Glow #5

Eliza Harris:

Well, I think that when you change one thing about yourself that bothers you, like I said, it affects your entire being. It makes you be able to put your best foot forward and it gives you that confidence that you need.

Lisa Brodar:

We really loved a lot of the aspects of Portland, Maine. Maine in general. You know, you have wind energy, you're on the water, there are farms here. It's an old thriving port city that I think historically has done really well,

Barbara Gulino:

will do well in the future in supporting the community. We support nonprofits or schools that are working to alleviate hunger, environmental issues, arts and education, sustainable agriculture and preventative medicine.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Hello, this is Dr. Lisa Belisle. Today is October 16th and this is the fifth episode of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast, co hosted by Genevieve Morgan. Today's theme is glow. Most mornings I get up and I run and I run along the Maine coast. I run along the rivers and run down to the ocean. I run in the forests, I run across the fields. And the reason that I love to run first thing in the morning is the sunrise, which is the ultimate glow. Most mornings the sun rises and we see it. Every morning the sun rises and this is an external glow that reminds me of the importance of the internal glow. I was recently in Camden at a restaurant having a meal with a dear friend and her friend and another dear friend, a big group of friends. We were all glowing together and as we left, she said, take this box of matches. This is a great box of matches. You will love these matches. And I picked them up and they are indeed a great box of matches. And what's so great about them is they're sturdy and they come in great packaging, but they also create this amazing spark of fire. And that's what the sunrise does. Every morning when we wake up, when the clouds have cleared and the sky lights up, we have the spark of fire. That's what we do on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast. We're trying to begin a glow. Whether we're doing it in a small way or a big way. Whether we're talking to, as we will today, practitioners from Akari in Portland or talking to a woman from Portland General Store who makes sustainable soaps, or whether we're talking to Barbara Golino from Whole Foods Market in Portland, who's out there doing things that help the community glow. We're all about glow. So today, I hope you enjoy our show as we talk about ways to bring forth an internal glow and then begin to glow externally out into the world. Thank you so much for joining us. We like to start off the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast every week with our food and sustenance segment. And every week we're joined by Genevieve Morgan. Good to see you. Then this week we talked about earlier the idea of GLOW and getting out there and being in the world and seeing the sunrise, going for a run, you know, finding the good box of matches.

Genevieve Morgan:

Yeah, I love that. I love that topic. As you know, I just wrote an article for Maine Magazine about getting your glow on, unwrapping your skin's potential. And I was thinking about it much more on the surface level, but you've really taken it down to a different level, which is the inner glow, your inner fire.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Right. And the inner fire, which there is a spiritual aspect to it, there is an emotional aspect to it, but there's also a very just grassroots, fundamental, foundational aspect to it. And that's the food piece. And this is why every week we go into the Whole Foods Market and they are one of our sponsors. They provide us with locally grown foods. They are just bursting at the seams with food. I was amazed at how much is still being grown locally and still available at the Whole Foods Market. We have our bag that says I love veggies from Whole Foods Market. Actually, it says, I heart veggies.

Genevieve Morgan:

I know. I was looking at that.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah, I know you wanted to steal

Genevieve Morgan:

that, but I do. I really want that bag.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yes. Well, maybe I'll see if I can find you one. Jen, in my bag this week I came in, I had some green peppers, some parsley, and some broccoli from Checker Farm in Parkman. I have an Asian eggplant. And wait, I'm going to reach over and show you this, Jen. It's actually really cool.

Genevieve Morgan:

Eggplants are kind of intimidating. I never know what to do with them.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Oh, well, here, let me tell you what I did with mine last night. Last night I took some onions and some garlic and a little bit of ginger and some daikon radish, which is a big white radish that you can actually find at Whole Foods. It's not local, but it's used a lot in traditional Chinese medicine and it's helpful for the cold season. It's got a little bit of drying for people who have damp issues. So I put those in with some Asian eggplant, kind them all up and added some locally grown tomatoes. And I just let that simmer for a bit. So the thing about eggplant that's really nice and it's also a healing food in traditional Chinese medicine. We talk about it in our dragon's way qigong class is that it takes on the properties of the food around it. And that's why we always think about eggplant parmesan. This is why it's used. It can be whatever you want it to be. So it's this beautiful purple plant, this beautiful purple vegetable, and it can used in a lot of ways.

Genevieve Morgan:

And do you just chop off the ends and use it like that?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah, that's the. That is the best way to do it. Chop off the ends, scrub the peel, and then you can saute it up or a lot of people will bake the eggplant. You can make it into baba ganoush, you know, which is a nice spread. So that's our eggplant. We also had this week some. And I think I mentioned this was Rippling Waters Farm in Standish. We also had some sweet corn which came from Jefferson, Maine, and some apples, Gala Cortlandt Max, and some apple cider all out of Ricker Hill Farm. Those are also local. And some cluster tomatoes. I don't know exactly where those came from, but it said Maine. So these were so many foods. I was bowled over by all of this. My daughter Sophie and I yesterday, we were doing cooking for this segment because I like to get my hands on the things that I'm talking about. I like to actually know what I'm. So when you say, hey, how do you use an eggplant? I can say, this is how I used the eggplant yesterday.

Genevieve Morgan:

That's great.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah. And that's how we've talked about this predominantly plant based diet. We've talked about vegetarian chili in past segments. That's how you get your kids interested in eating these kinds of foods.

