#and grams has physical issues and her memory has been going for a while

[actualaster]

Gambled on energy levels to buy beef earlier, and gambled wrong. So I ended up having to overdraft on energy to get all the meat cooked yesterday (so much, since it was enough for several meals for 5 people) and ended up not being able to rest last night so I finally dragged my ass put of bed at 17:40-ish.

Still tired.

[kronecker-delta]

Farscape Nier crossover and ideas

Snippet (from 2017) Farscape/Nier: Automata --- Her room was a mess. Scattered parts of her uniform and other clothes piled along along the sides, kicked there when she came and went. Her personal books disarrayed, off the shelf and toppled over by her bed. She'd been putting off cleaning again and with the recent arrivals none of the operators could be spared to make up for her bad habits. None of that mattered at the moment. White sat in her chair, staring out into the void. A souvenir of her old days in the ground based resistance held in her hands. The framed picture of pair of androids seated on the still smoldering bulk of the ruined machine behemoth a memory of a simpler, happier time. A knock on her door brought her attention away from melancholy remembrance. Before she could compose herself and more sternly tell whoever had interrupted her what she had meant by 'Only bother me if there's an emergency' another knock issued forth. Followed by a voice. "Hey White? You in there?" She froze. She had so desperately hoped that it wouldn't be him. *** "I've never been here before," White said apologetically as their transport ship came down beside the small lunar outpost. A tiny thing, compared to the bunker. Even given the greater volume underground for secured data storage and backup generators. "No problem. First time I've been on the moon," he said, giving her a reassuring smile that didn't quite manage to look entirely honest. His frown returning as they stepped out of the transport, the boots of his pressured suit crunching into the light dusting of lunar sand that had covered part of the landing pad. "Feels like I should say something... 'Great leap for mankind and all that' you know. Hey, is the Apollo site still around?" "It is. If you want we could visit there Commander Crichton." "Just John... or Crichton. Being called Commander all the time feels weird," John Crichton said. "I know I'm the last human but..." "I-I understand," White answered. Keeping her own emotions deeply locked down as they passed into the fortified complex of the moon server. Past the scant few technicians and guards and into a dark room, nearly empty save for a single console located in the center. A black void engulfed the walls, impenetrable shadows, as the terminals and screens had long laid dormant. "So now what?" His voice echoed in the room, which must have been far larger than they had at first thought. Low clicks and whirs came from the bulk of the machine, the long slumbering physical access port awakening. Lights flashed along the walls and beyond them, racks upon racks of computer systems networked together awakening. A great screen before them coming on and displaying a stylized picture of a tree, long dark roots stretching out from its base. OVERSIGHT AND RECORDING SYSTEM VER. 2.01 SLEEPING BEAUTY ONLINE. CONFIRM USER PERMISSIONS NOW. "Commander White, YoRHa access S-Class security," White said. Looking to her side and adding, "As well as a guest." CONFIRM GUEST'S IDENTITY. "John Crichton, Commander in the IASA," John said. "Born... 1969. June 6th. If that helps any." The computer sat in silence for a long moment, not responding, the screen frozen as the loading bar seemed stuck in time. They shared a look of confusion, both android and human wondering if the ancient archive might have crashed and who was going to have to go out and ask the few technicians to help reboot it. Then the room came alight, a dozen more monitors online, the totality of it awake for the first time in forever. HUMAN IDENTITY CONFIRMED BASED ON HISTORICAL RECORDS. YoRHA S-CLASS SECURITY CLEARANCE SUBSTITUTED FOR UNRESTRICTED SYSTEM ACCESS. S-CLASS, SS-CLASS, AND HAMELIN ORGANIZATION FILES NOW UNLOCKED. GREETINGS COMMANDER JOHN CRICHTON. HOW MAY THIS SYSTEM AID YOU TODAY? "What... what's 'SS-Class?' There shouldn't be a level of security above mine." NEGATIVE. THERE ARE TWO. SS-CLASS, CONTAINING SENSITIVE FILES DEEMED TOO DANGEROUS TO BE KNOWN OUTSIDE OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCIL. AS WELL AS FILES REGARDING THE HAMELIN ORGANIZATION, WHICH WERE TO BE SEALED UNTIL SUCH A TIME AS A HUMAN USER ACCESSED THIS SYSTEM. "We do this so that the future generations will have the opportunity to judge us for our sins." "Who the hell was that?" John asked, shocked by the computer suddenly vocalizing. Producing the sound of some long dead man. Old and ill, his voice straining to make the words clear into the recording. DR. EUGENE ADLER, HAMELIN RESEARCHER IN DEMONIC ELEMENT MANIPULATION EXPERIMENTS. BY HIS RECOMMENDATION AND THE UN SPECIAL SECURITY COUNCIL'S AUTHORITY IT WAS FELT THAT KNOWLEDGE OF THE HAMELIN ORGANIZATION'S INVESTIGATIONS INTO THE DEMONIC ELEMENT AND THE 6-12 INCIDENT COULD NOT BE PUBLICLY REVEALED UNTIL THE CRISIS HAD PASSED. John looked to White, hoping she might be able to explain something, anything of what the computer had just told them. But she looked just as confused as he did. "Ah... Computer?" YES JOHN CRICHTON? "Define 'demonic element' please." DEMONIC ELEMENT: QUANTUM OBSERVATION REACTING PARTICLES BROUGHT OVER BY THE ENTITIES INVOLVED IN THE 6-12 INCIDENT. TWO VARIETIES WERE DETERMINED UPON FURTHER RESEARCH. TYPE I, WHICH CAME FROM THE ENTITY CLASSIFIED 'QUEEN OF THE GROTESQUE' AMONG NUMEROUS OTHER NAMES ACQUIRED FROM OBSERVATION DATA OF LEGION FORCES AND PRE-SUBLIMATION MEMETIC CORRUPTION OF WHITE CHLORINATION SYNDROME PATIENTS. TYPE I MATERIAL HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM THIS UNIVERSE FOR THE LAST EIGHT THOUSAND YEARS FOLLOWING THE COMPLETE PURGING OF IT FROM THE EARTH'S ENVIRONMENT. TYPE II CAME FROM THE OTHER ENTITY, CLASSIFIED AS 'A DRAGON' NO OTHER NAME OR IDENTITY DETERMINED. WHILE HIGHLY REACTIVE AND DANGEROUS IN LARGE DOSES IT WAS FOUND TO BE STABLE IN SMALL AMOUNTS AND TO LACK THE MALEVOLENT EFFECT ON INTELLIGENT LIFE THAT TYPE I MATERIAL EXHIBITED. EVENTUAL CONTROLLED EXPOSURE AND SYNTHESIS EXPERIMENTS LED TO THE CREATION OF FOCUSED MAGIC ENERGY EFFECTS AND SUBSEQUENT DEVELOPMENTS IN FIELDS OF NEUROLOGY AND META-COGNITION AS WELL AS NUMEROUS OTHERS. PROJECT GESTALT AND ANDROID CONSCIOUSNESS ARE BOTH LONG TERM SUCCESSES OF THIS RESEARCH. HIGH ENERGY MAGIC WEAPONS WERE ALSO ATTEMPTED BUT LATER SHELVED FOR BEING UNRELIABLE. AS OF THIS DATE THE AMOUNT OF TYPE II MATERIAL PRESENT IN THIS UNIVERSE IS ESTIMATED TO BE 63 METRIC TONS, OVER A HUNDRED FOLD INCREASE IN MASS FROM THAT OF THE ORIGINAL ENTITY BROUGHT ABOUT BY CONTINUAL SYNTHESIS AND ITS NECESSITY IN THE CREATION OF NEW ANDROIDS AND ALL CURRENT GENERATION MAGICAL DEVICES. THE ANDROID WHITE HAS 6 GRAMS OF IT AS PART OF THEIR INTERNAL SYSTEMS, MOSTLY RELEGATED TO META-COGNITIVE PROCESSES. "Wait... wait!" John yelled out, grabbing onto the unused console as he stared at the enormous amount of text that had just been displayed. More and more appearing on other monitors, going into greater detail about all sorts of absurd things. "What do you mean by magic? And dragons? What the hell happened to Earth?" THE 6-12 INCIDENT. PLAYING ARCHIVED DATA NOW... *** Crichton sat on the edge of her bed. Looking down at his hands, fingers intertwined. He hadn't spoken since White had stepped aside and ushered him in. Neither had she. She had wanted to be alone, and had hoped that Crichton would choose to spend some time with his alien friends. Or his semi-human lover... "You know, it's kind of funny," he said at last, a low chuckle that surprised White. He truly did sound amused by the dark comedy of his situation. "What?" "Well, when I first realized you were lying about something... after I got over the whole 'android' deal anyway," Crichton said, looking up from his hands to look into White's eyes. "I was so certain that the deep dark secret you were keeping from me was that you all went Terminator on the humans and than got ashamed about it." White found herself smiling despite it all. "I guess I can imagine why you would think that. Even if we don't all look like Central European bodybuilders from the Old World." His expression collapsed, going from amusement to a shock so profound it looked like a stiff breeze would have knocked him over. White found herself confused and then very worried. Had she said something wrong? Then he started to laugh, slow at first, but building into something that bordered on mania. Rolling onto his back and shaking in the hysterics. "Haha... oh god... you have no idea, no goddamn idea how long I've wanted someone to get one of my dumb references," Crichton sat up looking far happier than he had a moment ago, the levity of their absurd connection dispelling the melancholy cloud that had hung over them since their return from the lunar server. "Like I love those idiots on Moya, but being around aliens on the other side of the galaxy for a few years really makes you long for some normal human conversation." "I... I think I can understand. Somewhat. It must have been very lonely out there." "Lonely, terrifying, insane... beautiful too. Space is crazy like that. Full of contrasts so sharp it's stunning. I-I wanted to bring that back you know? Not just to get home, but to show what I had found out there," he said, pointing to the stars outside White's window. "I guess it's too late for that now." "I'm sorry," White said. Noting the strange look that Crichton was giving her now she hesitated before continuing. "I'm sorry we failed." "Failed? Failed at what? Stopping a magic apocalypse that had already started before the first androids came online? Which reminds me, we're going to need to do something about them later. Those twin models that someone had the bright idea to shoulder with some fucked up version of android collective punishment." Crichton leaned forward, massaging his forehead as he did so. "That's probably only the tip of the bullshit you're dealing with and here I come with a whole new mess of problems. Maybe it would have been better if I had never found Earth." "No! Crichton you-we can fix things. I know we can. Not just your presence here or for getting access to sealed archives in the server. The technology you brought with you. It very well might represent a turning point in the war with the machines." "And what about the Sebaceans... the Peacekeepers? The Scarren Empire? Or hell, even the Nebari Establishment? Better gravity control systems and two hundred year old ship scale energy shields won't stop a fleet if it comes knocking at our door." "We'll do what we always have. Try and protect Earth and mankind's legacy from any aggressor. Whether distant cousins that no longer remember their home-world like the Sebaceans... or these Scarrens you've mentioned so much. We won't- we cannot retreat from this fight. Not now." White clenched her fist tightly, the glove creaking as she set a firm expression on her face. "I promise you Crichton, even if the past is lost, we will make a future worth fighting for." Ideas: I've been thinking over the ideas of a Farscape/Nier crossover some more, coming up with elements, themes, and specific scenes that would be fun to explore and write. These are some of the ideas I've had in no particular order. 1. Androids in relation to the Last Human (Crichton). Crichton is a self-admitted sci-fi geek, not surprising for a second generation astronaut that grew up wanting to explore the stars. He straight up makes comparisons to how he attempts to handle alien encounters to be inspired from watching Star Trek. Given that I think his relation to the androids would develop in a certain direction. Once the initial shock of a) the amount of time passed and b) that these people he thought were human aren't passes, he wouldn't feel comfortable having an intelligent race acting subordinate to him. I can see multiple incidents where some variety of complex philosophical quandary or just plain relationship question from 6O results in him telling them that humans really didn't have a better answer. Long term this would likely take the form of a very serious conversation where he points out that Earth, and what of its culture and history still lives, isn't in just human, whether the dead ones or genetically altered human descended Sebaceans. Or even in any hypothetical offspring that he might have. Basically, 'Mankind' includes them, as they're what's keeping the memory of it all alive. Aside from some bonding scenes between various androids and Crichton as they go over bits of alien tech, one idea I have in particular is that he takes a tour of moon landing sites, including the one his father visited. Effectively the only place he will ever see any lasting evidence of that man in particular. And the reaction of his android guide (White perhaps?) as well as the Apollo 11 plaque cements his decision to change the way the androids view their relation with humans, at least in so much as he can. 2. 2B and 9S (and others perhaps). I think there's a lot of fun to be had in placing the androids into weird situations with the aliens, and even more so if for some reason they have to head off away from Earth for a period of time. Since I can easily see the plan being for them to lie constantly. Lie about being human, lie about the 'Glorious Terran Federation' which is totally a military power that we didn't just make up, lie about what they're capable of, lies upon lies as they try and deceive the Scarrens and the Peacekeepers and keep Earth safe from either side those aggressive powers. In general I think 'Androids pretend to be human to deceive aliens' is a good plot for lots of stories, and could easily be turned into a rather long plot. Since the androids wouldn't want to let Crichton head off to parley with these alien aggressors on his own. And he could really use all the help he can get for whatever crazy ass plot he comes up with next. 3. Aliens would want Android tech. Probably just Scorpius, but others too if they find out more about Earth. I hadn't realized it at the time, but there was a period of the show where the hybrid Scarren-Sebacean was working with Crichton, and that would be the perfect opportunity for him to learn something about the androids and Earth history. And being him, he would look at all this extra-dimensional BS and android super soldiers and see potential weapons. He'd probably be disappointed that the Queen's Maso wasn't around anymore and that Hamelin Organization stopped human testing after Emil, since it would mean he'd be working from scratch if he could just get back into the good graces of the Peacekeepers and do so with enough of the demonic element to set up another research base. Hell, he'd probably try to directly convince Crichton get the androids to agree to serve the Peacekeepers, since that would technically put them back into contact with 'humans' if genetically engineered ones. Arguing that he could get the entire remaining population of Earth a ticket off world (to a nice Peacekeeper controlled colony where the can serve their new military overlords) if destroying the machine lifefroms proved to difficult even with a few starships to blast them from orbit. 4. The Terminals. The central intelligence of the machine lifeforms would likely reconsider its direction of evolution far earlier with a living human to observe, especially one that tries so hard to avoid aggressive resolutions. Even if that doesn't work, Crichton's crew and allies proves that he has managed to connect and form lasting bonds with entirely alien beings over and over. A direct repudiation of what the machine network had thus far found to be the fastest way to accelerate its own growth. Whether this would lead to a quicker conclusion that it needs to escape Earth and find its own destiny, likely expedited by FTL tech it took from the androids once Crichton revealed it to them, or an attempt at some kind of allegiance against the various hostile powers of the greater galaxy is unknown. While I can easily see Pascal and various pacifistic or non-hostile machine lifeforms being taken into account as potential allies the actions of the terminals past and potentially present would form a barrier to attempted cooperation. 5. Allying with the Worm Hole Ancients. The aliens that gave John Crichton knowledge about worm holes in the first place did so because they were running from an unstated catastrophe that had destroyed their home world. They originally decided against direct contact with Earth because it was likely to be divided and hostile. 21st century Earth that doesn't exist outside of Crichton's memories. It would be very interesting to see how they might react to finding out the new status quo. I've got a couple ideas that might be fun with them. One being that their dimension/time traveling tech lead to them accidentally creating their own personal Watcher related incident and the subsequent self-inflicted annihilation of their home world to stop it from spreading to the greater portion of the galaxy. Creating a situation where despite their far greater technological adeptness they find a reason to deeply respect humans/androids for facing down and defeating what they truthfully could not, reclaiming their world instead of burning it and running. (Though I'm iffy on that alteration/crossover expansion as it sort of makes them more like the Stargate's Asgard.)

