My life as an Atheist Part II: Eccentric Boogaboo

 

 

So last year, I did a post explaining my path to becoming an atheist. As of 2021, I am still an atheist and a no-good heathen. So let's continue where we left off.

I had moved to Savannah with my mother at the age of sixteen due to owning some property left by my grandmother who died in 2005. Getting down there, it was a gradual experience and I was slated to do my last year of high school there. It was around this time where I really questioned if god existed or not and doing my own research and looking at the state of the world, I ultimately decided that there was no god.

December 2008 was the moment I finally came out as an atheist to my mother. And that was a bad idea. As I learned years later, the black community in America and hell, most of the world are devout worshipers and blind supporters of an invisible man in the sky. I questioned my mother on why he exists and what has he really done. She simply told me "There is a god." 

That's it. That's no way to really explain it, but it also reminded me that most black people voted for Barrack Hussein Obama simply because...he's black. 

See the trend?

My mother never stopped loving me, and that shows that despite our differences, we still could come together and act as family. But I dare not mention this to my other family members, and thankfully she didn't either.

However, I made another mistake of trusting my beliefs (or lack thereof) with my brother, who came down to Savannah a year later. Around the area we stayed in, there were at least five churches within the vicinity. Yes, five. All within walking distance. We went to a church only two minutes away for a brown bag program, a program where you show your ID, sign a paper and get a grab bag of random food items donated. It was an ideal system for a newfound adult trying to find his own place and job, and the church makes an obligation to accept everyone through their doors...something that one church in South Carolina would regret many years later, but before I get to that, the incident with my brother.

I only went because of the free bag of food. I asked my brother if he believed in god and told him I didn't. Suddenly, he becomes biblical and starts questioning me ten times over. Fine and well. We had a brotherly conversation.

What I was not expecting was him telling a stranger about my lack of beliefs and then that stranger told her equally strange friend about my lack of belief. So I had to endure ten minutes of these two people who I never saw again basically chastising me for not believing in god. I expect this from my family, but some stranger, fuck that. And the worst part is this was someone I trusted. You don't do that to your own family. Personal matters like that should stay within the people you trust, not someone you barely talked to for a minute.

Thankfully, he didn't relay my lack of beliefs to other family members. But still, that was uncalled for.

Dialing back to high school, I casually mentioned that I was an atheist to some of my classmates. No fire or hell tossed my way, but I did get a very good insight on why people don't like atheists.

The phrase "Oh my god" is thrown casually among just about all of society, in varying ways. Saying the lord's name in vain is also present. So, to counter that and this was something that I did anyway, I told him that I would use substitutes in place of "Oh my god" or "Jesus Christ". Jiminy Cricket was one. At the time of my obsession with Pokemon, Arceus was also used in place of god. So you'd get "Oh my Arceus" or "Thank Arceus". It was fun. I never did this in public, but hey, if people can believe in a bearded man in the sky, celebrities or now, corporations in the same manner, what's the harm in thanking the Pokemon equivalent of god for the food I ate?

Give praise to The Original One

 

 

After the incident with my brother, outside of some isolated nagging from my mother, no one ever got on my case with my atheism, and I was smart enough to not show it or force it down other people's throats, the same way I didn't want Jesus shoved down mine.

And I really had to ask myself this, and I thank Tyler Perry for keying me on in this dilemma, though he supports it rather than try to address it. If we have so many damn churches on every corner of the black community, and all this money comes into said institutions, why the hell are the streets so run down and the 'communities' so barren and devoid of prosperity? Why is that pastor not actually putting money into programs or causes that could actually benefit us in the long run?

That's when I realized it, again thanks to all the black sitcoms and media: The Black Church is not a place to go for help, it is a front for the pastor to get money and access to the overwhelmingly female attendance. That scenario with the pastor making a pass on that woman I mentioned in the last post wasn't a sick joke, it was the norm. I also discovered deism was a thing, you didn't need to go to church to believe in a god or higher power. He's got a lot of names which should tell you how messy this whole scenario gets when wars are enacted over the interpretation of god. 

