Ch-ch-ch-ch-chaaaaaaaanges….

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I haven’t been blogging much lately.  The fact is, I’ve been struggling to figure out exactly what I want to do with this space.  On the one hand, I definitely want to blog regularly, but on the other hand, I don’t want it to devolve into a “let me tell you about my day everyday” sort of place – I’d like to keep the focus on broader themes and ideas.  At the same time, I was struggling to keep up with my workout plan, so I was also feeling pretty torn and down about that.  But over the last two weeks, I’ve sorted out my workout situation and I’m back on track to run my first marathon in the spring (plus a bunch of halves and 5Ks and 10Ks and 15Ks along the way), so with that side of things under control, I’ve been turning my attention to what to do here.  And here’s what I’ve got:

It’s Not Really About the Cake

There was a delicious-looking chocolate ring cake in the break room on Friday. It was to recognize another employee’s birthday, and it was handmade from scratch and lovingly and gorgeously decorated by the office’s resident baker (not her actual job title, just her hobby, at which she’s stellar). On a “normal” day (that is, a day in my life before I made the choice to go vegan), that cake would’ve been IM. FRICKING. POSSIBLE. for me to resist. Cake? Frosting? Chocolate? Sprinkles? Heck to the yes!*  Some days, I’d sneak into the break room three or four times for “just a little slice.” Other days, I’d try to resist by telling myself I couldn’t have it, then telling myself I could have it but only after 4pm (to cut down on number of slices I’d end up eating, and also because half the time the cake would be entirely gone and therefore not available to eat by then). A good portion of the time, “resisting” the cake only meant that I’d overindulge on something else, somewhere else. A venti Frappuccino or chocolate frosted doughnuts from the drive-through on the way home. A huge bowl of ice cream after dinner. Something, anything to quiet the part of my brain that had spent the entire day demanding cake.

Since I haven’t been vegan for all that long, I wasn’t sure how I’d handle the birthday cake challenge as a vegan. I thought it’d be hard to resist. I wondered if I’d break down and have a slice. Today, I got my answer.

Sugar is Not a Weight-Loss Aid

Public service announcement time: Any company that claims that the key to weight loss requires you to give up eating actual meals in favor of whatever product the company is trying to push on you is lying to you. Straight up. Liars. Each and every one. There is nothing more infuriating to me than watching some commercial pushing the latest “use this instead of eating real food” product on unsuspecting people. The “secret” to losing weight is not a shake mix, it’s not a pre-packaged batch of chemicals some company tries to pass off as a meal, it’s not a pill or a bar or a cookie. The only “secret” is to eat real food, in as close to its natural form as possible, with an emphasis on fruits and veggies. That’s it. That’s all.

So what sparked this fresh burst of outrage? I was watching television yesterday, and ended up seeing, on repeat, a commercial for a product promising “easy weight loss.” I won’t name the product, because its makers should be ashamed of themselves and I am sure as shit not giving them free publicity here, but it was a shake-based product and one of its major selling points was that it was only $10 for a two-week supply of the product. Let me repeat that. Ten dollars. For a two-week supply. As I watched the commercial for the fourth or fifth time, I found myself wondering just what in hell this crap was made of, to be sold for so little. Curious, I Googled the product. And buried deep within their website, I finally found the ingredient list. Want to guess what it was made of?