I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I do not believe in New Year’s resolutions. I believe that people can only truly make significant change when they are ready. That said, maybe for some leaving one year behind and starting “fresh” in a new year is the push they need to make those changes. Despite my resistance to resolutions I can’t help but find myself thinking about things I’d like to do differently at this time of year. It used to be that September provided this definition in my life – the changing of the calendar year was so much less significant than the changing of the school year. Maybe I just don’t want to call them resolutions, because we all know how easily we all discard our resolutions.
I managed to shift my thinking regarding weight a few years ago when I started this blog – I really did begin to believe that healthy eating was about healthy living, and not about being skinny. When I think back, that all started just after the New Year, two years ago. The biggest change of all has slowly crept in on me over the last few months. For the first time ever I can say (and mean it) that I really love my body. This is where I live – no matter where I go there is no escaping that. It is of no benefit to me to walk around hating my home.
These days hubs and I are still very conscientious about the contents of the food we consume. With the exception of condiments, we do not buy prepackaged foods. My mission from two years ago was a total success. It reframed our thinking about how we spend our food dollars and what we consume. Even though we don’t make our own mayonnaise from scratch, we do still take the time to read the ingredients and ensure we are buying one with a short list, and recognizable ingredients. So maybe I did make a "resolution" and keep it - I just didn't call it that.
In my last post I wrote about my car accident on the way to the cabin earlier this week. I said I’d keep you posted as I took stock of my life and set some new goals accordingly. So I asked myself the most obvious question I could think of – If you had died in that accident, what would you most regret never having done? It may seem a bit morbid, but it immediately popped a thought into my head. Well, two, but I’m not ready to talk about one of them just yet. The truth is that none of my regrets would have anything to do with eating that extra piece of chocolate, or enjoying those amazing meals with my family in Raleigh over Christmas. They don’t have to do with exercising more or weighing less. I didn’t even think for a second about those extra 10 minutes I spend in bed every morning instead of doing my hair. They had nothing to do with having more money or nicer things. My job, which I do not like very much at all, didn’t even flicker across my mind. I know none of this is revelatory – we are constantly seeing trite quotes about how in the end none of these things will matter - and yet I do spend a tremendous amount of time and energy thinking about these things every day. The truth is I probably still will, and in some cases I should. I want to be healthier and feel happier in my job, I guess I just need to recognize that there are things that I hold dearer in my heart.
Ok, so I’m sure you’d like to hear about the thing I DID think of – I’d regret never having attempted to publish a novel. I wrote one about 10 years ago, which I love and am very proud of; but it will never see the light of day, because that story belongs to me and I do not feel the need to share it. But I would truly regret never having tried to write something and put it out into the world.
So why don’t I write anymore? Okay, well to be fair I do – I scribble things down all the time- bits of blog posts that may or may not ever see the light of day, pieces of stories that come to me out of thin air, character descriptions that live in the shadows of my thoughts. Then there are the million and one things that never even make it onto paper because I was at work, or on the bus , or out for dinner, or just simply didn’t have any means to record them. Aha! There’s the key – the means to record them, and moreover, not lose them! Almost every note book, phone book, sketch book, electronic device, etc. I’ve ever owned has some piece of this puzzle scribbled in the margins.
It’s so obvious – I need somewhere I can store these thoughts at a moment’s notice, where they can all be found in one place and reassembled easily – yeesh, I need a laptop (or maybe a netbook for portability?). Ok, so my goal for January is to obtain something small that I can type on (keyboard, not screen) – those are really my only requirements.
Oh, and as to my New Year’s resolution for 2013 – I’m going to take up running. I’ll let you know how that goes ;)
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
A Deep Fried, Southern Christmas, and a Very Happy New Year!
