Food Journal

Tuesday Night Dinner- Cheese fries, with ketchup and mozzarella sticks. Small restaurants, bad marrinera sauce, spanish cooks and cashier. Felt conscious of my manners. Made me feel happy because I was hungry and I was with somebody instead of eating alone

Tuesday Night Dinner- I went to a small restaurant with my friend Alli. I ate a medium order of cheese fries with ketchup and she ate mozzarella sticks. We sat at a small circular table on stools facing each other. It lasted about 20 minutes to eat everything, between the actual eating and the talking. We both used our hands and the only T.V. nearby was the one the cashier was watching on the other side of the restaurant. We talked about friends we used to know from school and each other and how crazy it was to hang out. I felt very good during this, more by the company than the food. However, the food was decent, albeit with odd sides, but good and hit the spot perfect.

Mug full of Tea- I later had an iced tea in a mug. I was thirsty and normally not a huge fan of iced tea, but this hit the spot perfectly. It was Lipton brand tea, made into iced tea and I drank it in my room alone. It was soothing and relaxing and made me feel relaxed.

Mug full of water- I had a big mug of water. This mug is like twice the size of a standard mug and therefore holds a lot of water. This was to last me the night, and it did. Drinking water helps to both energize me and make me feel clean which was vital in this instance, since I was doing homework and needed to focus.

Mug full of tea- I had another mug of iced tea when I was up late talking to Alli and finishing up my homework and needed the energy. Nothing much to it, just was there to give me a boost and make me feel energized, which it did.

Cereal and tea- When I wake up, I am very tired and often grouchy, so I always have something to eat right away. This helps to wake me and gives me a few minutes alone to lose the chip on my shoulder. Tea helps me when I stay up late and I need that little extra boost, like on this particular morning.

Wednesday lunch- I always have school lunch, just for the sake of saving money. In addition, all of my friends have school lunch so it makes it all the more enticing. Wednesday there was grilled chicken and fries, with a cup of fruit. I also had a chocolate milk. This was all very good and was nice because I was in the mood for chicken. I was with Kevin, Paul, Gavin, Marco, Russell, Kareem, and Mateo, a bunch of good friends. This makes the environment very lighthearted and fun. It made me feel good and triumphant, since we went on to play the "movie game" and I won.

Food Ways

At home, food is a very big deal. Not to say that we obsess over food, but at both of my households a great emphasis is put on cooking. At my dad’s house, cooking a meal is very common. Most of the time it will be a meat dish with a side vegetable or potato based dish. My dad and step mom alternate responsibilities when it comes to cooking. When one of them is cooking, the other is cleaning up the room or watching my little sister. We do order food frequently though. When we do this, we tend to order either pizza or fried chicken. Sometimes we order Italian dishes, such as pasta, ziti, or lasagna. We then eat while talking about our days and watching T.V. At my mom’s house, we almost always cook. Whether or not it is a big dish where we sit at the table and sit together varies. Often, food is treated like just sustenance at my moms, where at my dad’s it is more of a family time. I typically eat in my room at my moms and just continue to do what I was doing.
The mainstream media here in the U.S.A. displays dinner as a family outing. Whether it be at home or at a restaurant, the family always gets together for dinner, even if they hate each other or are mad. Also, people are never seen eating along in television or movies unless they are being mocked, such as being called a loser. The typical movie or T.V. show depicting food will show one of the parents or more responsible members of the group cooking the meal, with little help. They then serve the meal and everybody talks or makes attempts to talk about their days.
My food ways are a very simplified way of my family’s. When I cook I like to keep things simple and quick, so as not to snack on something else while waiting for the food to be done cooking. I eat in my room and continue on with my activities from before I eat then, not letting it interrupt my day. In that respect, it is different from my family’s food ways, because I am much more isolated.
Between these three food ways, the most direct similarities are between my family’s food ways and the mainstream U.S. food way. In both cases, the family cooks the meal, with only one person cooking. They then eat at a dinner table and talk about their days to play catch-up with one another. I think that this shows the roots of my family. My mom grew up with her mother cooking every night, which she had learned from the media and what was socially acceptable. On my dad’s side of the family, his abuela cooked for his family every night, also instilling the importance of a family dinner. I think that this shows to a certain degree how much the media at the time affected their actions. As for my food ways, they are also very similar to both my family’s food ways and the media’s food ways. I think that this is the case for all people, they grow up with their family’s perspective on how the family should treat food, but there is also the influence of the media there to alter it from being exactly like their family’s, and possibly to go out for dinner instead of eating in.