Genevieve Morgan:

Well, and I think you bring up a really interesting point because in one of my last articles that I wrote, we talked about the overweight and obesity rate of children in Maine. And it is marching in course with the nation, which is about 66% so that means that two out of three kids in our state are considered either overweight or obese. And as we know, once you are overweight or obese as a child, it gets much harder to lose that weight as an adult. So bringing your kids along and getting them interested in making food fun is a great way to begin taking the pounds off. In childhood, though, it's easy to make them hot dogs and Mac and cheese, and I certainly do that all the time. Exposing them to different flavors and different experiences is really important.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And speaking of different flavors and different experiences, I have some. I have brought you and John, our audio guru over here, some baggies of our corn and beans.

Genevieve Morgan:

He's smiling now.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

That's good. He's looking very excited. Our corn and bean salad, which I know it has kidney beans, it has garbanzo beans, otherwise known as chickpeas, locally grown corn. It's got some tomatoes in there. Mix it up with a little vinegar. We'll put this on the Dr. Lisa website so that you can bring this home and enjoy it yourself. And I know children like it. You were asking me about football watching. This is something you could serve during a football game. It's a way to get this beautiful colored food on your plate.

Genevieve Morgan:

That would be nice to have an alternative to nachos.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, yes, it is nice to. I mean, I think people are still going to eat nachos, but, you know, if you.

Genevieve Morgan:

Yeah, you can add a little extra.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You can add a little extra. And you can also, when you're thinking about things, to sort of swap out. This last week, I went into the whole food store and I found some Maine root, root beer. They have sarsaparilla. They have root beer. There's also Green Bee soda. They have Blueberry Dream, and there are Lemon Honey Zinger sodas. And these are locally made sodas. You were asking me a question about soda before we went on the air.

Genevieve Morgan:

Yes. Well, I was just lamenting the fact that all soda, except for homegrown soda, has high fructose corn syrup in it instead, as a sweetener, instead of real sugar, which is. Which I think is a real problem for the future of our health.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It is a real problem. And what I know is that we're a society where we kind of get hit over the head with things, very strong flavors, whether it's sweet or salty or spicy. And we can't seem to do anything that's not extreme. So when you. You actually have to help reeducate yourself or your children when it comes to sweetness, when it Comes to a sugar content. So these sodas are good because they're not really, really sweet. The one that's the made with honey, the Green Bee, it's honey. They use just enough to make it just sweet enough. And the same with the main root soda. And you can also, you were talking to me about canning and preserving. And, you know, we have this great harvest right now. What do we do with these foods? What do we do to preserve the local throughout the year? So I made some applesauce with Sophie yesterday. And speaking about sweeteners, we took about, I think it was about eight cups of apples, Cortlands and Mac's from Ricker Hill Orchard. We cut them all up. And of course, when you're 10, that's a chore. But she still did that. She still helped make the pie, too. And instead of using sugar, as one might traditionally do, we used some apple cider and we used some honey.

Genevieve Morgan:

How did it turn out?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It was really good. And this is the second time in the week that I've made this applesauce. The last time I made it for one of my dear friends, he ate it all. So it was all gone. I didn't get any more of it. And this time I made it. And both of my daughters had some. And it, you know, there was no sugar. It was all naturally sweet. In fact, the honey was from a local apiary. And you can also use maple syrup. In Maine, we have plenty of that sort of thing.

Genevieve Morgan:

I know people forget that there are many alternatives when it comes to sweeteners. It's not just white cane sugar, Right.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And there's agave nectar. There's brown rice syrup. There's a lot of things. And they're not all locally grown, but.

Genevieve Morgan:

Well, and talk a little bit about this, about why it's important, because

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

white

Genevieve Morgan:

cane sugar actually raises your insulin levels significantly when you ingest it. But the natural sugars have other properties. If I'm right in this, they have other properties that don't create that big insulin spike. So if you're struggling with diabetes or insulin sensitivity, really understanding the different varieties open to you for sweetness in your life is important.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It's true. They don't have the same insulin spike. They have a lot to do with the glycemic index. And we'll talk about that on a future show. The other thing with these natural sweeteners is you don't have to use that much of them. As most people know, honey is very, very sweet. Maple syrup is very, very sweet. And if you can Use just a little bit, then it'll go a long way. The other piece is that it has more, well, for example, honey. It's made from the pollen collected by bees. So it actually has healing properties, as does maple syrup, which is sort of the lifeblood of the as opposed to cane syrup. I mean, there's nothing inherently wrong with sugar per se, or sugar cane, but when you process everything down, kind of like the high fructose corn syrup, you're losing a lot of the good properties of the food.

Genevieve Morgan:

That makes so much sense.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah. That add nutritional value. So these are some of the things that I was thinking about this week when it came to our food and sustenance segment. And I think there is such a huge relationship between one's inner glow, one's, one's what one puts into one's body. And it shows on your face. It shows in your life. It shows in how you interact with people. I've seen this over and over in my practice, and I think you've seen the same as well, Jen.

Genevieve Morgan:

I certainly have. And I do know that one of the main lifestyle choices you can make to increase the radiance of your skin is to cut back on sugar consumption. So as you've all, as you keep on saying, Lisa, it's all connected.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It is all connected. And we're going to see that as we continue on in the show with our next segment, the lovely ladies from Acari here in Portland. And then moving on to Lisa Broder from Portland General and Barbara Galino, our wonderful Whole Foods Market sponsor and liaison. So it's going to be a great show.