I hope you all had as good an end to 2012/beginning to 2013 as I have had. We spent Christmas in Raleigh, NC with my mom, step-dad, 2 brothers and my grandmother. I feel like I've done nothing but eat for a week and a half. My family has dubbed Christmas in Raleigh "Pig-fest"... for weeks beforehand my husband, brother and dad no.2 exchange emails planing what they will cook and when they will cook these things. This year there was talk of roasting a whole pig... this year it was only talk, but I anticipate that by the next time we get down there they will have worked out the logistics. Instead all we managed were lobster tails, prime rib, home maid onion rings, turkey dinner, honey baked ham, scalloped potatoes... and those are just the highlights. I come by my love of food very honestly.
I love my family, I love spending time with them... unlike some people I don't dread spending the holidays with my parents & siblings. I actually look forward to it, for months. While the boys are busy planing all the food, I am usually hunting down Christmas gifts and making lists of things that can be purchased on the cheep in the States. Don't get me wrong, it's not without it's moments - by the end of the week I'm usually feeling overfed and in desperate need of alone time, but all in all I love Christmas in Raleigh.
So by the time we left on the 29th to head back to the frozen arctic (aka: the Canadian Prairies) I was feeling tired, spoiled, stuffed and ready to head home. My parents should feel very proud of themselves - they've managed to raise kids who like being with them, but feel no desire to live in their basement.
Hubs has two full weeks off over Christmas so he planned a few days skiing in Montana with a buddy, and left just a few hours after we got off the plane to drive out there. I, unfortunately do not get the same kind of holiday time he does and have to be back at work tomorrow. So I planned a weekend with some friends at our family cabin. I woke up Sunday and was eager to get on the road. My plan was to pick up the dog from my mother-in-law's place and be out there with enough time to have a few precious solitary hours. You know what they say about the best laid plans... By the time I did everything I needed to do and actually got out of the city it was almost two hours later than I'd planned. The roads were a bit snow covered but seemed okay. I was about 45 minutes away from the cabin when I hit a patch of ice and the car started to slide across the highway, I did my best to bring the car back but it just slid in the opposite direction. I didn't have time to feel afraid as the car slid off the road and into the ditch. All I had time to think about was not hitting a tree. The car slowed to a stop with the front and back ends wedged between the slopes on either side of the ditch. I took a deep breath, did a mental check that I was uninjured and then turned to check on the dog. Luckily he was in his kennel and was also fine. He was looking at me like "What the heck was that???". I got out of the car to get my bearings... just as a truck drove by. Yup, must have seen me go off the road, and just drove on by. To top it off I was in the 100 km stretch of the highway where I got absolutely no cell reception.
I got out of the car to check out the situation. As luck would have it I seemed to have hit the ditch right at the end of someone's driveway. I put the dog on his leash and walked to the farm house. I was greeted by the kindest family, who offered me coffee and invited me to join their game of Yahtzee while their daughter fetched her dad from the pasture. In all I was there about an hour, chatting with their little grandsons about their school and helping them count their dice scores. Eventually we pulled my car out of the ditch and they had me on my way. The last 40 minutes of the drive I wavered between feeling totally shaken up, and feeling overwhelmingly grateful. When my friends arrived about and hour and a half later I couldn't have been happier to see them.
Sometimes we need to be reminded to take some time and reflect on our lives. As the seasons change, and in particular at New Year's we are reminded that our lives are advancing and that it might be time to take stock of where we are. Sometimes it takes something less natural, like careening off the road and miraculously landing in a snow bank totally unharmed, just before being taken in by and cared for by total strangers. Needless to say I've been reminded, duly, in the last few days to stop and look around my life. I'm not really sure what that means just yet... but I'll keep you posted. Right now I'm just waiting for hubby to get home on Friday so I can give him the biggest hug ever.
I love my family, I love spending time with them... unlike some people I don't dread spending the holidays with my parents & siblings. I actually look forward to it, for months. While the boys are busy planing all the food, I am usually hunting down Christmas gifts and making lists of things that can be purchased on the cheep in the States. Don't get me wrong, it's not without it's moments - by the end of the week I'm usually feeling overfed and in desperate need of alone time, but all in all I love Christmas in Raleigh.
So by the time we left on the 29th to head back to the frozen arctic (aka: the Canadian Prairies) I was feeling tired, spoiled, stuffed and ready to head home. My parents should feel very proud of themselves - they've managed to raise kids who like being with them, but feel no desire to live in their basement.
