If you are my friend on Facebook/Instagram or twitter, you might have noticed that I am a big fan of Urban Remedy. It’s not just because their food is so good, and truly – good for you. I have a deep respect for founder Neka Pasquale. She talks the talk. When I first met Neka, she was an acupuncturist, and despite my inability to sit still for twenty minutes for the treatments, we quickly became friends. I was even a taste tester early on when she would come up with new juice flavors and recipes.
Before Urban Remedy officially became a company, she started to do health retreats out at Stinson, began making juices, and then before I knew it, her retreats were sold out -and she was sketching out logos for her company based on the concept of Food as Medicine she was going to call Urban Remedy. Blink and she had investors, Cindy Crawford was endorsing her and she had new outlets opening around the Bay Area. I don’t mean to belittle her process, it seemed like how other people’s pregnancies go so fast, while yours stops time. Neka and her team are constantly working hard to come up with new recipes, products and ideas to help the rest of us get healthy.
Over the holidays, I got word of her latest offering, under the Urban Remedy umbrella, Metta Morphosis. And after a couple false starts (as in I didn’t want to have to do the real program) my coworker Kasia and I both received huge boxes with six juices, three soups, three salads and six tinctures. I took them out of the office with a dolly.
Here’s how it works…
The Program has four integrated parts:
ORGANIC PLANT-BASED FOOD & JUICE
A clean, artfully-crafted meal plan featuring Urban Remedy’s signature low glycemic healing juices, tinctures and plant-based meals, delivered to your door
PURPOSEFUL MOVEMENT
Powerful online classes designed by master dancer Annie Parr and other experts to promote empowerment through movement
MINDFULNESS
Guided meditation sessions to cultivate a mindful awareness, as well as inspiring videos and podcasts to empower you to purge negativity from your life at your fingertips
COMMUNITY
An online community designed to support and inspire before, during and after the program. Moderated by Urban Remedy Founder and Licensed Acupuncturist, Neka Pasquale Lac MS.
Day at a glance:
MORNING
● Meditation – Start the day anew with an inspirational online guided meditation
● Breakfast – Organic, low glycemic green juice with healing tincture
● Movement – Virtual yoga or purposeful movement class
● Snack – Organic, low glycemic green juice with healing tincture
AFTERNOON
● Lunch – Artfully-crafted plant-powered organic salad
● Inspiration – Choose from videos or podcasts throughout the day
● Snack – Fresh juice shot with anti-inflammatory ingredients
● Tea – Afternoon herbal tea to reduce bloating and strengthen digestion
EVENING
● Dinner – Warming plant-based soup
● Snack – Nightly low glycemic cashew milk infused with antioxidants
● Meditation – End your day with an inspirational online guided meditation
Clients can opt for three to five days, $65 a day for everything. After completing the three day cleanse Kasia (my co-worker) and I definitely felt clear-minded and healthy. It was pretty easy to integrate into our regular lives (though I had a harder time with the coffee then she did.)
If you do it here are our tips:
1. Taper – start to cleanse (as in reduce or eliminate coffee or alcohol) a few days prior.
2. Get away from your everyday routine — we both thought this would be a great thing to take to a long weekend getaway. When you are home at the office -the lure of that 3pm salty chip break is hard to ignore.
3. Increase your workouts, they provide meditation and movement videos (big fan of Annie Parr!) but you might as well push yourself further and do an extra yoga class, or big hikes.
4. Utilize the online community – there were others going through it at the same time – so it’s was a fun way to keep on track.
5. If you have teenage daughters in the house – don’t trust them around the juices.
Mimi Towle has been the editor of Marin Magazine for over a decade and is currently the national editorial director of Make it Better Media. She lived with her family lived in Sycamore Park and Strawberry and thoroughly enjoyed raising two daughters in the mayhem of Marin’s youth sports; soccer, swim, volleyball, ballet, hip hop, gymnastics and many many hours spent at Miwok Stables. Her community involvements include volunteering at her daughter’s schools, coaching soccer and volleyball (glorified snack mom), being on the board of both Richardson Bay Audubon Center and then The EACH Foundation. Currently residing on a floating home in Sausalito, she enjoys all water activity, including learning how to steer a 6-person canoe for the Tamalpais Outrigger Canoe Club. Born and raised in Hawaii, her fondness for the islands has on occasion made its way into the pages of the magazine. If you want more, she’s created a website, HawaiiIslander.com.
