- I feel much better spiritually, and am not fighting with God anymore.
- I decided to leave my job.
- I am still struggling with the whole "having community" thing, and I may choose to resolve that struggle by moving back to be near my family.
Monday, April 27, 2009
BTW ...
... I have plenty of post-Easter news, but it's all so big I don't quite know where to start writing about it. The quick and dirty summary is:
Healthy Lifestyle Update #3
OK, so I haven't posted about this in a while, mostly because I've been doing an abysmal job keeping my healthy lifestyle resolutions. So, in the spirit of any annual resolution, I'm trying to get back on the wagon now that spring is here and the sun is making me feel more inspired.
Today is the first day of my new healthy lunch plan. I've been struggling with this, because I have a hard time finding things that a) I like to eat, b) are healthy for me, and c) require almost no preparation. I was doing OK with making sandwiches for a while, but finding lunch meat that didn't have a giant cupful of sodium is quite difficult, and the packs that I did find were expensive and tiny.
So then I feel off the wagon, and starting eating burritos every day, plus the occasional fast food breakdown (in my defense, it was very occasional, like, twice in total). And I didn't have any food at home to cook (again, must meet criteria a, b and c), so Lord knows what I ate out/ordered in to satisfy my meal requirements. Suffice it to say, it wasn't pretty, and when I discovered over Easter weekend during dress fittings for my sister's wedding that I'd gone up another dress size, I was very, very unhappy.
Two weeks later, here I am, trying to establish a reasonable eating plan (and get myself a dress size down, because I refused to order a dress in the size that fits me right now ... don't judge me for being a little irrational). I don't know if this quite counts as balanced, but I'm going with hardboiled eggs and oatmeal or cereal (in an appropriate portion) in the AM; another hardboiled egg and tuna/carrot/lettuce salad for lunch; trail mix of nuts and dried fruit for a little snacking when needed; and pasta or rice with tuna (and some greens, when I remember to make them) for dinner. Portion control is equally important for lunch and dinner, although I feel pretty OK if I decide to gorge myself on carrots (not so much on rice or pasta, though). I'm trying to get in good protein, fruits and veggies, the healthy-for-you oils and some not-too-evil carbs. As another snacking or breakfast option, I also have cantaloupe.
When I eat out - which I want to reduce for cost as well as health reasons - I'm working to focus more on salad-y type items with chicken, and less on red meat and carbs. Also, since the weather is nicer now, I'm trying to get back on my walking program, and to try and take at least one longer weekend walk, too.
On that note, here's a cruel contradiction (which may include a little TMI, so forewarned is forearmed as usual on my blog): because I'm a lady of ample thighs, they move back anfd forth against each other when I walk, and during the summer when I'm not wearing pants or stockings, it causes irritation. In a terrible trick of fate, this happens because I actually do walk around quite a lot, but it also happens because I apparently don't walk (or do other forms of exercise) quite enough to lose the thigh weight. So amazingly, the problem is the result of being both too active and not active enough, all at the same time. Ay, there's the rub ... literally. :-(
At any rate, so far today my lunch and breakfast have been tasty and filling, and I walked home from the store with my groceries last night; I hope it's a good sign. I was a little disappointed that my healthy eats weren't quite as healthy-earth as I wanted them to be; my carrots, lettuce, cantaloupe and tuna definitely don't qualify as local eating. With the advent of summer and the farmer's market season, I'm looking forward to being able to go more local on some of those items over the next 4-6 months.
Today is the first day of my new healthy lunch plan. I've been struggling with this, because I have a hard time finding things that a) I like to eat, b) are healthy for me, and c) require almost no preparation. I was doing OK with making sandwiches for a while, but finding lunch meat that didn't have a giant cupful of sodium is quite difficult, and the packs that I did find were expensive and tiny.
