A Healthy Alternative

I will say that the hardest part of becoming a vegetarian for me was giving up chicken. I loved chicken. After learning about what goes on behind closed doors I was no longer able to eat any chicken. I struggled for a while before I found a great replacement. Morning Star makes a wonderful chicken alternative. The best I have found is the chicken patties. They contain no real chicken but they taste great! I am a very picky eater so trust me when I say they are good, they must be good. Even my daughter prefers them over the real deal chicken patties. I feel much better about letting her eat the Morning Star chicken patties than I do about her eating hormone injected, tortured chicken. I do not, however, force my opinions on my daughter. She is allowed to eat real chicken if she wants. I urge you just to try them and see if you like them. You will feel better knowing that your choice is helping to make a difference in the way chicken farms are managed.

Chicken Continued

Unfortunately the sadness doesn't stop with the egg laying hens. The truth is more horrible things go on at "chicken farms." It is truly heartbreaking to see the conditions that the majority of chickens are raised in. Most chickens never see sunlight or have the chance to spread their wings. They are forced to be raised in crammed living quarters with no sunlight. They are given such high amounts of growth hormones so they grow much faster than they would naturally. Since chicken breasts are the most popular part of the chicken they are given growth hormones so their breast grow faster and larger than normal. I have seen videos where a chicken's breast grew so fast that its legs could not support the weight of its body! It is terrible!! The chicken's poor little legs have not grown as fast as the rest of its body therefore it cannot support its weight. Because of the tight living quarters most chickens that collapse die from suffocation because they are unable to move. I urge you to try and learn more about this topic. Knowledge is power. We can make a difference.

Chickens

Warning!!!!! The information contained in this blog may be very disturbing to some. I urge you to educate yourself to the cruel world that goes on behind closed doors in certain meat and poultry companies. It is the hard, sad truth about our food industry. It is time that large manufactures are exposed and we demand changes to be made. It is time for a serious change, a change that you can play a part in. Please join me over the next few weeks as I share the knowledge that I have gained over the past couple of years. I have already shared that I am a vegetarian. I'm not asking you to become one, but I am asking that you help make a difference. Please, for the sake of these poor animals.
I have attached a video for you to watch if you dare. The video describes the conditions in which egg producing hens live in. It is a graphic video but it is the truth. Most people I talk to would rather be ignorant about what happens to these animals than they would to change the way they eat. Being aware of what is going on will help you become a better consumer. It will also help lead to a healthier life. The conditions that these animals live in are horrific, unsanitary, and unhealthy. I will expand more on chickens next week. Today I want to focus this one topic. After watching the video you may want some tips on what types of eggs to buy. In your local super market they offer eggs that are from "cage free, free roaming" chickens. Do not buy eggs that do not have this label on them. Please. Also, check to make sure they are organic and vegetarian feed. That should get us started on our journey. I hope you hang in there with me and become educated so you can make wise decisions for you and your family. Once again, this video is graphic, watch at your own discretion.

Animal Abuse at Iowa Egg Factories

Spiritual Well Being

I'm going to take a side road this evening. I have been focusing on physical health for most of my blog. Tonight I want to share what I think is the most important part of living a healthy life, spiritual well being. I went to my weekly Bible study tonight and began reflecting on the importance of having a healthy and loving relationship with our Creator. Our life cannot be truly healthy without this relationship being right. When our life is crazy and out of control it is so important to know that our loving Heavenly Father is there for us no matter what. Tonight we studied about being like children before the Lord. We can educate ourselves so much that we can "think" ourselves to be spiritually sound. It is only when we truly trust God, like little babies trust their mothers, that we can really experience the relationship that we are designed to have. We are so bombarded these days by this crazy media driven world that we tend to forget the importance of this relationship. God wants us to be like children. We don't have to be the most knowledgeable about the scripture in order for God to love us. He loves us when we can realize that we need His mercy and grace! He wants us to need Him and call to Him for help. My goal for this week is to become more like a child in my relationship with God. I pray that we all understand the importance of this relationship. Nothing else should come in the way of our time with God.

The USDA: Friend or Foe

We have been lead to believe that the USDA is designed to protect us from harmful consumption of meat, poultry, and egg products. This is not necessarily the case. It has been proven that many of the members of the USDA were staff members of meat, poultry, and dairy industries. Do you see a MAJOR conflict of interest there? It is one. There is an enormous amount of corruption with the USDA. Politics lurk everywhere!! The food industry is no exception. One of the big offending companies was a large chicken manufacturer. This company, which I am not going to name, had to pay a fine of $4 million and was giving four years' probation because they got caught doing things for the USDA Secretary that they shouldn't have. Not only did they received punishment for this offense but the USDA Secretary was requested to resign. Many of the higher ups in the USDA have serious ties to the meat, poultry, and dairy industry. Just because a big slab of meat has a big red shiny sticker on it saying "USDA Approved" doesn't mean it has been thoroughly check. Buy local! I recommend not buying meat period but that is for another day and another post!