Question of the Day

Why are Americans so fat?

I think that rising obesity rates can be due to many factors. These factors range from convenience, lack of time to cook (Depending on region), to transportation (LIke in the Midwest, where EVERYBODY drives). However, upon researching for "Why are Americans fat?" I found a very logical answer to this question. Money. If you go to the grocery store, the cheap food is fattening, and the expensive food is healthy. This also applies to restaurants, where cheap restaurants like McDonald's are fattening, but cheaper. With weights going up in the last couple of years, as the economy slumps, this reason seems to make the most sense. Therefore, the more money people spend on food, possibly the less they will weigh, depending on what they buy and how often they eat, and so forth. But a definite trend is seen here.

Source Here

Refrigerator Findings

Contents of my fridge:

• Parmesan cheese
• Iced tee
• Water
• Milk
• Eggs
• Butter
• Ketchup
• Mustard
• Mayonnaise
• Worcestershire sauce
• Potatoes

The food in my fridge says both a lot about what I eat, and the current state of my household. The eggs, butter, and milk show that I eat a lot of dairy, while also showing that we cook a lot at home, since those are all key ingredients to many recipes. However, the ratio of condiments to actual food shows that things have been better food wise. A month or two ago, the fridge would be filled with vegetables and other cooking ingredients. I think that the lack of fast foods and other “quick buys” show that we eat pretty healthy and that we also finish things off, not leaving lots of leftovers for more than a day or two. I think that I am pretty proud of my fridge as it stands, because it shows that we have to take some initiative when we eat, instead of just popping something in the microwave.

Health Paper

Health is a subject that is most commonly associated with the physical body. This is pretty obvious, due to the multitude of commercials for all things healthy and the many hospitals readily available. However, health does not confine itself to only the physical. Health is an umbrella that encompasses the physical, mental, emotional, moral, spiritual, and social aspects of life. Basically, life is everything that has been alive, is alive, or will be alive.
What stands out to me the most is where America stands in these various categories of health. In fact, it scares me, because it shows explicitly what is wrong with a larger percentage of America. The average America woman is 5’4”, weighs 140 lbs. and wears a size 14 dress. Source Here The reason this is scary is that this is equivalent to a 24 on the B.M.I. (Body Mass Index). A 25 is overweight, and a 24 is dangerously close to this, which would result in the national average being overweight. In addition, size 14 is when clothes start to go into plus sizes, which means that the average American woman is wearing plus sizes by technicality. In addition, out of the women that do try to lose the weight, two-thirds of them gain it back within a year. Virtually all women gain it all back in five years. The average American man is not much better, in fact weighing 17 more lbs than he should at his given height, which is 5’9”. Source Here This does however vary by source. In fact, the two sources provided have slightly different statistics. Here, a chart provides more evidence to show the national average being too high.

With the ideal weights for the same groups during the same years:

Source Here

  In any situation though, the findings are not good and there is a problem that needs to be addressed. In order to address this issue, I feel like physical activity and more “Television blackout” days should occur, and span more channels so people don’t just simply watch something else.
Out of all the concepts we have learned about in this unit, co-counseling is the one that has seemed the most progressive to me. It essentially involves two people talking with each other, taking turns to talk about something on their mind. The person listening does not comment on what the other says, and do not add their own anecdote. Instead, they simply ask questions about what the other is saying. They do not try to solve the issue, merely listen. Before I learned about co-counseling, I thought that therapy was a stupid concept and that it was part of what is wrong with America, with every minor affliction or issue being given a diagnosis. I still think this, but I think that co-counseling is a good start towards bringing people together and gaining better understandings of each other. It is something that I would like to try and use in my own life, and I intend to do so.
In the last month, my definition of health has changed significantly. While it used to only concern the physical, I now think of the mental and emotional parts of health as just as important, if not more. The reason behind this is that the psyche plays such a large part into who a person is and how they act. In addition, I think that what makes these three aspects of health so significant is that they are very difficult to change, if at all. While physical health can be treated by going to the hospital, taking medicine, or going to the gym, changing ones mental and emotional health is a long process that can be easily influenced by outside sources. In fact, I think that mental and emotional health is not who you are, they are instead a reflection of what you have been exposed to in your life.
I think that improving anybody’s health is a very difficult task. While physical health can be fixed by any of the things I said above, all other aspects of health involve a person “cheating” in a way. In order to improve one’s social health for instance, they can continue to act as they normally do, but this will not change anything immediately and it will take a very long time to make any significant change. So instead they have to be aware of their actions in social situations. This has worked for me in the past, because I feel like I have become less “socially-weak” then I once may have been. But at the same time, it gives me a sense that I am not the same person I once was, or that I am pretending to be something I’m not. Along those lines, trying to improve emotional health is very phony, because you are holding back your emotions and therefore not being yourself. Many aspects of health are like this, and can lead to many moments of doubt and contradiction, but if done for the right reason through the right means, it can make you a better person over time.

