Repost: Fresh and far away

 

 

We are so far removed from our food and its sources. A lot of our food, so-called food is made from a slew of hard to pronounce ingredients, in far away factories, packaged, and then shipped to the grocery store.

Animals no longer graze their natural habitat. Instead, they are confined and slaughtered in giant factories, known as feedlots. It’s very rare to have seen or known the animal that we prepare and eat. Most of us would prefer not to see Emily the cow get electrocuted and then have her throat slit. We cringe at the thought. We don’t even want to be bothered with the skin or bones anymore. Hence, skinless, boneless chicken breast. Think about it…If you had to hunt, kill, and clean the animal…How much meat would you eat?

Fruits and vegetables are grown in massive fields and sprayed with gross amounts of pesticides. We’ve never touched the soil, or pulled up the roots. Some of our fruits and vegetables travel thousands of miles before they make it to the grocery store. That’s how we can enjoy strawberries in the dead of the winter. Such an oddity, we all know strawberries are the taste of summer. Or do we?

We are so very disconnected from our food. As we evolve, we try to do things more efficiently, but along the way we’ve created quite a mess with our industrialized food system. It’s all convenient. It’s all nicely packaged. It’s all wrong.

I’m just one gal on a mission to create a healthier lifestyle for myself.  Along the way, I’ve done a lot of reading, viewing of films, and realize that a healthy lifestyle begins with the food that I eat. I want to share what I learned with others. I hope I don’t come off as a pretentious, know-it-all. I'm not. I really just want to help you make better informed decisions.

Originally posted April 16, 2012.

Healthy and sick

I pride myself on working out, eating whole fresh foods, and resting -- the key ingredients to health.

Such as life, there are periods were my habits are better, more consistent than others. The last few weeks, I found myself really dialed in on all areas. I was feeling really good everything was going swell.  Working out hard with my new training team, Northwest Personal Training, really mindful of my food choices, and proper rest every night. I even made sure to take a day off from exercising mid-week. Being extra-cautious not to burn myself out.

I was on a roll. The blog's readership hit 25,000, working on a real huge project, cookbook signing at Clark College, and coordinating the FRESH viewing at the library.


Then out of nowhere...Bitten by the flu bug. Bitten hard by the flu bug. It's been awful. Not only the physical discomforts: Body aches, chills, coughing, fever, and loss of appetite. There's something about being sick that makes me feel so vulnerable. So weak.

I've been sidelined for the past two weeks. No interest in blogging, food, or much of anything.  I'm slowly regaining my strength and my smile is back too. Being sick has surely made me appreciate my good health all the more. Even the healthiest people get sick sometimes.

Fresh and far away

We are so far removed from our food and its sources. A lot of our food, so-called food is made from a slew of hard to pronounce ingredients, in far away factories, packaged, and then shipped to the grocery store.

Animals no longer graze their natural habitat. Instead, they are confined and slaughtered in giant factories, known as feedlots. It’s very rare to have seen or known the animal that we prepare and eat. Most of us would prefer not to see Emily the cow get electrocuted and then have her throat slit. We cringe at the thought. We don’t even want to be bothered with the skin or bones anymore. Hence, skinless, boneless chicken breast. Think about it…If you had to hunt, kill, and clean the animal…How much meat would you eat?

Fruits and vegetables are grown in massive fields and sprayed with gross amounts of pesticides. We’ve never touched the soil, or pulled up the roots. Some of our fruits and vegetables travel thousands of miles before they make it to the grocery store. That’s how we can enjoy strawberries in the dead of the winter. Such an oddity, we all know strawberries are the taste of summer. Or do we?

We are so very disconnected from our food. As we evolve, we try to do things more efficiently, but along the way we’ve created quite a mess with our industrialized food system. It’s all convenient. It’s all nicely packaged. It’s all wrong.

I’m just one gal on a mission to create a healthier lifestyle for myself.  Along the way, I’ve done a lot of reading, viewing of films, and realize that a healthy lifestyle begins with the food that I eat. I want to share what I learned with others. I hope I don’t come off as a pretentious, know-it-all. I'm not. I really just want to help you make better informed decisions.

On Saturday, April 21 from 1-4 p.m at the Cascade Park Community Library there’ll be a showing of FRESH The Movie. The film explores the current food industry and honors the farmers, thinkers, and business people who are revolutionizing fresh food in America. 

I hope you’ll be able to join us. There’ll be a panel to lead a discussion and answer questions after the film. And, I’ll prepare healthy snacks for everyone to enjoy. Free. Open to the community.

To get your palette's whet this week, the blog posts, are dedicated to fresh, whole food. I may even provide a recipe or two.

Top 5

By day's end the blog will reach 25,000 vistors. Unbelieveable. Surreal.

Thank you for reading, for entertaining my crazy, and helping me battle obesity the only way I know how: Preparing and eating fresh whole food, exercise, and blogging. I have some super-cool giveaways that I'm making especially for YOU to commemorate this special milestone. More about that next week. For now, let's recap my top 5 favorite (it was hard to chose) blog posts (not in order). Click the link to re-read. Enjoy!

1. Nothing owns me
2. Glow
3. The Underdog
4. No Limits
5. I shop at Neiman Marcus 

If you're so inclined...Share with me your fave. I'd love to hear from you.

Retrained Disciplined Brain

One of my favorite retrained breakfast creations
Photo by Brit Martin

My girlfriend called me yesterday -- get this because she needs help getting back on track with her healthy diet and exercise regimen.  Calling, me? Seriously, I love it. Anyhow, she's been so busy with work, hasn't had time to take care of herself, and she feels miserable.

There's nothing better than eating healthy wholesome food combined with exercise. You just feel good. So if you fall off even a little you begin to feel icky. As an obese miserable woman I ate so much crappy food with no movement. I felt like I was drugged all the time. I remember at one point I use to fall to sleep at the wheel while driving. Yes, scary I know. Oops, I'm way off of the subject I was addressing -- kinda. My point, I know first hand the way eating real food and exercise can improve your mood and the way you feel.

My advice to her: Schedule the time to plan, shop, and prepare her meals. Don't budge. It's a commitment. That way she has good real food that she can zap anytime and ready made snacks. Of course, I gave her some recipe ideas. Mostly all the meals I'm currently eating (very plant based diet). The further we got into the conversation the more silence there was. Finally, she said "This sounds so disciplined." I laughed.

Here's the thing. I've had to Retrain my Brain. All the foods that eat I enjoy. Believe me I do not compromise taste. I love food too much. I have found foods that I enjoy that happen to be good for me.

• Like my new friend wheat berries -- love those little nutty kernels. They are versatile. I can eat them with savory items or with fresh fruit and a drizzle of honey. 
• Kale -- King of the greens. I sauté the greens, use them in soups, or make crunchy kale chips for a snack. 

I see it like this, if I'm using coconut milk then I don't compare it to the taste of cow's milk. I'm no longer drinking cow's milk for various reasons. They don't taste the same nor should they.

Disciplined? Okay, sure that's fair. I've made a commitment to myself. I'm in pursuit of health, wellness, and weight loss -- it's a holistic approach. I want to honor my body with good whole food, but still be able to enjoy the taste. I also realize that working out is only about 20 percent of the equation when it comes to weight loss. I know that what matters more is what I eat. It makes no sense to workout as hard as I've been if I'm not going to eat well. It's counterproductive.  So, I've retrained my brain and I'm disciplined.