even when you realize that
your way of eating doesn’t line up with your values or your
compassion, you still don’t connect the dots. And then another
friend gets sick. And I was worried he might die. And on that
night it hit me, and what hit me has been confirmed ever since.
We work so hard raising money to help people with cancer
and wishing there was a cure. Well there kind of is.
The estimated new cases of cancer in 2018 is 1.7 million.
(https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/all.html) More than 4
out of 10 cancer cases among adults in the United States and
almost half of all cancer-related deaths are associated with potentially
modifiable risk factors. Farhad Islami, MD, PhD, strategic
director, cancer surveillance research, American Cancer
Society, Atlanta, Georgia, and colleagues saidin an American
Cancer Society study, “An estimated 42% of all cancer cases
and nearly one-half of all cancer deaths in the United States in
2014 were attributable to evaluated risk factors, many of which
could have been mitigated by effective preventive strategies.”
One of those factors is diet. There is a growing group of physicians,
like Michael Greger, Neal Bernard, Michael Klaper,
Joel Fuhrman, just to name a few, who believe that the dairy,
meat and egg industries have not been honest with us about
the dangers eating these things. And eating a plant based diet
can prevent and even reverse some incidents of chronic disease
including cancer, diabetes and heart disease. Www.Nutrition-
Facts.org is a treasure of medical research showing that diet
may, in many cases, perform better than pharmacology. Don’t
get me started on that... or politics….. or the American monetary
system. In short, the epiphany in the middle of the night was the
voice saying, “Don’t act like you dont know.”
At least going vegan is the good way to know who your
friends are. Anyone who will still tolerate you is a real friend
indeed! And I can cook. And I love wild foods and foraging.
For me, cooking is like painting. I feel like I have hundreds of
new colors to paint with. I really haven’t missed much. When
people tell me they could never live without (fill in the blank), I
tell them, then don’t! It’s not going off the planet. I’m actually
only vegan-ish. If you are slinging caviar, I’ll probably eat it.
My favorite pair of shoes is leather. As is my hand bag. And my
car interior. They are already dead. You can always start with
meatless Monday. It’s hard to change a lifetime of brainwashing,
bad data, and customs. You just start where you are. If
you want to. Or not.
Juli: What is it like being single with all this going on?
Charissa: It’s just like the balance thing. You think you really
want something. But you have to lean in while you are pushing
hard, and breath. Otherwise you might not be aware. You
might miss things. You might not hear your own inner voice.
Life is a thinking-man’s game. And you learn as you go. What
I’ve learned is, it’s ok. I think you need to be kind of brave
to be single, so you don’t live in some kind of limbo….You