Day 8

This was possibly the longest week ever. So many hours, so much stress, so many things to do and definitely not enough time to do them in!

I had no time to prepare my food at all. So I was forced to eat the same exact meal for lunch and dinner all week. While that was the easiest thing to do, it was the most annoying thing. I have never purposely thought about skipping a meal, so twice I found myself actually forcing myself to eat. I was hungry, but definitely not for a chicken and spinach salad 100 times this week.

I've never repeatedly eaten the same thing on purpose ever. It's a little bland, it's a little boring, it's going to be a long month. Of course there are plenty of things I could do if I allowed myself access to my spice rack and pantry, but alas I can not. 

Today I am just not hungry, maybe the idea of the same foods over and over is unappetizing...This week I'll have much more time to fool around with different preparations. I'm actually looking forward to my break today so I can run home and get cooking!

I am however grateful that, this week, in my haste, I never had to resort to eating a Chicken Nugget. Which, let's just note, I would never do anyway, but still, you may find this funny:

...perhaps the most alarming ingredient in a Chicken McNugget is tertiary butylhydroquinone, or TBHQ, an antioxidant derived from petroleum that is either sprayed directly on the nugget or the inside of the box it comes in to "help preserve freshness." According to A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives, TBHQ is a form of butane (i.e. lighter fluid) the FDA allows processors to use sparingly in our food: It can comprise no more than 0.02 percent of the oil in a nugget. Which is probably just as well, considering that ingesting a single gram of TBHQ can cause "nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse." Ingesting five grams of TBHQ can kill.


Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilema

If you haven't read Michael Pollan, do it now. You're life will never be complete until you've read Michael Pollan. The Omnivore's Dilema is quite possibly one of my favorite books ever, and In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, is the most thought provoking book besides the Bible. Seriously. If you want a real, balanced, and honest report on how we eat today, go get In Defense of Food from the library before you take another breath.