My Food Revolution: One Month Anniversary

It's been a month since the fateful day that changed my life. Last Friday was my one month anniversary free of soda and this past Saturday was my one month anniversary free from fast food. It's been a journey, made more difficult by not being at home and being in complete control of my own diet but there are ways to avoid eating things you don't want to eat.

What I've learned:
- Read the labels. If there's things you can't pronounce or your grandmother's grandmother wouldn't recognize, skip it.
- You can find healthy alternatives to almost everything in your diet. It won't be exactly the same but that doesn't mean it has to taste like cardboard.
- Leftovers of home cooked meals are your friends. Freezing meals is even better. When you're lazy and just want something quick this prevents you from grabbing fast food or a frozen meal.
- Tell people about your changes, it helps to be held accountable and to receive encouragement from time to time.

New goals:- Use the Farmers Market. Now that the weather is nice it's time to take advantage of local produce.
- Give up plastic Tupperware. It's bad for my health, it's bad for the environment.
- Try new recipes. Good friend Sarah from CWGAP has sent me a ton of recipes. I'll report back on how some of them turned out :)

My Food Revolution: No Fast Food

Welcome to My Food Revolution, inspired by Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution I am taking my health into my own hands and changing my habits. Every two weeks I am going to try and do one really big change in my life. Throughout those two weeks I'll document my experiences and more so what I've learned and the difficulties I've faced. I need to be accountable and hopefully you'll decide to embark on your own 'Food Revolution'.

Today is the first day of my Food Revolution. As od yesterday I decided to remove fast food from my diet. Not for the most part, or all but once a month it needs to be gone. There are two fast food places I have a special craving for, but since I can only eat Chick Fil A once a year and In N Out Burger once every couple of years I will allow myself one more treat of each. Why am I removing fast food from my diet? I love fast food, I love the convenience, I love the taste, I love everything except for the fact that I consume enough calories in one meal to last an entire day. I have noticed when I limit fast food I drop a pant size. You'd think that would be enough of a reason to keep the fast food at bay but it isn't. Surprisingly it was hearing about how Chicken McNuggets were made, and seeing the Pink Slime that is used in meat for tacos and burgers. It's the fact that businesses don't care about what they give us.

A long time ago someone told me that no one else is looking out for me but me. I thought that was a really pessimistic and critical thing to say. Now I get it. Ultimately the only person responsible for the decisions I make is me, whether people care for my well being the only one who has the power and responsibility to take care of me is me. Businesses are in the market for profit, government is so broken it can barely function, and healthcare is more about staying in the black than keeping me healthy. Restaurants will get away with whatever 'tricks' they can employ to fatten their bank accounts while still providing food that we'll eat. Profit is the name of the game, health is something even healthcare companies care about *after* they've balanced their overhead and budgets. Lawsuits can be filed and complaints can be made but ultimately it is up to us to take care of ourselves. It is our right, ney our responsibility to take care of ourselves and make the right choices for ourselves.

Today is the first day of the rest of my life that I will actively try to keep fast food out of my body. I know it will be hard, I've grown up with fast food and love eating it. But here's the thing: I love me more. I am worth fighting for and I am worth paying more for better food. I deserve better, and so do you.

Operation Draft Tour Guide

The NHL Entry Draft will be in Saint Paul this year. And even though I think St. Paul is the place 'Where Dreams Go to Die' I will still be hosting a slew of my friends from CWGAP at my place. In addition to providing room and board I will be giving them the tour of the place I've kind of called home for the past seven years, the Cities.

I've compiled a list of places people should try to check out, I know that not everyone can go to every single place as I've listed too many to do that. I do, however, think there is something for everyone. And while I have been to most places, I haven't been to all but have been meaning to go to them. So here's my goal. The piece I'm writing for CWGAP runs on June 23rd and I need to actually have experienced these places to officially recommend them. So I'm going to every place on my list. Some places I've already checked off the list, but others will be fun new places I get to experience because of this writing experience.

Now the big question is, anyone want to join me? ;)

You Don't 'Get Old', It's Called Being Boring

This weekend in Minnesota was gorgeous, weather in the 50s with sunshine and the trails were filled with bikers, runners, people walking their dogs, and those roller blading. Saturday and Sunday I joined the masses, taking my dog Chanel on a 3.5 mile walk both days. The warm weather isn't something we take for granted in Minnesota. As soon as the weather lightens up the patios are filled during lunch and Happy Hour, people begin sporting Spring clothes at temperatures the rest of the United States would still be in winter jackets.

