I am resolved

First of all, am I the only one who hears the word "resolve" and immediately begins humming:
"I am resolved no longer to linger, charmed by the world's delight..."

Anyway - back in the fall I resolved to take back the beds in our house. Since that day our beds have been made up every single morning and that just makes me happy. And it's easy because I want to do it.

On January 1st, I resolved to learn yarn. I began knitting and although still very slow and sloppy, I'm having a fun time learning and may have an actual scarf completed before next winter. Again - easy to do because I want to do it.

So...several weeks ago I was watching Oprah. I have a love/hate relationship with Oprah but on that day her topic was Grocery Shopping 101, so I was intrigued. It turns out that show had little to do with the 'art' of grocery shopping (I thought she'd be giving out coupon tips or something) but about a guy who had just released a book about food. Well, now I'm annoyed because surely this guy is going to tell me to become a vegetarian and eat tofu. Tofu is weird.

But he did not.

In fact, he likes meat. Well okay then. I might listen to him.

And I did. And I checked out the book from the library and read it this week. And now I am resolved yet again. But this time, about food.

This guy (I'm purposely not being specific, but if you're interested just ask me and I'll give you the low down) promotes many things, but here are the ones that stuck with me and I just can't let go.

#1) Don't eat anything that might arrive through your car window.
This makes perfect sense to me. I hate fast food. I always joke about how much we hate McDonalds, etc, yet we still keep eating there. And I never enjoy it. Even my beloved Taco Bell has not been as endearing as it once was. So that's it. If the restaurant has a drive through - I'm not eating there. EVER. There are too many "fast food" places without a drive through that I can support. (Jason's, Qdoba). I'm sure that a salad from McDonald's is better for me than a queso burrito at Qdoba, but you have to draw the line somewhere and this one works for me. I have not enforced my new resolve upon the rest of my family...just yet.

#2) Eat all the junk food you want - as long as you make it yourself.
Again - this makes sense. Pies, Cakes, Fried things, etc. - none of these foods are bad when eaten in moderation. But it's waaay too easy to in today's world to get them as often and whenever we want. But how often are we willing to make them from scratch? Well that's about as often as we should be eating them. (Unless you're at Big Granny's house and then she makes them from scratch every day and all bets are off).

#3) Beware of foods that make health claims
In the book, he took almost 100 pages to detail this one but I'll give the short version. If the food boasts "low fat! no carbs! fortified! enriched!" then take a second look. Sure something was taken out, but what was put in it's place? And just because something was added in, doesn't necessarily change a 'bad' food to 'good'. (he cites a new add where fritos claim to be heart healthy)

So this is my new resolve:
No more food from places with a drive through
Avoid junk food that was made by a company rather than a person
Try to stick with foods in their natural state

And like any new book, movie or idea - you have to filter the information with your own common sense. Papa had to bring me back down to earth when I got excited about buying my own cow and chopping him up into little white packages to live in our deep freeze. It's always good to talk to someone with real live experience.

But those three. I can resole to live with those. Because I want to.