Health Rants: The Beginning

This summer, Vogue has been all about health, and one of the articles I read really got me thinking. It was examining the idea that exercise may not be the best diet for some people if you really want to lose weight. In a nutshell, the author, a mid-aged woman, described her dieting practices, noting that although she exercises 5x/wk, she has actually remained the same size for the past 10yrs. Now, she said, if the goal of all of this exercise was to lose weight, then why has she persisted for so long in a pattern that hasn't seemed to prove beneficial? 

This is a subject that I have personally been exploring for the past few years, and I have come to a conclusion that I seem to think is just inevitable: most people just don't understand portion control. In America, we have learned that bigger is better, big house, big car, big mac... you get the picture. However, as time is progressing, the real estate market is crashing, the cars' pollution has made the environment unstable, and our general public has reached an obesity issue of epidemic proportions. So where does it end?

I have no idea what can be done about the American economy, I didn't even remotely study anything pertaining to that in school. And hopefully, with the upcoming election, the US will be able to elect the only candidate that seems interested in working positively with the rest of the world to solve the crisis of global warming. However, that still leaves the problem of obesity. Now-- I know just as well as anyone how easy it is to think that what appears on your plate when you order an "entree" at applebees is what you should be ingesting as a meal, but the reality is that your body just can't handle that many calories in a day! Lets say you order their asiago chicken; right there, you have eaten 800 calories, and that doesn't even count your drink, an appetizer, or anything that may come on the side. If you're careful, order the chicken with a diet soda, only eat half of your mashed potatoes, and none of the garlic toast, you might get lucky and leave the restaurant only 1,000 cal heavier. But let's say you're a normal, healthy sized person, and you weren't planning to work out that day: that only leaves you with 500 cal to spare for the rest of the day without you having to worry about gaining weight. Now, does that sound anything like what the teacher was droning on about during all those long hours back in your high school health class? Probably not. 

Back to the Vogue article; it turned out that the author had merely fallen a victim of what so many of us are prone to do, and had assumed that it was just fine to have that second cookie-- I mean, she was working it all off anyway, right? There are some great programs popping up out there to help people understand what a healthy diet entails; Weight Watchers, LA weight loss, but their problem lies right there in their title. These businesses are about helping people lose weight they wouldn't have gained to begin with if proper food education had been readily available. This has become one of my favorite websites over the past year, because it compiles useful information in a user-friendly fashion, perfect for the health-obsessed like me. You ever want to know exactly how many calories were in a peach? Or how many you were actually burning off with those walks on the beach? It'll tell you! It's fantastic. 

Anyway, this article is the beginning of many. I plan to put up delicious recipes as I find them, and eventually workout tips as well.  

V is for Veggies, Is Good Enough For Me!

I know, I know, I'm behind the times. But what can I say? I don't have children, and, like the rest of my generation, I tend to get my news almost solely from the internet and/or The Daily Show. Therefore, I didn't hear about this new Cookie Monster phenomena until I read a post about Cookie Monster making an appearance on The Colbert Report, so-- shame on me. 

There seems to be much protest from the masses surrounding this nostalgic icon's movement away from childhood obesity. Everywhere you look (once you know to search for it, that is), another person seems to be protesting that Cookie Monster is "selling out." In fact, the tagline on the very same picture I have posted above read: "What is this crap?!" Popular theory seems to hold that this icon, and his obsession, were a symbol of our childhoods, and now his hydrogenated ideals are going the way of Strawberry Shortcake, who has become a big girl, and  traded in gumdrops for actual strawberries. Wait... is that supposed to be a bad thing?

Stephen Colbert addressed this whiny refrain from the children of the 80's satirically, naturally. He shouted out loud that "fruit is un-American!" Obviously mocking as this statement may appear, it actually seems to be the popular web opinion! Food Sites, thankfully, seem to retain their sanity and stand above the norm, supporting Sesame Street's desire to halt childhood obesity. The above link will lead you to "Serious Eats," where you can actually watch Stephen Colbert interview Cookie Monster, if you so desire.

 The British also seem to be in agreement with Sesame Street's new policy, the BBC\'s article on the matter actually points out that "almost one in 3 children in the US is overweight, as opposed to one in 25 in the UK," something that people clinging to nostalgia seem to overlook. 

I say, nostalgia be damned in this case. Sure Cookie Monster was great, but isn't proper education better? Wasn't it Cookie Monster's driving personality that attracted us to him in the first place? Whatever he ate, he ate with vehemence and spirit, and who's to say that his googly-eyed devouring of pineapples and bananas won't be as delighting to children as projectile chocolate chips were to us? Wasn't it Cookie Monster's love and interest in his nourishment, and his sadness when it was gone what made him a role model to be adored? 

Cookie Monster's new refrain is that he still loves cookies as much as ever, but that cookies are a "sometimes food," to be enjoyed after you have eaten your healthy meal. What's not to love in that? 

The sugary, substance-driven shouts of the carefree 80's have been laid to rest, for the good of the future. However, I too have nostalgic weaknesses, so here is an awesome poem I found when I was looking all of this information up. Thank you, Andy Bryan. 

To Geek or Not to Geek?

This is apparently what happens if you do a google search for Star Trek and then sit back and look at all the pretty pictures. I loved this picture, but it really made me think-- what side of that waiting room would I be on now?

I was a total nerd in high school... Actually I still am, I just learned to hide it better. So where exactly do I fit in now? All the friends of my best friends from high school always appear to fear me, and the kids my boyfriend plays MTG with stutter and drop their cards when I appear, even if my appearance is due to the fact that I too am playing magic and having inevitably lost in the last round, I must now play them. 

So what happens now? Is there some sort of retrograde order that governs the social circles once we get older? If so, I really feel cheated. I used to be one of the geeky kids that got looked down on, and now I'm one of those social people that the nerds privately mock. Does this ever reach an equilibrium or do I just have to accept the fact that I'm being mocked and I have the distinct pleasure of realizing it? Kinda makes you feel jealous of those kids that were popular in HS, they never did seem to figure out what vicious fun we always had at their expense... you know how public school teachers always say 'no question is a stupid question?' Yeah, they're just being nice. In fact, many questions are stupid questions, especially the ones that require the instructor to repeat something that was quite literally just explained. 

But that is beside the point. I want to know what happens to the nerds that woke up one day, stuck their heads out of their chosen corners, and realized, "Hey! Vogue isn't so hard after all!" I maintain that, in all seriousness, it takes a special sort of nerdiness in and of itself to devote yourself so fully to the demands of fashion. The time you have to spend scouring magazines, and online stores, vintage shops, and designers' web lookbooks... or maybe that's just me. Hey, what can I say? I'll always be a nerd. 

At this point, I'm just glad I didn't wind up getting that dragon tattoo encircled with an elvish inscription I wanted when I graduated... Ooops, did I just say that out loud?