Genevieve Morgan:

Sounds like fun.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yes. Keep on listening.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Eliza is a licensed esthetician who graduated with honors from the renowned Evita Institute of New York. She has six years of industry experience granted in estiology science. Eliza is committed to helping patients reveal their natural beauty through the latest skin care therapy. And Christina is the senior esthetician at Acari. She grew up in Scarborough and sings lead and the Jim Champy Band at the Landing in Scarborough, which makes me very happy as a fellow singer. So thank you so much for coming in and sharing your voices with us today.

Christina Sterling:

Thank you for having us.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So I'm also here with Jen Morgan, and I know that Jen has a personal relationship with Ikari, and it's important that we have you in here because you're representing the segment that we're talking about today. Glow. Glow. We're all about glow and internal beauty and external beauty and how those things match up and wellness. So, having had several conversations with Alan, the founder of Akari, I know that this is what he is all about. He's about beauty from the inside to the outside. Tell me about Akari and the philosophy behind Akari and how it came to be what it is today.

Eliza Harris:

Well, basically, the philosophy at Akari is that beauty starts from within. So as we get older, our faces and bodies are constantly changing. As we age, we want to take care of the core before we take care of the exterior. And at Acari, we want to be responsible for all your cosmetic needs, including your health, physically and mentally.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And did you personally come to being an esthetician for that particular reason, or was there another reason that brought you here?

Eliza Harris:

Absolutely. It's something I've been interested anti aging, and so that's definitely something I wanted to get into.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I know Christina's from Scarborough. Are you also from Maine?

Eliza Harris:

I'm from Durham, Maine.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So you came. You know that people in Maine want to be just as beautiful as people anywhere else, and you decided you were going to go get some training in this and you went away to New York to do this?

Eliza Harris:

That's correct.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

How did that change your sort of worldview on beauty and.

Eliza Harris:

Well, New York, you know, everybody's definitely into the most cutting edge technologies in New York City. And I think that bringing that to Maine is a great thing. You know, in Maine, we have a lot of extreme temperatures, and we're dealing with, you know, very, very hot, very, very cold. So our skin goes through a lot of different conditions throughout the year. And I think people in Maine are really looking for solutions for that.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Do you see that? How has your. I guess, how has your philosophy changed over time? I know that you began at Sakari, and you obviously had did the standard hair, makeup, nails, things like that. But what I understand now is that you actually have a cosmetic center over there which some people have called a Medispa. So. And I believe that this has changed the types of services that you offer.

Christina Sterling:

Yeah, basically, I started at Akari about four years ago, and I've just watched Ekari grow. We had moved down from 4th street up to Middle Street. And our Medispa has just grown in so many ways. We have a few new doctors that are on board with us. We have new, new treatments. So it's just definitely up and coming. Every day is a new day with us.

Genevieve Morgan:

And I actually can speak to that because I went to Acari for The first time 10 years ago, I think, just to get my hair cut. I moved here from San Francisco via New York, and it was the best hair salon at that point. But since then, I've witnessed this huge growth in what you guys offer and also a sense of life coaching. And there's more spiritual stuff and emotional stuff happening over there, too. That's my perception, definitely.

Christina Sterling:

We have a lifestyle coach that basically just started working with us, and she's wonderful. She basically, she's able to really connect with a lot of our clients at Acari. She helps you sort of come up with different goals that you have for your life and different ways that you can go about achieving that. So it's really great, and we're very excited to have her.

Genevieve Morgan:

So has that changed the way you've practiced your services?

Eliza Harris:

I think our vision at Acari is that someone can come in and they can get anything they need done from head to toe. You know, they can come in, they can get, you know, a wellness coach to help them from the inside out, and they can get a laser treatment, and they can get their hair and nails done. It's basically, you know, we can have a whole team behind you to take care of you, to get you where you want to be, which is really

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

important because in last week's show, we spoke to Marcel Pick, and she wrote the book Are youe Tired and Wired? And she talked about how women are always giving all the energy is sort of outgoing, and they end up with very little left. So it's almost as if you need a team. You need to have a team of people behind you to help coach you, to help make you feel more beautiful from the outside and from the inside. And when I met. I met with Alan a few weeks ago, and we sat down, we had lunch. He said, you know, I had been doing hair for. I don't know what he said, 30 years, something like this. And he told me he could put his hands on a client's hair and he could tell things about her life. He could tell where she was sort of in her cycle. He could tell whether she was pregnant. He could tell. And that was so interesting to me because, I mean, it speaks to sort of the subtlety that you can gain from touch, but also from the relationship that you're describing, which goes so much, much deeper than let me do your nails. I mean, it really is the back and forth, I think, and the ability to know somebody over time.

Christina Sterling:

Absolutely, Definitely.

Genevieve Morgan:

I also think that women feel really guilty about pampering themselves. And I wanted you to speak to that a little bit because obviously these services aren't free, but they do have a value that goes far and beyond just a monetary value. And so what do you think? Do you get that a lot from your clients? They come in and they feel sort of sheepish about the services or having you pamper them.

Eliza Harris:

You know, I think that what it is is that when you have something that bothers you, something that you find is a flaw, if you fix that, it can change your entire outlook on your life. It affects how you go out into the world, your confidence, how you feel about yourself, and that helps you be a better mother or a better wife or it just helps you all around.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And do you feel like you're able to nurture people through some of these changes? Do you feel like you're able to help them almost the way a therapist might?