[ficdirectory]

The Fosters: Our Thoughts on Episode 5x07 “Chasing Waterfalls”

Time for another twin recap of The Fosters. Jesus was absent this episode, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have plenty to say about him (and also some thoughts on Grandpa Adams as well.)  So read on to check out @tarajean621‘s and my thoughts below:

STEF AND GABE - YARD:

Stef: Hey! Just wanted to give you a heads-up that Jesus won’t be able to work with you today.  He’s being assessed.  I had to drop him off at the school at about 6:30 a.m.  It was brutal.

Gabe: Oh.  I mean, it’s good news, right?  That he wants to go back?  

Stef: Yeah. Um, did you and he talk about Emma lately?

Gabe: Yeah, sure. I mean, a little.  He made her a ring the other day.  

Stef: A ring?

Gabe: Yeah, ‘cause they’re going steady or whatever.  He wanted to give her something, so he made her a little wooden ring.  

Stef: Oh. Okay. 

Tonia:  6:30 AM is brutal for IEP testing.  

Also, seems like The Fosters skipped a major step which is Jesus being evaluated in school to see if he qualifies for services.  This process usually takes up to two months.  I understand streamlining for TV’s sake.  This is really more a comment on the fact that Jesus should have been in school already.  

(On an unrelated note, I love how Gabe says that Jesus and Emma are “going steady”.  He is clearly from my generation...and now I feel super old.)

Tara: It was brutal for Jesus to test that early?  Or for Stef to have to drop him off that early?  Because I’m pretty sure Jesus has the more difficult part of this scenario.

From what I can gather, the assessment Jesus is being given is likely a neuropsychological assessment.  The testing can take anywhere from 2-6 hours according to the article.  (According to comments made to the article I linked - by people who have had the assessment - testing can take anywhere from 1.5 - 12 hours.  Several said they needed 1-2 weeks to recover afterward.)  The assessment measures things like memory, problem solving, attention, concentration and intelligence.  It can identify areas of difficulty as well as strengths.

This process includes an interview as well as the tests themselves, and it is recommended that a family member or close friend accompanies the person being tested.  This is not only for emotional support, but to provide necessary information and also to request breaks if need be.  (I know that if I had had to take this test, someone would have been there for me - and not just to drop me off.)  

This assessment represents a significant milestone and a likely hardship for Jesus.  The choice not to show the audience this takes away yet another opportunity to humanize Jesus.  

Let’s contrast this choice with a scene from Glee.  (Ryder gets Evaluated for an IEP) In this clip, we see high school sophomore Ryder undergo testing for a learning disability.  We get to be in the room with Ryder - feel his stress and shame and anger - and later, we see that his glee club director Finn has been waiting for Ryder.  Finn is there to listen and reassure Ryder after the testing and diagnosis.  We see Ryder’s tears and exhaustion.  We as an audience were not given this privilege with Jesus.

Moving on, Stef and Gabe talk about Jesus and Emma.  The “little wooden ring” comment feels patronizing.  Would the same comment be made in the same tone if Jesus did not have a brain injury?

STEF AND LENA - KITCHEN:

Stef: Hey, I know we said we wouldn’t make a big deal about Jesus and Emma’s betrothment or whatever, but he gave her a ring.

[Mariana, in the next room, overhears this.]

