The 'F' Word

Sweat was dripping down my face. I was going as hard as I could because it had been a while. “You’re the best” I said to myself as encouragement. The music set the perfect mood. I was trapped in a bubble of heat. It felt so good to do it again. I looked down between my legs at the bike. I was spinning.

Spinning is a form of high intensity exercise. For a very intense 60 minutes, clusters of people gather together to ride their frustrations away on stationary bikes to the beat of blaring music.

Summer is here, well not officially but it is right around the corner. Summer means short shorts, pool parties, bikinis, mini-dresses, basically it means I have to wear less and show more (do you hear the theme song from Psycho? Because I do). After a long carb loading winter, I look in the mirror, wait that’s a lie—I refuse to look in the mirror. I need to work out morning noon and night. Monday night it was spinning.

As I left the gym exhausted, soaked in my own sweat all I could think about was chocolate cake. It was then that I began to wonder. I wonder how it is that my parents’ generation, a generation virtually devoid of exercise, and positive eating habits kept fit. My mom never went to a gym until she was well into her thirties, and she never went on any diets either. What’s different now?

Here’s what I think. I blame to food we eat. Our parents ate simpler foods. They grew their own vegetables in their own gardens. Things were made from scratch not in a microwave. Cows weren’t pumped up with steroids or anti-biotics, and chickens weren’t living in their own feces. The water wasn’t full of the remnants of prescription meds back then. There was no such thing as ‘organic’ at our parents’ supermarkets, because EVERYTHING was organic.

I recently watched a video a friend posted on Facebook, discussing the impact the unhealthy foods we eat have on our environment. (http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=110956116067&h=nyXFF&u=ySEuk&ref=mf). Essentially the packaging, growing and production of the unhealthiest foods leads to air and ground pollution, animal abuse, and ultimately the exploitation of our natural resources. So not only are we making ourselves less healthy by consuming these foods, we are actually damaging our earth.

So here’s my proposal. If for only this summer, I implore you to be healthier. I’m not saying you have to give up meat or junk food (maybe you should though). If every week this summer you could replace just two or three servings of unhealthy, environmentally harmful foods with healthy environmentally friendly foods wouldn’t that be awesome? Not only for you, but the environment too.

So as we embark on summer; be healthy, have fun, love and be loved.

Here’s a link to some yummy and healthy recipes to try this summer.

http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/recipes_most_popular/