More and more you are starting to see people who are preferring organics over conventional foods. But why the shift? Is this a movement for healthier foods or just another wall street concocted fad to loosen the purse strings of Americans? If health was a major concern of the average American, then how can we continue to smoke, drink excessively and buy tons of candy? Doesn't that just fly into the face of the whole healthy eating movement?
I think the answer is a little more involved than just looking at stats and headlines. If you pay attention to the news you would think organics were the main staple at grocery stores. While the selections have increased, they are not a large portion of any average grocery store. I think the main driving force behind all of this is the push to get rid of GMO's, or genetically modified organisms. People don't want frankenfoods. They want real food, food they can identify and not an ingredient list that looks like a chemist term paper from college.
I have moved my eating habits to closer align with what I deem as a healthy, organic food. I consider whole, natural foods that have not been genetically modified or polluted with chemicals as organic. No, this does not include the cinnamon graham crackers that have a laundry list of "organic" ingredients in it. That is slightly healthier processed food. Any processed food is not going to be healthy. the more processed it becomes, the less healthy it becomes. We should be striving to return our kitchens to what they were pre WWII when almost everything was made from scratch, and with real, whole ingredients. Now that's not to say some things can't be used, like ground spices, etc. but that by making them from scratch we have fewer ingredients to consume.
Let's look at macaroni and cheese. This is arguably one of the most popular foods to hit the grocery store shelf. I don't know a single person who does not like mac & cheese. But look at the ingredient list on any box, organic or not and you'll see a list of chemicals that would make a high school science teacher envious. This is not mac & cheese. This is pasta with chemicals. Mac & cheese should be made from whole grain pasta and organic cheese made from raw, grass fed dairy. This is what your ancestors ate. The sad part is it takes just as much time to make the processed, powdered form as it does the real thing! There is absolutely no time savings. But we have been fed a line (no pun intended) that we don't have time to make real meals We need these quick, convenience foods. It's all a gimmick to sell you mass production food.
When I started changing how my family ate, I started looking up recipes for foods we normally ate. I never realized that making Alfredo sauce from scratch was a simple, 3 ingredient process that was just as fast to make as it was to warm the stuff that came in a jar! In the same amount of time it took to cook my pasta, I could make Alfredo sauce! And guess what? It tasted way better than the jar stuff! Now my family won't eat any Alfredo sauce unless I made it. Little by little I was winning my family over to this new way of eating. Food tasted better and they felt better.
So how do I know I am doing better eating this way? Well for starters, everyone in my house has been slowly losing weight just by changing our diet. We still have our moments and weaknesses, namely ice-cream. But where I can see the biggest difference is when I eat something that would have been a normal food just a couple years ago. Recently I was out running around and was in a hurry. I decided to hit Burger King and get a bacon cheeseburger. I got the meal but had unsweetened tea. For the following 3 hours I felt like crap, and for the last hour I felt sick. My stomach hurt and I felt like I needed to throw up. I have learned my lesson! Once you kick fast food, you don't want to go back. It will make you sick!
If you doubt what I say, take the whole food challenge. Eat whole foods for one week. Then go eat some fast food and see what happens. The food is bland, except for the ones with slathered on sauces and insanely salty. Your body will tell you fairly quickly that it did not appreciate the assault from this disgusting food you fed it. As you move more and more over to whole foods your tastes will change. Food will taste better and your body will start to crave fresh fruits and vegetables. You will notice you sleep better, have more energy and your health will improve. I went from borderline high blood pressure to blood pressure of a teenager in 2 months!
Try whole foods. You body will thank you, and you will thank me!
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Monday, September 12, 2016
Welcome!
Welcome to my blog! So what exactly is My Franked Up Life? Well, it's my journey through life and all things that interest me. I have a wide array of interests and I hope to explore them in my blog. Hopefully some of you out there will relate to my content and become engaged in the topics of conversation. I am not always politically correct, or mainstream in my views/opinions. But you will never see me comprise my views just to be popular. So with that being said, let's kick it off with a doosey!
I have to state right up front that I am a veteran of the U.S. Navy, having served on active duty for 3 years. I am patriotic and on the conservative side for most things. While I agree that people have the right to protest, I sometimes wonder at the motives behind he protest. The latest movement really has me motivated to call out a segment that seems to want attention. Colin Kaepernick started his kneeling "movement" during the pre-season. I felt this was nothing more than a way for him to get attention since his football career was anything less than stellar lately. While I applaud his desire to effect change, I question the methods. I question the methods of anyone who uses a patriotic platform to try and drive a narrative.
A little back story on me. My parents divorced when I was about 4. My mom went on welfare for a while, and we lived in low income housing for several years until she remarried. I have lived the ghetto life. I know what it's like. Even though I may be white, I do remember having black friends growing up in the late 60's and early 70's so I know the struggles they endured. The America we live in today has no comparison to that of the civil rights era. I'm not going to get into what the catalyst for the new race hate movement is. But I am going to delve into what needs to be done to right this ship.
I will refer back to these sports players. You get paid millions of $$ to play with a ball for 3 hours a week. Yes, a lot of you grew up in the ghettos. You know the low income struggles. But I have to wonder, how many of these protesters have gone back into the inner cities and tried to effect change? Sure, you see them doing the publicity Christmas toy shopping sprees that give people the warm fuzzies. But what are you doing on a day to day basis to effect change? It's easy to kneel down and say "Oh, I am doing this to protest this or that". It's a lot harder to actually do something about it.