And frankly, my mother wasn't really going to church like that anymore. So hey, live and let live.

I did more research on the Black Church and came to find out some rather interesting information and this one affected me directly because of how profound it is. If I remember right, at least 80% of black women believed in god or identified as a christian. Hmm. For that many black women to believe in god means I have only 20% of the women to go to if I want a relationship with one.

But wait. These same holy women are also partaking in various acts that the church would normally denounce...but that would mean the pastor can't get his piece of that sweet hair pie. And even if you don't believe in god, you can still get with one of these women. The notion that having sex with a man will tame him and show him the right path to godliness.

Or so they think. The Black Church is overwhelmingly female, and those women seven times out of ten will have their children present. With no father. But then you see them in public with those same children...and no father. Some people will say "HE'S AT WORK" if you question them when they show up on the news being abused by whoever or whatever. So, why are these god-fearing women committing adultery and having bastard babies out of wedlock? Wouldn't this be the opposite of what a church would want? And why the hell are some of these women coming in the church dressed as if they were going to a strip club, which is right around the corner from a church coincidentally...

...or is it?

I question this because these same people who would ask you fifty questions about your lack of belief in god are also the biggest sinners to walk the earth. Kinda damning that the atheist shows more virtue than the ones who take the oath of virtue. Having kids out of wedlock, having affairs, prostitution, stealing from a store to support your bastards, worshiping a celebrity glorifying a destructive lifestyle and based on the outro of the single "None of Your Business" by Salt-N-Pepa:

So the moral of this story is: Who are you to judge?
There's only one true judge, and that's God
So chill, and let my Father do His job

Another quote that resonated with me was something Tupac mentioned about what Thug Life meant.

The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody. Thug Life.

Basically Pepa, because of your provocativeness and outward sexualized life at the time (And probably still living that life with that awful plastic body), you more or less gave the okay for young girls to do the same and while I'm not sure if you had any children or not, what you feed young minds as seeds will grow into the product you see in the future. And looking at the slut-shaming fiasco that took place in 2014, I'm inclined to say the people judging you were correct in doing so and in my case, because I'm not doing so around a basis of faith, but morals. There's too much spoiled fruit to go around and this is my time to harvest and there's nothing to eat. You bury spoiled fruit or feed it to the worms, as I did when I started composting back in the day.

But only god can judge you, right?

If these are the women I have to pick from, I'm good. Finding a black atheist woman is hard enough, but the few I've seen are very indistinguishable from the god-fearing black woman. In addition to the overwhelmingly christian populous, the majority of black women are overweight if not outright obese and you have the Black Church to thank for that.

One of the traditions of the church was to serve food after a service. This particular food isn't exactly something you'd eat every single day. You can eat it every now and again, but every day? That's where the problems kick in.

The food presented is indeed delicious. But to eat these meals every single day is not a good idea. The only healthy item present are the collard greens, and that's already fouled by the heavy amount of sodium and fat it's commonly mixed with. Take into account that the Black Church is overwhelmingly female, and you have a recipe for disaster. The worst part is, a lot of the fat that some black women have gets distributed to other areas. And I'll leave it at that, because it damn sure won't be leaving her anytime soon. So if I do find an atheist secular black woman, chances are she'll already be fat.

But reminder that I did say I lived in Savannah for eight years and everyone down there regardless of race is fat, overweight or obese. And I have seen many obese people walking around. I smelled them before I saw them. Southern cuisine is delicious, but it's not ideal nor sustainable for a healthy population.

Going back to the Black Church, the amount of infidelity and adultery that takes place can be deadly. It was a big story around 2013-14 and I can't find it anymore, but there was a man who killed the pastor of the church his wife went to. I imagine that the women at these churches are also in relationships if not married, and it's damning that these women talk a big game about serving a god, yet refusing to serve the man they choose to have kids with. That amount of hypocrisy would turn any rational person away from the Black Church and I sometimes ask myself if I'm being irrational or is the world around me irrational and I'm barely hanging on to my better judgement.

