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.

Chuck Norris doesn't get old...

He roundhouse kicks time in the face!

I just read "Black Belt Patriotism" by Chuck Norris.

I was pleasantly surprised! It was a really decent book. While his sources, for the most part, are not exactly dependable, and his opinions far from supported by the general population, his writing, overall, is very clear and persuasive. I was even agreeing with his extremely capitalist viewpoints. But I'm the polar opposite of an economics expert, so I have no idea what works and what doesn't. He could be right, he could be wrong.

Black Belt Patriotism is Chuck Norris' critique of today's America, particularly "what is destroying our country" as well as the solutions he believes would fix the problems. Basically, we Americans are enslaved by greed, overrun by illegal immigrants, immoral godless drones, murdering apathetic obese liberals who have lost our roots.

While I obviously didn't agree with most of what he said (I am part of the problem, in his opinion, being liberal, queer, atheist, pro-choice and of the "transgender sexuality"), I agree with a few of his main points.

While I agree that we have become too greedy and materialistic, 2/3 of Americans are fat and it's their fault and they'll suffer the consequences if they don't bother to exercise and eat right, and some illegal immigrants are bad (while others are hardworking decent folk, though he mostly focuses on the drug cartels and gangs), and we need to reconnect with our history and foundations of our country, I disagree that teaching the Bible in schools and making everyone a Christian will do the trick. I disagree that non-religious folk are immoral, and that Christian folk are automatically more moral than the rest. There are many moral non Christians, and many immoral Christians. I think that homosexuality, bisexuality and the "transgender sexuality" (which, by the way, Mr. Norris, isn't a sexual orientation. It's a gender identity) as well as non-nuclear families, are not part of the problem. There are many decent, moral people who have come from alternative families and "broken homes." And parents who choose to work can also be good, active parents. The Bible is not the answer for everyone. Kudos to you if it's your answer, but the Bible isn't the Law. I, for one, am glad the Bible isn't taught in public schools, and I think that students should be able to worship individually, but no religion should be institutionalized into school curriculum. The country isn't made up of just Christians.

Oh, and the kid who got an F on the evolution paper didn't follow the instructions. If the teacher wanted a paper on each students believes in evolution vs. creationism, she would have asked for it. She asked for a paper on evolution. The kid, who doesn't believe in evolution, wrote it on creationism instead. Great that a 10 year old kid knows what he was taught at church, but if a teacher asked for a paper on Islam, would you write about Christianity instead? You always stand to benefit from learning about something different from your own beliefs. You can learn about something and not believe it. I agree with the scientific community that evolution is the likely answer to how we came to be, and I do not think we are made in God's image. We are more than glorified apes because we have developed the power to be, not because someone made us better than apes.

Also, eat right and exercise. Chuck Norris says so. It's not that hard.

Anyway, a good read, even if you disagree with a lot of it, like I do. It's always fun to stretch your comfort zone, and it's a pretty easy read too.