Hubs has two full weeks off over Christmas so he planned a few days skiing in Montana with a buddy, and left just a few hours after we got off the plane to drive out there. I, unfortunately do not get the same kind of holiday time he does and have to be back at work tomorrow. So I planned a weekend with some friends at our family cabin. I woke up Sunday and was eager to get on the road. My plan was to pick up the dog from my mother-in-law's place and be out there with enough time to have a few precious solitary hours. You know what they say about the best laid plans... By the time I did everything I needed to do and actually got out of the city it was almost two hours later than I'd planned. The roads were a bit snow covered but seemed okay. I was about 45 minutes away from the cabin when I hit a patch of ice and the car started to slide across the highway, I did my best to bring the car back but it just slid in the opposite direction. I didn't have time to feel afraid as the car slid off the road and into the ditch. All I had time to think about was not hitting a tree. The car slowed to a stop with the front and back ends wedged between the slopes on either side of the ditch. I took a deep breath, did a mental check that I was uninjured and then turned to check on the dog. Luckily he was in his kennel and was also fine. He was looking at me like "What the heck was that???". I got out of the car to get my bearings... just as a truck drove by. Yup, must have seen me go off the road, and just drove on by. To top it off I was in the 100 km stretch of the highway where I got absolutely no cell reception.
I got out of the car to check out the situation. As luck would have it I seemed to have hit the ditch right at the end of someone's driveway. I put the dog on his leash and walked to the farm house. I was greeted by the kindest family, who offered me coffee and invited me to join their game of Yahtzee while their daughter fetched her dad from the pasture. In all I was there about an hour, chatting with their little grandsons about their school and helping them count their dice scores. Eventually we pulled my car out of the ditch and they had me on my way. The last 40 minutes of the drive I wavered between feeling totally shaken up, and feeling overwhelmingly grateful. When my friends arrived about and hour and a half later I couldn't have been happier to see them.
Sometimes we need to be reminded to take some time and reflect on our lives. As the seasons change, and in particular at New Year's we are reminded that our lives are advancing and that it might be time to take stock of where we are. Sometimes it takes something less natural, like careening off the road and miraculously landing in a snow bank totally unharmed, just before being taken in by and cared for by total strangers. Needless to say I've been reminded, duly, in the last few days to stop and look around my life. I'm not really sure what that means just yet... but I'll keep you posted. Right now I'm just waiting for hubby to get home on Friday so I can give him the biggest hug ever.
Friday, December 14, 2012
May they someday, somehow find some peace
I still remember where I was the moment I found out about the shootings at a highschool in Columbine. I was in my first year of University, and I was sitting in the cafeteria when someone asked with disbelief "Did you guys here what happened today?" We were shocked - how does a highschool student get a hold of a gun, bring it to school and walk around the school shooting people? How on any sane planet does this happen? All I could think about was my younger brother, then a grade ten student. I thought about how it would feel to find out that this had happened at his school. The pain I can muster up just imagining this scenario as part of my reality nearly suffocates me. I literally have trouble breathing when I think about this happening to my family.
Flash forward 12? 13? years, and enough of these types of tragedies that I've lost count. I don't have kids, but my husband is a middle school teacher... I think about this happening at his school and that choking feeling starts to sneak back up on me. I can't even begin to fathom what it might feel like to actually live through something this horrendous.
What rational could possibly justify one person's right to bear arms over a child's right to feel safe attending school... I know, I know, the constitution says so, but something tells me that if the men who penned the American constitution knew where their words would someday lead their country they would be ashamed. Not of themselves, but of their future countrymen's inability to adapt to different times and circumstances, and to understand that they never intended for you or I to walk into a Target outlet and buy a handgun. They intended for the population to have the right and ability to defend itself against the government should the need arise. Our current situation is a perversion of their vision. It's time to smarten up and get with the times, and quit hiding behind a document that is over 200 years old.
Tonight my prayers go out to the victims, their families, the children and teachers who witnessed this unimaginable tragedy. May they someday, somehow find some peace.