Christina Sterling:

Well, and I think changing the way you look when you look in the mirror, whether it be your hair or your skin, starting yourself on a good skincare regime or getting yourself doing different facial treatments, I just know if you look in the mirror and you feel better about the way you look, I think sometimes that's where the confidence comes. So, yeah, it's definitely important to take care of your outer beauty as well as your inner beauty. Definitely.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Now, one of the questions we have later on in the show, we have Lisa Broder from the Portland General Store, and she does a lot of work with men's products, men's care products. We've talked a lot about women so far. Tell me about what Your male clientele looks like.

Christina Sterling:

You know, we certainly have a lot of men that come into Okari, and I think a lot of times the way it starts is they might come in for a haircut, and then, you know, we have certain stylists that might, you know, you gotta go upstairs and see Christina. So I think a lot of times that's sort of where it starts, is down on the hair floor. But we certainly do a lot of men's facials. We can cater to a lot of men's needs. We have men's facials. So what we can correct on a woman, you know, we basically can correct on a man as well. And I think a lot of times men in general are a little bit more shy about things like that, but we try to make them feel really comfortable and, you know, so that they can come forward with questions and different concerns that they might have.

Eliza Harris:

So, yeah, I think men are just as interested in anti aging as women are, you know, and we have a lot of fantastic laser treatments, from skin tightening to laser hair removal, that help with that. You know, men love the massages, the facials. We do have a lot of male clientele.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So tell me about the laser thing. I'm kind of fascinated by this because I know we use lasers in medicine. We actually. I do acupuncture. We use lasers and acupuncture. So how does that help with skin? What's the relationship there?

Eliza Harris:

Well, our laser treatments addressed many different issues. A lot of issues that people are having right now after the summer is people have a lot of sun damage or, you know, spots on their skin, and they're looking to get that removed. So lasers are fantastic for that. We do laser hair removal.

Christina Sterling:

We also have a lot of women that come in after having children. They develop melasma pigmentation on their face, and we're able to get rid of that with certain laser treatments. Laser hair removal, basically, it's a permanent hair reduction. So if you're someone that's been waxing for years and you're just sick of waxing and you want to get rid of the hair permanently, come and see us, because we can certainly, certainly do that.

Genevieve Morgan:

Eliza, I know you've recently. Acari has recently expanded its services. Can you tell me about the extended staff?

Eliza Harris:

Yeah, we have a whole team of staff that's equipped to take care of our needs. We have an oculoplastic surgeon. We have a pain management doctor, a family practitioner, a podiatrist, an rn, and our wellness coach, of course. So we're basically Equipped to diagnose, treat, and enhance all aspects of what someone's looking for.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And your doctors, when they're looking at the clients, are they able to deal with more difficult medical issues? Are they able to refer them out? Are they able to find them, you know, say a physician? Or even maybe you, Christina, Say you see something on the skin and you think, oh, my gosh, that's really worrisome. I think somebody needs to make sure that's not skin cancer. Do you have some means of referring your clients out for?

Christina Sterling:

I mean, I've definitely had clients that have come in, and I've been consistent concerned about different skin care, whether it be a mole that looks a little concerning. And we've definitely referred clients out to different dermatologist's office, but a lot of times it's stuff that we can correct. Right.

Eliza Harris:

At Acari, our medical Director has over 25 years of experience practicing, so definitely connected to the community.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And as your medical director is doctor. Nurse.

Eliza Harris:

Dr. Ed Giacoma.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Okay. And what type of doctor is he?

Eliza Harris:

He's the ocular plastic surgeon.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Okay. And I know that Genevieve was wondering what type of surgeon that is.

Genevieve Morgan:

Yeah, I didn't know what the term ocular meant.

Eliza Harris:

So he deals with basically the eyes and the health of the eye, the cosmetic, you know, everything around the eye,

Genevieve Morgan:

those droopy parts on the lid.

Christina Sterling:

As we age, I've inherited, things start to sort of move downward, and he's able to give you that nice, beautiful lift. So, yeah, he's really wonderful.

Eliza Harris:

And he also specializes in Sculptra. In my opinion, he's the best doctor to go to for the Sculptura treatment. He's fantastic.

Christina Sterling:

He's incredibly passionate about Sculptra as well.

Genevieve Morgan:

What is Sculptra?

Eliza Harris:

Sculptra. Basically, as you get older, your collagen breaks down, and it's an injectable that helps strengthen your collagen over time. So the results are fantastic. Because, you know, you don't age overnight, so why do you want to anti. Age overnight is their slogan. So over time, you build up the collagen and you get the volume and the fullness, but it's your own collagen. So it looks like you.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Have you seen that your treating people on the outside has led to people making changes on the inside that have moved them forward in their lives. Now, I know, Christina, you're a singer with the Jim Champi Band, and so. And you were talking about confidence earlier, and I think that's a. Is a really huge topic Especially for women, but for men and women, that people need to have the confidence to make changes and move forward in their lives. What types of things have you seen in your own practices?

Eliza Harris:

Well, I think that when you change one thing about yourself that bothers you, like I said, it affects your entire being. It makes you be able to put your best foot forward, and it gives you that confidence that you need. When we said bad hair day, it just makes such a difference if you feel great about yourself.

Genevieve Morgan:

Well, one of the things that I've figured out or seen talking to people in my role as wellness editor is that there's a big leap that people take when they invest in themselves because they begin to think that they're worthy of investment, and they start to think, okay, I'm going to take some time and spend some money or spend some time on myself. And just that little tweak is the first step towards more confidence and a moving forward direction. Would you say that that's true, that you've seen that?

