I just saw a story on NPR about a fun feature BBC is running. Basically, you enter your height and weight and you’re matched up with at least one Olympic athlete who’s built like you. I guess there’s no differentiation between men and women, so that could be sort of interesting, but there you go.
We’re a big documentary family, the two of us. We’re the type to watch a movie and become totally engrossed in the topic and talk about it for days on end. Doesn’t matter if it’s the rise and fall of Imperial Russia, meth wars, Google, or Mount Everest– we love learning through the documentary format.
Our favorites are the ones about food and nutrition. What to eat, how to eat, where our food comes from, and all the regulatory issues therein fascinate the pants off us (figuratively speaking).
The movie that had the biggest impact on us, without question, is Forks Over Knives (FOK). Here’s the trailer (I’ll wait):
Taking Forks Over Knives to heart
We’re both pretty healthy people overall. We don’t eat a lot of junk, but we both knew there was room for improvement. After watching FOK, we realized there was actually room for drastic change. The basic premise of the film (in case you’re at work and unable to listen to the video above… I feel ya) is that the Western diet– full of dairy, meat, and fillers– is killing us. The China Study by Dr. T. Colin Campbell plays a major role in the film, correlating the standard American diet with Type II diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and other devastating chronic diseases. In rural China, these diseases are practically unheard of.
The movie certainly opened our eyes to what we were eating was doing to our bodies. Cancer runs on both sides of our families, so we’re open to reducing our risk factors if we can. Forks Over Knives posited that by cutting out dairy, meat, and processed foods, we could feel better, eat more, and (potentially) live longer. Rather than calling the changes in eating habits a “vegan” diet, it’s considered a “plant-strong” diet, just plain eating healthy.
Vegan-but-not-vegan
Dan was very clear we were not vegan. To him and to many, “vegan” equates with “crazy,” and I don’t blame him for wanting to add extra distance there. In reality, though, it’s basically a vegan diet, since we’ve cut out probably 90% of the animal products in our diets. I haven’t bought meat, cheese, or milk in the past 3 or so months when grocery shopping. Just about everything we eat at home would qualify as vegan.
After watching another documentary, Food, Inc., I became concerned with the conditions in factory farms and was making an effort to buy cage-free eggs, grass-fed beef, etc., but not to the point of being militant about it. I still think animals raised in humane ways are an acceptable food source and encourage people to learn more about their food sources overall, but skipping the debate altogether is just easier.
I’m not going to throw paint on your fur or leather. I’m not going to berate you about eating “flesh,” because I think that’s frankly disgusting. I’m also not above ordering meat when we’re out to eat or eating meat when we’re dining with family. Ask me about my food preferences and I’ll tell you I’m sticking to a plant-based diet and probably encourage you to give it a try to see how you like it.
Rethinking supper
Growing up like most people I know, dinner was always meat + veggie + grain/starch. The meat was always the star, and veggies were almost an afterthought. Switching to a plant-based diet meant completely reconsidering how I cook. It took a lot of searching, a lot of Pinteresting, and a lot of tinkering to get used to it, but I think we’re both pretty used to the routine. I’ve learned to cook with beans and leafy greens (both of which I rarely used before), added quinoa to the rotation, and do my best to keep trying new recipes and styles so we don’t fall into a rut.
One of the few animal-related foods I just haven’t been able to kick is ice cream. I try to only have it a couple of times per week, but since it’s my favorite dessert, it’s still tricky. I’ve tried coconut milk “ice cream,” but it didn’t sing to me. I still have to keep experimenting.
Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods have a great variety of harder-to-find ingredients, but my local Stop & Shop doesn’t quite have the same selection. Of course, TJ’s and WFM aren’t in a 5-minute drive, so they’re special trips from time to time.
Resources
Pinterest is a great way to find new recipes. I’m able to make changes on the fly to switch out ingredients to go from vegetarian to vegan pretty easily now.
The Engine 2 Diet has been great, since the author (Rip Esselstyn) is a former professional triathlete and current (I think!) Austin, TX firefighter. Rip gets Dan’s stamp of approval, and Dan’s even started reading a bit of the book I checked out of the library.
Go plant-strong, I dare you! Be sure to let me know what you think.