So then I feel off the wagon, and starting eating burritos every day, plus the occasional fast food breakdown (in my defense, it was very occasional, like, twice in total). And I didn't have any food at home to cook (again, must meet criteria a, b and c), so Lord knows what I ate out/ordered in to satisfy my meal requirements. Suffice it to say, it wasn't pretty, and when I discovered over Easter weekend during dress fittings for my sister's wedding that I'd gone up another dress size, I was very, very unhappy.
Two weeks later, here I am, trying to establish a reasonable eating plan (and get myself a dress size down, because I refused to order a dress in the size that fits me right now ... don't judge me for being a little irrational). I don't know if this quite counts as balanced, but I'm going with hardboiled eggs and oatmeal or cereal (in an appropriate portion) in the AM; another hardboiled egg and tuna/carrot/lettuce salad for lunch; trail mix of nuts and dried fruit for a little snacking when needed; and pasta or rice with tuna (and some greens, when I remember to make them) for dinner. Portion control is equally important for lunch and dinner, although I feel pretty OK if I decide to gorge myself on carrots (not so much on rice or pasta, though). I'm trying to get in good protein, fruits and veggies, the healthy-for-you oils and some not-too-evil carbs. As another snacking or breakfast option, I also have cantaloupe.
When I eat out - which I want to reduce for cost as well as health reasons - I'm working to focus more on salad-y type items with chicken, and less on red meat and carbs. Also, since the weather is nicer now, I'm trying to get back on my walking program, and to try and take at least one longer weekend walk, too.
On that note, here's a cruel contradiction (which may include a little TMI, so forewarned is forearmed as usual on my blog): because I'm a lady of ample thighs, they move back anfd forth against each other when I walk, and during the summer when I'm not wearing pants or stockings, it causes irritation. In a terrible trick of fate, this happens because I actually do walk around quite a lot, but it also happens because I apparently don't walk (or do other forms of exercise) quite enough to lose the thigh weight. So amazingly, the problem is the result of being both too active and not active enough, all at the same time. Ay, there's the rub ... literally. :-(
At any rate, so far today my lunch and breakfast have been tasty and filling, and I walked home from the store with my groceries last night; I hope it's a good sign. I was a little disappointed that my healthy eats weren't quite as healthy-earth as I wanted them to be; my carrots, lettuce, cantaloupe and tuna definitely don't qualify as local eating. With the advent of summer and the farmer's market season, I'm looking forward to being able to go more local on some of those items over the next 4-6 months.
Labels:
Health Life
Thursday, April 16, 2009
I don't hate markets. I just don't believe they bring justice or balance.
Commerce - in the broad sense of people making exchanges with other people for things that you want - has been around for millenia, and seems to be a pretty fundamental human social activity. It's not a bad idea at all; in fact, it's essential because very few if any of us have the skills to do everything we need in our life for ourselves. Markets - again, in the broad sense of vehicles for facilitating these exchanges on a larger scale, whether they are physical or virtual - are a very useful tool.
But none of that says anything about how our society - which includes these markets and exchanges - should function. Markets are just things, like forks, that don't have much value except in how they are used and the results of that use. If I use my fork to put food in my mouth and I get fed, it's a great tool; if I use my fork to stab you in the eye and you end up blind, it's not a good thing at all. Forks are not intrinsically good ... but they are generally considered positives in our society, because they result in vastly more feeding and than stabbing.
Markets are not intrinsically good either; so in the evaluation of our "free market" economy, we have to ask how they are used and what they produce. Right now, our markets produce two main things, in my opinion: lots and lots of throwaway goods, and exponentially growing inequality in access to resources. In fairness, the market also results in lots of "jobs", but the quality of those jobs varies widely, and the distribution of that quality also tends to be very unequal across different groups of people.
What makes a good market are the underlying principles that are built into its rules (and their enforcement). The rules surrounding appropriate use of forks place a severe penalty on using them to stab people, so stabbings are few. The lack of rules in the definition of our current markets of exchange to penalize environmental damage or gross pay disparities between a CEO of a company and the factory workers who make that company's products mean that those behaviors are rampant in the way that people operate in our markets.