Flash forward 12? 13? years, and enough of these types of tragedies that I've lost count. I don't have kids, but my husband is a middle school teacher... I think about this happening at his school and that choking feeling starts to sneak back up on me. I can't even begin to fathom what it might feel like to actually live through something this horrendous.
What rational could possibly justify one person's right to bear arms over a child's right to feel safe attending school... I know, I know, the constitution says so, but something tells me that if the men who penned the American constitution knew where their words would someday lead their country they would be ashamed. Not of themselves, but of their future countrymen's inability to adapt to different times and circumstances, and to understand that they never intended for you or I to walk into a Target outlet and buy a handgun. They intended for the population to have the right and ability to defend itself against the government should the need arise. Our current situation is a perversion of their vision. It's time to smarten up and get with the times, and quit hiding behind a document that is over 200 years old.
Tonight my prayers go out to the victims, their families, the children and teachers who witnessed this unimaginable tragedy. May they someday, somehow find some peace.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Hang in there, it will all be whorthwile down the road
I've been silent in the blogosphere for so long I assumed my little blog had probably disapeared into the abys of the world wide web, never to be seen again, but here it is just waiting for my return. I'm a very all or nothing kind of girl. So if I can't commit to doing something regularly I'm very prone to giving up projects all together. Lately I've had these twinges of wanting to write... not necessarily about food and body issues, which is what this blog was initially about, just about my thoughts on things. Well what the hell... I'm back and am going to write whatever and whenever I feel like it. There will probably still be a lot about food and body issues because I think about both those things A LOT. But there will also be other things, personal things. In my last blog post I talked about an old acquaintance from University and her blog... she's actually become a big inspiration to me. Her blog is so open and honest; so I've decided to set that as my one and only bar for this new version of my blog: tell the truth. So here it goes...
The thing that inspired me to come back here was a list I stumbled across on pinterest, entitled "10 Books Every Girl Should Read in her 20s". Well, I'm not in my 20s anymore, but I do love books and I wondered if I'd read any of them. The one that really struck me was What I Know Now: Letters to My Younger Self by Ellyn Spragins. It got me thinking about what I would want to tell that girl if I could go back... to be really useful I'd probably have to go back to age 13 or 14 and talk to that girl, because if I had to pinpoint an age where I really started needing someone to tell me to smarten up, that would be it. If I could write that letter, it would probably go something like this:
Dear Shawn,
Wear that belly shirt now... you may as well while you can. But while we're on that topic, love your body. It will grow and change, it will get soft, it will crease and mark and scar. It will be many things and mean many things - but most of all it will be your home, learn to honour it no matter what it looks like.
Girls will be mean. Don't be. Also, don't take it personally. It really has nothing to do with you, but more importantly, you will get over it.
The divorce might seem like the end of the world now, but it is the best thing that ever happened to the 4 of you.
Stop wasting your time on that guy... and that one... and that one... and that one... he will NEVER love you. That voice in your head is actually right, you really are too smart, pretty, good, etc. Stop worrying... when you do find him it will be SO worth the wait. I promise.
Enjoy University - you will never again get to spend your time reading books and writting about them. It really is an amazing opportunity... stop wasting it procrastinating. Don't buckle down too hard though... there's a lot of fun to be had. Oh, and those nights you spent up all night writting a paper at the very last second? Still do that... those sunrises will be some of your most cherished experiences.
Keep in touch with people - you will miss them.
Stop waiting for "real" life to start - it started years ago.
I love you... more than you have the capacity to love yourself right now.
Shawn
Here's the thing - If I had a Back to the Future-esque time machine, and could actually deliver this letter to my younger self I absolutely would not. It's fun to look back and muse on the things I could have done better if I'd known better, but in the end if I hadn't gone through those experiences then I wouldn't be where I am now. So I guess the only thing I really would say to 13 year old me is this: hang in there, it will all be worthwhile down the road.
