Come Play In May - Breathe, or How To Find My Zen

I have to tell you, I'm not in a Zen place this afternoon. I joked with the Axis group that I'd have to breathe after I unclenched my teeth. So, I'm going to take my mind to a more quiet place, far away from the evil corporations that make you buy your pets' prescriptions ONLY FROM THEM.

Deep in the heart of Texas, you can hear birds sing, frogs croak, and deer come up to visit you while you mow the lawn.

However, because BLOGGER doesn't want to process the video correctly in one format, I am having to upload it in WMP. Breathe, breathe, breathe...Oh, hey, it STILL won't process. You get a screen shot of the opening frame. Oh, and now it works.

Well, I can watch it to help me find my zen, but you if you aren't able to, here's a picture of the deer.

Come Play In May - Let Me Be Vague About Something

Have you ever been a member of a group or organization that needed to grow, so some other people were invited to join the group AND THEY TOOK OVER? After the coup, did you feel like quitting because their passive/aggressive BS pissed you off so much, but you thought NO, I WAS HERE FIRST, I WILL NOT LET THEM WIN?

Warning: Rant Ahead. The food porn edition.

This isn't a "Come Play In May" post, but it certainly could have worked for Monday's prompt.

I'm going to go out on a limb and think that most of y'all have heard the term "food porn." According to Wikipedia, food porn is defined as follows: Food porn is a glamourized (their spelling, not mine) spectacular visual presentation of cooking or eating in advertisements, infomercials, cooking shows or other visual media,[1] foods boasting a high fat and calorie content,[2] exotic dishes that arouse a desire to eat or the glorification of food as a substitute for sex.[3] Food porn often takes the form of food photography and styling that presents food provocatively

No where, in this definition does it actually say that the person posting a picture that could be categorized as "food porn" actually ATE the food. If a friend wants to post a picture of bacon stuffed pancake on a stick, she can post a picture of bacon stuffed pancake on a stick. If you want to post pictures of the cookies you ate, or the salad you ate, go for it. I like looking at pictures of food as much as I like posting them. I wish my pictures looked nice, but that's another story.

I don't care where you and I are in our journeys, we aren't here to judge each other, and we'll get to where we're going when we're supposed to get there.

I have to rant about something.

I need to get something off of my chest. I've been a member of Weight Watchers for over a year and a half. Sometimes I do well, sometimes I don't do well. I know exactly whose fault it is if I have a bad weigh in. Sometimes I eat crap. It's a fact of life. To paraphrase something that a leader said recently, "you didn't get to where you are now by eating too much fruit." No, most of us didn't. Some people got there by eating too much fried food. Some people got there by eating too much snack food. And some people got there by eating too much candy. I know, everything in moderation. But for crying out loud, who eats one cubic morsel of fudge when they've made AN ENTIRE PAN????

So I have to tell you, it really pisses me off to see them promoting a marshmallow fudge recipe. I refuse to even consider this a "healthier" version.  I don't care (actually, I do, because too many of these ingredients are processed crap) if you're using cooking spray to make each piece have fewer calories. I don't (see above) care if you're using light butter or margarine to make each piece have fewer calories. I don't care if you're using fat free evaporated milk to make each piece have fewer calories. No one needs to be eating something that has close to two cups of sugar AND 14 large marshmallows. Some of the people I see at meetings have real health issues. They're diabetic, they're on multiple medications. Eating stuff (I refuse to call it food) like this can be dangerous for them. And get real. You're pouring the stuff in to an 8x8 pan and the instructions are to cut this in to 36 pieces? They have got to be kidding. (Just how many of the uneven and irregular pieces end up on the cook's mouth, and not on a plate to "share" with everyone else in their family?? "Oh, no, the recipe only makes 24 pieces, not 36...it's all here.") And each piece is costs you 3 points?  If they want to provide alternatives, how about tell people to eat a few chocolate chips. That's the least offensive ingredient in the recipe. (It should be noted that I like chocolate chips and have, upon occasion, done just this.)

Studies show that the average person consumes over 100 pounds of sugar EACH YEAR. Is it any wonder people have health issues?

Go do yourself a favor. Don't make this. If you want something chocolate, go eat a piece of chocolate. And make it a real piece of chocolate. The good stuff. Don't waste your points on a bunch of processed crap. I have never heard anyone call marshmallows healthy.

End of rant.