On Sunday after taking the dog for our walk, I spread out on my bed feeling like an old lady when I saw Matt Wertz tweet about the Varsity Theatre (in Dinkytown) and how tickets were still available. I panicked, how did I not know he was going to be here? More importantly, who could I find to go with me at such late notice? I sent my thoughts out to Twitter and waited for someone, ANYONE, to say they'd love to come with me. All of my friends encouraged me to go, though none were in the area to come with me. In fact, Matt himself tweeted at me that he thought I should come. It was cute to say the least. Tickets were $15 and the doors opened in less than fifteen minutes. Still lounging in my yoga pants and t-shirt I had a decision to make: Do I stay home and be old and lame or do I go to the concert by myself?

That moment it crossed my mind, we don't get old and want to stay home and do the more practical things, we get boring, comfortable, and lazy. I'm 26 years old, when do I stop being spontaneous and start clipping coupons on weekends considering it to be an activity? I decided not this time, not this weekend. I can get old and boring another year, I'm not getting old without a fight. I'll go to concerts on a whim by myself, try new restaurants, do things that scare me, whatever it takes to stay young at heart. Every day could be our last. How awful would it be if I missed out on a great concert by one of my favorite artists because I put it off? No one ever looks back and regrets the fun things they did, they regret the things they wanted to do but were too scared or lazy to do. So at least once a week when all I want to do is lay in bed and watch tv I will instead do something new. Awhile ago I wrote a post on inexpensive things to do in the Cities, I'll be slowly marking things off my list as the year goes by.

Family Cook Book

I have been working on a family cook book for the past...well to be honest since 2008. My family is wonderful; they love good company, food, and booze. We love to cook and celebrate occasions together and with so many new baby cousins now walking around it's time to have a good Beckham (and extended family) cook book.

While it's taken me forever to get family members to find their recipes and send them on their way, it's definitely been a rewarding process. Secret recipes seeing the light of day, my cousin Lauren is helping me with the project by collecting recipes and cooking all that are submitted and taking pictures. While I can't share any of the truly secret recipes with you I will share this secret. Do it. It's so much fun to get new recipes and even more fun to get Grandma's Gingerbread Recipe and Grandpa's Krupnik recipe. Seeing my niece and nephew making Grandma's Gingerbread for Christmas warmed my heart. Grandma was keeping us all connected for the holiday even if we were 600 miles away.

The best part? They are free and are a great way to get in touch with relatives you haven't seen for far too long. When ours is finally done I'll show a picture of my Grandma's Gingerbread, my Uncle Vaughn worked hard to get that recipe Altitude friendly!!

Punch Pizza = Night of Laughter

I get it from my father. My love for food, and more importantly, the appreciation of a good coupon for great food. Last night 6 of us went to Punch Pizza in Highland Park, carrying in 6 different coupons. Buy one get one free. You would typically think, oh we can get a pizza for half the price. But not this group of guys and gals.

Unfortunately we had to take two different cars because there were six of us total. And right as we were leaving the Minnesota weather decided to act funny and spit wet, large snowflakes everywhere! After securing a rockstar parking spot, Lizzy, Tom and I waited while Lindsay, Jon & Jeremy struggled to find a place. Inside the world's tiniest restaurant, we were clearly the anti-family group. The group that has no kids and looks to be the kind of people you tell your kids to use 'earmuffs' around. Of course there was a group of seminarians praying before their meal. What were we doing? Saying "That's what she said" after every unintentional loaded comment.

Our waitress arrived and she could not look more disinterested in us. She wasn't rude in any manner, but you could tell she had no interest in us whatsoever. After we proceeded to order 10 pizzas for a group of 6, you could tell everyone in the restaurant (like I said, it was tiny!) thought we were crazy.

The highlight of my night, was when Lizzy asked Tom if he was going to use any of the shredded cheese. He said, maybe I don't know, why? Are you going to eat the rest? And did she ever. Truth be known, Lizzy could probably down an entire package of cheese (once shredded) on a large pizza or a bowl of spaghetti.....