"A Writer Writes, Not Always"

Soon after I wake up, I begin my work as a writer. My day usually begins with some brain juice consisting of emulsified kale, kiwi, orange, and lemon. As I slowly sip, I continue work on my second novel. After a few hours of typing away, it's time to look for freelance writing jobs and continue promoting my first book. When I'm not writing, I am embracing my other passion; cooking.
Cooking at home with fresh ingredients has slowly become a more familiar site in peoples homes. So familiar, in fact, that the fast food industry has resulted to $4 meals. There statue-of-liberty play in this scenario it to entice us with lots of bad food for very little money; who would say no to that? You would be crazy not to put your health in danger to save a couple of bucks or are you?
Three years ago, my family made a lifestyle change when we started reading food labels. The first label we read was the nutrition facts label and realized we were ingesting five times the maximum amount of sodium any person should put into their body. The next label was the ingredients list and this one truly shocked us to the point of clarity; some being longer than this article up to this point.
After much research, we realized that the reason for the childhood obesity problem in this country wasn't only from feeding our kids too much, it was what we were feeding them. We soon found out that if you stop using boxed meals and processed foods, you not only will look better, but feel better too. In our first year of transitioning into this healthier eating lifestyle, we were much happier and more energetic; I even quit smoking.
We began with substituting one thing for another, like a half pound of chicken breast has half the calories of one tiny, little leg. And we would bread seafood with panko and bake it rather than fry it in oil; it tastes just as good. We eat healthy six days of the week, because you have to have a cheat day.
What is a cheat day? Well, for bodybuilders, a cheat day is the one day they don't exercise. A cheat day, is the one day a week dedicated to enjoying yourself and not letting your body get too used to being healthy; you have to keep your body on it's toes. For me, a cheat day is soda, cheese, and salty pork but we still never ever consume those unpronounceable chemicals they call "ingredients."
The more we got into this, the more experiments we tried. We began trying recipes we would never have tried before, like risotto and thai curry. To be honest, now I really don't know why I thought cooking was so difficult for all those years. Just like anything, the more you try, the more you enjoy and excel at it.
The biggest excuse for most people is the cost that they think they will incur by starting a healthy eating regiment. If you actually take the time to look at the ads in your mailbox you call "junkmail" you'll see that the cost of raw meat blows away McDonald's and Taco Bell. For the price of the $4 burger, chicken sandwich, fries, and coke (which you shouldn't be drinking anyway) you can get two and a half pounds of boneless chicken meat that will feed everyone for dinner.
I've grown to see that I truly enjoy cooking and the turn our country has taken towards it only helps me to embrace it more. It would be a whole lot more difficult without farmers markets, locally grown ingredients, and people sharing their ideas and experiences. If you're not already, I urge you to take on a new recipe and get yourself hook. Remember, it's not a diet... it's a lifestyle change.