♫You Take the Good, You Take the Bad...♫

If you've followed my blog for very long, you'll know that we try to adhere to a whole foods diet. This doesn't mean that we do it well, but we try to do it the best that we can. I've been very candid about my struggles with food, both in the over-eating department and in my addictions to Reese's, Starbucks, Frito-lay, and favorite uncle's, Ben & Jerry.

I still struggle. Daily. Sometimes more than once.

What I won't do though is give up. That's not to say that I don't think about giving up, but it's not in my nature to do so. I see the same advertisements for skinny jeans, string bikini's, and push-up bras that you see. I see the tiny-waisted, uber-tall runway models sporting the latest fashions and I think to myself, "Self, it's time to get physical, eat some lettuce, (iceburg only because it has 0 calories), grow your brunette hair blond, and pamper yourself with acrylic nails and a nice painted-on tan. Then you too can strut yourself on that runway."

When I hear my family laughing hysterically, I realize that I've said this out loud and they are giving me a true reality check. It doesn't matter how many hours I exercise because at the age of 44, I will never have less wrinkles and stretch marks than I do now. My growth spurt happened at the age of 5 and I've been stuck looking at belt buckles since, and my hair isn't completely brown, but flecked with "blond" highlights. (Or gray, if you want me to be honest and accurate.) Acrylic nails are perfect breeding ground for the chicken poop that will eventually get under them, and a spray-on tan in Washington state is just begging for a puddle of brown water pooling up in my shoes. And face it, there's nothing that can be done to iceburg lettuce to make it even remotely appetizing, especially when you know how good baby romaines and spinach are. I need to focus on  better health and activities that involve my entire brood such as, biking, hiking, snowshoeing, etc... I need to stop listening to what Hollywood deems as the "perfect body", and stop comparing myself to the touched-ups, photo- shopped, and surgically-enhanced crowd.  

That's not my reality.

Sometimes I would love to have somebody that's not related to me, understand. Someone who gets why I have 5 gallons of beef tallow and coconut oil in my pantry. Someone who understands why my freezer door is loaded with jars of rendered pig fat. Someone who understands why I buy my avocados in bulk, and always have hard-boiled eggs in the fridge for quick snacks. Someone to validate that what I'm doing isn't so crazy because there's science to back it up. Someone who...

Wait. What's this? I remember "The Fats of Life"! I loved Tootie! (You'll only understand this if you  have as many wrinkles and stretch marks as me.☺)

The 4th column is for Trans Fats, which incidently, are not recommended.

Does this mean that I no longer have to smuggle my red palm oil out of the store in a cloth bag, while wearing a ski mask, hoodie, and sunglasses and answering only to the name of George?

The "Four Foods to Consider" are considered staples in my kitchen!

Yes. Yes it does. My favorite part of this article that ran in our local newspaper is this:

Saturated Fats

Sources: Meat and whole milk dairy as well as coconuts and palm.

What they do: Raise bad cholesterol levels, but also good cholesterol.

The debate: Reductions in saturated fats have not produced better cardiovascular health but have coincided with a rise in obesity. Since many have swapped saturated fats for refined carbohydrates, experts are debating the wisdom of continued reduction recommendations.

Daily recommendations: 10 percent of calories or less

(Underlined emphasis is mine.)

Okay, we haven't arrived, but we're getting there.

And I no longer feel so alone.

*I tried to find the article online but was unable to locate it. The original article ran in The Chicago Tribune and was written by Monica Eng. If anybody searches and finds it, I'd appreciate the link so I can include it here! ☺