A fat nation

So I was sitting on my ass last night watching television. Something I really don't do very often these days. I started paying attention to the advertisements. What did I see? Food, alcohol, drugs and cars. Yep, that's about it.

I saw adds for pizza using professional sports players. Because we all know that football players eat the hell out of the pizza to stay in shape. Then we had good old McDonalds using a multitude of sports stars I've never heard of to sell crap burgers. Then we had adds for processed crap in a box. Make your family happy in minutes, feed them this shit. Hmm, and why are we all so fat?

What's next. Liqueur adds. Yep, several of those. Let's promote a little alcoholism. And when you're done getting your drink on you can pop over to the bell for "4th meal". Because we all know nothing ends a day better than a 3000 calorie burrito with enough sodium to kill a cow. Yummy.

Have you noticed that the phone books these days now have an entire section devoted to restaurant menus? Next time you go shopping, pay attention to how the store is laid out. What's usually in front? Junk. Bags of chips, soda, cookies. What do you see when checking out? Soda, candy, more crap.

Have you ever noticed how many stores have entire isles dedicated to chips and soda but finding healthy food is like a treasure hunt. Junk food is cheaper. How many frozen burritos can you buy for the cost of making 4 of them from scratch for dinner? And we wonder why we're so fat. How many fast food restaurants do you pass on an average day?

Everything is easier these days. We drive everyplace. We order things to go so we don't even have to walk through the store. We've become fat, lazy and stupid. A nation of worker bee consumers.

Personally I have decided to make some fairly drastic changes in my lifestyle. I need to do them for my sanity, for my budget and for my health. And the funny thing is, I don't miss the things I've given up. I've noticed that the very few times I have eaten fast food it's tasted horrible to me. These things that once sustained me on an almost daily basis, these things I craved. Now, they taste like what they are, sodium filled, processed, fake crap.

I rarely eat candy bars anymore. I lost the taste for things so sweet. I have on occasionally as a treat.  Pizza I no longer order. If I want a pizza I make it myself. Do you know how much cheaper and healthier it is to make pizza? And you can put what ever you want on it. When I want something sweet, I bake a nice sweet bread. I control what goes in it, I can make it as healthy or as bad as I want.

I make waffles now and freeze them. Have you ever looked at the ingredients in frozen waffles? Or the nutrition label?

Maybe it's my subtle little way of fighting the norm. Or maybe it really is a lifestyle change and a method for getting healthy. I've found that I love to cook. And the things you can make. You can find a recipe for anything. All it takes is some practice, some patience and a couple trips to the store. Want a home made bigmac? I can do that. Chicken nuggets? I can do that too.