The thing that inspired me to come back here was a list I stumbled across on pinterest, entitled "10 Books Every Girl Should Read in her 20s". Well, I'm not in my 20s anymore, but I do love books and I wondered if I'd read any of them. The one that really struck me was What I Know Now: Letters to My Younger Self by Ellyn Spragins. It got me thinking about what I would want to tell that girl if I could go back... to be really useful I'd probably have to go back to age 13 or 14 and talk to that girl, because if I had to pinpoint an age where I really started needing someone to tell me to smarten up, that would be it. If I could write that letter, it would probably go something like this:
Dear Shawn,
Wear that belly shirt now... you may as well while you can. But while we're on that topic, love your body. It will grow and change, it will get soft, it will crease and mark and scar. It will be many things and mean many things - but most of all it will be your home, learn to honour it no matter what it looks like.
Girls will be mean. Don't be. Also, don't take it personally. It really has nothing to do with you, but more importantly, you will get over it.
The divorce might seem like the end of the world now, but it is the best thing that ever happened to the 4 of you.
Stop wasting your time on that guy... and that one... and that one... and that one... he will NEVER love you. That voice in your head is actually right, you really are too smart, pretty, good, etc. Stop worrying... when you do find him it will be SO worth the wait. I promise.
Enjoy University - you will never again get to spend your time reading books and writting about them. It really is an amazing opportunity... stop wasting it procrastinating. Don't buckle down too hard though... there's a lot of fun to be had. Oh, and those nights you spent up all night writting a paper at the very last second? Still do that... those sunrises will be some of your most cherished experiences.
Keep in touch with people - you will miss them.
Stop waiting for "real" life to start - it started years ago.
I love you... more than you have the capacity to love yourself right now.
Shawn
Here's the thing - If I had a Back to the Future-esque time machine, and could actually deliver this letter to my younger self I absolutely would not. It's fun to look back and muse on the things I could have done better if I'd known better, but in the end if I hadn't gone through those experiences then I wouldn't be where I am now. So I guess the only thing I really would say to 13 year old me is this: hang in there, it will all be worthwhile down the road.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Our Hearts and our Bellies
Earlier today I stumbled across the blog of an old friend from University. Not someone I was ever really close too, but always really liked. It was a candid, and slightly heartbreaking look into her struggles with her weight. What really struck me was her admission that at the time when I knew her she was battling feelings of self loathing with respect to her weight. When I look back on that time I remember envying her slight frame, easy smile and popularity. Who knew that behind all the things I was busy envying we had more in common than I would have thought possible? Certainly not me.
It made me wonder a few things. When does all this start, this breaking down of our inner-selves, in favour of our outward shells? At what point do we start worrying more about our bellies and less about our hearts? When do we start thinking that a tiny ass is more important than a beautiful soul? Are there women out there who are happy with their bodies? Really truly happy, when no one else is looking? Whether they are 110 lbs, or 250, are they out there?
For me, I know I feel best about myself when I am taking good care of myself... but that never stopped me from looking at a photo of myself and thinking "holy, look at that belly!" I'm dangerously close to becoming one of those women who refuses to have her picture taken, because they are hazardous to my self esteem. Stupid, I know. And yet I look back at pictures of myself a few summers ago, traveling overseas, where I can distinctly remember feeling like the only girl in all of Thailand wearing a one piece bathing suit, and now I think I looked great! I think of my time in Japan, the skinniest I've been in the last 10 years. I still felt like the biggest girl in every room, and maybe I was... but how stupid is it for me to have been comparing myself to Japanese women? I would have needed a time machine to take me back to 1992 to have evened out the playing field. But instead of appreciating how great I looked, I just compared myself to the other women around me. In truth there is always going to be someone thinner and someone bigger than me. Here's the thing: How is that relevant to my self esteem in any way shape or form? It's not, and yet it's somehow become the only bar by which I know to measure myself.
And then there is the question posed by my friend, probably the most important question in all of this... how do we stop ourselves from passing all this on to the next generation of little girls? If we can't bring ourselves to love them women we see in the mirror, how on earth can we expect them to?
One thing seems clear, there's so much more to this than just the weight we carry on our frames.
