Monday, March 26, 2012

Pink Slime Barrier to Work

Listening to the radio this morning I heard that the company that produces the controversial "Pink Slime" meat is going to have to close production in several plants because of the uproar. I think that's sad.

On the one hand, the pink slime looks gross. But on the other hand, yay science for coming up with a way to use every part of the animal. As someone with Indian blood, that's great. That's what my ancestors did centuries ago...find ways to use every part of the animal.

I know some people are freaking out about the ammonia, but ammonia is a naturally occurring element that shows up in a lot of different things that we use, eat, breath, etc. I'd rather ingest a bit of ammonia than e-Coli!

The sad part of this to me is that more than 200 people are going to be out of work now.

The low-cost ingredient is made from fatty bits of meat left over from other cuts. The bits are heated and spun to remove most of the fat. The lean mix then is compressed into blocks for use in ground meat. The product is exposed to ammonium hydroxide gas to kill bacteria, such as E. coli and salmonella.
The result is a product that is as much as 97 percent lean beef, Letch said.

It doesn't bother me if my chicken nuggets include this stuff. I like chicken nuggets. And it's reducing waste. I thought people wanted to save the earth...isn't the pink slime helping do that? (that was sarcasm by the way)

It's pretty clear that the pink slime controversy is partly misinformation and partly people's reaction to something that sounds and looks gross. I hope the people at those plants enjoy their paid time off but that their jobs get back to regular schedule soon. (They get 60 paid days off...but after that who knows???).

I'm not going to worry too horribly much about what is in my fast foods....when I do eat out it's to enjoy  myself, not to freak out about the bad stuff I know is in there. I'll be more careful and concerned about my every day foods, not my once in a while foods.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Staying Busy

Boy life sure does get away from you sometimes, doesn't it? I hadn't realized it'd been over two months since my last post. I've been so busy with Aflac and my little boy that time seems to be slipping away. Being busy is a good thing but sometimes I need life to slow down.

The good news is that my weight loss is going great! I started back in January and as of this morning I'm down over 20 pounds!!!!! That's much more than I was expecting or even aiming for in that three months. I've still got 30 to go to my goal but so far so good. The gym is definitely my friend and I love having time to myself to read while sweating on the elliptical machine. I also do weight training one to two times per week.

MyFitnessPal - Free Calorie Counter

Marshal is talking more and more every day. We're having actual conversations and he's using multiple word sentences to try to convey his thoughts. I wish he could enunciate better but we're slowly figuring out what he's saying.

The potty training on the other hand...is really not happening at all. He went number two in his potty ONCE and we were SO excited. But so far...nothing more exciting than that has happened. I'm not going to push him though. He weaned himself off his bottle so I figure he will know when he's ready.