There are several aspects of my new, experimental LCHF diet that I find difficult. The most difficult is getting enough to eat. You'd think it would be easy to eat all the bacon and steak one wanted. It ain't. For one thing, fresh meat and high quality bacon means constant grocery shopping. And we're a family of six eaters. Imagine the amount of bacon we have to buy to satisfy all of us. For six, we need at least a pound and a half at a serving, and that leads to a few of us pining for just one more piece. And to fights.
And because I truly believe in the importance of buying high quality meat -- as in grass-fed, free-range, home-schooled -- we spend a small fortune on meat. Again, six eaters means two chickens, or eight breasts, or several pounds of ground beef for every dinner. Of course, I give it my best newbie meat eater try with meatloaves and stew-type meals to help mitigate costs. I know tenderloin for six is stupid planning. I'm learning as fast as I can.
Another problem is I'm the only one in the family with a taste for the more "flavorful" end of the meat spectrum. I eat all the cheap (and delicious) offal, I eat all the bone marrow. I'm the only one excited to try the tripe soup. My husband does bravely give anything I make a try. But, God forbid my children taste something not sanitized out of all recognition of its origins. While our girls won't even look at raw meat, running away in horror, they have no problems eating bland white meat with a breaded exterior. Our boys play it more cool but still won't try much of anything that looks like the animal it is.
My husband and I created these children, but I'm not sure how we did because we have never been your typical American eaters, having been tofu-eating vegetarians most of our adult lives. Maybe it's a result of them growing up in America. All we can do is keep making healthy food and hoping their tastes mature sometime.
Back to the problem of not enough to eat. I do my best to make meals using fresh ingredients, but they run out quickly, as do leftovers, if we have them. So I'm left trying to put together a LC meal from pantry ingredients and whatever is left in the fridge. The kids and my husband still eat carbs so they can just make pasta or rice or pour a bowl of death carbs, I mean, cereal. I'm stuck making myself eggs, again. Or eating salami and cheese and olives, again. Sometimes I just give up and don't eat.
This problem of running out of food is due to my inexperience with dealing with fresh, whole meat products. I have to figure out the balance between maintaining stock and not wasting food by not eating it in time. Yes, I know, all you experienced cooks, especially all you working moms, that's what the freezer is for! I'm learning. Eventually I'll have it down. But for now, I miss the convenience and long-term storage of high carb foods!
My little LCHF eating buddy. He's got my back.
What is Freedom?
What is freedom? Is it the freedom to do whatever we want without government interference? Is it the freedom to shape our political or social culture through group action? Does it mean a well-ordered society that allows us to make long range plans without the chaos of shifting rules and new paradigms? Maybe it's freedom from anarchy and the inevitable rule of the strongest. Security is a freedom of sorts. Not worrying about whether or not one will be able to feed one's children is a freedom. It's a freedom from fear and despair. How free does one feel who can't get medical help for a sick child?
There's a freedom that comes with money. Would you rather be rich in a less free country or poor in a freer one? I'm not sure which I'd pick -- personal freedom or my ideals. And there's the freedom that comes with living far away from the bureaucrats. But that has less to do with principle than environment. We can't recreate our Wild West, and most people wouldn't choose to live in the wilds of Alaska only to be able to drink raw milk and ride helmet-less.
I recently had a long conversation with someone who feels our freedoms as Americans are being lost; that America is becoming a tyranny. And he wants to move to another country where he can be more free. But I could never get him to tell me what he means by freedom. I think he means his own personal freedom to live without petty rules and regulations.
Personally, I think most of the petty rules and regulations growing around us come more from busybody people than from any governmental plan to enslave and control us. Neighborhoods pass ordinances in an attempt to keep resale values high. Pools lose diving boards because parents sued when a child broke his neck. Helmets become mandatory because we hate the idea of someone unnecessarily risking his life. We have to fight creeping legalism by not turning to government to regulate behavior and risks we ourselves don't like and by accepting the consequences of our stupid choices.
Businesses also want to protect themselves, and they turn to government to slow down upstarts and eliminate competition. And people in these industries usually go right along with anything that helps them. How many of us manage to be objective when it comes to our own paychecks and benefits?
My friend is betting against the U.S. He's willing to put his resources and energy into another country he thinks will allow him to be more free. He thinks he'll find people who love personal liberty more somewhere else. I don't know. If, today, you had to place a chip representing your life savings and future earnings on either the square where the U.S. will remain a first class country with an imperfect but sure emphasis on personal liberty or on the square where our country becomes a failed state that turns to rounding up old people and raiding their bank accounts, I think you'd be a fool to bet so much on the latter.
The freedom to nap.
Posted at 07:54 PM in Adorable Animal Pictures, Photos, Thoughtful Commentary | Permalink | Comments (0)
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