I promise, it’s a coincidence that these two topics are being conjoined into one post.
By now most people have probably heard about the lawsuit against Taco Bell for calling their tasty meat-like filling beef. When I had heard on NPR that you needed your beef to be at least 70% beef, I figured Taco Bell’s stuff was somewhere in the 60s. Nope. 36%. Even I was surprised.
Now, I just want to be clear, I almost never eat Taco Bell tacos. Bean burritos, yes, but tacos? I mostly think they’re less bang for the buck and they’re just not as tasty. And, frankly, I never assumed that their meat blend was anything even close to beef. If you really think you’re eating beef in that 89-cent taco, you’re probably the kind of person who needed that warning on the coffee cups that the coffee contained within them is hot.
Personally, I think if Taco Bell managed to create something that looks like, smells like, and for the most part tastes like meat while producing something that only contains 36% meat…well done, guys. Truly, this is an achievement. It ranks up there in foodstuff accomplishments with Macaroni and Cheese and Velveeta. Congrats.
Anyways. Enough of that. Time to talk healthy stuff. Sorta.
There are two things I will generally not write about on this blog: my (nonexistent) love life and my health and weight. But I felt like this was worth mention. About 9 months ago I went in for my annual physical and got on the scale and it read 204. And I kinda felt like it. My doctor looked at me and said lose 10 pounds. Sure. By August the scale was reading closer to 212, mostly because I was pretty frustrated with life. I had tried the not eating thing, the barely eating thing, and the Atkins thing (eat bacon AND lose weight? Genius!), and while they all initially bore fruit, I lost my patience by week three. I like my Macaroni and Cheese and my full-flavored IPAs. That, combined with a sense that the exercising thing wasn’t going to get me anywhere, I just pretty much said screw it and let the chips be eaten as the mood struck me.
In August though, my work started doing a health challenge. I got put on a team with a couple other people and we got points for doing certain healthy activities like walking, running, or riding a bike. It was a three month challenge, and for most of August I paid it no heed because I figured there was no way my team was going to win (other teams were having strategy sessions to figure out a plan). Around Labor Day, though, I decided enough was enough and I started working out and stopped pigging out quite so much.
This morning I clocked in at 192, which isn’t too shabby. I don’t work out every morning (most mornings, yes, but there are three or four day breaks sprinkled around the calendar) and I still drink beer and eat Macaroni and Cheese, but whatever combination of sports, exercise, and somewhat more intelligent eating I’ve switched to seems to be working. I’m looking forward to going in tomorrow morning knowing that I actually did what my doctor told me to do.
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