The black community's worship for god is an unhealthy one and now in this time we're in, it's proving to be detrimental. When there's some white person who will kill a black person or some police officer that kills a young black man or any black man, any bad scenario that you can think of, look at the comments section and you will have one individual that'll say something along the lines of "YAHWEH WILL TAKE CARE OF HIM" or "THE MOST HIGH WILL SOON TAKE CARE OF HIM"

Yeah. I'm sure he will. I go back to the Charleston situation with Dylan Roof. Said massacre claimed the lives of nine people. This man was able to go in the church, pray with those black people and then gun them down. And the kicker? The survivors forgave him. They forgave a man who killed their loved ones with absolute impunity. And this is not the first example of that forgiveness bullshit, plenty of news stories where a black person was attacked or killed and said person if still alive if not their relatives, forgave their attacker. Why??? And they were all non-black. How do I know this? If another black person even dared to attack them, they'd fight back, go for the kill or ask for the harshest punishment imaginable.

Yet someone who actively seeks to harm you, you either forgive or you do nothing but take the abuse. This is the supposed backbone of the black community? Then it either has arthritis or it was never there to begin with.

The pastor has so much influence yet very little power. He'll be the first one to join hands and pray but the last one to actually prepare the black community to fight. And the few men who are present in the church are either in on the system that he operates, inept or emasculated - and that is another can of worms altogether for another fishing trip - none of which are ideal for any community to thrive. And trust me when I say, a community is only as good as its men. If the women are being put into place where men should be, that's a problem. If the women choose to worship and stand by a fictional man in the sky over the men they can touch and feel, that's a problem.

If calling out this imbalance is met with jeers and scorn, that is a problem. The Black Church has done nothing to actually uplift the black community, a community that I am a part of. This is not the reason I chose to become an atheist, but it damn sure reinforced my leanings tenfold. This matriarchy does not work. Period.

I wonder if today's god-fearing folk realized that god and the bible were tools used to indoctrinate us during slavery. The belief that if they pray to god, something will happen. The notion that god made the white man superior to the black man.

 I'm surprised the episode that image originated from had Florida reject the initial image that was there, a black depiction of Jesus. The image above is the reality that has thrived with the black community since...slavery. Funny how it took her son, Michael to educate her on his actual appearance.

Revelation 1:15 - The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace.

Now he may not have been black (by black I mean the modern terminology of black). But he damn sure wasn't a white dude with long brown hair. Hmmm.

A fun fact about the image above me: It was framed on display at my second job and within five minutes of me placing it on the wall with the other images, it was on the ground, broken. Oh yeah. And I saw no black people present at the time. I also got a lot of donations, many books that talk about god and the scriptures/proverbs. All of those books went right into the salvage bin, along with any crosses or religious imagery unless it was a really nice-looking statuette or figure, that could have sold nicely. 

But to the point of the image of the black Jesus above and the old white person it pissed off, this is how far this parasite of religion goes. 

Which made this particular sitcom even more hilarious.

I question if any of these god-fearing folk even read their bible. I doubt it. It's bad enough that it's used in the actual justice system and is present on all of our money. But at least read it and see how inconsistent it is. It condones slavery, sexism, actual sexism and not the current brand of sexism repackaged as female empowerment and complacency, all which are contributing factors as to why the black community is in the state that it's in.

Even as a piece of literature, it's not well-written, and it's had so many revisions and re-releases that the only reason you would read the bible is to grab a few elements from it and put in your own work, not to push the message, but to give it tangibility. Someone being the walking representation of Jesus or Mary with an actual character arc and character development in a coherent plot has made the bible all but irrelevant.

I'm happy to see there are some more secular if not outright non-believing black people coming out thanks to the internet, and there is a chance that we can form an actual community with ideals, morals and principles with prestige and not a bunch of empty prayers and symbolism. But based on the image with Florida Evans and No. 46, it is going to be a very long time before that ambition is conceived, let alone fulfilled.

Candy isn't as dandy as it used to be.

Since the last post I did in 2019, a few things have happened to me and I've discovered and realized a lot of things, now being 100% aware of said things. This topic will be relating to something my grandmother gave me.

A lifelong curse.

