"Jeans/Food/Weight" OR "The Slaughterhouse And The Salad"

I enjoy titling my posts honestly. I mean, why use a title like: "You Have GOT To Read This, You Will Be Amazed!!" when the actual topic may be nothing but a giant snooze fest for some people? Similarly, using a mysteriously cryptic or witty heading like: "The Slaughterhouse And The Salad", (I actually kind of like that one), or "The Day I Slipped On A Soliloquy" (I don't even know what that could possibly mean) can sometimes make me feel slightly fraudulent...or silly. There's a fine balance between being totally honest and being "not-boring".

Anyway.

We watched the movie "Temple Grandin" last night and it was pretty amazing. For those of you who don't know who she is, Temple Grandin is "an American doctor of animal science and professor at Colorado State University, bestselling author, and consultant to the livestock industry on animal behavior. As a person with high-functioning autism, Grandin is also widely noted for her work in autism advocacy." (Wikipedia).

She designed a "kinder" dip system and the curved corrals that lead livestock to more humane slaughter. Her systems are now used in 75% of meat plants in the US and have eliminated or greatly reduced the fear and pain that the animals suffer on their way to slaughter. She has even won a "Proggy" award from PETA for her dedication to the humane treatment of food animals.

Her impetus for creating a more humane system for slaughter comes from her own personal views: "I think using animals for food is an ethical thing to do, but we've got to do it right. We've got to give those animals a decent life and we've got to give them a painless death. We owe the animal respect.", along with her ability to see life through the eyes of the animal. Also (and here is where I realized that some of my own ideas and beliefs - see my post "In Memory of #431" - are less crackpot that I thought), based on her extensive research and study on the connection between stress, fear, high levels of cortisol, and meat quality. Basically, the emotional health of livestock at their time of death does, in fact, determine the meat quality. You can read more about it here:

http://grandin.com/meat/meat.html

This doesn't mean I'm going to eat meat with abandon, however. I am committed to a more "flexitarian" and "clean/whole" approach to food for my own reasons including, but not limited to, my health, and the health of the planet. My mantra, to quote my other hero, Michael Pollan, is:

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

Our NYE dinner (pictured here):

was made up of a homemade vegetarian mushroom risotto (local mushrooms, organic vegetable broth, parsley and onion) and a grass fed hormone/antibiotic free tri-tip! The garden salad was mostly store-bought organic greens (the farmer's market was closed last weekend) and regular ol' tomato/avocado, but with an "all natural" raspberry vinagrette dressing. The dinner was accompanied by a wonderful home made herb and cheese bread brought by one of our guests!

2011 is going to be a "Year of Awareness", in more ways than one. Meaning, I am committed to my continued quest for "personal awareness" using such tools as yoga and meditation. I am committed to a more studied awareness of my passion: Food! And I am committed to a deeper awareness (and subsequent assistance, I hope) of others - most notably, the less fortunate. Both people and animals.

Switching gears here, because this blog is also about "waist management" - I managed to survive the holidays with no weight gain. Hoo-ra! I did this by going into the holidays (beginning Thanksgiving) with the mindset that I would maintain my weight by balancing my normal "healthy" habits with a few splurges and not freak out about them. I knew that if I did freak out about them, I would just "thrown in the towel" and go hog wild until January 1, at which point I would have a good 5 pounds to lose (again). Who wants to do that? I decided to enjoy the season and not worry about it. It worked out beautifully.

I also bought two pairs of super-cute "gently used" jeans that fit me now. By buying jeans that fit me now, instead of a bit too snug because "I'm just gonna lose weight anyway", my hope is that they will actually be comfortable enough to wear on a regular basis, and I can  re-designate my stretchy exercise pants to be worn for....exercise only, (how's that for a radical idea?). Except for days like today where I'm only going to be lounging in front of the fire reading anyway....so......

Happy New Year!!