Also, eating organic is great for your body but not so much for your wallet, and really, is it always necessary, not really (at least not when you are poor and/or a young professional). But then again-- watch enough videos of industrial farming and the thought of not buying organic meat is slightly terrifying... what to do, what to do...it's all a balancing act. Meat or Tofu/Tempeh? Grains or Veggies for side? Cardio or weights? etc. etc.
First of all, I really like meat. Whatever they all say I don't want to give it up. I think we were made omnivores for a reason. I'm not saying you need meat, but if you don't have strong feelings against meat, why give it up? Obviously I don't support the industrial farming techniques and I will no longer make purchases that reward this mass production of food at the cost of animal suffering. We all know how bad stress is to humans, it can't be good for animals either-- and it certainly can't taste as good as an animal that's treated with dignity.
My red meat of choice is usually venison. It's not because I think venison tastes better than beef I just have A LOT of it in my freezer. Deer are wild and sustainable, and my brothers and father keep me fully stocked. As for white meat I find chicken delicious and easy to prepare, but I'm not to keen on pork. Now, moving on to fish. Sometimes fish are farmed, but many times not in the brutal, satanic way cows and chickens are. But fish can be expensive, and sometimes it says in small print that they come from China. Not to hate on that country but given their fluctuating dollar, sweat shops, lead child toys, and human rights violations I tend to not trust China-- given that the U.S. checks 1% of the food they import I'm even more cautious. Then we have wild-caught Salmon but that's pricey so I need to find a fish to buy that's delicious, affordable, sustainable, and that contains low levels of mercury. Anyone know a list of sorts. I found this video on Cooking Light and I'll start there. how to find fish Luckily in the summer the men in my family give me a somewhat decent supply of flounder and rockfish which I LOVE!
Oh, here are the organic eggs I got that I spoke of in the last blog:
And finally I'll leave you with my weights workout for the day before I run off to make water polo practice:
"So be sure when you step, step with care and great tact. And remember that life's A Great Balancing Act. And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and ¾ percent guaranteed) Kid, you'll move mountains."
— Dr. Suess
OK so this might be a long reply haha.
ReplyDeleteWorkouts --> I have three categories that I work from: cardio, yoga, and weights. I try to do yoga once a week, weights 2-3 times, and cardio every other time that I'm not doing weights. If I get off schedule, I pretty much just try to pick the thing I'm lacking to do. But it's easier too since I can go to classes whenever I want (unless I'm working).
I personally try to eat less meat and cut out red meat entirely, as you know. (As a side note - pork is actually red meat. >nutrition science categorizes all mammal meat as red< The advertising people just like to call it white so you think it's healthy.) I think red meat is fine to eat if you're eating the right kinds and not eating it very frequently. Frequent red meat and processed meat consumption has been linked to increased risk of cancer. But of course we can't really draw great conclusions from the data since I believe a lot of it is correlational and probably didn't look closely at cuts and types of meat.
I try to buy only organic animal products. So if I want to make chicken, I buy it organic. If I don't want to spend the extra monies, I don't buy chicken. And as far as other items go, I really only opt organic when I see that buying regular is harmful. (i.e., the dirty dozen list) I think this cuts down on the grocery bill considerably. But also, I sort of categorize groceries as one of my priorities and don't really limit myself unless I really don't have any money.
As far as fish go, I just found this guide about what fish to buy:
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/content/media/MBA_SeafoodWatch_NationalGuide.pdf
PS: I'M JEALOUS OF YOUR EGG CONNECTION!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteMegan, thanks for the comment, very useful info. Good thing I don't like pork, them and their advertisement trickery! I think food should be a priority too and it's helpful to think of it that way. I don't really eat meat that often too, but mostly because it takes too long to cook and it involves more clean-up. I would tend to agree that the correlation with red meat and cancer leaves to many variables that seem impossible to control for and rule out given the various lifestyles of Western Culture, particularly Americans.
ReplyDeleteI've once again fallen off the yoga mobile. I don't know what it is!! I think I'm going to take this week off :/. It's a little harder for me to re-work my regimen since I have (a) "workout buddies" and (b) only one class for yoga... wah wah!
Ah, yes I can definitely see how it would be hard to do that with workout buddies. This makes me glad that I don't actually have workout buddies haha. I sometimes don't decide what I'm doing till the day before or day of.
ReplyDelete