Lena: A ring? What, like an engagement ring?

Stef: No, no.  Not an engagement ring.  It’s a going-together ring.  It’s made of wood.  

Tonia:  Wow, Stef, how dismissive can you be?  (Her tone sounds almost disgusted???)

Tara: If Brandon were to have handcrafted a promise/engagement ring for Grace, it would not be delegitimized because it was wooden.  He would be asked if he was sure about his decision.  Asked about finances.  Housing.  Schooling.  Work.  But the ring itself would not be trivialized in this way.

Lena: Are you sure that’s all it is?  Because he told me that the only reason he wanted to go back to school was because Emma wouldn’t marry him unless he did. 

Stef: Yeah, I don’t -  I think it’s just Jesus being Jesus.  Emma’s got a good head on her shoulders.  I don’t see her agreeing to something like that... Right?  

Tonia:  It’s just Jesus being Jesus.  What does that mean?  If it’s a comment on his tendency to be impulsive, the same could be said for Mariana or Callie, but nobody says that’s just them being them.  My gut says it’s yet another way for Moms to dismiss Jesus...

Tara: So, basically Stef is insinuating that Jesus doesn’t have a good head on his shoulders.  That proposing was not something that he carefully considered, but one more rash and reckless decision.  That Jesus’s brain injury means that everything he does or says is inherently foolish until proven otherwise.

FAMILY DINNER - LENA’S PARENTS + FAMILY (EVERYONE PRESENT EXCEPT JESUS):

Lena: So, Jesus is exhausted.  He’s been doing testing all day, and with his TBI, it’s just a lot for him.  So, I told him he could go ahead and keep sleeping.  I hope that’s okay. 

Dana: Of course, sweetheart. Absolutely.

Tonia:  I totally get that Jesus is exhausted at this point.  Realistic, and I do want him to keep sleeping.  But I am so sad we didn’t see him interacting with Grandpa and Grandma at all, and they were here for the entire weekend.

For reference?  This is what we missed:  (Jesus and Grams talking)  Back in season 4, Grandma and Grandpa Adams came to visit, too.  The above was a deleted scene from that episode.  They have such a beautiful, respectful dynamic.  I was so excited to see Jesus have the chance to be around that for a few days, and so sad that he wasn’t shown interacting with them once.

Which leads me to my second point.  I got the feeling here that something was amiss with Stewart and that a deliberate choice was made to not have Jesus in these scenes with him, one way or another.  

I understand that the issue was likely something like illness for Noah (the actor) that prevented him from being present during this episode, or perhaps it was known ahead of time that he would need this time off for some reason.  The fact remains, though, that this is the story the writers chose to tell with Jesus being absent.  The story of Lena’s dad also dealing with a change in his health, and a brain-related issue.  (They don’t specify if he has dementia or Alzheimer’s, but based on symptoms it seems that it could be either.)

And I could not shake the feeling that Jesus was left out of this episode in particular because of the notion of “too many” disabled people being present in a scene.  The feeling that it would be “too messy”, “too risky”, or “too sad” to have both Jesus and Stewart present in scenes when Stewart is also experiencing difficulty.

But the truth is, an opportunity was missed there.  Because disabled people exist all over.  (20% of the population - 1 in 5 people - live with disability.)  My sis and I are both disabled (both with different extents and presentations of brain damage and brain injury) and it is not too many or too much.  We ask each other for help.  We adapt for each other.  We apologize when we mess up.

The writers missed an opportunity to tell a human story here.  Of two people in a family living with disability.  Maybe Jesus and Grandpa wouldn’t have felt the need to talk about it.  Maybe they would’ve found it difficult to be in a house with extra people, noise, a less familiar environment (for Grandpa) but maybe Jesus and Grandpa would have gotten the chance to sit and talk to each other.  Maybe they could relate based on disability.  Maybe not.  Maybe they could have helped each other out or made suggestions.  Or maybe, Jesus and Grandpa could just have known that “Hey, here is one person who gets what it’s like.  Who gets that I’m me.  That I’m doing my best all the time.  That this is new and scary.”  Maybe they wouldn’t have needed to discuss disability at all because being around each other would have been enough.

But the truth is, we will never really know.

Tara: Yes, it is completely realistic for Jesus to be exhausted cognitively and physically after this assessment.  However, if he is exhausted by hours of relatively “simple” tasks like picture-vocabulary identification and word recall, then how much more exhausted should he have been by taking a 3.5 - 7 hour proficiency test measuring 12th grade reading, writing and math with no accommodations?  

Tonia:   For the people in the back, Jesus is not even a high school senior yet.  He is a junior.  He was literally being tested on material he has yet to learn.

Tara:  With a brain injury, especially within the first few months, you do not get to choose which tasks and tests exhaust you.  Because everything exhausts you all the time.  

Also, let’s factor in that Jesus has just taken this proficiency test.  I would hazard to guess that no more than a couple of days to a week at most has passed since last episode.  His brain is super overloaded and fatigued even before the NPA.  And while the NPA is apparently needed for accommodations and going back to school, the proficiency test was just abusive nonsense.  Both in such short succession make me want to cry.  People do not realize how harmful this is.

And can we talk about Lena asking Dana if it is “okay” that Jesus is too exhausted to come down for dinner?

This touches on the phenomenon of Authorization.  Often, a disabled person’s symptoms or limitations are not viewed as legitimate until a nondisabled person deems them legitimate.  

Is it okay that Jesus is so cognitively and physically fatigued that he cannot come downstairs for dinner?  In other words: Do you give him permission to be exhausted? 

Let us think about the possible answers to this question.  Dana says yes.  It is okay.  

But she could have said, “Oh, he really should come down to eat and visit with us!”

Jesus would be forced to push past his exhaustion - walk downstairs, expend energy eating, attending, sitting, talking, being in a bright and loud environment - for the comfort and preference of his nondisabled family members.

FAMILY DINNER - CONTINUED:

Dana: So, what else is going on with this beautiful, bustling family?

Mariana: Well, Jesus is engaged.

Tonia:  We see Jesus discussed throughout this episode, but he is never present.  This is a common inspiration p*rn theme known as Gawking Without Talking.  He does not have a speaking part.  

This is different than Jude not being in an episode, for example.  (For one thing, we know that Hayden who plays Jude is still a minor and is not allowed to work as many hours as his adult co-stars.)  But it’s also different because stories about disabled people are very often about the nondisabled people around them, not the disabled person themselves.  

The next time you see a headline about a disabled person, and you click on it, read it carefully.  Ask yourself questions:  

Is the disabled person named?

Are they quoted in the story?  (Do you know how they feel about the events that happened, and the fact that those events are now being written about?)

If there is a photo, is it of the disabled person in a vulnerable position (needing to be fed, crying, or otherwise needing help?)  Did they know the photo was being taken?

When Jesus is exclusively talked about and never shown on screen, it feeds the perception that he is an outsider.  That he is not at the center of his own story.  This episode takes place over about three days and we don’t hear one word from him, despite being in his and Jude’s room for scenes all three of those days.

Tara: Yes, and for Jesus to be so overly exhausted but not in his room?  Or for him to be in there while Jude and his friends play games and visit?  It doesn’t make a ton of sense to me.

LENA, STEF, DANA & STEWART - LIVING ROOM:

Dana: So, [Jesus] is only going back to school because of this girl?  That’s absurd! 

Lena: Mom, we need something.  Something that matters to him.

Dana: You have something that matters to him.  The treehouse.  Maybe Jesus needs to actually DO SOMETHING to EARN the privilege of building it!  Like getting an education!  

Lena: Mom, if we take away that treehouse, he’s only going to think we’re punishing him.  And we will have a full-blown rebellion on our hands. 

Stef: I agree.  If we use it as leverage, he’s going to hate us forever.

Tonia:  This conversation seems unnecessary / irrelevant to me.  Jesus is going to school.  He spent several hours today being assessed to go back.  There’s no need to talk about taking away things that matter to him.  (Or for Grandma to go out of her way to say a choice of Jesus’s - based on secondhand info - is “absurd.”)  

Tara: So, Dana wants to use Jesus’s one pleasure as leverage to further control him? I’m glad Moms see the harm in this, even if they cannot see the harm in their own controlling and/or abusive actions.

CHALKBOARD - KITCHEN:

*gluten free snacks

*almond milk

*bananas 

Tonia:  The sight of gluten free snacks on the shopping list made my stomach drop.  If Lena is moving forward with this, chances are very good that she is also still pursuing the shock therapy clinical trial in LA for Jesus.  (Remember that the last we saw on that topic was Lena bringing it up with Tess, and Tess offering to put in a call to that doctor, to get Jesus moved up the year-long waiting list.)

Tara: To me, seeing gluten free snacks on the shopping list just drives home that Moms still do not accept their son as he is now.

NO phones at dinner!

Chores:

Callie/Mariana - dinner prep

Jude - trash

Brandon/Jesus - dishes

If you think my hands are full, you should see my heart.

Tonia:  I was encouraged to see that Jesus was included on the household chores with the other kids (because I was often left out of specific chores due to them taking me longer to complete.)  I was mostly glad to get chores to do, because it allowed me to feel like part of the family.  

But, Tara, I’m curious. 

Did you have energy for household chores at this point?  In your opinion, is it fair to expect Jesus to contribute to a household chore like this, given his current level of recovery?

Tara: Honestly, every brain injury is different.  For me, I do not think I had much energy for anything beyond the basics at approximately 2 months out.  I would hope that the others would understand and help out when needed, if (like the previous night) chores were too much for Jesus for whatever reason.

BRANDON & GABE - YARD:

[Brandon walks into the yard, trips over Gabe’s tool bag]

Brandon: You should be more careful with these!  Someone could get hurt!  Like Mason!