I have a sweet tooth. It can't be helped. As someone who was a husky kid and also at risk for obesity and other health problems, not at that point but overall something that would have been a problem if I didn't sate myself early on. I think I covered this but I'll tell the story again of my path to a healthy lifestyle and the times I cheated, my first blog post to be exact.

So I was sixteen and during my checkup the doctor told me if I didn't take the initiative to exercise or at least take better care of myself, I was going to keep on gaining weight. Later that year, I moved to Georgia. As I mentioned, I have a sweet tooth, so that meant I was buying candy and chocolate and ice cream and other confections that caused my grandmother's curse to tug at me. One instance, I ate a bunch of candy that may have been Hershey's Nuggets, a sweet mix of chocolate with a hint of strawberry and cookie crumbles. I have not found that particular flavor of nuggets since.

I ate bags of that stuff, one dollar at the dollar store in the neighborhood. I ate so much of that shit to where I fractured one of my teeth, I still feel it to this day. Just thinking about them is making want to search online for them for nostalgia's sake. It really was a one-of-a-kind flavor.

In addition to sweets, I also had a taste for soda. I had a habit for making my own twists on cola, mimicking the various flavors of Pepsi and Coca-cola. Vanilla, lemon, lime, ice cream floats, you name it. I had a taste for peach soda. Delicious. But I hated root beer and cream soda. Around 2014, I decided to cut the drink entirely. At that time I had grown to love fruit smoothies and fell back on those instead.

Best choice I ever made.

But despite cutting out soda, I still picked at candy and chips, another habit that needs to be culled. I tried to cut candy out and go for alternatives like sweet potatoes. The first potato I had, I couldn't get into it. My tongue was still adjusted to candy. It took a while but I eventually made sweet potatoes a regular food in my current diet, and I don't regret it.

Around this time, about 2017 I noticed that some things didn't taste the way they used. But another factor in the difference in taste was that some candy I used to love had a change in the recipe, mainly to cut costs. Too many items, not just candy but a lot of stuff. Look it up. My adult tongue could taste the corn syrup a lot better. I especially noticed a change in taste with one of my favorite holiday drinks, eggnog. Eggnog was a nectar of the gods as a kid.

As an adult, it's still good so long as you don't buy the cheap stuff. And I don't care for alcoholic eggnog myself, I don't think mixing alcohol and dairy is such a good idea, right?

But overall, candy isn't as dandy as it used to be. Getting older, my body doesn't agree with it as much due to all the healthy eating I've been doing over the years. I'm fine with it and it shows how your body can adapt. A co-worker of mine mentioned that his body rejects vegetables due to years of eating processed food and junk. While he doesn't look sickly, how he feels is another story. There were times where I cheated and had a sweet and my body felt like shit afterward, so I can understand what he was saying.

Even when eating sweet potatoes, I still caved in and ate candy, brownies and ice cream. My grandmother did just that and I get it from her. She'd keep a box of brownies under her bed and a big jar of peanut butter with a big spoon all for herself. I'd do the former but the latter was too much for me. Fighting old habits is hard, but rewarding.

It's not just candy, I've stopped eating chips or buying chips to try to build up a habit of not eating junk food. Back in 2003 I discovered Utz no-salt chips and they're my go-to flavor after the Chesapeake-seasoned crab chips. I would pick those whenever I saw them on the shelves and down in Georgia it took a while for Utz to arrive down where I was living. I leaned on low-sodium vegetable juice in that same time, the difference is literally night and day.

I'm happy to say I don't have any pre-existing health problems and in my last post, I mentioned Covid-19 claiming so many lives of those who had health problems before. All the healthy eating I've done over the years has made a difference. It took a while, but I'm starting to see the fruits of my labor. There's still some work to do, I'm not out the woods yet. There's still meat, cheese, bread, sugar, you name it. As I get older and older, I'll likely have to cut those out eventually, and meat especially with the seedy underside of that industry. I took the knowledge The Jungle gave me for granted.

Cheese however, is the biggest hurdle. I can't give up muenster or havarti. I've loved cheese since before I could walk.

Live by the gruyere, die by the gruyere.

