i am becoming one of those crazy organic environmentalists.

This semester, I am taking Environmental Biology. It fulfills a physical science requirement, and that's the only reason I'm taking it. I have no interest in environmental science of any kind. My worldview goes something like, "We're all going to die, stop being a little girl." I believe global warming is one of those "the sky is falling" ordeals in which I repeatedly tell people the world is going to end and there is nothing they can do about it, just accept it and move on.

But for my environmental biology class, we were asked to watch Food, Inc. 


Yep. I'm now one of those crazy, organic environmentalists.

If you're not familiar with the film, it's a documentary about the food industry in the United States. It covers beef, chicken, pork, corn, soybeans...the whole nine yards.

Guess what? It's horrible. Sickening. Wrong. I'm a skeptic, and I know the film wasn't perfect, but I also know those people spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and risked millions in lawsuits to produce a film that they knew would never 'make it big', because they believe in this cause. They had nothing but good intentions, and they got their message across. It may have been imperfect, and it's certainly biased, but the evidence holds even under my university research scrutiny. And I think they are right.

First of all, I am an animal person. I love animals. I firmly believe that just because animals don't have the mental capacity to defend themselves against us does not make them worthless. They are living things with brains, thoughts, and feelings. They feel pain just like you do. They experience joy and sadness just like you do. They form interpersonal relationships just like you do. Anyone who has ever had a pet knows this. They think. They have emotions. I have had cats who were able to unlock doors and open microwaves. Dogs who hid when they knew they'd done something wrong. Horses who could tell when you were afraid (and were more than happy to take advantage of that.) Pets who knew when you were sad and were there to provide comfort in their own simple way. The fact is, animals are alive, just like you. And their lower level of intelligence renders them completely subservient to us, the humans.

I accept that Heavenly Father put them here to be below us. I understand that. But I also believe that he never, ever put them here to be crushed to death by the millions in order to provide us with cheap bacon. I don't believe that he intended chickens to live for only 38 days, in which they could not walk or even stand because they have been so genetically modified that their bones cannot support their weight. I know he did not want them to be tortured and brutalized in every possible way, to be treated like nothing but a means to a paycheck. We have been asked to take care of them. To look after them. To treat them with the respect and honor they deserve as living things.

I've heard about these sort of things before. Transcribing classes for a public health major has shown me more than my fair share of slaughterhouses. I know it is horrible. But I always thought there was nothing I could do. The food industry is controlled by the government and the workings of a capitalist nation. How could one little girl's choice to not eat a hamburger possibly make a difference?

Well, you just have to look around at Walmart or Smiths or Maceys to know that a difference has already been made, and by a minority who was always told they couldn't make a difference. Organic, non-GMO, and free-range labels are showing up everywhere. Every store now features reusable grocery bags. Because those grocery store owners had a change of heart? No. Because their customers were willing to pay for organic foods and eco-conscious practices.

To be honest, I already buy organic where possible. I buy cage-free eggs and organic fruits and veggies. It's only about a dollar more, and even I, a lowly student, has the ability to pay that dollar. But I also buy candy bars and Cheetos and all sorts of crap. And I'm done supporting an industry that harms everything about this world--from the environment, to the children killed by E. coli-contaminated burgers, to the horrible jobs minority workers are forced to work, to the animals that are treated like dirt rather than the thinking, feeling, living things they are.

So. It's organic from here on out. It's local farmers. It's free-range beef. I refuse to eat anything if I don't know where it came from. I refuse to eat anything produced by Tyson or Smithfield or McDonalds.

This is your Earth. Protect it.

Love,
Lizzy
Your Local Crazy Environmentalist Organic Granola Girl

domestic goddess? FAIL.

this is not my child or my picture. i do want a child though. someday.

One thing I love to do is cook. I love cooking. Unfortunately, I am a terrible cook.

There was the time where I decided to make squash and, for some reason, added beets to the yellow squash in the pan. The yellow squash turned a brilliant and disgusting pink. Even I couldn't stomach this particular creation. It was bright pink, though. Seriously. Pink.

Then there was the time I decided to make a tuna rice casserole and added oregano instead of thyme and carrots instead of peas...resulting in a disgusting, disgusting thing that actually moved as if it were alive. Well, maybe not that crazy, but close. It was AWFUL.

But I am working on it. I am determined to become a domestic goddess. And when I am determined to do something, usually I give up because I'm not good at it. This time WILL be different. That is what I said to myself. Not out loud. That would be weird.

