Well, life is progressing quite well on the homefront of the Tim & Danielle Stratford household.
My job is still going great. I am really enjoying it.
Tim is still in school. He is doing fabulous.
I feel like we should have a baby.
No, I take that back...that sounds too much like a spiritual prompting. I just WANT a baby.
Buuuuuuuuut I think we will have to wait.
Other than that, I have started eating 35 grams of fiber a day, which I assure you is no small feat. SERIOUSLY...it is hard to cram all that fiber in. Try it. That's 10 G'S OF FIBER A MEAL, plus 5 for snack. Fiber keeps you so full, it's ridiculous. Usually, my meals go about like this:
Fruit smoothie for breakfast, 9 g of fiber
Prunes (yum!) or Triscuits for snack: 3 g fiber
Lunch: whole grain pasta or something like unto it: 7 g
Dinner: same thing, 7 g
See? And all that is only 26 g of fiber...still 9 short. And that is where my FiberOne bars come in, because they are super small but pack 9 g's of fiber per bar. Amazing.
Mostly I've been doing this for health reasons. It all came about because of Netflix. Yes, Netflix. Tim and I signed up for a free trial and I have been watching food documentaries all day. I just think it's interesting the kinds of things we actually eat and expect to be healthy with.
Before I start in on that, let me say that I love junk food and meat just as much as the next person. However, I do think that it's important to eat healthy for life--not to lose weight (although that's always nice), but to be as healthy as you can be. I really liked this post by Oksana, my cousin-in-law. What really got me thinking was thinking about the kind of habits I want my kids to have with food. I want them to eat healthy things. Childhood obesity is not a crisis of personal responsibility. It is happening because parents are feeding their kids crappy, processed, high-fat, low-nutrient food. I want my kids to be healthy, happy, and free from diabetes.
Anyway...so I watched a bunch of documentaries. I would highly recommend watching them. They, just like any other documentary, should be taken with a grain of salt. But still, I liked a lot of the info they gave. It's mind-blowing the disconnect that we Americans have from our food. I daresay that if we had to raise and slaughter our own meat, a lot of us would become vegetarians. (I'm not saying it's wrong to slaughter things, but I am saying that none of us are used to killing another thing anymore. Killing your own food is now a thing of the past.) Some of the documentaries I watched that I'd recommend are:
Supersize Me: looks at the fast food industry (McDonald's especially) and talks about our obesity epidemic (which is the 2nd largest cause of preventable death in the U.S.!)
Food, Inc: talks about food corporations and the fact that our entire food system is really coming from three or four major companies
The Future of Food: this one was interesting in looking at GMO's, or genetically modified organisms. Again, I don't think they're going to kill you, but it's interesting to realize just how much processed food we eat when we think they are healthy for us. Even some of our fresh vegetables have been processed and altered.
The whole thing gives new meaning to the "evil and conspiring men" we are warned about:
"Behold, verily, thus saith the Lord unto you: In consequence of aevils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of bconspiring men in the last days, I have cwarned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation."
These food companies are not concerned about our health, they are concerned about their bottom line. Our food world would be so different if its main motivation was consumers' health instead of financial gain.
Well, this post turned into a HUGE soap box, so I hope you don't mind. If you want to do a 35 g of fiber a day thing, you can go here for a very comprehensive list of foods with fiber. Maybe I'll write more on this later, but I'm pretty sure this post is long enough for now...sorry about that.
My job is still going great. I am really enjoying it.
Tim is still in school. He is doing fabulous.
I feel like we should have a baby.
No, I take that back...that sounds too much like a spiritual prompting. I just WANT a baby.
Buuuuuuuuut I think we will have to wait.
Other than that, I have started eating 35 grams of fiber a day, which I assure you is no small feat. SERIOUSLY...it is hard to cram all that fiber in. Try it. That's 10 G'S OF FIBER A MEAL, plus 5 for snack. Fiber keeps you so full, it's ridiculous. Usually, my meals go about like this:
Fruit smoothie for breakfast, 9 g of fiber
Prunes (yum!) or Triscuits for snack: 3 g fiber
Lunch: whole grain pasta or something like unto it: 7 g
Dinner: same thing, 7 g
See? And all that is only 26 g of fiber...still 9 short. And that is where my FiberOne bars come in, because they are super small but pack 9 g's of fiber per bar. Amazing.
Mostly I've been doing this for health reasons. It all came about because of Netflix. Yes, Netflix. Tim and I signed up for a free trial and I have been watching food documentaries all day. I just think it's interesting the kinds of things we actually eat and expect to be healthy with.
Before I start in on that, let me say that I love junk food and meat just as much as the next person. However, I do think that it's important to eat healthy for life--not to lose weight (although that's always nice), but to be as healthy as you can be. I really liked this post by Oksana, my cousin-in-law. What really got me thinking was thinking about the kind of habits I want my kids to have with food. I want them to eat healthy things. Childhood obesity is not a crisis of personal responsibility. It is happening because parents are feeding their kids crappy, processed, high-fat, low-nutrient food. I want my kids to be healthy, happy, and free from diabetes.
Anyway...so I watched a bunch of documentaries. I would highly recommend watching them. They, just like any other documentary, should be taken with a grain of salt. But still, I liked a lot of the info they gave. It's mind-blowing the disconnect that we Americans have from our food. I daresay that if we had to raise and slaughter our own meat, a lot of us would become vegetarians. (I'm not saying it's wrong to slaughter things, but I am saying that none of us are used to killing another thing anymore. Killing your own food is now a thing of the past.) Some of the documentaries I watched that I'd recommend are:
Supersize Me: looks at the fast food industry (McDonald's especially) and talks about our obesity epidemic (which is the 2nd largest cause of preventable death in the U.S.!)
Food, Inc: talks about food corporations and the fact that our entire food system is really coming from three or four major companies
The Future of Food: this one was interesting in looking at GMO's, or genetically modified organisms. Again, I don't think they're going to kill you, but it's interesting to realize just how much processed food we eat when we think they are healthy for us. Even some of our fresh vegetables have been processed and altered.
The whole thing gives new meaning to the "evil and conspiring men" we are warned about:
"Behold, verily, thus saith the Lord unto you: In consequence of aevils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of bconspiring men in the last days, I have cwarned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation."
These food companies are not concerned about our health, they are concerned about their bottom line. Our food world would be so different if its main motivation was consumers' health instead of financial gain.
Well, this post turned into a HUGE soap box, so I hope you don't mind. If you want to do a 35 g of fiber a day thing, you can go here for a very comprehensive list of foods with fiber. Maybe I'll write more on this later, but I'm pretty sure this post is long enough for now...sorry about that.
I watched Food Inc. a couple of weeks ago. I couldn't believe the way they raise those animals and then expect them to not have any diseases?? It's crazy! We have cut down our meat intake quite a bit since that movie. :) Good luck with the fiber!
ReplyDeleteGood for you, Dan! This is such great stuff for us to be aware of. I want to check out those clips.
ReplyDeleteAlong those lines, if you want a cool movie for your movie night, google "Home." It's the first video that comes up and it's 93 min long, so it will take a while to load. It's SO eye-opening! Mark and I have watched it twice now. It's a documentary as entertaining as Hollywood!
And HOLY COW! I'll announce when YOU announce. And when I do announce, I expect home-spun baby booties from you.
What, no shout out for the parentals for urging you to read, ponder, and pray about "The China Study" lo these many years?
ReplyDeleteShout out to Larry. And Sandy. And The China Study.
ReplyDelete