Money-saving Advice from a Frugal Fuckhead

I'm very stingy with money. It's been a very long time since I've started picking up pennies and change off the streets. Even in puddles, I found money. If only I had this mindset much earlier on. But, better later than never. Here are some tips from yours truly on how to save some money.

• If a hip-hop artist, celebrity, actor or all of the above who's past their prime is flaunting or promoting something, you don't need it. 
• If it's not something that relates to necessity items, you don't need it. 
• If white people can buy it casually, you don't need it. 
• If it makes you a target for robbery, you don't need it.
• If someone is telling you to live it up and enjoy the moment, do not live it up and enjoy the moment. 
• If it costs the same amount as four month's rent, turn the other way. 
• If you see it on TV, turn it off.
• If you can put it in a microwave, avoid it. It's cheaper to buy raw materials and prepare them than it is to eat out.
• On that note: Don't eat out. Meals cost $60 and up at a subpar restaurant. Plus, I got stories to tell with a brief period working with food.
• No joyrides. You can walk to your designated bar and get shitfaced instead of wasting gas money.
• Don't get shitfaced. You don't need that beer, do you? And your lady friend you desperately want to fuck doesn't need that cosmo, right? I know, this could the be night. You never know. But, she doesn't need it (or you).
• If you're going somewhere and it requires a fee for each person, turn back and leave the premises. You can find many things to do for free. Look for them. 
• Buy your stuff fresh, or in cans. It's no different. Go for vegetables in water, and canned meat in water. Oil is a messy, messy lady. With fruits, go for fruit juice. Heavy syrup is a no-no.
• Drink tap. 
• Buy a filter if you're too pussy to drink tap.
• Emulate old games instead of buying them online. Christmas never goes away when you snag an old-school JRPG from your local search engine.
• Shopping for clothes? Goodwill. Goodwill, Goodwill, Goodwill. You can find a $500 shirt for only $6. It's only as valuable as you make it.
• Shopping in general? Goodwill.
• Anything that's not food-related, Goodwill. Go on a daily basis. First come, first serve.
• Learn how to cook. You'll be saving a lot of money. A bag of rice and some seasoning can last you a week. Pay attention to the directions on the box or bag. The keyword is 'learn'.
• Shop at dollar stores. Compare prices from there to say, your local grocer. Alternate between stores.
• Grow your own food. Just a small pot will do. Learn how to do it online, there's plenty of sites to look at and it's as easy as smacking dat dislike on my videos and typing lol on a Facebook post. 

Did you get all that? Good.

Eat your vegetables, adults.

Wanna know why America and Americans are so fat? Why we have so many that are obese and out of shape? Plain and simple: We don't acknowledge or appreciate vegetables. And I know I addressed this in an earlier post, but I'm doing it again. Vegetables are underused, underrated and overlooked so much, it's an absolute crime. As a kid, I loved vegetables. Granted, some weren't appealing to me, like squash and okra, though I can eat okra gumbo in spite of the okra. But I ate them with no problem. I didn't even need ranch or spices to make them more appealing. And that brings me into my next topic: Why the hell were there so many kids who hated vegetables on television?

They didn't represent me. I loved eating them for the most part. All of these shows were written by adults. Some kids may not have liked them, but never to the extremes that they made them out to be, and if they did, it's the parents' fault for not being more cordial with their child(ren) on proper nutrition. Even worse, the kid that DID eat his vegetables was treated like a criminal. Those same kids are now adults who are borderline obese and are having children with the same habits. But as of the last forty or so years, obesity has skyrocketed, and only those people are to blame for people like this:

Now, I understand television has to amp up the drama for the sake of the idiots who watch reality television in the first place, but I truly believe she thinks this way about all vegetables, and with what I've seen in my short twenty-something years of being on this rock, it's likely an accurate depiction. She's anything but traumatized. Case in point, when I was at my old job, I'd take a bundle of turnip greens or some kale and eat them as is. The looks I got from my co-workers said it all. And I simply told them: If I take care of myself now, when I reach your age, I'll have less chance of being sick or unable to rely on myself. And lo and behold: A good chunk of them have high blood pressure, diabetes or are overweight. Back in school, I had classmates (if you can call them that) wince at the thought of eating carrots without ranch, proving my point on poor parenting.