Feelings Over Break

Over break, I decided that the best way to keep track of how I felt every day was to simply take notes on it every day when it was fresh in my head. As a result, I saw a lot of patterns. On days where I spent a lot of time with my family, my emotional health was clearly higher than on days where I was just relaxing without them. The trend for the peaks in my emotional health  is that interaction with others makes me feel better emotionally. Whether it is with family or friends, my emotions were dependent on others. This shows me that I look to others for security in a way, and that I also am socially comfortable with my emotions. On the other side of the spectrum, my lowest emotional health were the times when I came into conflict with my family, regardless of topic.

My mental health was highly dependent on actions, so essentially what I did determined my mental state. This surprised me in a way, because I would really only expect my actions to deal with my physical happiness. My peaks of mental happiness were generally in moments of triumph. For instance, I felt very sound mentally when I would repeatedly win at a video game. Other times where I felt mentally peaked were when I had solid interactions with people. In both situations, people had a large impact on my mental state. This also goes for my mental lows, which were when I got into arguments or suffered losses of some sort.

Physical health was tough for me to determine over break. The only real physical activity I had was walking to and from the train. When I did do a lot of walking though, and in some cases I ran, I felt happier. My physical peaks were typically moments where I was either relaxing my body completely, such as in a bath, or when I had to clean up the house. The lows were moments of confinement and restriction, such as on Easter when I was forced to sit in a contained manner in the pews, or when I was cleaning my room and surrounded by the mess I was moving.

Co-Counseling

I very much like the idea of co-counseling. I think that America is creating a society that is growing more narcissistic for every individual person. As a result, people do not truly listen or understand one another, but rather they look for a moment when they can hop on board the others train of thought of another person and direct the conversation to be more about them. I am not exempt from this. Upon completing the exercise in class that acted as a demonstration of this technique, I came to the conclusion that the majority of my conversations were in actually just tales of my own adventures in life. In the brief amount of time that was given for this I truly felt that I was able to gain a better understanding of my partner (In this case, Marco) and that I benefited from this, as well as he.

As an activity to be regularly practiced I see no negative effects. It is an opportunity to further develop a relationship with someone while also opening up about yourself. The fact that it is not a conversation and that the person questioning the other is not allowed to talk, but only ask questions to further their understanding, is really enlightening and leads to many possible positive outcomes, such as the person solving their own problems or coming to their own conclusions, rather than somebody having to tell them.

For more on Co-Counseling, Click HERE

Healthy Character, Unhealthy Character

Healthy

Left foot. Right foot. Walk down the street. I look in a window as I walk, my reflection appearing to me. I see the blue of my jacket, the black of my pants. My feet stop moving and i take a longer look at myself. I should keep walking, my legs, while muscular, look as though they could turn too fat any moment. Maybe I will go to the park and play a game of football with the guys. I should call them up. And then tonight I can just call Suzzy and we can have our date walking in the park along the river. Sounds fun. But first I should start walkin' again.

Unhealthy

Left foot. Right foot. Walk down the street. I look in the mirror and have to stop. Look at that lovely creature in the window. Oh wait, what's that? It's me! Yeah it is. Look at the way my jacket hugs me. These few pounds look good on me. Maybe I should just stop walking, get a few more, look better. My fat is sexy. So what if I'm single, I can love myself. I don't need anybody, I can just lay in bed all day and watch reality TV, eating ice cream by the carton-full. I might even just call up everybody I know and tear them new one's, so I can be left alone. Those jerks deserve it! And then I can just relax alone. Mmmmm... love reflections.

Health Questions

1. What are American obesity rates and how do they vary from state to state?

Source here

2. What is the definition of physical health?

Concerning the physical body and it's well-being.

Source here

3. How many Americans are overweight?

64.5% of Americans are overweight. This statistic varies from race to race.

Source here

4. How do American models compare to the average American?

The average American model (female) weighs 23% less than the average American woman, which under typical classifications is anorexic, however with the American woman being overweight is merely underweight.

Source Here

5. How does obesity affect the heart?

Obesity is the cause of almost 66% of heart disease.

Source Here