It made me wonder a few things. When does all this start, this breaking down of our inner-selves, in favour of our outward shells? At what point do we start worrying more about our bellies and less about our hearts? When do we start thinking that a tiny ass is more important than a beautiful soul? Are there women out there who are happy with their bodies? Really truly happy, when no one else is looking? Whether they are 110 lbs, or 250, are they out there?
For me, I know I feel best about myself when I am taking good care of myself... but that never stopped me from looking at a photo of myself and thinking "holy, look at that belly!" I'm dangerously close to becoming one of those women who refuses to have her picture taken, because they are hazardous to my self esteem. Stupid, I know. And yet I look back at pictures of myself a few summers ago, traveling overseas, where I can distinctly remember feeling like the only girl in all of Thailand wearing a one piece bathing suit, and now I think I looked great! I think of my time in Japan, the skinniest I've been in the last 10 years. I still felt like the biggest girl in every room, and maybe I was... but how stupid is it for me to have been comparing myself to Japanese women? I would have needed a time machine to take me back to 1992 to have evened out the playing field. But instead of appreciating how great I looked, I just compared myself to the other women around me. In truth there is always going to be someone thinner and someone bigger than me. Here's the thing: How is that relevant to my self esteem in any way shape or form? It's not, and yet it's somehow become the only bar by which I know to measure myself.
And then there is the question posed by my friend, probably the most important question in all of this... how do we stop ourselves from passing all this on to the next generation of little girls? If we can't bring ourselves to love them women we see in the mirror, how on earth can we expect them to?
One thing seems clear, there's so much more to this than just the weight we carry on our frames.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Happy Meat!
Update: The creature in the ceiling was definitely NOT the cat. He’s been heard from again, and the cat was in her usual spot sleeping on the bed. Hubby stuck his head up into the ceiling but couldn’t see anything. He did however feel quite a draft, which he thinks is responsible for the moving ceiling tiles. I’m skeptical, but I’d definitely like to believe that the ceiling creature is only a draft.
Back to today’s blog: Over the last few months the thing hubby and I have struggled with the most in all of this is eating “Happy Meat”. Some of you may be wondering what is “Happy Meat”. I don’t have an exact definition, and it probably means different things to different people. I would say that at the very least it means that the animal lived a happy life before it got to your plate. It would have to be free range, and fed a diet of appropriate food. What do I mean by appropriate food? Well a good example is your average cow… farmers feed them on corn because it beefs them up (pun intended) faster, amongst other reasons. This reeks havoc on a cow’s digestive system, as they are not meant to eat a diet that primarily consists of corn. They are meant to eat primarily grass. So a happy cow would be grass fed. Those would be my two main qualifications for defining something as happy meat. Luckily most farmers who are going to take the time to do these two things are going to take it a few steps further. The meat is often (but not always) certified organic. Organic certification is a difficult process from what I understand, so a lot of farmers can’t be bothered getting the certification and that doesn’t mean the meat isn’t just as good. Usually happy meat is hormone and antibiotic free… which means you aren’t ingesting hormones and antibiotics with your burger.
Finding happy meat can be difficult for a few reasons. It’s not usually readily available at the grocery store. Superstore has been advertising a line of hormone and antibiotic free meats recently, but they say nothing of the quality of life the animals lead otherwise. So these animals might be free range, but I suspect that if they were Superstore would be telling you that. I could of course be wrong; it’s been known to happen on occasion. I have no problem going to a local butcher, in fact I prefer it. I like to support local business and the quality of the meat is often better. Then there’s the issue of cost. When you do find meat that fits all the “Happy” criteria it often costs a small fortune.
We’d been dealing with this by eating a lot of bison, and not a lot of other meats. You can pretty much rest assured that when you are purchasing bison in Manitoba, it is happy meat. It is a little to a lot more expensive than beef, depending where you get it and is very low in fat. The problem? Mostly, I miss chicken! Most of your run of the mill grocery store chickens are raised in awful conditions and pumped full of things like estrogen… which in humans can increase risk of breast cancer, which runs rampant in my family. So for obvious reasons I’ve been avoiding things that contribute to raised estrogen levels (this includes soy, for those of you who also have histories of breast cancer).