Instead of trampling on your countries patriots, how about you honor them by being a role model for the kids in your teams ghettos? Why not teach these kids that there is a better way. Teach them that hard work can and does pay off. It's not enough to just say these things to them, you have to reinforce it. You have to teach them that to be respected takes more than just walking around acting like you're all that so people are afraid of you. That's not respect. If you want respect you have to earn it. Dress respectful, act respectful. As the saying goes, the clothes make the man. If you walk around with your ass hanging out of your pants and your hat tilted to one side having thick, gold chains dangling around your neck, you are going to get treated like a gang banger. Pull your pants up, wear the hat the right way and act like a normal person and you'll be surprised how people treat you.
But therein lies the problem. And it's not isolated to inner city youth. It is occurring across all economic and social boundaries. Our liberal, indoctrinating school systems have introduced a breed of American that feels entitled. It used to be that people hated to have any sort of assistance. They were too proud. Now it's the reverse. People EXPECT it! And along with that entitlement attitude comes the "it's all about me" attitude. I will dress how I want, I will act how I want and people shouldn't judge me by that. They don't know me. Well, I have news for you. That isn't how the real world works! Take two men and have them walk down each side of the street. One wearing gang banger clothing and the other in a pair of correctly fitting jeans and a polo shirt. Send a taxi down and see which one gets picked up. I can tell the gang banger looking one is going to be walking!
I have heard every excuse in the book for why someone can't rise above their situation. Then I meet people who came to this country with nothing but a few dollars and now they are wealthy. So why is it these people can come here with all the barriers and obstacles in their way and make it, yet people born here cannot? And you can't use race because there are plenty of black, hispanic, asian and middle-eastern people who have accomplished this. But the big difference between them and the ghetto dwellers in America is these people expect to work hard to get what they want. American's have become lazy and entitled. They want everything handed to them. It's not going to happen.
So how about it Kaepernick? Are you going to affect change or are you going to continue to be a publicity hound? How about the rest of the NFL? You talk a good game, but how about putting your money where your mouth is? How about doing something without expecting the news cameras to be there capturing the feel good moment?
As they say in chess, check!
I have to state right up front that I am a veteran of the U.S. Navy, having served on active duty for 3 years. I am patriotic and on the conservative side for most things. While I agree that people have the right to protest, I sometimes wonder at the motives behind he protest. The latest movement really has me motivated to call out a segment that seems to want attention. Colin Kaepernick started his kneeling "movement" during the pre-season. I felt this was nothing more than a way for him to get attention since his football career was anything less than stellar lately. While I applaud his desire to effect change, I question the methods. I question the methods of anyone who uses a patriotic platform to try and drive a narrative.
A little back story on me. My parents divorced when I was about 4. My mom went on welfare for a while, and we lived in low income housing for several years until she remarried. I have lived the ghetto life. I know what it's like. Even though I may be white, I do remember having black friends growing up in the late 60's and early 70's so I know the struggles they endured. The America we live in today has no comparison to that of the civil rights era. I'm not going to get into what the catalyst for the new race hate movement is. But I am going to delve into what needs to be done to right this ship.
I will refer back to these sports players. You get paid millions of $$ to play with a ball for 3 hours a week. Yes, a lot of you grew up in the ghettos. You know the low income struggles. But I have to wonder, how many of these protesters have gone back into the inner cities and tried to effect change? Sure, you see them doing the publicity Christmas toy shopping sprees that give people the warm fuzzies. But what are you doing on a day to day basis to effect change? It's easy to kneel down and say "Oh, I am doing this to protest this or that". It's a lot harder to actually do something about it.
Instead of trampling on your countries patriots, how about you honor them by being a role model for the kids in your teams ghettos? Why not teach these kids that there is a better way. Teach them that hard work can and does pay off. It's not enough to just say these things to them, you have to reinforce it. You have to teach them that to be respected takes more than just walking around acting like you're all that so people are afraid of you. That's not respect. If you want respect you have to earn it. Dress respectful, act respectful. As the saying goes, the clothes make the man. If you walk around with your ass hanging out of your pants and your hat tilted to one side having thick, gold chains dangling around your neck, you are going to get treated like a gang banger. Pull your pants up, wear the hat the right way and act like a normal person and you'll be surprised how people treat you.
But therein lies the problem. And it's not isolated to inner city youth. It is occurring across all economic and social boundaries. Our liberal, indoctrinating school systems have introduced a breed of American that feels entitled. It used to be that people hated to have any sort of assistance. They were too proud. Now it's the reverse. People EXPECT it! And along with that entitlement attitude comes the "it's all about me" attitude. I will dress how I want, I will act how I want and people shouldn't judge me by that. They don't know me. Well, I have news for you. That isn't how the real world works! Take two men and have them walk down each side of the street. One wearing gang banger clothing and the other in a pair of correctly fitting jeans and a polo shirt. Send a taxi down and see which one gets picked up. I can tell the gang banger looking one is going to be walking!
I have heard every excuse in the book for why someone can't rise above their situation. Then I meet people who came to this country with nothing but a few dollars and now they are wealthy. So why is it these people can come here with all the barriers and obstacles in their way and make it, yet people born here cannot? And you can't use race because there are plenty of black, hispanic, asian and middle-eastern people who have accomplished this. But the big difference between them and the ghetto dwellers in America is these people expect to work hard to get what they want. American's have become lazy and entitled. They want everything handed to them. It's not going to happen.
So how about it Kaepernick? Are you going to affect change or are you going to continue to be a publicity hound? How about the rest of the NFL? You talk a good game, but how about putting your money where your mouth is? How about doing something without expecting the news cameras to be there capturing the feel good moment?
As they say in chess, check!
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