So today I decided to make a butternut-quinoa soup. It sounds awesome, to me. So I went to Walmart. They didn't have butternut squash. I now know you cannot substitute something like beets or radishes or carrots and get the same result. They didn't have quinoa either. I decided against making a beet-rice soup, because that sounds disgusting.

So I decided to make chicken soup. But I couldn't find curry powder and, again, am too scared to substitute. Also too scared to stray from the recipe book. Cookbook. They are called cookbooks. I am an idiot.

In the end, I came back from Walmart with the ingredients to make salad and breakfast burritos. Also some plain yogurt, fruit, and cottage cheese. Plain yogurt is actually really good if you drizzle some honey on it. That's how they do it in France, and it is a wonderful plan.

Poor Clad. I may never be a domestic goddess.

Love,

Lizzy ;)

wheat and hot chocolate: NOT the same thing

Well, we all know Lizzy can't eat wheat, otherwise she throws up for hours and it is highly unpleasant and stuff. But an important distinction to make when discussing wheat and not eating it is, what is wheat exactly?

I will tell you what wheat is not first. Wheat is not:

• Ice cream
• Hot chocolate
• Peanut butter
• Beef
• Potato
• Broccoli
• Cheese
  
• Bears

Wheat is:

• Bread
• Crackers
• Graham crackers
• Flour
• Cookies
• Brownies
• Cake
• Cinnamon rolls
• Pancakes
• Wheat.

So if you want to poison me, make sure you check this list, because hot chocolate and beef are ineffective poisons. Highly ineffective. You are welcome.

Love,

Lizzy ;)

dear cinnamon chex, i love you.

At first, going gluten-free seemed impossibly hard and miserable. However, with time, I now barely notice it. Although I do eat WAY too much candy. Because I am super nice person, I will share with you some good gluten-free foods, in case you have celiac or are on a GF diet.

• Cinnamon Chex are possibly one of the greatest things known to man.
• Also Honey Nut Chex.
• You have no idea how quickly you can get sick of corn tortillas, but luckily they are like $1 for 700 and basically anything that alone is edible will also be edible in a corn tortilla. By which I mean, just stick everything in a corn tortilla. I don't really know why.
• Fruit. Fruit is my favoritist thing ever.
• Eggs. Eggs are not a fruit, but they are a complete protein, and that is awesome too.
• Amy's gluten-free frozen dinners.
• Rice.
• Tuna.

There you go. Foods that are gluten free. Some other good tips are to NOT eat massive amounts of candy, or get angry and just eat some lasagna. That is not very good for you. Nope.

Love,

Lizzy :)

lizzy hates thin.

That's right. I hate our cultural obsession with thinness. I think it is not only stupid, pointless, emotionally destructive, and physically harmful, but I actually believe it is downright evil.

Think about it. When's the last time you ate a doughnut without feeling guilty? Or drank -gasp- real (non-diet) Coke? Or had as many candy bars as you wanted?

There's plenty of scientific proof to back me up. I'm not going to go through and post it all because I'm already working on two other research papers, but once I'm done with my mood disorder prevalence and longitude study, I'm going to scientifically prove this to the world. For now, though, just use rational, clear-minded thinking.

Does it make sense to spend your entire life trying to lose weight? Does it make sense to make yourself miserable with constant dieting followed by the guilt of not dieting? Does it make sense to exercise compulsively every single day or to feel guilty for not doing so? Would you like to continue living a life where you "really shouldn't" eat what you love? Does it make sense to regard food as an enemy rather than fuel for your body? Would you attempt to shove a size 8 foot into a size 6 shoe? So why would you try to do that to your body? Is thin really worth it? Does thinness really equal happiness? Is there no more to life than the way you look?

You guys, I'm giving you a challenge. I want you to eat whatever you want. ANYTHING. As much of it as you like. For an entire month. That's right. August is Free Eating Month. If you want to eat an entire cheesecake, you go girl. If you want to eat seventeen bowls of pasta, awesome. Just do it.

There's only one condition: you have to actually enjoy eating it. As soon as your body and mind are no longer enjoying eating your cheesecake or your pasta, just stop. There is no pressure to finish.

That's it. That's your diet. Eat what you want, as much of it as you want, when you want it. Yes, you can eat after 6 pm. Yes, you can choose to eat only Hershey bars for a week.

If you don't feel safe doing this, well, you probably never will. But test the following reading material (all of which is backed up by science--trust me, I'm a research analyst--and is stuff I have myself read.)

Please, for once in your life, ignore all the crap the media and our culture is telling you, and just live your life.

and for the record, the last time I did this, i lost 10 pounds and kept it off for months--until i freaked out and started dieting again. you do the math.

