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| Why do you think I'd even CONSIDER eating the fruit, you silly photographer?! |
A few weeks ago a bunch of retired, grandfatherly generals & admirals issued a report warning that kids today are too fat, too stupid, too stoned and too poor to adequately staff the military of the future, not to mention to drive the growth of our economy or prevent a total collapse of our health care system. Most of their suggested solutions involved drafting Congress to legislate school policy, mainly healthier meals and more physical education.
A few weeks later, reports are zinging around the Internet tubes that because of the recent upgrade of healthiness in national school nutrition standards, kids are rebelling in full force.
Because the lunches must now include fruits and vegetables, those who clamor for more cheese-laden nachos may find string beans and a peach cup instead. Because of limits on fat and sodium, some of those who crave French fries get baked sweet-potato wedges. Because of calorie restrictions, meat and carbohydrate portions are smaller. Gone is 2-percent chocolate milk, replaced by skim.
“Before, there was no taste and no flavor,” said Malik Barrows, a senior at Automotive High School in Brooklyn, who likes fruit but said his classmates threw away their mandatory helpings on the cafeteria floor. “Now there’s no taste, no flavor and it’s healthy, which makes it taste even worse.”
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| The preferred fruit of today's students. |
But the most effective strategy, several food service directors said, may simply be waiting. Research shows that children must be exposed to vegetables 10 to 12 times before they will eat them on their own, said William J. McCarthy, a professor of public health and psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles.I am all for the government using policy to protect the interests and health of the people. But for policy to be effective it must decide which is more important: the health of the nation's physical well-being or the health of the nation's entrenched economic interests. The fine folks behind the Too Fat to Fight reports don't go far enough. Legislating healthier lunches and more gym classes is fine but is what it's not what's happening during school lunching hours that's making them obese; it's everywhere else.
We need to balance the needs of a food industry that demands growth & profit at all costs in the same way we need to look at a health care industry that also demands profits over anything else. Rational food supply and sane health care are universal rights, not privileges to those who can afford it. Capitalism should not run unfettered and all-consuming but needs to be fair and balanced (if you'll pardon the Fox). Perhaps banning advertising of unhealthy foods the way we did with cigarette advertising is a step in the right direction. Or creating national portion standards like NYC's soda ban. Or legislate price supports for fruit and veg and new taxes on junk food. Rather than reporting on a bunch of whiny lil' kids complaining about the burden of having to throw away fruit every day, let's start agitating for policy that makes fruit a more familiar, affordable, and common part of the young American diet.
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| A major problem of rapid weight loss is pubic hair turning into measuring tape that spreads out across one's torso. |
Until Googleplex ate last week's post, I wrote about my impressions of a series of photos featured on Jezebel.
We are flooded with media messages and images about losing weight: PSA campaigns, sneaker ads, reality shows, before and after commercials, in which celebs beam with joy in photos proving that they've slimmed down. They're often perfectly toned, in a bikini, grinning ear to ear.
In reality, if you drop a ton of weight quickly, you're going to be trapped in a skin-suit a few sized too big for you, particularly if you are older. Julia Kozerski's is that person, and her photographs brought up a lot of feelings, in regards to attempting to change my body after so many years of being on the plumper side. Have I ruined my body after years of abuse? If my flesh does that, will I be comfortable or will I desire to be fat again? Will my flesh do that? Do I care, does my vanity trump my will to be healthy? Or do they reinforce each other?
Have no fear dear reader, no matter which way my flesh goes, I will be writing about it, not taking nudie photos of it....
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| Amurika, F-yeah! |
On Thursday, burnt out from cooking all day, I went to the local supermarket to pick up something...and happened upon something I hadn't seen before: Jack Daniel's Pulled Chicken. I saw that it was fully cooked, it was chicken and it was saucy.
I am not a big BBQ person but a few years ago I rode my bicycle cross-country and found that BBQ in Kansas was one of the most delicious foods on the planet. With that sense memory in the back of my head, I bought a packet of the chicken. What the hey, perhaps a shot of booze in the sauce will give it a nice heat.
When I heated it, portioned it and put it on the plate, it looked a little watery but so what. When I put it in my mouth, all I tasted was....syrup. This is chicken in sugar syrup. No smoke, no heat, no spices, no meatiness, just sweet. My first thought was, "Did I just put a dessert in my mouth by accident?" My second thought was:
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| Sugar-sweet slammin' shredded bird, duderino! |
I tried to eat my portion, but I could not, it was just too sweet. What I failed to do was read the ingredients closely enough.
What I originally saw was a lot of words for chicken at the front. What I failed to see was that the chicken was "tumbled with sugar," and the sauce's 1st, 2nd, 8th, and 9th ingredients were all forms of sugar. Actual Jack Daniels? 15th, less than salt. My taste buds were not lying -- the "sauce" literally was sugar syrup with a few other things thrown in.
Maybe it's because I've been naturally decreasing my sugar consumption over the last few months that my taste buds went wild (in a bad way) when eating this stuff. One thing for certain, my stomach felt queasy for the rest of the night and only snacking on some starches and even some mildly sweet dark chocolate chips brought me back to feeling myself. People eat this stuff out of habit? And liking it? Jebsus.
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ESTIMATED REFINED SUGAR %: 12.5%
Good weekly average due to refocusing after finding I only lost 2 lbs last month. Refined sugar higher than I'd like because of Thursday's mistake with that horrible pulled chicken.