Gabe: Sorry.  Listen.  About the other night.  I didn’t know you still had feelings for Cort.

Brandon: No.  I don’t.  It’s not that!  It’s just...be more careful!  Otherwise Mason’s gonna end up with a nail in his head like Jesus!  It’s dangerous with all this shit lying around here!  

Tonia:  I mean...I actually feel like this is really realistic.  That Brandon would bring up Jesus’s injury and the danger of the tools, after tripping over them himself.  It just drives home the point, though, that Jesus is (again) being discussed, but he’s nowhere around.

Tara: Or... I don’t know... You could watch where you were going?  

And Gabe did not shoot Jesus in the head with the nail gun.  Equating Jesus with Mason is also not the best comparison to make, Brandon.  Jesus chose to use the nail gun knowing the risks without supervision.  He was not then and is not now a toddler.  So, let’s just stop while we’re ahead, shall we?

THEMES WE NOTICED WITH REGARD TO STEWART:

Tonia:  A theme I noticed with regard to the dementia/Alzheimer’s storyline with Stewart was respect.  When he and Dana are at dinner with the family and he asks Jude to pass the asparagus (for the second time in a row) Jude says, “I already did, Grandpa.  It’s right there.”  Jude’s tone is respectful.  He makes sure to point out where the asparagus is, to be sure Grandpa sees it.

(Contrast: Jude’s behavior when Jesus came home from the hospital.  The patronizing “good job” he said, when Jesus drank from a glass.)

Later in the episode, Stewart buys the family a car, after hearing Mariana and Brandon argue over who could use the one all the kids share.  Dana is upset and says they can’t afford it.  Stewart says it’s okay, he has a big bonus coming at work.  Dana tells him, “You’re retired, love.”  She doesn’t hesitate, in this moment to tell him the full truth.  We, the audience, also know, based on her tone and the words she chooses to use, that her love for her husband remains the same.

(Contrast:  Dana’s reaction to hearing that Jesus “was only going to school because of that girl.”  Grams thought that was “absurd.”  This is a marked change, too, from the woman who lovingly told Jesus pre-TBI that “there are so many...ways to be smart,” and that he’s “going to figure out exactly what he’s good at.”)

After Lena finds out that her dad has been experiencing this change in his health, she goes out to speak with him.  Asks if somebody came to pick up the car.  He says, they have.  Lena apologizes genuinely to him for the fact that they can’t keep it.  Then they sit down together.  Stewart shares with Lena that he regrets his reaction to her when she came out (”I still love you”) as it communicated that his love for her was conditional, which it wasn’t.  He tells her he should have said he was very proud that she knew who she was and that he couldn’t wait to meet the person she wanted to spend her life with.  Lena remembers how he always took time with her to watch cartoons before work, even if he was at risk of running late.  She knew that was “their time” together and she thanked him “for being a really good dad.”

We see that Stewart has tremendous love for his family.  He cares so much that he is righting mistakes he made decades ago with Lena.  And we see that Lena’s love and respect for her dad remains intact, despite the fact that she has just learned of this new development with his health.  She takes time to sit and talk to him about what matters.  About good memories.  About things he has done that she appreciates.

(Contrast:  Almost every single interaction Lena has had with Jesus post-TBI.  Including but not limited to: threatening Jesus with institutionalization, looking into shock treatment as a “cure” for his brain injury.  Humiliating him when she realized he couldn’t read.  Isolating him socially.  Not allowing him to go to school and then manipulating him back into school by having him take a 3.5 hour long proficiency test with no preparation or accommodations, in hopes that his deficits would cause him to fail.)

Tara: A theme I noticed in regards to Stewart’s storyline was pity.

We see Stewart’s deficits painted as tragic and not an expected part of the aging process.

Moms go from wanting to take Stewart’s name off the title to leaving it on and agreeing to pay back interest they never owed, because they find out about Stewart.  They feel bad for him and view him as less capable and less human.

Moms tell Dana she will need money “for care for him,” and that they want to help.  Dana nods.  This feeds the notion that disabled people are expensive burdens to be pitied, instead of human beings in our own right.  Worthy of existence because of our humanness.  Not because of what we can or cannot produce that society would value  

It may seem odd that respect and pity can exist side by side, but this is often the case in a disabled existence.  Respect can be present and strongly felt, and then in the next moment, it is replaced by pity because life is so hard for disabled folks.  

Disabled life can be hard.  So can nondisabled life.  

Challenge the harmful notions that society and media perpetuate. 

Thank you, as always, for reading. 

For more: Fosters Recaps

[johthoughts]

Why i will likely never fall in love again

This could be interesting.

My memory runs back in time to year 2012 where I started talking to this beautiful girl on Facebook. Not to mention, i had not had a girlfriend before this. This was pretty much my first time talking to a girl with a everyday-burning sensation of seeing her. Soon, I realized that i was in love with her. Fast forward to January 2013, the relationship was marked official. It was a beautiful time with her. Towards the end of 2013, the storm hit the lighthouse and the tower fell apart as she claimed that she wanted to get back with her ex. This was my first time in 17 years, i had felt such a pain. I didn’t know what to do. Every dark cloud has a silver lining they say. This adversity, without a question, turned my life around. I’ll tell you why.

I had to find a way to get over her. I, for a fact, knew finding another one would not be grasping at straws. I always knew Drinking and drugs were for weak so that was anyway not an option. So i had to think of a way. I thought and thought until it dawned on me that understanding the very nature of how i started feeling like this and why i started feeling like this would pave the way for me to find what i seek. I realized that thinking was the only way thru this. I promised myself to be honest in answering and asked ‘why do you think you still need her?’. I said, i felt good when she was around and it was always great to have a companion by your side to share your everything so that i can feel as if i have expanded myself into two. Why do you hate her now? I questioned. I said, because we had a mutual agreement that we would never let each other go no matter what. But she broke the vow and how dare she leaves me just like that, a weak me answered. Just like this, i tried conquering this issue in every direction thru more questions until I had finally stopped at one specific query.

“Will you still feel like loving her if her physical body was gone while only her soul which is intangible is in front of you? Not death! You can only feel the soul but no body and that’s how you identify her”. My answer was, umm! Yeah i might still like her but not for long for sure. Because for things to workout, there should be physical contact in the long run. This had my eyes opened. I started looking back at my relationship. Whenever i went down on her, i felt deeply connected to her. Then I come home and i felt like ‘fuck it! I need her right now’ so that i will not run out of my current deep connection to her. And the same process went in circles. In the end of the day, it was my sensual sentiment that had fueled the relationship. I saw this as a car and energy. My relationship was the car and sexuality was the fuel. For the car to run, i must make sure the tank is full.

I never drew a conclusion and ended the case there. I was in a quest of finding the ultimate answer so that i would never get betrayed in my life. Fastforwarded, In 2016, the same girl and I got back together. Despite things had changed massively at this point in my life and had zero feelings on her, i still said yes! Mainly due to the fact that I hadn’t had any physical contact with a girl in two years and this seemed like an opportunity. On the very first day i met her after years, what all my thoughts and emotions collectively said was to get nasty and I succeeded in doing so. Over the weeks, did twice, thrice and many times until i got tired doing that and had lost all my interest in her. I was written in the history books of my clique as the first person to get depressed for having a girl. I just couldn’t take it anymore so i let the cat outta the bag and I simply walked out. She cried in rivers but i was like, for the truth to be told, better late than never.

After two months from the incident, the girl who died for me was with another dude. At first, i was really upset because she moved on before i knew it which seemed humanly impossible to me. I knew this adversity would seal the deal for me. I realized what we had been doing was like a running a mutual benefit scheme for both our physical and emotional needs. Ones those needs are satisfied, we don’t want the supplier anymore. If needs are not satisfied, we will find another supplier. To put this into perspective, i started eating Pasta as my dinner which was my favorite food at the time everyday for 3 months. Towards the end of the third month, i hated it because i had had enough eating that although i thought i would never lose interest in my fav food. You might have experienced the same when you listened to your fav music for a long time.

I was pretty convinced by what i found. I knew even if i found someone else, i would still have to go thru the same process. ‘So whats love’ i asked. You can share things, feel stronger as i have doubled yourself, the society will accept you, pictures for the gram, all these are true. You are in it, because your needs(final one at least) are yet to be satisfied. Once that’s done, you will start distancing yourself from each other. Why would she fall for someone else while with you is because, as she feels, he is likely to satisfy her needs better than you can. Simple. The ultimate need of person in a normal state of mind would be to be physical connected to oneself because in nature, humans are to always explore his current dimension. So in that case, once you have explored into oneself enough, you will gain the urge to explore into another while subconsciously losing the need to connect to the previous one.

When you look at it, if you call satisfying one’s certain needs through another human being especially while being fueled by physical connection with that person, Love, yeah! Thats love. To me, it is not! Once you are married, there will be a time where you will lose all your interest as your body stops producing oxytocin which is often called as ‘love hormone’, you will likely understand what I’m saying here. I do not see love between a girl and boy in current context and i have found enough to say it straight. So is getting laid without being In a relationship the answer? Up to a certain extent, yes! But that’s the weak way. Even dogs do that. Will talk about the solution in another article. Finally, Having known what i know, i will likely never fool myself and fool another human being ever again. Because lying is a sin.