Christina Sterling:

Absolutely. I definitely have a lot of clients that maybe they just started coming into a car, getting something as simple as an eyebrow wax. And over time, once they've been able to get comfortable with me and once I've been able to sort of build their confidence around maybe getting another service done, you know, they're able to sort of step outside the box and maybe try something new. And then in turn, that's going to change the way they look when they look in the mirror, and then, you know, might help them in their outside life as well.

Eliza Harris:

And I think investing in your skin and investing in yourself is a little bit different than, say, investing in, like, a Gucci bag or something that's going to last, you know, maybe a couple seasons, it'll bring you that joy of carrying it around. But when you invest in your skin and yourself, that's something that you're going to have for the rest of your life.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I'm just so thrilled. I know that you both were telling me you were a little bit nervous when you came in here, but I think that this topic is so important because the theme today is glow, and we're talking about internal glow and personal glow. But what I know about glow is the more that you're sort of lit up by people around you, the greater the glow. So I love this idea of trust and that people will come to see you, Eliza, or you, Christina, and you're actually helping them glow and sort of glow brighter and go out into the world and have more of a presence and more of a light. So there is a pretty important thing that you're doing over there at Acari. It's a service, it's a calling. It's more than just your traditional salon. So I really appreciate your coming in and talking to us about this. I know that people who are listening are going to have a lot of thoughts on the subject. How can they most easily reach you?

Christina Sterling:

Well, we are open Monday through Saturday of every week. You can call and book an appointment. You can call and book a consultation.

Eliza Harris:

Yeah. The consultations are complimentary.

Christina Sterling:

So even if you just, you know, want to come in and ask us, you know, different questions, whether it be about your skincare regime at home or certain, you know, concerns that you might have, just book a consult and come on in.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And you have a website?

Christina Sterling:

We do, yeah.

Eliza Harris:

It's akaribeauty.com and you also have a

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Facebook presence, from what I understand. So people can get information on Facebook. They can like the page. And I think information pops up that way, too.

Eliza Harris:

Absolutely.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yep. And people will. I love this. You guys are so much of a family. We are in sync.

Eliza Harris:

This.

Genevieve Morgan:

You're chiming in together.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

That's really great. So. And we will make sure on the Dr. Lisa website that we refer people back on over to Acari. And we thank Akari. Acari has been from the very beginning a sponsor of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast. And Jen Morgan and I are thrilled. We think it's a. We believe that we're part of your family as well. And. And we know that we're just going to keep growing and thriving and doing good things.

Christina Sterling:

Thank you so much for having us.

Eliza Harris:

Thanks for having us,

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Jen. It was great to have the chance to talk to the women at Acari and hear what they're doing with their relationships with their clients. And now we have somebody here to talk to us about her relationship with the world and the way she's dealing with skin care in a very, very different way. So I'm really happy to have her.

Genevieve Morgan:

Today on the Maine Magazine Minute segment, we are talking with Lisa Broder. Lisa and her partner, Troy Tyler, are the creative minds behind Portland General Store, an all natural men's skin care line available at Portland dry goods and online. Lisa holds a BFA in Illustration from the Art Institute of Boston and has worked as a producer and marketing executive in New York City. Years ago, she and Troy became very interested in sustainable living. As part of that process, Lisa happened upon some vintage soap and perfume recipe books and a collection of antique Czechoslovakian pharmacy bottles, which were her creative inspiration, which is so cool. Tell us how that happenstance led to Portland General Store.

Lisa Brodar:

Well, we were actually living in New York, in Brooklyn and we both had an interest in self sustainable living. You know, we traveled a lot across the country and we're thinking about places that we wanted to move to. And we really loved a lot of the aspects of Portland, Maine or Maine in general. You know, you have wind energy, you're on the water, there are farms here. It's an old thriving port city that I think, you know, historically has done really well, will do well in the future. And so that all really inspired me to start something that revolved around handmade goods. Originally Portland General Store was going to be a brick and mortar actually.

Genevieve Morgan:

Oh really? A real store?

Lisa Brodar:

A real store was the original concept back in 2006.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And they're online. You're online now.

Lisa Brodar:

We're online. We never opened up a brick and mortar but originally that was, that was the concept that I was going to make soaps and body creams and then we'd have other artisans that maybe knitted things or made you know, like hand forged axes, leather goods. Kind of what's happening now. This was back before that became a trend. So I guess we were forward thinking at the time but we never, we just kind of decided we didn't want the overhead of a brick and mortar at that time. And I was also in nursing school and I just decided to continue making bath products and experimenting and I enjoyed it a lot and that was part of the reason.

Genevieve Morgan:

And you got interested in this because of. You call yourself the nose of the business. I'm really interested in that. So is Lisa. What does that mean and how did that lead you? How did your nose lead you to this?

Lisa Brodar:

Well, I'm an artist and it's just sort of evolved as like a different medium in many respects. Like instead of, you know, using just my hands and my and my eyes to paint a picture, you know, I love drawing and painting. It's like I use my nose to create this art that is a wearable art and something that's good for you that has some aromatherapeutic benefits and they're

Genevieve Morgan:

unusual sense, they're not flowery, they're just, they're really fresh. They're kind of rugged, but they're not cloying.

Lisa Brodar:

Well through, you know, Portland Journal Store has evolved a lot. I started making women's products and that evolved into men's because I found that I had a knack for making more what I thought were More masculine scents.

Genevieve Morgan:

I think what I really like about your product is they smell really clean. The scents are really clean, and I think that that's a really attractive quality. But also the other thing that you do, which is incredible, is you have carried through your philosophy of sustainability and authenticity into your packaging. And I know you're a designer and an illustrator, and your names, your packaging is really unique. Do you want to speak to that a little bit?

