Welcome to America!

I hope everyone was able to watch Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution on ABC, which aires on ABC on Fridays at 8/7c. Also, I hope people were SHOCKED by what was shown on the show.

Click here to watch the show online for free.

My generation, the Millennium Generation, is the first generation expected to have a shorter life-span than our parents, due to obesity. Statistics show that one in three children born in the US after the year 2000 will develop early onset diabetes. For children from ethnic minority groups, the ratio rises to one in two.

I don't think parents realize what exactly they are feeding their children, but this show will show parents, exactly what they are feeding their children.

Would you ever hand a child a cigarette? I think that is what we are doing to the children in this country. The food we feed children is killing them and causing them to live shorter lives. We continue to do it and our schools continue to do it because its cheaper and faster to feed them these unhealthy, chemical filled processed foods.

The schools have a budget on how much they spend on food, and they say it is to expensive to give students fresh, healthy food. Our government came up with a healthcare reform bill that will be funded by tax payers dollars. Maybe, we wouldn't need this if the tax dollars went towards feeding children in schools a REAL nutritional meal, instead of processed food that is causing obesity in children.

In this country, we fix things by adding something instead of going back and changing what needs to be fixed. We just add, add, and add more to cover up what is being broke.

We will feed our children this food, and they will get diabetes. So, we will make doctors appointments and insulin available to them by making this healthcare reform. To me that just doesn't make any sense.

Another example. The beef industry.

We are going to put cows on these HUGE feed lots and they will be packed in like sardines so that they can't move because it will cause them get fat faster. This will be cheaper creating more profit. They will be standing in their own manure and this will cause ecoli to be in the meat, but that's OK. We will just come up with a filler product, which is the meat normally not used, that is then put through a process of being soaked in ammonia to mix in with the meat that will kill enough of the ecoli that people won't get sick from it.

Jamie Oliver said it all in the show when he said, "Welcome to America."

I think it is time everyone wakes up and realizes that to eat healthy doesn't mean we need to eat a salad 24/7.

Please watch the show it is a GREAT show, I promise.

Leave me comments on what you think about it.

ABC's newest reality program, Food Revolution

I just heard about a new reality show that will air on ABC called Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, which will premiere on Friday, March 26th at 8/7c, and make sure to watch the special sneak peak tomorrow, March 21st at 10/9c. After reading about it and watching the trailer I am excited that this show will open more eyes about how unhealthy we eat in America.

The show will follow Oliver as he travels to Huntington, WV, which was labeled "the unhealthiest city in America" by the Associated Press in 2008, to start a new initiative that utilizes local resources to improving eating habits. He is inviting viewers to take a stand and change the way America eats, in our home kitchens, schools, and workplaces.

Jamie Oliver, also known as the Naked Chef, is an English chef and media personality and has a growing list of food-focused television shows. In his more recent roles he has been campaigning against the use of processed foods in national schools, and to change unhealthy diets and poor cooking habits for the better across the United Kingdom, and now he is taking on the US. Food Revolution is loosely based off of his show in the UK, Jamie's School Dinners, which had such an impact that the UK government changed the type of foods served in the schools.

I hope everyone watches the premiere episode and is able to take something away from it to make a change in your own eating habits. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think about the show, if anything shocked you, or just something you found interesting.

Click here for the link to the show on ABC.

Bayou City Classic 10K Run & Walk

Today I ran in the Bayou City Classic 10k Run & Walk. I ran the 10k/6.2 miles in 68 minutes, which is a little over 11 minutes per mile. I was number 748. I am very proud of myself because I just started running about a month ago, and have come such a long way. So, in this blog I will be talking about different workouts to do and training tips to get everyone in shape.