[mdb2019-blog]

Assignment 2: Hashtag Communities

A community can be defined as a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals. Typically when we think of communities we think of the group of people we are surrounded by on a day to day basis. However, communities can extend to social spaces as well. Platforms like Instagram and Twitter have features such as a hashtag that group people together of the same attitudes, interests, ideas, etc. just like a community. An example of this is the #YesAllWomen hashtag that was created by the feminist community. Feminism is the advocacy of women’s rights so anyone who believes in this is idea is considered a feminist. This hashtag was created by this group because of a man, Elliot Rodger who murdered six women that rejected him romantically. Women began feeling very unsafe after this occurrence in fear that they might get murdered for rejecting someone. Moreover, through these platforms, hashtags can be used as a way to cultivate, expand, and develop communities whether it be in person or online. Therefore, the hashtag #YesAllWomen developed a safe community for women to create awareness of this event, develop ideas on how to fix the problem, and provide support for each other.

When you visit a social media site like Twitter and Instagram you will find that there are hashtags attached to many tweets and grams. When this feature was first created its original purpose was to serve as a means for categorising content. However, “hashtags today have defined political movements, become markers signifying support for a cause, use as an opinionated expression and can even be used as a trigger to add an item to a shopping cart (Summerville, 2018).” Many people hashtag their personal posts with a word or phrase in order to add to a specific conversation that is occurring on the platform. Twitter added to the hashtag functionality by creating hyperlinked hashtags that “grouped all Tweets with that specific hashtag into a single page of search results (Summerville, 2018).” This is how the #YesAllWomen hashtag began because women all over the world started hash-tagging this phrase.

Women are constantly being put down by men and one of the reasons that #YesAllWomen began is to show women that they can’t let a man’s definition of them define them. Many times it is said that women do not hold the capacity to execute success like women do which is quite untrue. Moreover, this tweet shows someone replying to a tweet made about a powerful woman doing good in the world. This tweet included the hashtag #YesAllWomen and is a prime example of how this person is showing support and cultivating the image of women. This also creates a sense of belonging for women because they know it almost serves as a meeting place for the community banded by the hashtag #YesAllWomen.

Even though hashtags are just a symbol followed by words they can provide very powerful meanings that invoke emotions and support. Hashtags that are “related to an event or cause emerge almost instantaneously, quickly attain immense levels of popularity, and then fade (Anderson, Toor, Rainie, Smith, 2018).”

I think this is an interesting tweet that shows how a hashtag can have such an immense impact in the world. While exploring the hashtag #YesAllWomen this person learned about all the “gruesome stories” of women being discriminated against or abused because of their gender. This invoked emotions in the person because it brought the person memories about how they had endured harassment as well. This example serves as a portrayal of how influential a social movement created by a hashtag can be. Moreover, this person goes on to tweet a thread in which they said that through reading these stories under the hashtag it inspired them to take action and discuss the issue of sexism further.

This is one of the ways in which hashtags create a community where people can learn new things about a subject to create awareness. This increases support and allows people of this hashtag community to find solutions to the problem of sexism specifically.

As I mentioned before social platforms provide a segway for these hashtags to generate an impact. There are so many people in this world that could possibly never have interacted without the accessibility of social networks. However, SNSs provides “easy access to diverse people, offers a rich set of options for users to express and is structured so as to facilitate communication and relational formation among members (Parks, 2010, p. 118).” #YesAllWomen was born out of a male’s malicious actions towards women and this event proved as an example of male arrogance. So this hashtag began a movement of women advocating and supporting each other to beat sexism and gender stereotypes either in the workforce or in life in general. I think that through harassment and abuse that women receive they also begin to lose their identity because they are stripped from acting like they want to. Women of all parts of this world have joined, shared their stories, and advocated for women with the help of #YesAllWomen which has helped women regain the confidence and identity that they once lost. Instagram, for example, is one of the biggest platforms that makes searching for hashtags easy as well. When you go to search for #YesAllWomen there are many powerful messages that have been shared by women all over the world and it has created various discussions.

This is an example of an instagram user who shared this post and used the #YesAllWomen, and she received many other users who agreed with her. When a woman sees this it might inspire her to voice her opinion online about harassment or stand up to the creep that always bothers her.

This is a true example of how hashtags are so much more than just a symbol because they invoke conversation and gives people a sense of community that they might not feel in the physical world.

Moreover, this is is another interesting post that generated positive conversations in the comments section. For many years we have seen that men are not really supportive of women’s movements which has made the issue of sexism that much more difficult. This post suggests that men need to create awareness as well because it would create a much more equal and balanced environment for the world. The reason I thought this was such an interesting post is because the two people who commented were males and they seem to support women and this fight of #YesAllWomen. The one man even went as far as to say he hates sexism and fully supports the fight of the matriarchy.

In society, you don’t see much of men giving this kind of support to women so it is refreshing to see how this post invoked a positive emotion for this man.

For example, this post shows how the rise of feminist movements have upset men and led them to start a hashtag called #NotAllMen. This hashtag was supposed to be a response to #YesAllWomen because men believed that women were targeting all men and saying they are all to be blamed. However, this is not the case at all because this movement was started so women would have a safe place to share their emotions and stories about harassment they had endured and how to stop it. So I think that this hashtag not only brings awareness to the cause of sexual harassment and abuse but is also a call to action to men and asking them to join the movement. While there has been much resistance from men in society I do think that men have been able to view the powerful community of women that has come together from #YesAllWomen and are now more understanding after reading their experiences and struggles. I think this has been possible through the help of media platforms like Instagram and Twitter that allow women to share their stories in order to abolish sexism and make the world a more equal place.

Moreover, hashtags have evolved from being a symbol of organize categories on social platforms to being a vital feature in social movements all over the world. The community behind #YesAllWomen would be non-existent without the efficiency and accessibility of hashtags. In this video we see the evolution of community that evolves from just a few simple words being attached to a hashtag. In the video it explains how social media has given so many people the opportunity to have a voice and one group that has significantly gained traction is women. Additionally, this video depicts the many groups of people fighting for social movements that are all joined together by a single hashtag. I think that without the use of hashtags the social movements that have recently occurred would not have gained the success they have today because there would not be as much conversation. The internet connects so many people together from around the world that don’t realize that they share the same beliefs. Furthermore, while people are not physically together they can still be part of a virtual community that creates awareness and change because that is what is needed in the world.

In an article Sasha Weiss discusses a particular distasteful encounter her and her friend had with a male. On a ride to her subway station with her friend Sasha recalls a man loosening his belt buckle as if he was about to touch himself while staring at her friend. Sasha then confronted him but was found feeling very worried about her safety after the fact. She then recalls the #YesAllWomen hashtag and how the tweets accumulated “into a kind of memorial, a stern demand for a more just society (Weiss, 2017).” For Sasha,  #YesAllWomen was a reminder that it was okay to stand up for both herself and her friend against that man on the subway whether or not he was going to be angered. This also relates to my point about identity as well because it is clear that at the moment that Sasha went to yell at the man she was unsure of her identity because she was scared. There have been so many stories about women being attacked for speaking up that its taken away women’s confidence and added to their fear which is a prime example of the self being stripped away. Sasha also recalled many of the stories she had read about which is what gave her confidence about what she had done. So many women are confronted with uncomfortable situations like Sasha but that’s why it's so important to share them because it will boost women's confidence to stand up to men and reject them without fear.

Lastly, communities are important because they provide an environment whether online or in person where people share the same interests, ideas, and attitudes. Being a part of a community is crucial in developing social relationships and learning about new experiences. #YesAllWomen is a community that grew from a hashtag as a way to advocate for women and it gained popularity through Instagram and Twitter. According to a blog post there are 5 successful tips in building a community on Instagram. The first is search and follow community hashtags because “this is where you will find people in line with your interests, creativity, or business (A., 2018).” The second is to engage meaning to interact with as many people under that hashtag community and start a conversation. The third is to support each other which oftentimes naturally happens within a community because everyone feels connected with each other. The fourth is gratitude so “show the community you’re part of how much you appreciate them (A., 2018).” The fifth one is to share which refers to answering questions or giving advice about the topic that another person in your community might lack. All of these characteristics of an Instagram community apply to the #YesAllWomen hashtag so it is clear that is has helped cultivate and grow the feminist community. Therefore, these are really important tips to keep in mind in being part of both a social and in person community.

Overall, the #YesAllWomen hashtag has created a powerful impact in the society we live in today and was made possible by social media. Platforms like Twitter and Instagram has helped millions of women create awareness about the killing of 6 women by Elliot Rodger. I think without social media what happened might not have been as widely known and would not have reached the level of exposure it has today. Additionally, this hashtag has built a community of women who all share the same emotions, experiences, and attitudes that have showed the world the power of feminism. It is important to take into consider how online spaces with features like a hashtag can generate such an immense impact in the world. Therefore, #YesAllWomen will continue to provide a supportive environment of people that work together to develop a solution to end sexism and achieve full equal equality.

Reference List:

A. (2018, April 04). How to Build a Community on Instagram? 5 Successful Instagrammers Share Their Tips. Retrieved from https://thepreviewapp.com/how-to-build-a-community-on-instagram-5-successful-instagrammers-share-their-tips/

Anderson, M., Toor, S., Rainie, L., & Smith, A. (2018, July 11). 2. An analysis of #BlackLivesMatter and other Twitter hashtags related to political or social issues. Retrieved from https://www.pewinternet.org/2018/07/11/an-analysis-of-blacklivesmatter-and-other-twitter-hashtags-related-to-political-or-social-issues/

HASHTAG #ACTIVISM. (2018, March 17). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4DobjL_Ock&app=desktop

Parks, M. R. (2010). Social Network Sites as Virtual Communities. In A Networked Self: Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites (pp. 105-123). New York, NY: Routledge.