Lisa Brodar:

Sure. Our packaging has also evolved. Like it started out. I was like tea staining labels and handwriting on them and using my printer to what it is today. And Troy had a large part in the redesign that we recently did. In 2009, I had an idea to do a men's line that was separate from the women's line. And we were originally on Etsy. And I just noticed that there weren't a lot of the offerings in skincare for men that there are for women, very natural products. You know, just giving that, I guess, choice to men that women have in skincare. And I decided to create the men's line. And so the issue is men don't really care right away. Not all, you know, some men do, but most men, they care more about, is it effective? What does it look like? They want a masculine product. So we created this. You know, Troy sort of took on the role of being the creative director because he also. He doesn't have formal training as a designer, but he did study at Parsons, and he's very, very creative. And it was his little project to have these masculine elements in the new label. And so it's basically, it's appealing to men aesthetically. And then they realize, oh, wow, this product, it has these natural qualities, it's vegan or organic, only uses essential oils, and then they use it, and some of them take a little more work to use. But then you realize men. You know, we've tested on Troy, and friends of mine or customers have told me that it takes a little work, like, to whip up the shaving soap, but then it feels really moisturizing. No razor burn compared to some other products where there might be irritation. I've had men that have skin issues like eczema that use our products. I mean, it's for every man. I promote using natural products. I just. I just think it's better for any type of skin. But it works for people that have problematic skin as well. And so that makes me, as a previous nurse, to be very happy that I can help those people.

Genevieve Morgan:

Well, I think that's a good point. The next column that's coming out in Maine Magazine is about holistic skin care. And it's not something that a lot of people think about, but there are chemical preservatives and other kinds of chemicals in body moisturizers and shampoos and facial products. And that is another way that we are putting chemicals into our system which can contribute to an overall body burden and tax our systems even more. So I'm a big proponent of all natural skin care products too. And I think that what you're doing, it's a little bit difficult because the products don't have as long of shelf life.

Lisa Brodar:

Yeah, well, we use, we do use preservatives in our products, but we use the, you know, gentlest forms that have been tested for, you know, been used for many years and they've been tested and they're non toxic and they're considered safe. They usually, our products have a shelf life of one year. There's a couple of products that have a shelf life of six months because we use very little preservative. It's hard to not use preservatives in a product because number one, it helps the ingredients to blend together. And you know, if you don't use any preservative, you might have bacteria growth within one to three months. But the preservatives we use, they're so light that we have to tell customers to like shake a product because sometimes the ingredients do separate. And so if you see a product like that, it doesn't mean there's anything wrong with it. It just means it has mostly natural content.

Genevieve Morgan:

Well, it sounds like there's a lot of science behind all of this. You've really thought every aspect of your formulas out so that they not only smell great, help you look better, but they're actually helping in other ways.

Lisa Brodar:

Yeah, we've done a lot of research. I mean, I'm the person that has created the formulas and I just do a lot of research. You kind of have to keep up to date with what's hot Skincare. And then there are things that I like, you know, that I see out there. I'm like, oh, that would be great to incorporate. And it's just a lot of research. And sometimes it's hard to find ingredients. I mean, it could take days to like find certain ingredients. Like spikenard powder, very difficult to find. And sandalwood exfoliating powder is easier to find, but it's rare and it's often sold out, unlike common, you know.

Genevieve Morgan:

Well, we're so lucky in Portland to have you doing all of this. So, Lisa, what's next for Portland General Store?

Lisa Brodar:

Well, we have, excuse me. A lot of exciting things. We're going to be starting a women's line in the spring, summer of 2012. And I'm already whipping up formulas and products, soaps, bath scrubs, things like that for women again with a very natural twist. But, but I'm coming back to it now. After having done a men's line for a couple of years, I'm going back to doing a women's line and I'm hoping it'll be much more sophisticated than our previous women's line.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And you've been mentioned, I think, in a bunch of different national publications. And you were saying this off microphone. Tell me about that.

Lisa Brodar:

Well, we've been since inception of the men's line in 2009, we've been featured in a number of major publications like Men's Journal, Real Simple Wallpaper, gq, you know, a number of those publications. And I don't really want to say what we're going to be in this Christmas because it's kind of top secret until the magazines come out. But we are going to be featured in at least five major publications.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

That must be very gratifying that you're living this passion and, and all this hard work you've put into it is getting more of a national recognition and buy in.

Lisa Brodar:

Oh, it's absolutely wonderful. You know, I mean, it's. I do feel passionate about our products and I feel really great that I can give these products to men and that they're catching on. Like I said earlier, men have a harder time, I think, being enticed to buy an all natural organic product. There are so many products. They really care about performance. So if you can sell them a product that performs but is also natural in a package that they like that's masculine. They're not, you know, they're not afraid to display. It doesn't look too feminine then. I think that's great and, you know, that's what our goal is.

Genevieve Morgan:

Well, I think it's so exciting that you and Troy have come to Portland to do this because it's a wonderful thing for our skin, but also for the entire state and for you to have just invested all this energy into this business here. And I wanted to tell the people out there, the listeners, where they can find your product. How did they go about buying Portland General Store?

Lisa Brodar:

Well, we have a website and it's pretty easy to remember. It's portlandgeneralstore.com and they can reach us via email. It's portlandgeneralstoremail.com thank you so much for

Genevieve Morgan:

coming in today, Lisa. We can't wait to read more about you.

