Be forewarned, this post is lengthy and not entertaining.
Holy Crap, I have been busy. Not in the fun, too many social gathering or cool stuff kind of way. In the stuck at home, bribing Monkey Boy to pee in the toilet and not in his pants, hosing mud out of the kiddies ears, cooking dinner (okay, ordering pizza), doing dishes, busting up the never-ending drama fest between Drama Queen and Monkey Boy, and all the while having a baby attached to my boob kinda busy.
The hubby is finally done with Baseball Spring Training so I get to see him more than just the hour between when he comes home and when he slips into unconsciousness on the couch. I guess there was the 5 or so minutes it took me to wake him up and get him to move off the couch and into the bed. Now he gets home at 3:30ish and he even has days off. Wa & Hoo!
Okay, enough explanations and excuses. This is the real reason I am writing. I made a few New Year's resolutions and this year instead of forgetting about them in February, I really am trying to accomplish them.
One goal was to eat less processed foods and go natural. I heard Michael Pollan on NPR (Yes, I am an NPR nerdy nerd) discussing his book
Food Rules. Fascinating. I know he has written other books, but I am honestly not usually much of a nonfiction reader, and they are big, and I didn't think I would have the wherewithal to finish them.
Food Rules is short, to the point and memorable. Some of my favorite food rules:
Rule #20 It's not food if it arrived through the window of your car.
Rule #36 Don't eat breakfast cereals that change the color of your milk.
Rule #39 Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.
Pollan differentiates real food from the processed crap we eat. He says there is food and then there is edible foodlike substances. It is amazing to me how our food industry has created this monster by trying to make food cheaper and addicting so we eat more of it. And perhaps because I am a teacher and deal with teenagers with lots of issues like ADD, OCD, ED, ODD, ADHD, BD, DBD, etc., I keep wondering if it may have a lot to do with our food. I know of people who are allergic to red food coloring. It doesn't give them hives, or stop their breathing, it changes the way they behave. Who is to say that all of the garbage we fill ourselves and our children with isn't causing emotional and behavioral problems.
And here is another little nugget of information that surprised me. Americans on average only spend 10% of their income on food, which is LESS than the citizens of any other nation. We spend our money on cheap quantity rather than quality.
That all said, the kids are now awake, I have piles of laundry to do, I have to go grocery shopping and a Sausage McGriddle washed down with a Diet Coke really sounds good about now!