Summerville, M. (2018, April 23). #community: Hashtags generate a sense of belonging. Retrieved from http://networkconference.netstudies.org/2018OUA/2018/04/23/community-hashtags-generate-a-sense-of-belonging/

Weiss, S. (2017, June 20). The Power of #YesAllWomen. Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-power-of-yesallwomen

[freedomrecovery]

Freedom from Food

I list 9 different ways why THRIVING in life is more important than living in shame, guilt and anxiety because of food!

Living in freedom is a subjective phrase.

You can be free from multiple things…finances, jail, a stressful relationship..the list can go on.

But I’ll be referring to the freedom from food, the scale, anxiety, and body shame.

These 9 steps to freedom we’ll be discussing will open your eyes into a life of bondage and unworthiness of someone who thought was living a healthy lifestyle but in the end realized she was causing destruction to herself mentally and physically. Here’s a little familiar scenario for you before diving into this book.

Numbers can warp and corrupt your mind.

Your mind can be corrupted so much that if your goal is to lose weight then your whole life can be consumed by numbers. “How many calories does this apple have?” “I can’t eat all of my food, because then I’ll run out of calories by the end of the day.” “I need to lose 5 more lbs! Five more lbs then I’ll finally be happy once I’ve made it to my goal!” Then all of a sudden you end up not losing those pounds…in fact, you actually GAINED 3 extra pounds on top of the 5 pounds you “had” to lose!

Earth shattering…I know.

So what does a typical female, who doesn’t understand the concept of loving herself where she’s at at the moment do in this situation?

Freak out, right?!! Duh!

After MANY times freaking out over the numbers, food, and the scale it was brought to my attention that I was NOT made to always be at war with myself. I was NOT made to always be looking for another way to change me. I was NOT made to always be wanting to lose weight.

To make your life a little easier I have found 9 personal reasons explaining just how more important your life is than being obsessed with losing those extra pounds or tracking to the exact calorie and/or macro.

Getting the full experience out of moments in life

People may argue that food has nothing to do with experiences, but I refuse to believe that and I will be the first to disagree. Picture this...sitting with your family around the table on Christmas morning. There are pancakes, waffles, biscuits and gravy, pastries, real sausage (not turkey sausage...), eggs (not egg whites), bacon (not turkey bacon), and juice. You name it, they've got it. Your senses are filling up with the aroma of the delicious and savory food sitting right in front of you. Your belly growls. You've been hungry all morning and it's finally sitting right in front of you. After saying the blessing everyone digs in! Sister is going for the waffles first and smothering butter and syrup all on top. Brother is reaching for the biscuits and gravy and the gravy is so thick it's dripping off his plate. Dad is definitely going for the pancakes (that would be my choice as well) and putting peanut butter on top (because he's a genius), then syrup. Then it's your turn. You look at the waffles and think to yourself that you can't eat waffles without butter and syrup, because they're too dry, but if I added those two together the carb to fat ratio would be out of this world. You obviously don't even think about the biscuits and gravy, because look at it...it's 90% fat anyway. No way. On to the pancakes. Well, if you ate one pancake it might be okay. That peanut butter looks awfully good though. Maybe just portion the peanut butter out to one tablespoon and melt it so it looks like you have a lot. But if you ate a pancake and peanut butter could you put syrup on top? Probably not. That would be way too many calories for this meal. What in the world would you eat for the rest of the day, right? Then after the argument and justifying which foods you should eat and shouldn't eat you grab a couple pieces of fruit, maybe some of your own oatmeal (that wasn't on the table) and water.

Do you see what I'm getting at here? I personally lived my life like this for 7 years. In the "health and fitness" world there are always people telling you, "don't lose your goals during the holiday season" and,"be mindful of what you're eating so you don't ruin what hard work you've already put into your body".

Do you think you're still fully experiencing life at this very moment by not eating the scrumptious Christmas breakfast that someone you loved made for you?

No, it's not! Everyone at the table is groaning, because of how amazing their pancakes are while you sit at the same table and have no opinion, because you're eating your fruit and oats.

Food is apart of the experience in most situations!

Eat the freaking pancakes and chill out!

Hanging out with friends/family FREELY with no restrictions

Do you remember the last time you were invited to get some drinks after work or froyo on a Sunday afternoon or you were invited to a strange restaurant you’ve never been before?

Did you go or did you opt out, because you didn’t have enough calories to eat what you wanted for dinner AND have a couple drinks with friends, or you weren’t sure how to exactly calculate the froyo into your MyFitnessPal app, or the restaurant your friends were wanting to go to didn’t have any “healthy” platters so you had to spend valuable time out of your day to look up the menu and choose the least calorie filled plate? If you have done one or all of these to get out of having fun with friends…you’re not alone, and you’re not crazy. Okay, maybe a little crazy, but that’s why you’re reading this!

Now picture getting invited to one of these places—drinks, froyo, or dinner—and immediately saying YES! You’re not having to count, measure, or weigh anything. There’s no need to look at the menus, because you’re going to eat what you want and the world will still be spinning, you’ll still be alive, and when you wake up the next day you will look exactly the same, and you will have more memories then if you decided to be a hermit and not go out with your friends!

For some of you saying yes to these invitations is easy breezy, and you don’t understand why I’m taking the time to even explain why someone would do this. But for the others reading this, and myself, this WAS (or still is) us. This was how I would go about my everyday…trying to track, fit, and count every single morsel or food and macro that entered my mouth. Spontaneously getting invited to parties, dinners, or any event made me anxious. Literally, sometimes I would even have a panic attack. I would look up Youtube videos on how to accurately count froyo on my MyFitnessPal app, but just in case it wasn’t accurate I wouldn’t eat full meals before the outing, because I didn’t want to go over in carbs. I would spend so much time looking at the menus of the places my family and friends wanted to go to so I could already plug the numbers into my macro calculator to make sure if I should only eat 1 piece of bread…or maybe none so I could have half a sandwich, and soup…or I could eat a piece of bread with no butter and just eat the soup…but of course I would get the vegetables as a side, and ask for no added butter. No way, Jose.

Lets take a glimpse into the present tense. Every invitation I receive from my friends or family dealing with what used to scare me, I say YES! I say yes, because I don’t want to say no to life anymore. The freedom of going out with friends and feeling “normal” and not waiting for someone to touch the rolls first is one of the greatest feelings I’ve ever experienced and I want everyone who is dealing with this issue to experience it too. Because you deserve to feel FREE and you deserve to have 2 rolls at dinner, with a side of baked beans and not go home and stare at yourself in the mirror and cry, because of the “bad” decision you made! You’re better than that!!

Go eat a roll!

TRAVELING

I remember traveling to Canada by myself when I was in high school, and I had to stay the night with one of my sisters since she was going to drive me to the airport. She was such a great hostess that she made me a goody bag I could take with me full of a whole bunch of fun food. I glanced in the bag, said thank you, rolled it back up and stuffed it in my bag. “Who was she to think I would eat this crap?” “She knows that I’m better than that!”

We were leaving for the airport at 5 A.M. and coincidentally that’s when Krispy Kreme opened. Great. She pulled into the parking lot and we walked in. The smell of freshly made donuts filled my senses and I for sure thought I had died and Krispy Kreme was heaven. Anyway, she told me that when she leaves her house in the early mornings she makes her way over to Krispy Kreme and she figured I would want one too. DUH! DONUTS ARE MY FAVORITE! The man started to hand me a fresh, hot, donut right off the conveyor belt…”No thanks.”

I literally said, “no thanks”, to a FRESH donut! How stupid, right?! (insert rolling eye emoji here). My sister kept asking if I was sure I didn’t want anything, and I kept refusing…trying to show her my true self discipline and motivation to remain “healthy”, while wishing I could just eat one.

Just eat one, but I knew if I had the rest of the day would mentally eat me up. Knowing how many grams of sugar, carbs, and fat that was in that donut was my main concern…not the fact that my big sister thought it would be nice to feed me before I went on a 3 hour plane ride to California. Makes sense, huh?

Selfish.

The very first traveling experience I had with no prepped food, no weighing mechanism, and no on board snacks was in 2015 after my first (and only) body building competition. My family and I were heading out to a family reunion in Iowa so we packed up the car and drove 8 hours to see people I didn’t even know. I felt vulnerable, not prepared, alone, and just really really open to the world…not in a good way. I was stepping into a whole other dimension that I’ve never been apart of before. I ate fast food for the first time in years. I had several helpings of Kringla (Norwegian cookie…made from heaven), and so much breakfast food it was outrageous. This was the start to a long road ahead to recovery. When I say long road…I literally mean the longest road I’ve ever been on in my life. After this trip I suffered with depression on how and why my body was changing. Yes, I was happy I ate what I ate, because I missed those foods so much, but I felt guilty and shameful for spending that time with my family and just 'letting go' and doing what I wanted with no restrictions. Although there were no food restrictions, there were mental restrictions that I had to conquer later in the journey.

My most recent venture was in 2016 to California to visit friends. All they could talk about was the food. Food this, food that. They kept telling me about how California food was the absolute best and I would love it…the burritos, Mexican food, and burgers…everything was the best. Do you know my reaction to this?

“HELL YEA! Let’s eat it all!"

You see, by diving in with both feet when I knew that the life I was trying to lead wasn’t the life people needed to look up to and realizing there was an issue, now I’m able to travel and experience the world with no regrets, no excuse to not try a certain food, and no restrictions with my food or mental being.

Peace of Mind

I explained above that the people who have been living a life of restrictions are a little crazy. Don’t take it too personally, because I’m the one writing this, which means I’ve had my moments of craziness too. Like…a lot of crazy!

So what do we do about the crazy?

1. Breathe

2. Don’t overthink it

3. Take a step back and remember that life is too short to be so restrictive and grumpy about food

4. Make the decision of what you and your body want…not what you think your body needs or what other people think you need. What do YOU want?

