How would you like your steak? Alive, please.

I, like my mom and brother, am a food snob. (FYI, this entry is kind of long and about food choices, particularly mine.)

I don't really know how it happened. I'm just glad I go to a college where the catering company is run by food snobs, too.

Mother isn't really that much of a food snob. She's just a vegetarian. She is vegetarian because she is grossed out by the idea of eating muscle. If it doesn't have meat in it, she's generally okay with it. She also doesn't like canned peas. Frozen is okay sometimes, fresh pea pods are amazing, but not canned. She generally eats a lot of beans and fake meat.

Brother is a fitness geek. His diet revolves around his workout schedule. He eats several small meals throughout the day. High protein, high fiber meals. He eats carbs in the morning and early afternoon. He can have sugar after weight training. He drinks a lot of protein shakes and caffeinated beverages. Indulging, for him, is eating a meal that someone else made. He has to 'save up for it.'

I am a food snob in the sense that I am picky about ingredients and slightly picky about preparation. I only eat free range poultry and fish. Preferably organic or sustainable fishing methods. I will eat beef sometimes, but only grass-fed. It's healthier for me, and for the environment (grass-fed cows produce less methane than corn-fed. Cows are fed corn [sometimes with steroids] so they reach a butcherable weight at a younger age, but it also leads to higher disease rates, such as e coli, at which point they add medicine to the corn and steroids. Not pleasant, imo).

I try to eat fresh/frozen organic produce, and use canned vegies rarely. I try to eat whole grain (it's really hard here at home, though). I prefer to make things from scratch so I don't have to worry about chemicals that I have no idea how to pronounce or how they effect me. As natural as possible, please. I don't want to be 70 years old and dying from a pesticide related illness. While organic doesn't have any obvious short term health benefits, no long term studies have been done. I don't want to take chances. This way, I get to know my food and the people who grow it, and be able to eat what I decide to eat, not just what's convenient.

I also try to eat balanced meals. When I was a kid, I would eat just chicken breast for dinner. No longer. I eat chicken breast with corn and strawberries for dessert. And chocolate chip cookies. I try to cut down on carbs in the evening, but I make really good chocolate chip cookies. I, as a sedentary female, eat 6 servings of carbs, 6 ounces of protein, 3 servings of veggies, 2 servings of fruit and (I try) 2 servings of dairy a day. I fail at eating dairy, though. Unless milk or cheese is an ingredient, pretty much my only dairy is ice cream, if we have a good flavor, which is rarely.

I should also work out 30 minutes a day. It doesn't really happen. I think me and my brother need to adopt parts of each others diets. He should eat more fruits and veggies, and I should work out.

Chuck Norris eats very similarly to my brother and I. He "eats to live, not lives to eat." I found this out from his book. He eats organic, balanced diets that reflect his exercise regimen. But he drinks bottled water. He doesn't trust tap water, and I don't trust bottled.