I've made it a life rule to eat as many vegetables as possible with a meal. I always try to have some fresh greens and a portion of radishes with my fish, chicken or steak. And that's usually the right thing to do with a meal. You cannot eat just fast food or frozen dinners. I've cut out soda since sometime in 2014 and I don't miss it. Next, I'm trying to cut out frozen pizzas and junk food. And with how expensive most of that stuff is now compared to when I was a kid, I won't miss any of it. Eggnog doesn't even taste right anymore.

But back to my original point: Adults need to eat more vegetables and encourage their children to eat more vegetables, and according to this little site, Georgia is a red state (HA!) And holy shit at Arkansas, West Virginia and Mississippi. But considering the states, it's to be expected. Cooking a vegetable with a bunch of salt and meat doesn't count, and it's one of the reasons I don't really eat collard greens anymore. Try as many of them as you can. Peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, radishes, onions, you name it. A lot of variety to be found. Fruits are a start, but vegetables are more detrimental for proper nutrition.

P.S: There's a flavor of Bolthouse Juices called Daily Greens. I didn't like it at first, but I've slowly come to love it, until I tried a bottle two weeks ago. They made it sweeter. I know they put banana and apples in that recipe, but one look at the ingredients and they added pineapple. Pineapple is so sickeningly sweet it can overpower anything else. I can't even drink it now because of it. Thanks for fucking up a flavor of vegetable juice, you fat slobs. Even worse are the vegetable juices that are fused with fruit juice and High Fructose Corn Syrup. I remember that commercial, too.

"Don't you wish vegetables weren't so vegetable-ly?"

No you dumb bitch, that's the whole point.

Time to vent: My own views on the world and people: America and Food II

Merry Christmas to you all!

Back to this lovely subject, we Americans love to eat. Especially on Christmas and Thanksgiving. Ah hell, anytime is fine, so long as we can eat. Now what we're eating is another story. We're not cooking a turkey or a ham? We're buying frozen dinners instead? Why? Do you know how much sodium are in those trays of poison? They're cheap at certain times of the year, but that should not be a reason to substitute it for a real meal. And to buy them en masse? Bad. It may be cheaper than a nice-sized turkey but it isn't better. At least you cook your own bird. The slices of meat that you get with a TV dinner is riddled with MSG, moreso with the gravy. And you get sup-par vegetables that are shriveled from the heat of the microwave. It's much better for you to buy your own vegetables and meat. And less cheaper to do so, too.

How? Well, simple.

Look at the prices of what you have a taste for. Sometimes at say, Kroger you have some meat and the like that are at a discount price. Yes, they may not look as appealing but trust me, even that discount meat is more healthy than what you'll find next to the ice cream. You cook it as soon as you get home or you put it in a deep freezer. You also clean it thoroughly. Some people will say "That meat has salmonella or it'll give you some type of stomach virus!". Guess what? You can't eat anything nowadays. Pasta? No. Sandwiches? Nada. Seafood? Nyet. Red meat? Nien. You can't eat anything without facing a risk. You know what'll decrease your chances of facing these risks?

Moderation.

Shocking, isn't it? We can eat these things and live a nice healthy life. But what do we do? We eat. And eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat. We grow obese, we blame others as opposed to ourselves and we sue. We get that large sum of money and buy more stuff to eat and eat and eat and eat and eat. And then on BBC or whatever network wastes their money, they waste their money on airing an hour-long special based around these beasts. These same fools will call their obesity a disease. Taxpayer money is being put into funding these fat asses and their excuses. On average, America is fat or overweight. And these same fools will treat a vegetable like a rapist or a black man(gasp)at night.