5. Stop being crazy!

How to stop being crazy:

First, you need to accept that the way you’re living is NOT the way you were designed to live. God did NOT make you and place you on this earth to go to bed and wake up every morning being anxious about food. Anxiousness does not add years to your life, in fact it shortens your life.

Secondly, after you’ve accepted this fact ACT on it. Don’t mope and bask in self pity because there’s something wrong with you. Put your big girl britches on, read some self help books (great job with this pick, I think it’s pretty awesome myself) talk to someone who actually cares for you and will help you out, and DO SOMETHING. Do something proactive that will HELP you in your recovery. You can’t expect the anxiousness and the craziness to just disappear one day, because it won’t, I promise. You have got to put in your 100% and dig deep to reach peace of mind and mental freedom.

The baggage that insecurities have on women is insane. When I would get into a conversation about physical features I would mentally curl up in the fetal position and cry until the subject changed and I could be apart of the conversation again. This is a subject that women feel uncomfortable talking about, because they don’t want to be vulnerable and truthful about what they think about when they’re at home all alone or when they couldn’t fit into any of the clothes they could wear in college. Your mental health is priority number one. Without your mental health you will not be able to fully recover from this way of disordered thinking. Make up your mind today that change is here and you will do whatever if it takes to break through the walls of insecurity so you can live a life having peace of mind.

Mind and Body communication

Once I threw away my food scale and text my powerlifting coach and told her that I couldn’t go through with the programming, because of how strict I had to be with counting macros, I was lost. This was the first time since seventh grade I wasn’t on some sort of plan or diet. I had no idea what I even liked or disliked or how certain foods made me feel. I had even forgotten what it was like to feel hungry and satisfied/full. See, through many years of restriction, planning my meals out, eating “clean”, and especially counting macros I never gave my mind a chance to listen to my body and feed it the foods that it really needed. No, I’m not just talking about to train, but the kinds of foods I just wanted during the day. It was such a struggle not counting macros, because I didn’t know what I wanted. I couldn’t necessarily tell anyone about this struggle, because how weird would it have been if I was like, “my stomach is growling…should I eat or should I wait until later?” I journaled everyday for a few months trying to figure out this whole eating thing. After a few months went by I started to feel so good. My digestive system was finally working again (it hadn’t since middle school) and after a full year of not having a period because of the disordered habits I finally had a period. My body was FINALLY working optimally again. I couldn’t remember the last time I had felt this healthy!

What I’m saying is simple. Counting calories and counting every macro doesn’t give your body the choices it needs to work optimally for you. There were several situations to where after my macros would run out for the day (meaning I had eaten all the food I was told I could eat) I would still be hungry. This would also happen vise versa. My body wouldn’t need anymore food, but I would have 120 more carbs left…well I’m not hungry so why should I eat?

Well, you shouldn’t!

In conclusion, you can't be in control of everything, especially what you eat every moment of every single day. Let your mind and body connect and eat what feels good at that moment!

Enjoying GOOD food——without guilt

Do you realize that the health and fitness industry is a multi billion dollar industry? This means they have found exactly what people ‘think' they need, weight loss. They’ve taken it and ran with it.

They promote the "normal" things people do...(i.e. eating and exercise) and have corrupted it to the point to where people are labeling themselves as "bad" because of the food they've eaten or the workout they haven't completed.

I used to be this person, while staring at donuts or eating more than my designated macros, "I don't want to be bad today, but I want them so bad and I'm still hungry. Maybe I'll eat it now then be good tomorrow!"

I would also be the one posting on social media, "Cheat meal!! I love eating bad food!"

The association between the words “guilt”, "bad" and "good" shouldn’t even be in the same sentence as the word "food". Food is here to nurture and sustain us physically, mentally, and emotionally. We hear that emotional eating is bad and we shouldn't do it. Well, you know what?!! If you're sad and you think a candy bar will help...guess what? Go out and eat a freaking candy bar! Give yourself permission to nurture yourself emotionally and mentally.

I promise you that everything will be okay!

Eating kale isn't good nor bad (in my opinion I think it's freaking nasty so I won't be eating it). Eating a Subway sandwich is neither good nor bad, eating 2 rolls as an appetizer and eating your whole meal isn’t good nor bad.

I hope this makes sense to you.

There's no such thing as eating "good" and “bad" food. If you label foods this way then once you decide to eat out of these labels your mentality will be challenged and you will realize that you will feel guilty for eating amazingly yummy food.

Food is food. There is no good or bad.

And that’s it.

Your body is MADE to do so much more than lose weight

When was the last time you were thankful you could walk?

When was the last time you thanked your body for creating new life?

When was the last time you could hold your baby without any complications?

You see, our bodies were put on this earth for numerous other reasons than to lose weight. We weren’t made to step on the scale every morning and punish ourselves constantly by trying to lose extra pounds.

Our bodies were made to MOVE! We were made to hold children, and to conceive life!

Mother, I challenge you to really really think about your body and how INCREDIBLE your body truly is. Look at your baby and remind yourself everyday that YOUR body created that little person. If that isn’t miraculous then I don’t know what is.

Our bodies were made to travel. To hike up the mountains with friends and watch the sunset.

Our bodies were made to dance. To dance with your new husband on your wedding day.

Our bodes were made to feel. To hug a loved one who needs you the most.

Our bodies were made to free fall. To go sky diving or ride a roller coaster.

Don’t be a slave to the metal thing in the bathroom that flashes numbers in your face.

Go out and MOVE!

People are watching...

When I say 'people are watching' I am pertaining to the little people.

No, not midgets or Munshkins…#duh.

I’m talking about your children and the children around you!

Nine times out of ten parents (mostly mothers) don't realize how much of an impact their talk makes on their children (mostly their girls).

"We can't eat that. We don't want to get fat."

"I need to lose weight."

"There are too many carbs in that. We should find something different."

"I don't like my body...I really need to change."

"Let's go run off that ice cream we ate last night."

By saying things like this in front of children you're inevitably setting themselves up for failure.

The truth sucks sometimes, but it's true.

These little girls around you will start to think just because mom needs to lose weight I need to lose weight. And because mom doesn't like her body then I shouldn't like my body either.

She'll associate eating with exercising and burning calories.

*side note: the definition of exercise has NOTHING to do with burning calories!!

Exercise: "any activity that improves health and fitness."

Why do you think we hear SO many adolescents say negative comments about the way they look?

It's all they hear their favorite actresses on T.V. talk about. Then they think if the actresses are saying those things about their bodies and they're famous and everyone “likes” them then that’s how they should feel about themselves in order for them to gain a well known social status.

The only talk children should hear you say should be positive and uplifting things especially when it comes to your weight or your children's weight.

If they hear mommy saying she hates her body or even talks about dieting those little ones are going to grow accustomed to hearing those negative words and they will start to act on them. Have you ever wondered why young children ask if they’re fat or tell you they’re fat? Though society plays a huge roll in the influence of your children you also have a great influence.

Here’s a great example. My mother was the perfect definition of health in my book. She loved to move! She loved her potato chips and ice cream, but also loved her nutritious foods that fueled her body. We would go on walks together and lift together. She gave me the love I have for the gym. My mom never once talked about her body, but celebrated the fact that she could eat and she could move.

Once I got into middle school I would ask her why I was bigger than all the other girls and she would always tell me that I was just big boned and I still had baby fat and I would grow out of it. Well I didn’t realize that that was her way of comforting me since I was actually bigger than all the other girls! She would also say that I was definitely my father’s daughter due to my physical statue. All through middle school I would be confused as to why my older sister could eat like she did (we called her the garbage disposal), but when I would eat a normal meal I’d feel like I gained 20 pounds in a matter of minutes. She always told me that I could eat like my sister if I was as active as she was…this is when I really starting exercising for the caloric burn instead of enjoyment. "The more calories I burned the more I could eat!”, I thought. This thought process would lead me down a road of destruction mentally and physically.

There were times when I would ask my mom how I could get rid of my belly. She said if I stood up straight then I wouldn’t have a belly and it would become flat. I tried telling her several times that even when I would stand up straight I would have a belly but she never believed me until she corrected my posture one day, because she could see my belly and I proved to her that I had been standing up straight the whole time…I just had a belly! She turned back to her computer and didn’t say a word.

That day is burned in my memory because that’s when I correlated “being good” with not having a belly. She would always compliment me on my legs but when it came to my midsection there would always be something wrong.

Now, if I could ask her about those conversations today I know she would say that she didn’t mean anything negative or hurtful by her comments, but to my little ears at the time all I was hearing was, “You’re fat! You have a belly and that’s disgusting! If you want to eat today you’ll have to burn several calories to EARN your meal!.”

All I’m saying is that words are very very important! I look to my mom for the perfect definition of health. She was so proud of her body and what it could do. It was never about the outward appearance! Be careful with the words you choose to describe yourself, others, and your children.

The seeds that are planted in their little minds now will be harvested when they’re older.

Lets make their harvest fruitful and plentiful!

YOUR WORTH ISN’T IN YOUR WEIGHT

Lets get our orientation and mindset around the simple word “worth”.

: good, valuable, or important enough: deserving of:

: the value of something measured by its qualities of by the esteem in which it is held

: usefulness or importance

: an amount of something that has a specified value, that lasts for a specified length of time, etc.

: the value equivalent to that of someone or something under consideration’ the level at which someone or something deserves to be valued or rated

Now think about yourself. Do you consider yourself to be of worth?

If you answered YES, great. You can skip this section.

If you answered NO, great. Keep reading.

Think of some ways you consider yourself NOT to be worth it.

So you can get a better understanding I’ll list a few ways I didn’t feel worth it a few years ago.