Lisa Brodar:

Thank you.

Genevieve Morgan:

To learn more about all natural skin Care and Portland General Store, read my upcoming wellness column get yout Glow on in the November December issue of Maine Magazine, available this week at your local newsstand. To read more or subscribe to Maine Magazine, visit us online@mainmag.com.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Each week on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour, we read a quote from the book Our Daily Tread. Our Daily Tread was created in honor of my late Bowdoin College classmate Hanley Dunning. This is from Bird Baylor. Today's quote is the way to start a day is go outside and face the east and greet the sun with some kind of blessing or chant or song that you made yourself and keep for early morning. For those of you who aren't familiar with Our Daily Tread or the organization Safe Passage, I thought I would give a little background this week. Our Daily Tread began with a birthday celebration. It was January 19, 2007. Busy with party preparations, we heard the kitchen door slam as our 13 year old returned from basketball practice. He called out, hey mom and dad, you know the person who founded Safe Passage, the one you want to college with? They told us in school. She was killed in a car accident yesterday. I thought I must not have heard him correctly. Hanley was only 36, my age as of that day. Unfortunately, it was true. Hanley Denning, the woman known as the angel of the Garbage Dump, had died on January 18. Her family and friends were gathering to mourn even as mine were gathering to celebrate. I thought about Hanley as I greeted my birthday guests. I had intended to contact my college classmate and find out how I might support her efforts in Guatemala. Caught up in the demands of parenthood and medical training, I had not done so. I considered what she might have told me. Based on what I knew of her work with Safe Passage, it seems she might have shared the words of our fellow Bowdoin College graduate Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Give what you have to someone else. It may be better than you dare to think. The question was, what did I have to give? The book Our Daily Tread is exactly what I have to give to Hanley and to Safe passage and the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is what I have to offer now.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And today on our Give Back segment we have Barbara Galino of Whole Foods Market in Portland. Barbara's going to talk with us about what they have to give and how easy it is to give within our community. And we're also joined by Genevieve Morgan. Thanks for coming in, Barbara.

Barbara Gulino:

Thank you for having me. Happy to be here, Barbara.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I am so impressed by your store. I go in every week. We gather our locally grown foods for our locally Grown food segment that we do here on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast. And it's clear to see that what you're doing within the store goes beyond just offering produce, offering, you know, things for the home. It's really about giving the people the chance to live the lives they want to live. And I think part of that is giving back. So tell me about some of the programs that you have that enable people to do so easily.

Barbara Gulino:

Well, Whole Foods Market Portland, what we do there is that we support, we believe in being an active participant in the community in which we live and work and play. And we've been able to do that by providing both store based programs that we support the store as well as customer supported programs. And our customers really, really embrace that. I think that the Whole Foods Market customer not only shops there because they're interested in their health and in high quality products and particularly our quality standards and what we offer in natural and organic products, but because we are good supporters of the community and they want to do that too. And we make it easy for them to do that. So Whole Foods Market Portland opened in February 2007. But since February 2007 we've been able to through 5% days as an example, and I'll talk about what the store does first. We've been able to provide select nonprofit organizations and schools with over $101,000 to date through 5% days and 5% days. We offer them four times a year. And it's where on a specific day we give 5% of our net sales to a specific nonprofit. As an example, we just had one for Ferry Beach Ecology School. And next week we will be having, on October 18th, we will be having a 5% day for the Cancer Community center in South Portland. And I'm really excited about that. I think they're a great non profit and they do good work and it'll be wonderful to partner with them. So Those are the 5% days in. Sponsoring people's nonprofits events is one way that we as the store get involved. But then there's a couple other things that we do as well. The food banks. So Whole Foods Market, one of our core values in regards to community support is to help alleviate hunger. One of the ways that we do that is we donate to food banks seven days a week. And it's great. We have a wonderful relationship with both Preble street and with Wayside programs, food programs now. And we just make sure that people who need the food are able to get really good, safe, edible food to put on their tables or the food pantries. And Wayside particularly they provide food to over 50, let's see, food pantries, food banks, soup kitchens and social service agencies. So with them, one of the ways that our customers have been able to get involved is we've run food drives and we've done six of those food drives now. And I am happy to report that those food drives, which are on a specific two or three day time period, usually on the weekends, Wayside will come with a wish list of items that they really need. People can shop for those and then easily drop them off. In Portland, this was a while ago, but I do remember Wayside telling me that it was something like there was a study done in 16.8% and this is a couple of years ago. So I can only imagine it's gotten bigger. But 16.8% of Portland's population, not including the homeless, were food insecure. So food insecure is what you're talking about where it's not necessarily that the person doesn't have a job, but they don't make enough money to pay for all of their bills and food as well. And those are the people that are going to the food banks. Another program we're doing right now is with Project Feed. We have a program in the store called Feed Families Now. It changes sometimes it's Feed Pets now just was that for the Animal Refuge League. And Feed Families now is an opportunity to support Project Feed out of Woodford's Congregational Church in Portland. And they have an emergency food pantry so customers can purchase pre made bags of groceries, might be a meal or snack for a child and then leave it with a cashier and then we collect them and then we will bring them to Project Feed. Now we've just started that program. So I don't really have any numbers to give you, but this winter we did it for Youth Alternatives, which is now part of Prop, and in four months, our customers donated 1700 bags of food. I mean, that's absolutely remarkable. I'm so proud of them.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

That is really great. And this is just by going up to the cashier and saying, I would like to buy this. I would like to give back to my community in this way.

