One Coping Mechanism

I love baked goods. I'll take a cheese Danish over a piece of candy or chocolate any day. That is my weakness. One of the ways I cope with the overwhelming images that we are bombarded with on all forms of food media from billboards to Twitter, is by remembering this: They are trying to sell me something. And not just that, but I've noticed that most grocery stores put their baked goods right by the entrance! Impulse buy? Here I am!!

I have a very black/white view of social justice, and I have boycotted a number of places, for years, if I believe they have behaved badly in some way against an innocent person or groups of persons. There is no gray area in my mind. You're either ethical or you're not. For instance, I quit buying SHELL gasoline after the  execution/murder of Ken Saro WiWa in 1995. I will never buy anything from them--not a car wash, not gas, not a candy bar, EVER--for their abominable treatment of the Ogoni people resulting in the death of that brilliant man.

I was deeply impacted by Ken Schlosser's book Fast Food Nation, which I read in 2002. I quit eating at McDonald's for good (with a few exceptions when I had no other choices like while traveling), and most other fast food places--at least those with poor food handling practices, slaughterhouse practices, employment practices, ad infinitum.

So when I feel the overwhelming fingers of marketing trying to massage my addiction, I rebel. Oh hell no, you are not going to talk me into eating some crap that is bad for me, even if I didn't have WLS or had diabetes--you are selling a product without thought or regard for the effect that product will have on your consuming public, and I, for one, am not going to fall for it.

Righteous anger keeps me away from most of the bad stuff. I have more of a struggle at privately owned places that make from scratch, chemical free products. That's a little more difficult.The best thing I can do is to just keep out of those places and eat the protein first--I usually don't have room for anything else after that.

Whatever works and what I can live with. The less processed foods and chemicals that go into my body, the happier I am and better I feel. Win/win.

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Additionally, I was going through a bag of my clothes to sell, and I found a blouse that my husband's mother gave me. It's a lovely sheer blouse over a cotton tank with paisley and lovely beading. It fit my upper body perfectly, was a bit snug over my hips, but did fit.

It was a size 14. Holy crap.