I’ve mentioned it before, but I spend my daily commute on the MBTA. Because I live in the ‘burbs, I’m stuck taking the Commuter Rail into Boston. It’s a great train for the most part (the subway part of my commute sucks kind of bad though), but the one big drawback is the schedule.
You see, because it’s not all that close to the city, the Commuter Rail has a much more spread-out schedule than the subway does. For example, an Orange Line train might depart from North Station every 6 minutes or so, but a Haverhill train won’t have another for a half hour if you miss it. And that’s during rush hour. Off-peak trains average every hour or so.
So you better catch that train.
The point of the train story is that the MBTA’s clocks never ever match up with whatever time piece I happen to be going by at the time. For example, I checked my trusty BlackBerry for the time (since I knew my watch is slow and needs a new battery) and saw that it was 5:51. My train was due to leave at 5:55. Yikes! So I hustled a bit to get up to the Commuter Rail platform, where I saw the time according to the MBTA: 5:45. A 6 minute difference?! This same kind of game goes on in the morning, too.
My computer and phone at work are also different times. So are all the clocks in my house (all 5 in easy view, that is).
It just begs the question: what time is it, really?
So I’m a little bit of a nerd and actually miss learning interesting new things in classes. What I don’t miss is having to be there all the time, homework, papers, and tests. While I’m not entirely sure how it works, I am very, very, very excited to have found the OpenCourseWare Consortium through this article on Boston.com.
From what I can gather, professors at registered institutions around the world post their class syllabi, readings, and even some course lectures (in audio and video format) online for the world to see. For free. I’m in love. You can browse by topic, department, or college/university and from what I can tell already, you’re bound to find something you find interesting. With colleges like Notre Dame, MIT, Paris Tech, and the Mathematical Insitute at Oxford University, you know you’re getting top-rate direction.
What confuses me is that the syllabi and grading rubrics are posted, but I was under the impression that it was a self-guided sort of effort. Must research more.
All I know is that the Philosophy of Death; German I; the Linguistics of Bilingualism; and Crime, Insanity, and Heredity in American History are all calling my name.
Let me start this post by saying this: I’m all for sensitivity regarding controversial topics. That’s fine. I’m generally politically correct, but not to a fault. I don’t want to sound ignorant, you know?
But this is just freakin’ ridiculous. The Globe ran a column today (not sure if it’s in the print edition, but here’s the online version for your perusal) about the “Barack Effect” on Santa Claus. That’s THE Santa Claus.
I have nothing against the non-traditional Santas. Black, white, green, purple… it doesn’t matter to me. I’ve always had/seen a white Santa. Probably because a) it’s mainstream and b) I’m white. I don’t think my parents deemed it necessary to impart to me the importance of racial equality in my Santa Clauses.
If you want an African-American Santa, that’s totally fine with me. I’m not going to stop you.
I will stop you, however, if you say there will be an increase of black Santas because of our new President-Elect. We all know how I feel about Obama (love him, just in case you didn’t know). I support him for his ideas and ideals, not the color of his skin. Here’s the thing, though: HE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH SANTA CLAUS! He’s the President! No one said there would be an increase in the number of white Santas when all the rest of the presidents were elected! No one said there would be more female Santas (which is absolutely ridiculous in its own right and a separate rant) if Hillary Clinton were elected! No one said there would be more black female Santas because of Condi!
I’m just saying. The notion that Barack Obama will cause an upswing in the number of black Santa Clauses is entirely ridiculous.
I got a new tattoo October 30, and I love it. It’s the word “Grace” on the inside of my left ankle in a gorgeous script lettering, exactly what I was hoping for.
It hurt a bit more than the one I have on my hip (claddagh and two shamrocks), but I think that’s because I have very bony ankles and going over the bones and tendons (oh, the tendons hurt like a mofo) was tough.
One of my favorite things is people who you wouldn’t expect to be inked having at least one tattoo. I look pretty preppy and straight-edge, very Gap/Old Navy most of the time. You would never expect I have two tattoos. After I was done, a guy named Harry came into the shop, greeted like royalty. I swear, this man looked like a typical perpetually-nerdy single uncle, complete with mostly-receded hairline. Now that I think of it, he looked a lot like a professor I had in college, who worked at Sun. Evidently, he’s treated like royalty because he’s in all the time getting work done on a big back piece that he’s having covered. I would never expect this man to have tats, and the fact that he had a full back piece that he was having redone astounded me. I love it!
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