and this is what I ate...

Hello World!

No, no I didn't really eat this but a table-mate of mine did in Santiago. I won't tell you how much this set him back; one because I don't exactly remember and two because I don't want to embarrass anyone. Needless to say, he was a lot more careful after that.

But this little picture sends me on my next tangent, one that I spent lots of time on. Food. When I eat, what I eat, where it came from. Where it was fed. Where it was grown. And on and on and on.

Today, I'm going to focus on what started me on this path of righteous eating -- just kidding -- the book Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. It changed my life. And in turn it changed my husbands' life and my kids' lives. Again -- just kidding as I don't want to put words in their mouths -- but this book is a MUST READ. And this book led to others: Real Food by Nina Planck, In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and Omnivore's Dilemma by the same Michael Pollan.

This transformation of how and what we ate happened over years. But this is what is left:

- I don't eat at fast food restaurants except for the occasional, and I mean twice a yearly occasional, Subway
- I don't eat anything that my grandmother wouldn't recognize as a food product
- I don't eat anything that has enriched anything or high-fructose something in the ingredient list, in fact if it as more than 5 ingredients, I don't buy it.

- I go to farmer's markets
- I do buy organics, always, and usually from a local farmer -- and I'll admit that one can eat only so many root vegetables and that leftovers stink-up the refrigerator.
- I do buy dairy and have it delivered from a local dairy who uses no growth hormones or antibiotics on their pastured cows

- I do buy only humanely treated and pastured animals with no growth hormones or antibiotics

- I make what I eat.

Okay, this probably does come across as righteous -- sorry about that -- but healthful eating is very important to me. I believe that when you eat well, good things come from it: energy for that run and vitality for whatever else you do that couldn't possibly be as interesting as, well, running :).

Cheers and it was a beautiful day for what else, a run!

RunningBrooke