Barbara Gulino:

Exactly. And the bags are right there on display and they can choose the bag and the price point they want. Most of the bags are. In fact, I know all of the bags are under $8 a bag and they range from, let's say, like $2.50 to $8. So people can do what they want.

Genevieve Morgan:

And that's a great gift to give to someone this holiday season.

Barbara Gulino:

Absolutely. Absolutely. And we'll be doing another food drive in December for Wayside because as you can imagine, the need gets even greater in the winter. And it's an opportunity to support with things that we all want to eat for a holiday meal. Cranberry sauce or stuffing, etc.

Genevieve Morgan:

Barbara, if I am running a non profit organization and I'm interested in having Whole Foods sponsor one of my events, what are the kinds of values that you're looking for or the kind of organizations?

Barbara Gulino:

Well, pretty much in supporting the community, we support nonprofits or schools that are working to alleviate hunger, environmental issues, arts and education, sustainable agriculture and preventative medicine.

Genevieve Morgan:

That's a big list.

Barbara Gulino:

It is a very big list. It pretty much covers the gamut.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And these are your core values, is that correct?

Barbara Gulino:

Correct. For supporting the community and the nonprofit. It's what we really look for.

Genevieve Morgan:

It's interesting to hear about all of the events that you support because we also, two shows ago, we did a show on courage and resilience and Julie Marchese from Try for a Cure was our give back guest. And I know that Whole Foods was involved with Try for a Cure.

Barbara Gulino:

That's right. We were involved with Try for a Cure from the inception. And so four years now, we have provided all of the athletes with the post race food. So that's 1,000 women. And we really go all out and we go beyond the water sport bar and banana routine and just have really wonderful, delicious foods and people really enjoy it and look forward to it. I love working with food and I'm glad that I have the opportunity to represent the store for marketing and PR and events in and out of the store and all of the charitable giving and cooking combine my love of assisting people and helping them and helping the non profits obtain the funding that they need to raise by providing great food. And many of the nonprofits will say to them, I'll make a turnkey for you and Whole Foods Market will provide all of the food. It's a great event and I know that often it's another draw for the nonprofit to obtain people to come to the event. They know the food's going to be really great quality. And I try to. My motto is under promise over deliver,

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

so I like that motto. That's a good one. I'm so glad you were able to join us today. I really appreciate the fact that every week we come on and we bring our locally grown foods. I'm able to say these came from Whole Foods Market here in Portland. You're supporting the local farmers, you're supporting the local community and also the people who want to live better. So I know that Jen Morgan feels the same. We're very grateful to have you not only supporting us as a radio show and podcast, but also all of the people in the greater Portland area who want to glow. Who want to get their glow on, as Jen would say.

Barbara Gulino:

Yes, very much so. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Each week on the Dr. Lisa radio hourm podcast we read one of the posts from Dr. Lisa's bountiful life. This is a blog that I created in 2008 when I was attempting to find a way to feed myself both from a physical standpoint but also from an emotional and spiritual standpoint. And the blog began with discussions of food. It began with me going out into the community and going to the farmer's market and really learning how to cook for myself, learning how to feed myself in a physical way. And over time it has evolved into more of a spiritual and emotional journey. This week it brings everything back around full circle. This is the bountiful blog entry for October 11, 2011 Apple Fundamentals There is something very fundamental about apples in autumn. Yesterday I agreed to chauffeur my 15 year old daughter and her three friends back from the local orchard. When I arrived, they had picked their apples and were waiting for the donuts they had ordered. We took pictures of them, heads poking through painted plywood cutouts. My daughter's friends were flowers and pieces of fruit. My daughter was a jaunty butterfly, an appropriate image for my changeling child. The doughnuts still not done. The line for these specially prepared delicacies was long. The girls went on a hayride. I sat on the picnic table, the sun warming my shoulders. It felt far more like a summer season we had just left than the autumn season we had entered. The girls returned from their ride and, having finally exhausted all the fun the orchard might offer, accompanied me to the car. They rode quietly home, paper sacks of doughnuts and satchels of apples on their laps. They had taken a couple of hours out of their high school existence to recapture the ebullience of childhood. They had picked apples each, eaten dumplings and ridden on hay bales behind a chestnut mare. Apples, autumn and playtime. Nothing so fundamentally important as these. Read more posts such as this on bountifulpath.com. This week on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour, we discussed the theme of glow. We began our conversation with a description of running and sunrise and capturing the moment when the day begins. It's important to remember that even on the days that we don't see a sunrise, the sun is still there, the earth is still rotating, the seasons are still changing. We're still moving from summer until autumn. We're still watching our children grow. Things will evolve, and if we begin tuning into our own inner glow, then things around us will start to catch fire. We started our discussion with the lovely women from Akari in the Old Port who described the importance of looking good on the outside and the confidence that it instills. They also described the importance of relationships and of having a team of people behind you to help you glow. We moved on to a conversation with Lisa Broder from Portland General, who described living passionately, providing sustainable products that made sense in the greater community and in her own life, but also that brought joy into people's lives. And we moved on to a conversation with Barbara Golino from Whole Foods Market in Portland and tied this in with our daily tread and the notion that whatever it is that you do to give back, just do something. Show up, give back. But it all starts with the glow. It starts with your inner glow. It starts with the food that you eat. It starts with your Connecting with the sunrise. Starts with connecting with the apples in the orchard in autumn. It's all possible. Begin where you are and you'll begin to radiate outward. Thank you for joining us again this week. May you have a bountiful life.