A few weeks ago a friend told us about a butcher shop called Friggs Natural Meats that sells only Happy Meat. It sounded too good to be true. She told us they carried just about any meat you could raise in Manitoba and that the prices were very reasonable. The only catch, was that they were a fair drive away. Winnipegers are spoiled in this sense, in that we think anything that’s more than about a 20 minute drive is a long ways. We were also without a deep freeze at the time, making it harder to store much meat. Last weekend we won a deep freeze at an old friend’s social (for any non-Manitoban’s out there, think big drink-fest with prize draws, used as a fundraiser for weddings). So this Saturday after a quick trip to the farmer’s market we found ourselves, for the very first time in a LONG time, with a whole day free of plans; and for the first time ever, with a place to store a decent amount of meat. So off to the Friggs we went. It was better than I could have imagined… they carry fresh and frozen meats of all kinds, eggs, cheese, etc. And my GF was right, the prices were not bad at all. They were a little more than the grocery store, but not by a lot. Please remember readers that these farmers are going outside the norm to raise an animal that gets to be treated with dignity, and is also better for you. They are not selling in bulk to major retailers, and they too need to make a living, feed their families, keep up a farm, etc… so please understand that there is a reason this costs more than the angry cow you bought from the supermarket. Over and above the other reasons I want to eat happy meat, it makes me feel happy and proud to support these farmers.
For more info go to Friggs website: http://frigsnaturalmeats.ca/
Back to today’s blog: Over the last few months the thing hubby and I have struggled with the most in all of this is eating “Happy Meat”. Some of you may be wondering what is “Happy Meat”. I don’t have an exact definition, and it probably means different things to different people. I would say that at the very least it means that the animal lived a happy life before it got to your plate. It would have to be free range, and fed a diet of appropriate food. What do I mean by appropriate food? Well a good example is your average cow… farmers feed them on corn because it beefs them up (pun intended) faster, amongst other reasons. This reeks havoc on a cow’s digestive system, as they are not meant to eat a diet that primarily consists of corn. They are meant to eat primarily grass. So a happy cow would be grass fed. Those would be my two main qualifications for defining something as happy meat. Luckily most farmers who are going to take the time to do these two things are going to take it a few steps further. The meat is often (but not always) certified organic. Organic certification is a difficult process from what I understand, so a lot of farmers can’t be bothered getting the certification and that doesn’t mean the meat isn’t just as good. Usually happy meat is hormone and antibiotic free… which means you aren’t ingesting hormones and antibiotics with your burger.
Finding happy meat can be difficult for a few reasons. It’s not usually readily available at the grocery store. Superstore has been advertising a line of hormone and antibiotic free meats recently, but they say nothing of the quality of life the animals lead otherwise. So these animals might be free range, but I suspect that if they were Superstore would be telling you that. I could of course be wrong; it’s been known to happen on occasion. I have no problem going to a local butcher, in fact I prefer it. I like to support local business and the quality of the meat is often better. Then there’s the issue of cost. When you do find meat that fits all the “Happy” criteria it often costs a small fortune.
We’d been dealing with this by eating a lot of bison, and not a lot of other meats. You can pretty much rest assured that when you are purchasing bison in Manitoba, it is happy meat. It is a little to a lot more expensive than beef, depending where you get it and is very low in fat. The problem? Mostly, I miss chicken! Most of your run of the mill grocery store chickens are raised in awful conditions and pumped full of things like estrogen… which in humans can increase risk of breast cancer, which runs rampant in my family. So for obvious reasons I’ve been avoiding things that contribute to raised estrogen levels (this includes soy, for those of you who also have histories of breast cancer).
