Wednesday, December 16, 2009

It's A Good Thing

So I saw Martha yesterday. She says hello. Well, maybe not but she was really friendly and I know if I'd actually spoken to her she would have totally wanted me to say hello. I went into NYC with a group of 11 other women to a taping of The Martha Stewart show and, love her or hate her, this was so much fun.


Where to begin??? Well, how about with the fact that while we were still queuing outside to get into the studio we were told that Martha was taste testing a new brownie mix and a new chocolate chip cookie mix and we would need to sample one and give our opinion. Hey, somebody's gotta do it. When you book tickets to the show you have no idea what will be happening the day you are there but how lucky were we that she just happened to be taste testing brownies and cookies today? FYI-they were good!

Once inside the building we went thru a security check, then a coat check, then we signed the waivers saying they can use our image on television or pretty much anywhere, then we sat and sampled the brownies and looked around at the marketing genius that is Martha Stewart Inc. Wow...is there anything she doesn't do?


Before long we were instructed to turn off our mobile phones and not to shout out during interviews and then they tell us about today's show. The very funny Joey Kola came out for this bit.


He was fun and had us all laughing and then he said all the shows are great and there is always a nice little goody bag for audience members to take home. And then he winked winked and said we happened to have been chosen for a particularly good show because our little goody bag was better than your average day at Martha Stewart.


Our show will be the first one aired in the New Year, on January 4th. There were beautiful Christmas trees and assorted Christmas decorations around the perimeter of the room but they weren't in any of the shots because hello, Happy New Year!

And then Joey tells us the theme of today's show....overall body health. Huh? Didn't you just ask me to taste a brownie and a chocolate chip cookie? But you know what? The show was good. It was fun. Martha is relaxed and she smiles alot and chats with her guests and they didn't retape anything and oh wow did we get us an extra nice goody bag. More on that in a minute.

Before the taping began we were given some instructions regarding clapping...you know the whens and the how longs and the how louds....we practiced a few times so they could be sure we were trustworthy when it came to clapping and then out came Martha. There were seven segments to the program and it moved quickly. There really aren't any bad seats and there are screens mounted overhead in case a camera temporarily blocks your view and believe me when I say there were a whole lot of cameras. There was also a whole lot of staff...we could not get over how many people were working on this show.

The first guest was Dr. Junger who has written a book called Clean and we're not talking housekeeping here. Remember today's theme? Yeah...he talked about a 21 day de-tox which he recommends although four or more days is okay too. He ran thru the sample menu to follow while you're doing the 'cleanse' and it involves two liquid meals each day (breakfast and dinner) and then a sensible lunch (he suggested poached salmon with fennel). Now the sensible lunch bit sounds fine but let me just tell you the color of the breakfast drink was a little bit off putting and even Martha made a face when she tasted it. She much preferred the dinner drink which was made with fruit and veg too but wasn't a funny color. And I'm fairly certain you are not permitted to substitute a nice glass of Merlot for the 'juice' even though it is technically a dinner drink made with fruit. I think the de-tox is kinda like no caffeine, no fat, no alcohol, no sugar, no fun however I'll confirm this after I finish reading his book because that was gift number one in the goody bag.


So, I'm sitting there kind of thinking about the bread and cheese I ate in France and the Christmas cookies I intend to eat in New Jersey and I'm coming around to the idea of the de-tox. We're clapping and laughing and I'm all caught up in the moment and I think I might just try it. Guest number two was Dr. Someone (sorry), head of Prevention Medicine at the Mayo Clinic. For years there have been various diets out there called the Mayo Clinic diet but none of those have ever been connected in any way to the Mayo Clinic until now. He told us this is not so much a diet (don't they always say that???) but more a plan for eliminating bad habits and forming some good habits. What he said made a lot of sense and he also has a book and yes indeed we did get a copy of that too.


Then he and Martha whipped up something that Martha absolutely loved in this fantastic Breville juicer which I will definitely be trying because Merry Christmas...they gave every member of the audience one of the fantastic Breville juicers!
I couldn't believe it...it's a really nice gift and we didn't even have to lug it around NYC because we just go online, plug in our code and wait for it to be delivered to our front door. Hopefully not anytime before Christmas though because I don't think I want to see it in my kitchen when I'm sneaking a buttercream out of the frig.

There was still more fun and next up was an editor from Body and Soul Magazine (yeah, we got that in our goody bag too)


who prepared a couple of healthy dishes and gave some tips on adding flavor without calories. Two women from the audience went up and shared their food challenges and then Martha's personal trainer be-bopped out to talk about exercising during detox. And the whole time she was talking she and Martha were jumping on these little rebounder trampolines for which Martha earns my utmost respect. I most definitely would no way ever be jumping on a trampoline on national television.



Once the actual taping was over we could take some pictures and Martha said she'd answer a few questions from the audience...really she was just so relaxed and casual and actually very funny. And she didn't scold me once for taking a short holiday in the middle of December or spending my first day home having fun in the city instead of checking off at least one of the approximately eleven hundred and ninety two items on my to do list. And y'all...It's a good thing.

8 comments:

  1. Wowzers!!! I'm SO jealous!!! Sounds like such a fun time! A juicer??! Merry Christmas to you! :)

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  2. What fun! Now you can enjoy a Christmas full of no-no's without guilt because you already have all these great ideas and plans for getting fit for the New Year. The best of both worlds! : )

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  3. Being able to see a live taping of Martha Stewart sounds like so much fun! And what great gifts you all received! I have a friend who is just literally obsessed with Martha, so she would be very jealous of this :)

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  4. Wow, Joyce! What fun! Thanks so much for sharing this experience with us in so much detail! Seriously! AND you got some great gifts! How awesome!

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  5. Sounds like a lot of fun and I'm not a Martha Stewart fan! Who wouldn't love a free juicer! You'll have to tell me if you do the detox thing - a lot of my friends down here are into it, but I haven't done anything crazier than a one day fast.

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  6. Free stuff is always a good thing. Sooo...will we be seeing a new Joyce in 2010?

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  7. How fun!
    I love that you got so many great gifts too.
    I hope you'll remind us as Jan. 4 gets closer so we can remember to watch.
    I've been to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The Late Show with David Letterman. It's just fun and interesting to see how it's all done.
    I'm so glad you had a good time and could forget about the eleven hundred and ninety two items on your to do list.
    Thanks for sharing.

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  8. I remembered you'd said you were going to be at the show so I popped over here to see how it went. I love Martha, for some strange reason, since I don't do any of that crafty stuff.

    That juicer is sweet! Let me know how you like it. One day I'll want a better one. I'm not into de-tox, though--I don't put toxins in my body in the first place so I see no reason to go to extremes to rid myself of them! (Of course I do not consider alcohol a toxin!)

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