Happy Earth Day!

Today's the day – actually every day's the day – to honor our Mother. And you thought Mother's Day wasn't until May 9. Hah!

Forty years ago when Earth Day began, I was less than two weeks from my first child's birth. Saving the planet was not on my radar, to tell you the truth. As a young wife and mother-to-be, I had other, more pressing issues.

As I've gotten older (and when you have a 40-year-old child, believe me you're old!), I've evolved into someone who at least makes some attempt to respect and preserve our environment. I'm not a zealot, and I could do much better. We all could, or there would be no need for Earth Day, right?

My husband and I watched Food, Inc. again last night. Using our resources wisely is one theme of the documentary, illustrated perfectly by Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms, whose credo is:

We are in the redemption business:

healing the land, healing the food,

healing the economy, and healing the culture.

At the end of the film, suggestions for eating better food pop up randomly on the screen. As we read them, my husband remarked, "I'm really proud of you. You do all that stuff!"

I don't do all of it, but I do what I can. And I could do much better. We all could.

The news

My husband and I (he more than I) are news junkies. He watches the stock ticker all day and is glued to MSNBC all evening, with breaks for Brian Williams at 6:30 and Jeopardy at 7:30. What to do with the 7 p.m. time slot? More news, of course.

If you watch The Daily Show in the early evening, you get the previous night's rerun, which is fine with us because we're watching MSNBC. (Or he is; I'm usually in bed by then.) The big news Tuesday was, of course, President Obama's speech to the American public justifying sending more troops to Afghanistan. For some, there is no justification. And for others, nothing President Obama does will ever be right … or right enough.

Jon Stewart didn't dwell on it, though. His big news story of the day was illustrated by a clever montage of talking heads. The background music was Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, and each clip was someone dithering about The Man Who Makes His Living Hitting a Ball with a Stick.

I had to climb back on the couch by the time it was over. I was laughing so hard I was crying.

I'm disappointed in Tiger's behavior, and any public figure should know better than to dally with someone not his/her spouse. The paparazzi are watching. All. The. Time.

If only someone in the film corps would take that kind of interest in, say, factory farms. Sure documentary makers have done so, but only nerds watch documentaries, right? (Yes, I am a nerd.)

I've been thinking about exercise lately, mostly because I can't do as much with this foot problem. But I've been thinking about food even more. Online nutrition counters are filled to overflowing with packaged, labeled, name-brand foods. Sure, the basics are in there, and I don't have too much trouble figuring out the data for my home-cooked meals. But it's astonishing to look up, say, "beef stew" and get three dozen results, all of which are either canned, frozen or dished up by a restaurant.

I'm convinced that processed foods are more responsible for rising obesity rates than their makers – or any official agency – will admit. Follow the money: It's cheaper to strip real food of its nutrients and then add some of them back, load it with preservatives and slap a "Healthy Choice" label on it. It's more convenient for consumers to buy a low-calorie frozen whatever, throw it in the microwave and call it lunch.

I have the luxury of being able to raise some of my food and barter for more. I still go to the grocery store – we haven't given up our soda addiction, and I don't raise coffee, tea, sugar, flour or olives (for olive oil). I've learned that organic carrots, for instance, taste better than non-organic ones. Therefore I eat them. I've ordered meat for the freezer from the man who raised the cow.

This is how I ate growing up. Our beef was always from a grass-fed 4-H cow. Chickens ran around the pen or yard until their time was up. My dad's garden was huge and he was very proud of being able to offer his family fresh, wholesome food.

I was not fat until we moved to a house located right across the street from a little mom-and-pop grocery store. I'm sure I had a sweet tooth prior to that move, but my choices were limited to what my mother cooked and served. By the time we moved to that house, I had an allowance and could cross the street by myself.

I was 11.

So here's what I hope will happen. If I go back to eating the way I did when I was seven, say – no second helpings, good fresh food, grass-fed beef – I hope to trick my body into thinking I weigh what a seven-year-old should weigh giving up some of the excess pounds without resorting to "diet food."

Diet food doesn't satisfy. One 100-calorie snack bag leads to three, or six, or however many are in the overpackaged, overpriced box. A low-calorie frozen meal does not a good lunch make, which is why one finds oneself standing in front of a vending machine (or a pantry door) at 3 p.m.

I had a good day yesterday. I did 30 minutes of interval training on the treadmill. I ate three meals of real food, had a few almonds in the afternoon (I didn't count, but it was definitely less than 22, which is an almond "serving"), and didn't snack last night.

Unless you count Jon Stewart as a snack.

Real food for real people

So, my husband and I went to the movies yesterday. We like documentaries, and the nearest theatre which regularly features them is two hours away. Going to the movies is a day trip for us.

We saw Food, Inc., and decided on the way home we might become vegetarians. At the very least, we will seek out family farm-raised chicken, beef and pork. Turns out one of the farmers interviewed in the film is two, maybe two and a half hours from us, and sells his products to the public almost every Saturday.

So buying meat will be a day trip, as well.

At the very end of the film there were many suggestions flashed up randomly on the screen, ideas you can use to eat better. One was "Plant a garden. (Even a small one.)" My husband nudged me; he knows how much my garden means to me.

We have friends who are about as self-sustaining as you can get and not be Amish. We called them on our way home and invited ourselves to dinner. For the rest of our lives! Heh.

Interestingly, Time magazine published an article on the comeback of "real food," a response to consumers who were withdrawing from manufactured food. The article appeared October 12, 1987. Here we are, 22 years later, singing the same old song. Amazing.

It's kind of like health care reform, isn't it? Harry Truman wanted to implement an improved health care delivery system in the '40s. And here we are, 60 years later and much more deeply entrenched in the illness-for-profit game insurers love to play. In spite of my President's press conference last night, I have little hope for true reform as long as insurance companies continue to be a part of the mix. They're rushing to raise their premiums now, before reform passes.

Did anyone else notice that the phraseology was changed from "health care reform" to "health insurance reform?" That, at least, is more honest about what needs to be done. Actually, single payer is what needs to be done, but no one with any kind of power seems to be listening to us.

Some knitting news! I cast on for a sweater for me a couple days ago. The new issue of Knit Simple featured a lovely, comfortable cardigan that looked like just the kind of easy knitting I can handle right now. You can see it in the "9 to 5" preview; it's the fourth one in the row, bright red. I'm doing mine in periwinkle blue.

And I'm still walking. I refused to weigh myself this morning. If I'm walking for the sake of walking, I can't let the scale discourage me in any way whatsoever. I can't boycott it completely, but I think I'll wait until I get back from visiting my dad to check my weight again. That may or may not be a mistake.

My dad's a very good cook. Heh.