USDA, Mind Your Own Business!

I found an article today about the newest 'revelation' by the USDA. A spokesman from the USDA, Kevin Concannon, stated that "Obesity is not just a health issue. It is an economic and national security issue." Now, I'm sure that this leaves several of you scratching your heads just like I was. Obesity is a national security issue? They've got to be kidding!


They later stated in this article that it was the same sort of thing that Michelle Obama had said in December of 2010, "Military leaders tell us that when more than one in four young people are unqualified for military service because of their weight, childhood obesity isn’t just a public health threat, it’s not just an economic threat, it’s a national security threat as well." Now obesity may be a factor in not allowing you into the military, but then of course there has always been a good reason behind that. If you can't keep your body in shape and ready for the physical rigors of a battlefield you shouldn't be there to begin with. It's pretty straight forward.

When I was in we went through what were called "weight and tapes" where they checked your weight and compared it to your BMI (body mass index). According to their weight chart I was always overweight. I kept a solid 160 lbs all the way through my military service and their 'standard' for a woman of my size was 141 lbs. My BMI was low enough however that I never had a problem. As they say, muscle weighs more than fat.

As far as obesity preventing people from joining the military, that's not entirely true. The recruiter's job is to make sure that if you want to join the military they will do everything in their power to get you in. Military recruiting stations often hold events to help prepare those wanting to get in for the physical challenges and I've often heard of recruiters helping overweight applicants create a workout routine to get in. The thing is that like all workouts, unless you have a drive to do it you won't. While for some obesity is a symptom of illness this is usually not the case. For many who are overweight it is the lack of drive to manage their weight better. The only person who can make you exercise or who can make you eat better is ultimately you!

Regulating what kids can or cannot eat at school doesn't teach them anything. They are not in school every moment of everyday and will get to eat what they want at a later time. It's the same thing as preventing the sale of 'large' sodas. Well, just order more sodas and you don't have to worry about it.

The problem is that they're wanting it to appear that they are doing more for us, that they're looking out for our well being. What they should be doing is stop wondering whether or not my kid eats too much chocolate milk and worry more about what is allowed to be put INTO that chocolate milk. That is their job, not to make my nutritional decisions for me.

The current government is being allowed to do too many things 'for the good of the people' that restrict everyone's way of life. That was the whole point of this country, ability to choose for ourselves! USDA, We want our freedom back!!!

Reading

My Achilles heal to writing has always been reading. My to read list is so long that I could probably do nothing else for the rest of my life and never reach the end of the list, not mentioning all the ones that I will find in the future. I often find that my biggest hurdle to writing is my reading. I'll get really caught up in a good book then the next thing I know the rest of the day has gone by. While that is the kind of writer I want to be it can make writing for myself difficult.

The Rain

I'd always loved the rain growing up. In California it was always soothing. We'd know about the weather two or three days before it got to us in the north end of the state. The same storm fronts would go through Alaska, Canada, Washington, Oregon, and then they'd finally get to us. The worst thing that could happen was it could become a thunder storm. As long as you weren't stupid and hung around tall metal poles or didn't try to find cover no one ever got hit.

Procrastination

I wish I could say that my lack of a post yesterday meant that I was doing something else productive. The truth of the matter is that I was watching television. It was mindless and it just was. I didn't really mean to spend the whole day doing it. We can let ourselves get caught up in things and then the next thing we know there goes all of our time. I had decided to watch a couple of really old DVR recording and then next thing I knew I was cleaning it out.

I was procrastinating. I was going to just watch a couple shows, then it became a couple more, then I needed to finish that series, and then the day had passed me by. I can do this with books as well. I start reading and then the next thing I know I've finished a whole book (or series) and spent the whole day doing it.

Perspective

While attention to details is necessary for any piece of involved writing an intentional lack of details might be necessary as well. The best writers always view their writing as their characters. Don't write it as if you were watching someone else's life on a television show; write instead as if you were writing a journal entry in your own personal diary. There are so many things that we do automatically when we view our surroundings that most people don't even think about. When looking at other people we automatically start to scrutinize them. We take in the basics (height, weight, age, etc.) but we also take in the more complex things (attitude, facial expressions, body posture, etc.). All of these things we put together to gauge people. We pick how to react to them from a complex mixture of how they act and what they look like.

Description Exercise

My homework assignment that I assigned myself was to create a description. I kept this really broad on purpose, my plan is to just let the words flow. Without further ado, here we go!

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I remember in school we were asked what our favorite things were. Our favorite color, our favorite song, our favorite season, etc. Some were simpler to answer than others. For me the hardest of those three was easily what my favorite season was because I enjoyed them all. I was the kid that would ask why we had to choose a season. Why can't we love all the seasons equally? They each have their special moments and memories that stay with us for the rest of our lives. I remember being torn as I sat trying to decide between the things that I liked about each season and struggling to come up with something for the paper we were required to write on it. If I were to write about what I love most about the seasons there would be pages and pages of information to go through. I had to keep it short and sweet so that wouldn't work very well. I finally decided that I would just start writing and decide when it all came out what my favorite season was. The result didn't help me decide, but it gave me an idea. Why not right about my favorite thing about each season? The result pleased me, but I'm not sure that my teacher was quite as thrilled as I was since I was given a C for "not following directions". The comments on the paper itself were encouraging so I figured I would share.

My Writer's Block

Most of us at one point or another have heard about writer's block. The term is used for writers who can't seem to find anything to write about. We just sit there staring at a blank piece of paper for hours stuck and unable to go any further. I was stuck for years with this condition. The ideas were there until I was looking at the paper and then nothing ever happened. I have finally figured out what caused this, fear.

For all artists there is a part of us that wants to do something that is groundbreaking. We want to be the next big name and have everyone singing our praises, but at the same time this is terrifying. The what if's start to build up in our minds. What if I really don't know how to write, but don't know it? What if this is really not what I was meant to do? What if no one likes my ideas? What if I can never finish this story? When we allow these what if's to pile up on us we run into writer's block. Our brain is churning so much trying to come up with "THE" story that we can't write any story.

I am a Writer

A couple months ago I lost my full time job. It was wearing me down more and more every day so it wasn't something that I mourned the loss of to begin with. I was thinking that this was a wonderful new start. That I could finally do something better with my life that didn't suck every ounce of energy out of me.

When I started out I was thinking that I have no idea what I wanted to do. It's the never ending conundrum, when faced with infinite possibilities how do I know that I've found the right one? I was stuck. So, being the avid reader that I am, I started reading. I went to the ones that I remember being told about when I was a kid. I looked for the constant favorite, "What Color is Your Parachute?" What I found was lists and lists of attributes that I wasn't sure if I had or not. Am I ambitious, coherent, organized, etc? I just didn't know. I found myself getting depressed about this whole thing. I was hoping that something would tell me what I'm good at. I mean after all the centuries of people working and the multitude of personality measures and things out there I figured that there would be a test somewhere that would tell me what I should be doing with my life.