Acceptance & Denial

Yesterday night I watched all three episodes of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. I don’t agree entirely with his perspectives on everything, but I think that the strides and initiative that he is taking is truly wonderful. We really need this! Yet it is obvious that he faces a huge challenge.

It’s sometimes difficult to decipher the true situation on reality  TV shows, because you never know when the producers are merely parsing clips together or taking something out of context just to make it seem more extreme or sensational. Even with this in consideration, I think most of us have had enough exposure to the processed food obsession to know the grave reality facing our nation. If you want to voice your support for this initiative, you can sign his petition here or click on the image to the right .

The brief time I attended public school made me realize how awful the food served at schools really is. Back then, I wasn’t a vegan (let alone vegetarian), although I didn’t eat red meat. Most days I would bring a lunch, but often I would eat their chicken patties dipped in barbecue sauce or have some cheese pizza. Oh gosh, those chicken patties make my skin crawl now when I think of them. When Oliver showed the kids that “experiment” of what those are made of, it thoroughly disgusted me (though I really don’t see how eating the breasts or wings of the bird is any better).

It’s really scary how much processed food has overtaken our lives. Just glancing at the carts of people around me as I was shopping today was an eye-opener. One lady in front of me said to the cashier: “You can keep the Mountain Dew, chips, and donuts with me. [I’m pretty sure that’s what the items were.] He’s been a good boy today not asking for anything in the store, so I’m gonna give him a treat.” as she nodded to her pudgy young son. The people behind me were also loaded with TV dinners and all types of pre-packaged foods. I don’t want to sound like I think I’m better than these people, it’s just that this scenario demonstrates how close to home this crisis is. It seems ridiculous to me that our nation’s leaders are concerned so much about providing everyone with health care, when one of the most crucial elements in preventing disease in the first place—diet—is so thoroughly ignored or misguided.

As demonstrated on the show, the USDA guidelines for school lunches are absolutely ridiculous. French fries as a vegetable? Having to serve bread and rice, yet nary a real veggie in sight? I can remember being a bit appalled at my school’s menu; it was not uncommon for them to serve macaroni and cheese with french fries. Heck, they served everything with potatoes—be it those “pearls” mentioned in the show, “tater tots”, curly fries, crinkle fries, regular fries, etc. I must admit that I was a bit disappointed to see so few fresh vegetables in Jamie’s menus, but perhaps he is easing into things slowly. I understand the need to not overwhelm everyone at first, and that very well could be the case.

But, like I said, it’s not like I am always much better. Unfortunately, junk food still finds its way into my diet occasionally. Today I was lured by these two items:

Just goes to show that vegan doesn’t always mean healthy. I don’t eat this type of food everyday, but more often than I would like to. It was just so tempting! I got the jellybeans partially to make me feel less deprived and tempted from all the non-vegan Easter candy…and the chips…umm, I just got. I don’t think this junk agreed with me, though, because I had these awful stomach cramps after eating it. Of course, we all know that correlation doesn’t equal causality…but it seems like this discomfort might have been spurred by my poor food choices.

But enough about that. What’s done is done. Full speed ahead…except not really. Sometimes it feels more like “fear speed ahead” with me. I’m scared about going to college. I just found out today that I was accepted at another one of the colleges I applied for. So now there are two contenders. That is, until I find out from the third place. Don’t get me wrong, I’m HAPPY that I got accepted, it’s just that there are so many unknowns. My main concern (which I know I've talked about before) is that I will have a hard time with the work. I’m only taking one class right now—a math class. Math has always been really tough for me and I am struggling, even with the very helpful tutor I have. So, I’m just thinking: if I find taking just a handful of credits at the community college to be hard, what’s it going to be like at this much more academic school? I just don’t know if I could handle the stress of being a full-time student.

My dad keeps telling me that I don’t have to go away to college this year; I can wait another year and pick up more credits at the community college. The good thing about this is that my parents will continue to pay for my studies. If I go away to school, I’m pretty much on my own financially (cue scariness and worries).

But I kind of feel like I need to leave home and that it might help me. The might is the scary part of that sentence. (I think I’m overusing the word “scary”.) If I stayed here another year I feel like I might rot. It’s just hard to be in this limbo state when nothing changes. Something must change. Plus, I don’t want to rewrite those application essays. :) I’m kind of lazy, I guess.

The unknown is always frightening, but I think there comes a time when facing that fear is necessary in order to advance. I think I’m at one of those crossroads right now. We shall see what happens. I have to make my decision by May 1st. Eeek!

I was just thinking, I haven’t done a food-related post in forever! I should probably get on that as I have a ton of stuff I need to review. Also stay tuned for that sweet giveaway which I hinted at here.