And going on vegetables. They're not gonna hurt you. They're gonna keep your liver and bloodstream clean and clear of diseases. They're also considerably affordable. But you'll go to a box of cookies before you grab a bag of fresh kale. Speaking of fresh, some vegetables can be eaten raw and the ones that can be should be eaten as is. But you won't cook vegetables. Because you weren't taught how to cook. All you know is seven minutes, punch a few holes in the wrapping and reheat for a minute for the rest of the ice to melt. And for those fat fucks who say I eat a salad every day, putting dressing, cheese and croutons on three slices of lettuce does not mean you're eating healthy. Try some olives, baby carrots, mushrooms or onions with the usual spring mix. Try to eat it as is. You can't. You won't. You'll go for that Whopper before you touch an actual salad. You'll buy ramen before you eat fresh kale greens. You'll bite into a block of blacktop before you bite into a fresh tomato. You're a waste of space and in the wild, your ass will be eaten first. And those lions will never want to eat an antelope again. You don't exercise after eating a large meal, you eat heavily late at night and then you wonder why you have diabetes or a foot on the chopping block. It's all your fault and no one else. Well, probably your parents. They didn't care enough to teach or moderate your eating habits. So you do have someone to blame.

Who knew?

Time to vent: My own views on the world and people: America and Food

Well, if you've read my How I Became Slim, Fit and Healthy series(Like anyone really reads these), you already know what this one is gonna be about.

Americans in general love to eat. As of recent years we've gotten very fat. On average Americans are either overweight or obese. Now I love to eat. Love it. However there are certain things that need to be limited and that's where the problem lies. Back in the day, a bottle of cola was considered a treat, akin to ice cream. Something you have say, on the weekends or if you were a child who got a good grade on his report card. I can go with that. Actually, my mother did that with me. If I was brave during a shot at the clinic or if I got my grades up, I got McDonalds or even something else as a reward. Now that was understandable and reasonable. Now, we have a bottle of soda every fucking day or whenever we eat a meal(and I use that term loosely with what America considers a meal nowadays).   McDonalds is a treat. It's not something that you can eat every single fucking day. My grandmother took me to McDonalds every day when she picked me up from school in the 1st grade. That may or may not have contributed to my adolescent huskiness. You cannot buy a bucket of chicken from whatever chain and pass that as dinner. Personally, it's not that good. I'd rather cook my own damn chicken(and it costs less, too!). All skin, all MSG and no meat. All of these fast food places that gain a shitton of revenue from ignorant Americans who either don't know how to cook or don't want to cook is contributing to our childhood obesity dilemma. What the parents do, the kids will likely follow suit. If the parents don't encourage healthy eating or healthier alternatives to McDonalds or Burger King, their children will think that it's okay to eat at those places every single day. It's not the companies' fault that some people become obese and die from heart attacks from overeating their food. Far from it. Ironically, some places have salads as an alternative.   But that's neither here or there. The point is dinners should not be planned at or with fast food chains. Even restaurants that serve home-cooked food(You'd be surprised at the truth)should be avoided, but that's mainly because they're expensive as shit. It's not expensive to buy your own meat and vegetables, which is another topic I'll dive into in the next part. It's not expensive if you take the time and energy to look over prices and quantity. If more people learned how to or attempted to cook their own meals, these problems wouldn't be present.   I can see that this topic is too big for one post. I'll post another entry on this subject in the future. Keep a lookout for it.

How I became slim, fit and healthy Part V: Diet is important II

I like meat. Meat is delicious. Be it meat from say, a cow, a bird or some other type of livestock, it's damn good. It's also important for protein. I usually bought steak and other forms of beef around 2011. I liked chicken but for some reason, I didn't like to cook it or rather, I was too scared to cook it. Salmonella is no joke. But eventually, I tried to cook it and it came out better than expected(Wasn't the first time I cooked chicken. At twelve, I fried a drumstick and it came out okay. Burnt on the outside for the most part). Plus, the amount of protein was even higher than the beef I purchased.  I would then make a rule to alternate between the two.

What would I eat with my meat?  In the beginning, mixed vegetables in a can. A nice variety, but not ideal for nutrients. That said, I still go for canned fruit when making smoothies. I then noticed a pack of spring mix for a discount price. Since then, I would switch out the canned vegetables for the fresh leafy greens. They go great with a sirloin, breast or on the bottom of a serving of pasta. Even better if you mix it with your sauce. I know pasta isn't good for you, but moderation and alternative ingredients for your spaghetti noodles/sauce is key. MOD. DER. RATION.