The rules that we have in our markets prioritize individualism and self-interest; make lowest cost and biggest profit the highest goal with the best reward; encourage low quality and continual waste; and ignore diffuse costs in evaluating costs and benefits. The rules that we should have need to prioritize honesty and integrity; respect individual liberties but prioritize the public good as the goal of the market; require equitable sharing of the direct and diffuse rewards and costs of the market among the individuals and groups who participate; set high quality standards for the content, function, useful life and production methods of products and services exchanged. Finally, these rules must be enforced; the value placed on goods and services exchanged must be tied to these principles so that the best behaviors are rewarded; and penalties for violating these principles, in spirit as well as in letter, must be severe.
Some folks will argue that all of this fetters the market's "free" operation and keep people from exercising their preferences. But let's be real: the market is not free. It is very directly influenced by subsidies, regulations, loopholes, and indirectly influenced by cultural standards, that privilege certain behaviors over others. Those who are currently benefiting the most from the existing system would like to convince us that protecting the system protects our right to choose; but what they are protecting is their right to determine our range of options to maximize their own benefit.
If we're going to institute rules for our markets - which we will always do - then let's institute the ones that make our markets and the people who participate in them healthy, stable and sustaining. And if we're not willing to do that, then let's at least admit that we are choosing to be sick and broken, and take responsibility for the destruction we wreak. The current state of our system is a surprise only to those who were deliberately ignoring the reality of the world around them.
But none of that says anything about how our society - which includes these markets and exchanges - should function. Markets are just things, like forks, that don't have much value except in how they are used and the results of that use. If I use my fork to put food in my mouth and I get fed, it's a great tool; if I use my fork to stab you in the eye and you end up blind, it's not a good thing at all. Forks are not intrinsically good ... but they are generally considered positives in our society, because they result in vastly more feeding and than stabbing.
Markets are not intrinsically good either; so in the evaluation of our "free market" economy, we have to ask how they are used and what they produce. Right now, our markets produce two main things, in my opinion: lots and lots of throwaway goods, and exponentially growing inequality in access to resources. In fairness, the market also results in lots of "jobs", but the quality of those jobs varies widely, and the distribution of that quality also tends to be very unequal across different groups of people.
What makes a good market are the underlying principles that are built into its rules (and their enforcement). The rules surrounding appropriate use of forks place a severe penalty on using them to stab people, so stabbings are few. The lack of rules in the definition of our current markets of exchange to penalize environmental damage or gross pay disparities between a CEO of a company and the factory workers who make that company's products mean that those behaviors are rampant in the way that people operate in our markets.
The rules that we have in our markets prioritize individualism and self-interest; make lowest cost and biggest profit the highest goal with the best reward; encourage low quality and continual waste; and ignore diffuse costs in evaluating costs and benefits. The rules that we should have need to prioritize honesty and integrity; respect individual liberties but prioritize the public good as the goal of the market; require equitable sharing of the direct and diffuse rewards and costs of the market among the individuals and groups who participate; set high quality standards for the content, function, useful life and production methods of products and services exchanged. Finally, these rules must be enforced; the value placed on goods and services exchanged must be tied to these principles so that the best behaviors are rewarded; and penalties for violating these principles, in spirit as well as in letter, must be severe.
Some folks will argue that all of this fetters the market's "free" operation and keep people from exercising their preferences. But let's be real: the market is not free. It is very directly influenced by subsidies, regulations, loopholes, and indirectly influenced by cultural standards, that privilege certain behaviors over others. Those who are currently benefiting the most from the existing system would like to convince us that protecting the system protects our right to choose; but what they are protecting is their right to determine our range of options to maximize their own benefit.
If we're going to institute rules for our markets - which we will always do - then let's institute the ones that make our markets and the people who participate in them healthy, stable and sustaining. And if we're not willing to do that, then let's at least admit that we are choosing to be sick and broken, and take responsibility for the destruction we wreak. The current state of our system is a surprise only to those who were deliberately ignoring the reality of the world around them.
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