A few weeks ago a friend told us about a butcher shop called Friggs Natural Meats that sells only Happy Meat. It sounded too good to be true. She told us they carried just about any meat you could raise in Manitoba and that the prices were very reasonable. The only catch, was that they were a fair drive away. Winnipegers are spoiled in this sense, in that we think anything that’s more than about a 20 minute drive is a long ways. We were also without a deep freeze at the time, making it harder to store much meat. Last weekend we won a deep freeze at an old friend’s social (for any non-Manitoban’s out there, think big drink-fest with prize draws, used as a fundraiser for weddings). So this Saturday after a quick trip to the farmer’s market we found ourselves, for the very first time in a LONG time, with a whole day free of plans; and for the first time ever, with a place to store a decent amount of meat. So off to the Friggs we went. It was better than I could have imagined… they carry fresh and frozen meats of all kinds, eggs, cheese, etc. And my GF was right, the prices were not bad at all. They were a little more than the grocery store, but not by a lot. Please remember readers that these farmers are going outside the norm to raise an animal that gets to be treated with dignity, and is also better for you. They are not selling in bulk to major retailers, and they too need to make a living, feed their families, keep up a farm, etc… so please understand that there is a reason this costs more than the angry cow you bought from the supermarket. Over and above the other reasons I want to eat happy meat, it makes me feel happy and proud to support these farmers.
For more info go to Friggs website: http://frigsnaturalmeats.ca/
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Blue freezies and cochineal insects
Earlier this week a friend and were having a conversation regarding the ingredients in a popular brand of yogurt. She was asking my opinion on the contents. Overall they weren't too bad... but they did list one item that has always made me wonder: colour. How is it that colour can be a food ingredient? I suppose if they said food colouring this would fit more with my understanding of what qualifies as an ingredient, but would really not be any clearer. So my friend did a little online hunting, and it turns out that many of the colourings we use in our foods are derived from natural sources such as spices, berry juices, and in one case a cochineal instect. While I'm not wild about the idea of consuming "juiced" bug, that's more just me being squeemish than anything. I was far more disturbed by the discovery that several synthetic food colourings, the most distinct of these being Brilliant Blue FCF, E133 or Blue No.1, are derived from a substance called "Coal Tar".
So what is coal tar? I'm going to do something really bad here, which would be frowned upon by scholars the world over... I'm going to cite wikipedia. Before I do I have to say that this is not the only site I've consulted in researching this, it is simply the one that presents most of what found all in one place. Here are some of my favorite bits from the wikipedia page on Coal Tar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_tar):
"Being flammable, coal tar is sometimes used for heating or to fire boilers."
"used to kill and repel head lice"
"Coal tar was formerly used as one of the primary ingredients of asphalt pavements"
"The NPF states that coal tar contains approximately 10,000 different chemicals, of which only about 50% have been identified, and the composition of coal tar varies with its origin and type of coal (eg: lignite, bituminous or anthracite) used to make it."
"According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, preparations that include more than 5 percent of crude coal tar are Group 1 carcinogen."
Now I don't know how carcinogenic "Group 1" is, and I am 100% sure that by the time this becomes Blue No.1 and goes into my freezy it does not contain 5% crude oil. But I can tell you that I'd rather eat bugs... but maybe that's just me.
So what is coal tar? I'm going to do something really bad here, which would be frowned upon by scholars the world over... I'm going to cite wikipedia. Before I do I have to say that this is not the only site I've consulted in researching this, it is simply the one that presents most of what found all in one place. Here are some of my favorite bits from the wikipedia page on Coal Tar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_tar):
"Being flammable, coal tar is sometimes used for heating or to fire boilers."
"used to kill and repel head lice"
"Coal tar was formerly used as one of the primary ingredients of asphalt pavements"
"The NPF states that coal tar contains approximately 10,000 different chemicals, of which only about 50% have been identified, and the composition of coal tar varies with its origin and type of coal (eg: lignite, bituminous or anthracite) used to make it."
"According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, preparations that include more than 5 percent of crude coal tar are Group 1 carcinogen."
Now I don't know how carcinogenic "Group 1" is, and I am 100% sure that by the time this becomes Blue No.1 and goes into my freezy it does not contain 5% crude oil. But I can tell you that I'd rather eat bugs... but maybe that's just me.
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