Moving on, fish is now my top priority food when it comes to protein and overall taste. A nice salmon fillet fried in some vegetable oil can be the best thing to me on a bad day. To think I avoided fish altogether because I didn't know how to cook it. Seafood in general is delicious and some of the smaller organisms have more to offer than say, a large slab of flank steak. But again, alternate between all of them. They're all good in their own right. Sometimes I'd go for salmon, other times I'd lean toward tilapia, swai, and whiting. In a blue moon, I could find swordfish. Not too many people can say they got to try that. I'd love to try it after being on a grill. It's made for it. Perch and flounder, however aren't my forte. too flimsy. All in all, there's a great amount of variety to be found within fish and seafood. Try it sometime, there's something for everyone.

On the subject of vegetables, I'm still picky with them. I hate squash and okra. Some others like eggplant and asparagus don't even look appetizing to me. I do enjoy carrots, celery and radishes. Basic stuff, to be frank. Leafy greens are a big favorite. I can eat them bare just cause and it's fun to chew through them. I'm very cautious with mushrooms. Even some of the edible ones can be harmful and the harmful ones can be mistaken for edible fungi. Maybe I'll muster up some courage and go for them in the future.

That covers this entry. I think that I was lucky to have moved from New York. It forced me to make different choices for my diet and I still see the benefits from it now. But even with a good diet, exercise is still important for a body's growth and development. Remember that!

How I became slim, fit and healthy Part II: Diet is important

The days I went without lunch were gruesome but as the days went on, I didn't mind at all. The next thing I know, the school would start to give out fruits and vegetables. I liked both, but with vegetables, I was(and still am to a lesser extent)picky with them. There were carrots and I believe celery some days with ranch dip. I wasn't too fond of putting fresh vegetables into a fatty condiment, so I would eat them as is and occasionally used dip if I had a taste for it that day. Fruit-wise, we would get grapes, oranges, tangerines or pears. I LOVE pears. Absolutely love them. The grapes were often sour and no good. In a blue moon the school got strawberries. But moving on to the pears, I finally found my compensation for lunch and whenever I was hungry.

The pears were often Anjou, though I'd see Bosc and Bartlett from time to time. The other students didn't care for them or the oranges, so I'd have my pick. One day I took thirty+ pears with me home. That's how many were leftover. Some days the same bag of pears would be still where they were from yesterday. Because I had so many, I went and put them in a juice with some of the carrots and the canned fruit I'd get from my cousin. It was really a great way to finally get something inside of me after a hard day and I didn't have to waste any money on junk and the overpriced pizza. I was blending since I was sixteen, but finally I had access to more ingredients. After I graduated, I noticed that I slimmed down from my waist a little. Wanting to keep that appearance, I attempted sit-ups. I would do a lot of them whenever I woke up, around 100-150 during the morning. Sometimes more if I was in good condition. It was slow, but it steadily showed some more results. I would do this often and eventually found myself to moving up to bigger and better things. Keep in mind that this was done by someone who didn't have to attend gym at all during his last year of grade school. It's a miracle I didn't balloon up more.

However, I still had a yearning for junk food. I still would munch on the packs of cookies and fig bars and potato chips. I would still drink juice cocktails, the beverages known to have very little juice and using High Fructose Corn Syrup to sweeten them even more. I had to try to drink more water, as it's the one thing your body can't do without. The tap was my go-to source, and to the people who don't drink tap water for fear of chemicals: There's nothing to worry about. In New York, I was raised on the tap. The tap isn't gonna kill you. I understand that spring and mineral water is supposed to be more healthy and better for you. But unless your tap comes from a polluted area, I think you can succumb to a few pitchers of the stuff. Get a filter if you feel the need. At least you can save on needless water bottles and cash.

Right around August is where I would discover a little device that actually encouraged me to walk around the area more. I think this one little bauble potentially saved my life in the long run...