Reading Material: Intuitive Eating; Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin; Love Your Body, Love Your Life.

PASTA

So I really, really, really like sugar. France has a really, really, really lot of readily available sugar in millions of delicious forms. Can you tell where this is going? I assure you, you are wrong.

Well, at first you're probably right. I have been eating A LOT of sugar and fat here. And I gained weight, because the world is stupid like that. This is very uncool, so I was like, "I should probably stop eating so much sugar and fat." Naturally, that wasn't enough, because I'm me. I needed to make a documented plan in writing to accomplish this. I'm exercising plenty, so I decided the best plan was very simple: Eat Less.

I started counting calories, and set a daily calorie allowance. This allowance was reasonable and healthy, but it did require me to cut down the calories I eat on a daily basis by a considerable amount. I've done this many times in the past, and usually it is not particularly dramatic/does not involve caveman behavior. The key word here is "usually."

My brain apparently now rebels against cutting calories. I've been rather mean to my body and been like "NO CALORIES EVERR!!!" several times, and so it was like, "NO" when I said we should cut calories again. My body is quite sure that cutting calories=starvation=death. So as the days went on and I kept this calorie deficit running, I started to get hungrier and hungrier.

Today I was starving all day. I was starving for hours and hours. I distracted myself with exercise, which made me even more starving (it seemed like a good plan in my hypoglycemic mind). I just needed to hold out until dinner...maybe I'd drink the ocean...saltwater is really nasty and I think I just swallowed a plastic bag...but there, now I wasn't so hungry anymore...why was the world glowing?...Istanbul...monkeys...

Eventually, it was FINALLY dinner time. We were having pasta.

Emily took the spaghetti noodles off the stove and told me to get my pasta out of it. This is where everything got kind of intense. I saw the pasta. My brain was like, "YOU NEED TO EAT THAT PASTA RIGHT FREAKING NOW." I was like, "Okay, chill, I'm going to put some cheese on it." My brain was like, "NO. EAT THE PASTA. EAT IT!!!! EAT IT NOW!!!!! OMG YOU NEED TO EAT THE PASTA!!!!!!"

Now, if your brain was doing this to you, you'd just give in and eat the pasta too. So I just started eating the pasta. The plain pasta. With my hands. My roommates hadn't even gotten it out of the pot yet. Luckily I'd somehow gotten the pasta in a bowl (I have no memory of this), because shortly after that, I ate so vigorously that the pasta somehow slid out of the bowl and onto the ground. This was probably because I was sort of swallowing the pasta (to bypass chewing, that obviously takes too long) while walking down stairs. I know this sounds like a fun challenge, but before you go try it, you should know that it has significant downsides.

My brain, crazed by hunger, started screaming, "IT DOESN'T MATTER!! PICK IT UP OFF THE GROUND! EAT IT WITH YOUR HANDS! EAT THE PASTA! EAT THE PASTA! EAT THE PASTA!!!!"

My life wasn't in danger, but you wouldn't have known that from the way I ate that pasta. I picked it up off the very dirty ground and, fully aware my previously plain pasta was now seasoned with Dirt and Soil Mix, started shoving the pasta into my mouth. My roommates stared at me like I was some sort of wild animal. I was some sort of wild animal. A deranged one. Possibly a deranged wildebeest that has been fed only silicon memory chips for seventeen weeks and then been injected with speed. And then been given pasta.

After several mouthfuls (mmm..crunchy dirt flavor), I managed to put the pasta back into the bowl long enough to try to put cheese on it. This was a bad plan because my brain was really, really, really fixated on eating the pasta. There was never anything as important as eating the pasta was at that moment. My entire existence was dependent on eating the pasta. And eating the pasta RIGHT FREAKING NOW. You think I am exaggerating. I assure you, I am not.

I ended up sort of shoving the cheese around in the dirty pasta with my hands because I couldn't be bothered to get a fork and then continuing to down the pasta like I hadn't eaten in several years and pasta was the most amazing food known to man.

I finished the dirty pasta. I'm still under my calorie limit.

And I'm still hungry.

TO BE CONTINUED....

Love,
Lizzy ;)

PS-Yeah, back earlier than expected...but don't expect any sort of regularity, I'm very busy and only get the internet in one inconveniently-located room here in the French Riviera and may end up eating my computer. Is plastic low in calories? But when I get back to the U.S., I promise I will have many great posts because you guys, this is like the craziest adventure ever. It even beats the one time when the break pads turned into eggs and rotted.