MONDAY COUNT: 2165
Put myself to bed hungry, but it wasn't so bad as I was leveraging the excess calories from the weekend. Lifted weights, lower back still a little sore but definitely better than last Thursday. The lift for the back routine was for mid-back, so it went fine. Started holding my negative pull-ups to the count of 5 instead of three, definitely feel it. Will October be the month of the first real pull-up?
Today and tomorrow, Edie has no school due to the Jewish holidays. Almost broke down and made frozen pizza for lunch, but figured that would be a bad way to kick off the new month.
AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea, 25 cal
BREAKFAST: 9:30am, fruit smoothie, 375 cal
LUNCH: 1pm, sardine & avocado on whole wheat bread, health salad, baby carrots, 7oz diet coke, 715 cal
PM SNACK: 3pm, banana, 135 cal
DINNER: 7pm, sauteed shrimp, roasted brussel sprouts, baked potatoes with butter, 7oz diet sprite, 915 cal
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TUESDAY COUNT:2365
Edie off from school again, feeling a bit stressed. Finding stress is a good way to not think about food -- just eat enough, then move on. Got really hungry in the evening, the kinda hunger I know will keep me up, fortunately I had enough leeway in the budget to make a big bowl of popcorn -- it' a great snack because there is a lot of jawing and grabbing involved, takes a while to eat.
AM SNACK: 8:00am, iced green tea, 25 cal
BREAKFAST: 9:30am, kolon bloe with whole milk, 300 cal
LUNCH: 12:15pm, 2 peanut butter & jelly sandwiches on whole wheat, momma salad, 750 cal
PM SNACK: 4pm, small handful of animal crackers, +/- 50 cal
DINNER: 6:15pm, broiled sole, lemon ricotta pancakes, sauteed spinach, 7oz diet sprite, 1000 cal
EVENING SNACK: 9:45pm, popcorn, 240 cal
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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 2355
Taught culinary for the first time since last Spring. First class is always fun, lecturing on food and kitchen safety, making some basic stuff using lots of knife work. Last time I taught was during my 'old' way of eating. Smoothies were pretty reasonable, based on the non-refined sugar, fruit-based recipe from home. I forgot to add oil to the salsa, still came out good and the kids loved it, so I took some home with an estimated calorie value. I had my graduates make 4 sheets of brownies, 3 for the school to sell at a flea market, and one to eat. I served it hot out of the oven, and it looked AMAZEBALLS, but I avoided it, as well as the full-sugar soda supplied to the kids. Before, I would of ate 2 brownies (+/- 500 cal) and at least 12 oz of soda (120) and come home and eaten a big dinner anyway.
AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea, 25 cal
BREAKFAST: 9:15am, kolon bloe with whole milk, 300 cal
SCHOOL SNACK: 5-7pm, tastes of various student smoothies, small plate of fresh salsa, guac & chips, +/- 150 cal
DINNER: 8:30pm, Stouffers French bread pizzas, momma salad, 7oz diet coke, 1020 cal
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THURSDAY COUNT: 2715
Lifted weights in the morning, went well -- did some lower back exercises successfully without pain, still achy but 90% better. Baked knishes in the afternoon for sale, did taste the mix a few times for salt but I'm not going to get THAT anal about putting in maybe a +/- 50 cal taste. Though I did eat the momma salad right before cooking just to make sure I didn't mindlessly put more in my mouth than that...
AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea, 25 cal
BREAKFAST: 9:45am, Fage full fat Greek yogurt with honey, vanilla and almonds, 340 cal
LUNCH: 12:15pm, quarter pounder, fries, 20oz diet coke, 900 cal
PM SNACK: 2:30pm, momma salad, 100 cal
DINNER: 7:30pm, pulled bbq chicken, school made salsa and Tostidos corn chips, pickle, 850 cal
Felt like something different and easy, picked up some corn chips and packaged container of BBQ chicken. I should have stayed away from it, as the first ingredient in the sauce was brown sugar, and the second ingredient was....sugar. Blech, like chicken drowning in syrup, could not finish it. I guess that is the taste of America.
EVENING SNACKS: 9-10pm, chocolate chips & peanuts, potato chips, tortilla chips, +/- 500
That sweet chicken stuff left me feeling weird, sugared up and it drove my appetite wonky. Took comfort in the fact I had a bike ride scheduled tomorrow to hopefully even out the budget for the week.
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BIKE CREDIT: 1760
FRIDAY COUNT: 1785
Left out early and spent half the day on the bike, riding to Staten Island. Good energizing ride after so many rainy days. Tried to be conservative with the eating, I think it might have helped me, never had any up/down swings in energy over the 75 miles.
AM SNACK: 6:30am, iced green tea, 25 cal
AM SNACK: 7am, 2 donuts from Donut Plant, +/-400 cal
BIKE BREAKFAST: 10am, whole wheat bagel with cream cheese, 20oz Gatorade, +/- 500 cal
BIKE SNACK: 12:45pm, 20oz diet Dr Pepper, 0 cal
BIKE LUNCH: 2:15pm, 3 Jamaican meat patties, 1220 cal
DINNER: 7:15pm, Pad Prik King with tofu and sticky rice, fried shrimp roll, Thai salad, +/-1400 cal
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