Eat local produce

One of the most important parts of living a healthy life is to eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. It is important to know where your produce comes from. The movie that I watched "Food Inc." talked about the scary stories about our supermarket fruits and vegetables. Science has truly changed the farming industry. Some of the stuff that the farmers have to deal with is very sad. Many of the large manufacturing companies do not have the most sanitary conditions. I'm sure you have heard of the many recalls that took place a couple of years back on lettuce. The lettuce was contaminated due to cow manure. There was a huge cattle farm (which we will talk about before too long) not far from the fields in which the lettuce grew. Rain would cause the cow manure to wash down into the lettuce fields. In the industry world time is money and no one took the time to inspect the situation. Local farmers are your best bet for truly healthy fruits and vegetables. There are many local farmer's markets in our area.

Exercise

Exercise is an important part of living a healthy life. It is a sad fact that most of the time people do not plan well enough to include a healthy amount of exercise in their lives. It is a well known fact that exercise makes us feel better. When we exercise our body increases the release of endorphins. Endorphins are the chemicals in our brain that makes us feel happy or satisfied. I recently read a book that talked about how important exercise is to our mental health. I believe it whole heartily. After a stressful day nothing makes me feel better than a good workout. I'm not going to lie and say that I'm the most fit person because I'm not. I do try and walk at least 2 miles everyday. I have set a new goal to run in the Azalea Trail next year. When I walk in the evenings I walk some then jog some. I am trying to build up my endurance because I don't have much right now. I can't begin to tell you how wonderful I feel when I get back home after I have pushed myself as hard as I could. I love to release those healthy endorphins. You don't have to be a fitness queen to put on some walking shoes and go for a stroll around your neighborhood. Just do it. (as Nike would say) You will feel so much happier!

Rest

Today I am going to preach to myself a bit. I have been trying to provide some tips to you for staying healthy. Since I am exhausted this week I thought I might write about the importance of rest. We all are super busy these days and if you're like me you aren't getting enough rest. Our bodies need time to rest and relax. I once watched a show about the dangers of lack of sleep. This show compared two types of drivers. The first group of drivers were sleep deprived and the second group of drivers were intoxicated. I was shocked to see that the sleep deprived drivers provided a greater risk to other drivers than the intoxicated drivers did. I am by no means saying it is okay to drink and drive! My point is that we can not function as wonderful as we all think we can if we are not getting enough rest. We all have demanding lives but if we don't take care of our bodies we are no good to anyone else. This week let's all take a day and rest!

Junk food

Junk food is everywhere you look. When you enter into any grocery store or gas station chips, candy bars, sodas, and candy are at your finger tips. Junk food is full of artificial flavors, chemical food colors, toxic preservatives, and other very unhealthy ingredients. Next time you go to grab a candy bar or bag of chips I urge you to look at the back of the package and read the ingredients and daily values listed. The information is a bit disturbing. Instead of reaching for the junk food reach for fruit, vegetables, or some other healthy snack. I suggest buying fruit and cutting it up and storing it in the fridge for easy access. Your body will thank you for removing all the unnecessary chemicals that is consumed while eating junk food. Not to mention all the calories you will not have to work off later.

Kicking the soda habit

Okay, so we all know that soda's are bad for us but we continue to drink them. I think if we all knew what was really inside that can of yummy goodness we would never want one again. First of all there is a ton of sugar in a can of soda. If it's a diet soda there is aspartame (which is horrible in itself). Both are bad for you. Period. End of story. Aspartame has been blamed for a series of health issues. Aspartame has been blamed for arthritis, birth defects, fibromyalgia, Alzheimer's, lupus, multiple sclerosis, and diabetes. "When methyl alcohol, a component of aspartame, enters your body, it turns into formaldehyde." Yuck! I think we are all aware what large amounts of sugar does to the body.......it makes us gain weight. It is recommended that we drink 64 ounces of water a day. If we drink all that water we won't want any soda. I want to challenge you to go one week without a soda. Drink water instead. It will be difficult at first but it's not impossible. Good luck!! Keep me posted on your progess.

Knowledge is power

Good evening fellow bloggers. My mission for the next several weeks is going to be informing you about the great American food industry. I had the privilege of reading a book a year and a half ago that changed my life forever. The book doesn't have the best title in the world but I would feel wrong if I didn't share it with you. I will have to bleep out some of the title so work with me. My cousin told me that she had just read a book called "Skinny B***h." This book shares some pretty gruesome details about our food industry. I will start by saying I have not eaten a piece of meat since I read this book. After reading this book I became somewhat obsessed about gaining information about what I eat. Shortly after reading this book the movie "Food Inc." came to the Cresent Theater in downtown Mobile. Another source of information that further increased my desire to watch what I eat. I am going to share with you some information that I feel is well worth passing on. I hope you gain some knowledge that will help you make wise decisions about you what you eat. I also hope to encouarge you on your journey to living a healthier life.