I am a huge fan of H.I.I.T's, which stands for high intensity interval training. This is a GREAT workout to do, and a long with HIIT's one should also do strength training. HIIT's consists of going at a high intensity for about 15-30 seconds and then slowing down to a low intensity for about a minute to two minutes. This can be done on any cardio machine, but I recommend doing this outside on a track because machines take awhile to go to a higher resistance or speed and its more dangerous. This is a great workout because you continue to burn up to six times the calories you normally would for 24 hours, and its a quick workout. Fifteen to 20 minutes of HIITs is all you need. This is great for people that are constantly busy and don't have the time to go to the gym for two hours a day, but also for people who like to lift weights and do cardio.


Before doing this workout make sure you stretch, I would say a good five minutes of stretching before and after. Also, you want to make sure you do a five minute warm up and cool down. Always cool down, don't just stop make sure your heart rate slowly slows down. After your five minute warm up, start running as fast as you can (sprinting) at a pace you wouldn't be able to keep up for longer then 15-30 seconds. Then, you slow down to a walking pace, a pace that is going to bring your heart rate back down so that you are able to run at a high intensity over and over again. It's best to stay at this walking pace for one to two minutes. Then, back up to the high intensity speed again, and just keep doing the high intensity to low intensity intervals for at least 10 times. Make sure you complete with a five minute cool down.


To do this on a machine, such as a stationary bike, elliptical, or treadmill, just increase the resistance/speed and try to keep a high pace so that your heart rate increases quickly and then lower the resistance/speed to bring your heart rate back down. With the machines remember that it takes some time to get the resistance/speed up. Going from 4 to 8.5 on the treadmill takes about 13 seconds. So, when doing this on a machine I would stay at the high intensity for 30-40 seconds. It also can be more dangerous because you can't slow the machine immediately like you can do out on the track, and it gets annoying constantly having to bring the resistance/speed up and down.


Another great advantage to HIITs is that your body learns to take in more oxygen so you can increase your longevity that way you are able to run at a slower speed for a longer period of time.


A place I love to go to to find out new workouts or stretches, just about anything really, is YouTube. Go look on there for things that you can do at home or in the gym, there are so many videos to watch that will help you get in shape.

How I became interested in what I'm actually eating!

"I was struck by the idea that with food, there could be so much we don't know about something we are as familiar with."

Robert Kenner, director of Food, Inc.

I've always loved food, but I never thought about where it came from, what's in it, or how it has become so cheap.

Growing up my mom didn't cook that often, and my dad traveled a lot. So, for lunch my sister and I would have a school lunch and for dinner my mom would take us through the drive-thru at either McDonalds, Burger King or Taco Bell. Almost always it would be Burger King because it was right next to my middle school and we could get an icee with our meal. All I ever drank was Coke, and there was always bottles of it in the fridge. Ice cream, cookies, and candy were also always available (my mom didn't know how to say "no"). At that age I didn't understand the reason why I was so over-weight, and now I have to deal with this issue everyday.

I wasn't interested in what America eats until recently, and this problem we have just caught me by surprise. About a year ago I decided to sign up for the free trial for Netflix (best thing ever fyi), and I loved it. I loved being able to watch things instantly, and so I ordered the little box that will instantly stream video from Netflix onto my TV. I started to watch documentaries about EVERYTHING! I love researching and learning as much as I can about any topic. That's just what I do. When my friends tell me something and I don't know about it they say "I would tell you, but there's no point you're just going to go home and look it up on google and find out more about than I do."

The first documentary about the food industry that I watched is called King Corn, directed by Aaron Woolf, this is an amazing film about the business of corn. This film really opened up my eyes about how much nutrition we actually get from the food we are eating, why food has become cheap, and using corn in ways that I feel just aren't right.

Click here to watch the trailer for King Corn.

The next documentary I watched is called Food, Inc., directed by Robert Kenner and was nominated for a 2010 Oscar in the category of documentary feature, is an amazing film about the food industry as a whole. Kenner spent six years putting together this documentary, which features prominent food writers Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma) and Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation). This film will open up anybodies eyes that watch it, and it will make you think twice about what you are eating and what you are supporting.

I recommend watching both of these documentaries they are interesting and informative, and both of them are on Netflix for instant play if you have it.