- I never felt good enough because I was always corrected and/or my parents were never ever satisfied with my work.

- I felt like my body wasn’t good enough.

*I was an athlete but I didn’t look like all the other girl athletes (straight body, no boobs, flat stomach) so I always thought I was doing something wrong.

- I felt ashamed for who I was. On the outside it looked like I had everything together but once I was alone I would rip myself apart with my words and physical harm.

I did not feel worthy enough to take care of myself!

I did not feel good enough to not let the lies of society mentally shatter me and break me down.

Instead of finding my worth in MYSELF and in God I found it in my physical attributes. I let how I looked decide on the attitude I would have for that day.

Think of all the times you spent obsessing over your weight, weighing your food, counting every calorie, saying no to plans with friends because you weren’t sure where they were going to eat and you didn’t want to feel “tempted” to eat “bad” food. Now think of all the times you could’ve been spending on YOUR passion, family, or friends. Maybe starting your own business or going out with friends. Whatever it may be choose to do what YOU want to do and shift your mindset and L O V E into the things you need in life.

My one and only request is that you will take these 9 reasons and implement them into your daily life so you can experience freedom from the scale, the numbers, and the war between your mind and body. Remember that if you want this new freedom you must be all in and set these reasons into play today. I promise you that if you give your 100% you will experience the chains being lifted from the bondage of the number game.

Be Relentless and always be moving forward!

Thank you dearly,

Bethany Michael Langland

email: bethanylangland@gmail.com

IG: betsmichael

FB: relentlesstraining16

[chestnutpost]

5 Ways We’re Powerless Against Junk Food Marketers And What To Do About It

This post was originally published on this site

When is addiction a good idea for an advertising slogan? When it’s shilling potato chips, apparently.

In the ’60s, Lay’s potato chips’ ”betcha can’t eat just one″ campaign linked the irresistibility of junk food with the reality of mindless overeating. In the ’90s, Pringles told us that “once you pop, you can’t stop.” Were these promises, or were they threats?

For many of us, they were predictions of a future in which junk food would rule over us all and we would just be its bidding-doing serfs. Here’s an example: According to the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, the “food” that’s our No. 1 source of calories is “grain-based dessert,” which includes the empty calories found in, among other things, cakes, cookies, doughnuts and granola bars. (Also in the top 10: bread, pizza, soda, energy drinks and sports drinks.)

If you’re watching yourself reach for that sleeve of Oreos or that bag of “fun size” treats and feeling more and more out of control, you’re not alone. Research indicates that cravings for ultra-processed snacks like these are unrelated to hunger.

People speak jokingly about being “addicted” to junk food, but that comparison might be more accurate than previously thought. Sugar has been shown to activate our brains in much the same way cocaine does. And a study published last year indicates that people who reduce intake of highly processed foods can experience some of the same physical and psychological symptoms as people who are withdrawing from tobacco or marijuana use, including irritability and headaches.

Yes, we’re often powerless against the delights of impulse buys at the checkout counter, the charms of the office vending machine or the temptations of the birthday party treat table. But we’re all perfectly rational people, right? Why is this happening to us?

Reason 1: You’re a human being

“It’s innate that people like junk food,” said Zata Vickers, a professor in the department of food science and nutrition at the University of Minnesota. [Her favorite junk food: “Before I gave up salty things, Cheetos were my most irresistible.”]

“We’re born with a liking for sweetness and umami, and by about age 6 months, we acquire a liking for salt,” she said. Junk foods have picked up on that manufacturer-original-equipment we’ve been issued and figured out how to give us more and more of exactly the tastes we’re born wanting.

In addition to these innate preferences, Vickers said, humans quickly learn to seek out foods with high caloric density. “We can’t detect vitamins or minerals, but we’re really good at learning to spot density. We figure out pretty quickly that we can eat a salad that’s a mountain of just lettuce, onions and shredded carrots and feel one way, or eat 1/10 the volume of Häagen-Dazs and feel nicely satisfied.”

Reason 2: You have taste buds

In fact, you have as many as 10,000 of them, visible as small bumps on your tongue, the roof of your mouth and throat. Each of these bumps, called papillae, holds up to 700 taste buds, and each one of those has as many as 80 specialized taste-receptor cells. “More DNA is dedicated to flavor-sensing than to any other bodily system, including the brain and eyes,” said Mark Schatzker, author of The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor. (His favorite junk food: No surprise, Doritos.)

So here you are, with all this taste-sensing equipment and with a brain that’s designed to encourage you to eat the foods you need to thrive. And while many folks point to individual ingredients as culprits, “Salt, sugar and fat were in easy supply for decades before the obesity crisis, and they didn’t lead to our undoing,” Schatzker said. What hasn’t been around before now, he said, are industrially produced flavorings that send our taste buds into overdrive.

He calls it “flavor dose creep,” and he said it’s exemplified by riot-of-flavor products like Doritos Jacked Ranch Dipped Hot Wings tortilla chips. “It’s a tortilla chip that taste like chicken wings dipped in hot sauce and then dipped in salad dressing,” he explained. “A tortilla chip on its own has salt, fat and carbs. But it’s the flavorings on these Doritos that make you want to keep eating them.”

Armed with a scientific roadmap of the human palate, the mission of food manufacturers has been to load foods up with so much flavor that they leave the realm of “mmm, tastes good” and enter into a zone that former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David A. Kessler, author of The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite, described as “hyperpalatability.” We love to eat things that taste good. So it stands to reason we’ll really love foods that taste supergoodfingerlickinlicious. And, it turns out we do ― we really, really do.

Reason 3: You are, literally, an “eating machine”

Your ancestors probably had lost at least a few of their teeth by the time they reached adulthood, but odds are you’ve got pretty close to the full set of 32 flossed, brushed and gleaming choppers. Not only are you probably more efficient at eating than they were, but food manufacturers are smoothing the way down your gullet with foods that have what’s called “vanishing caloric density.”

The Platonic ideals of this concept are humble, orange-dusted Cheetos, described by their manufacturer as cheese-flavored puffed cornmeal snacks but known to many people as “Satan’s doodles.” In Michael Moss’ Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, food scientist Steven Witherly described how easy it is to binge on the cheesy-salty puffs: “If something melts down quickly, your brain thinks that there’s no calories in it … you can just keep eating it forever.”

Other examples of this concept abound in foods that are marketed to children. Even a toddler can inhale a squeeze pouch of applesauce in a matter of moments. Or try handing a 5-year-old a Go-Gurt and time how quickly it takes to reach the bottom (and ingest 10 grams of sugar in the process). Bottom line: Cavemen had to work to masticate their food. Our super-packaged food has done the hard work for us before we even start.

Reason 4: You have happy childhood memories

Blame your mom and that gorgeous layer cake she baked every year on your birthday. Blame those junior high sleepovers when everyone bonded over pizza. Junk foods tend to be associated with some of the most relaxed and celebratory times of our lives, Vickers said.

“If you go to a birthday party when you’re a child and you have fun, you’ll associate the foods that were served at the party with positive social interactions,” she said. “I swear that a big reason people like pizza is because of its associations with things like Friday nights watching TV with the family or going out for casual meals with friends.

“Think about it. You don’t serve chips at formal, stuffy dinners. You serve them at times and places where people are having fun. When we associate a food with something positive, we’re more likely to want to eat it.” And junk food, it turns out, always seems to turn up when the party is getting started.

Reason 5: You are too busy for this nonsense

Here’s the thing about fresh food: It spoils. Here’s the thing about packaged food: It lasts for a long, long time. How do they do that? One example is Vickers’ explanation of why chip bags are so puffy ― they’re pumped full of nitrogen gas. “The nitrogen keeps the oxygen out, which might otherwise cause the fats on the chips to grow rancid,” she said. (And now you know what all that puffiness is about ― at least as far as those bags are concerned.)

If you take a bowl of potato salad or a fresh veggie platter to a picnic, and you leave it out in the hot sun all day, ick. But bring along a package of Oreo cookies or a bag of chips, and they’ll be fresh as ever when the sun goes down. (Should this worry you? Yes.)

It’s easier to pick up a convenient, always “fresh”(ish) package of junk food instead of a fussy bunch of produce that demands, “Wash me! Dry me! Cook me! Keep me at the perfect temperature!” Even worse, that fresh stuff comes in one size and one variety, and expects you to do all of the work to make it taste the way you want. Doritos, on the other hand, come in 19 delicious flavors, including Dinamita Chile Limon, Blaze & Ultimate Cheddar Collisions and Tapatío. Carrots, however regrettably, do not.

If you find yourself thinking, “Yes, I am too busy to bother with fresh food and all its many needs and lack of industrially produced flavor fun,” you may be putting your finger on the racing pulse of your junk food addiction.

What to do now

Her first suggestion is to understand that deprivation doesn’t work. “We’ve done studies where we told people that a certain food was forbidden for them to eat, and it only made them want it more,” she said. “Don’t deny yourself an entire category of food, because it’s been known to backfire.”

Schatzker’s new book, The End of Craving, will be published next year. In the meantime, he had some simple words of advice: Seek out real deliciousness. We’ve become accustomed to thinking of food as the enemy, he says, but in other countries, the food culture is festive and people take joy in eating.

“The two countries with arguably the highest standard of food are Italy and Japan,” he said. “They treasure high-quality ingredients, and they also are among the thinnest people in the world.”

Mann had this mind-blowing advice: “You should be able to have what you like, but try to keep it in a reasonable quantity. Look at what an actual serving size is on a package of junk food. Eat that. Enjoy it. Then stop.”

The post 5 Ways We’re Powerless Against Junk Food Marketers And What To Do About It appeared first on The Chestnut Post.

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