I'd rather take a cab...

So this is a SOAPBOX edition today.  Have you seen the new campaign(s) for Subway lately?  You know, the ones with all the healthy options, including the NEW yogurt parfait along with several other breakfast choices, touting the slogan that goes something along the lines of "Where the athletes eat..." (not exact words but something similar)? 
Let me start off by saying that the one time my husband has had food poisoning, the culprit was known to be the "rainbow meat" (he calls it that) from Subway.  There's a reason he calls it "rainbow meat":  If you hold it just right in the light, a sparkling, shimmery rainbow pattern glistens the surface of this ever-so-processed "meat."  It makes me sick just to think of it--probably not as much as him, though!  Here's the thing, if anything ever qualified as "meat," this wouldn't be it.  Take a look at the following ingredients (posted right on their site for all to see):

• HAM (Black Forest): Ham cured with: water, dextrose, salt, potassium lactate, contains 2% or less modified food starch (derived from corn), sodium phosphates, sodium diacetate, sodium erythorbate, smoke flavoring, sodium nitrite. May contain: seasoning [potassium chloride, pork stock, sugar, yeast extract, salt, lactic acid, fructose, sunflower oil, cysteine HCL, calcium lactate, modified food starch, flavors, grill flavor (from sunflower oil), polysorbate 80, rendered pork fat, and smoke flavor], hydrolyzed corn protein, autolyzed yeast extract, modified food starch, acacia gum, sunflower oil, tricalcium phosphate, silicon dioxide, spices and sulfites.
• BEEF:  Beef, beef broth (water, beef stock), seasoning (hydrolyzed soy protein, salt, dextrose, modified corn starch, sodium phosphates, beef extract, soy sauce powder [soy sauce (soybeans, salt, alcohol) maltodextrin, salt], yeast extract, natural and artificial flavor, grill flavor [maltodextrin, grill flavor (from vegetable oil), modified corn starch, corn syrup solids]), beef flavor (water, natural flavors, beef fat, gelatin/gum arabic coacervate, xanthan gum, citric acid, potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate and soybean oil). Rubbed with: salt, maltodextrin, modified corn starch, dextrose, caramel color, beef extract, garlic powder, onion powder, natural flavor. May contain tomato, lemon, onions, peppers,Contains soy.
• TURKEY:  Turkey breast, turkey broth, contains 2% or less of: carrageenanan, dextrose, modified food starch (derived from corn), salt, seasoned salt (salt, sodium diacetate, flavoring), sodium lactate, sodium phosphate. * Browned in soybean oil. May contain: seasonings (modified corn starch, dextrose, salt, carrageenan, sodium diacetate
  

Anyways, I needed to discuss this soon after I saw the commercial.  I consider myself an athlete even though I don't play any sport:  I lift weights, I sprint, I keep my health in check and I follow through with any injury/health concerns on a regular basis just like any other athlete that plays an organized sport.  I just don't have a uniform or the skills...not to mention the ability to play well with others, but that's another story altogether!  To put it simply, I bust my ass to remain healthy and feel that I have earned the right to consider myself as such!  With this said, this ATHLETE ain't goin' no where near no Subway anytime soon!  Believe!

If you're all like me and have any sort of food allergies (most of us do, some of you just may not know it!)...avoid this LIKE THE PLAGUE!  I'm pretty sure the meat I eat at my house has one simple ingredient!

Allow me to touch on their nutritious breakfast options; but, may I add first that I can't even imagine the thought of having breakfast at Subway--it just seems odd!  In their attempt to touch on all the needs of the American population, they offer a "regular" egg omelet "patty" and one made of egg whites.  Here's the lovely ingredient list for those gems:

• EGG OMELET PATTY (Regular): Whole Eggs, Egg Whites, Water, Nonfat Dry Milk, Premium Egg Blend (isolated pea product, salt, citric acid, dextrose, guar gum, xanthan gum, extractive of spice, propylene glycol and not more than 2% calcium silicate and glycerin to prevent caking), Soybean Oil, Butter Alternative (liquid and hydrogenated soybean oil, salt, soy lecithin, natural and artificial flavors, beta carotene (color), TBHQ and citric acid added to protect flavor, dimethylpolysiloxane (antifoaming agent added), Salt, Beta-Carotene (color).Contains eggs, milk and soy.
• EGG WHITE OMELET PATTY: Egg whites, artificial butter oil (soybean oil, artificial flavor), modified corn starch. Contains less than 2% of the following: dicalcium phosphate, salt, xanthan gum, white pepper. Contains eggs.

I'm guessing they are trying to caplitalize on the conventional wisdom that the yolks are bad and will raise your cholesterol; SO, what do they give you instead--artificial butter made from soybean oil and artificial flavor, modified cornstarch, and other fluff that's entirely unnecessary.  It seems to me like they'd be fine just stopping after the first ingredient if someone feels compelled to order sans the yolk.  BUT, that would mean that the shelf-life would be far less and they wouldn't get to serve who-knows-how-old egg white omelet patties.  One word:  GROSS.

Let's hop on the breakfast parfait bandwagon shall we Subway?  I don't know where we got the notion that such a thing could be considered a health food.  It was probably decided by the same panel that gave the stamp of approval to bagels, muffins, and wraps (and, YES, I'm bashing all of them, "whole wheat" or not!!!).  This cup-o-joy for your morning commute contains 24 grams of sugar and a host of allergens for all my allergy-rific peeps out there.  It may only have 164 calories (for those of you who are calorie-obsessed); but I'd rather get my calories from something other than a boat load of sugar that's only going to have me crashing 2-3 hours after I eat it! 

Proud parent...

In case you didn't know, Korey and I own 11 hens and 2 roosters--turns out that one of the original dozen "hens" we bought back in May happens to have been born a boy!  Long story short:  he's found himself now.  He and BC (our actual rooster) are starting to be at odds with one another...you know, kinda how two pimps would be fighting over 11 hoes.  Well, anyway, we've been waiting what seems like forever for eggs.  This particular breed of chicken, we were told, is supposed to lay around 310 eggs EACH per year, starting around age 6 months.  When we purchased them in May we were under the impression that they were already 4 months old.  You do the math:  that means in only 2 months time, I'd be in egg heaven, right?  I've safely deduced that my hens were NOT that old when we bought them.  As a matter of fact, the actual rooster we purchased separately was supposed to have been the same age and the hens.  He started crowing a good 2 months before our other rooster came out! 
Where am I going with this, you ask?  You'll see...
Tuesday afternoon I go out to their house to let them out to roam around and THERE...like a shining nugget that had fallen straight from Heaven, a small, lonesome egg shone in the corner of the chickens' house.  I swear to you it had light beaming off of it like a pot at the end of my long awaited rainbow.  Keep in mind, this is now the end of September!  These hens had been getting threats from me to be put on the spit for a couple of months by this point if they didn't get to producin'! 
Back to my egg!  Of course, being married and somewhat skeptical about whether or not my husband was tyring to by "funny," my first thought was, "This better not be a trick Korey is trying to play on me because I will certainly kick his ass when he gets home!"  Then rationality kicked back in and a huge smile came across my face; I was elated--just like a new mommy (well, as close to one as I could have gotten at that point)!  I brought in the treasure, took a picture and sent it to everyone that I thought may give a smidge of a damn and would be happy for me.  Everyone was!  And yes, I'm a HUGE DORK. I realize this.
What's next?  Well, one of the chickens has laid at least one more egg, yesterday as a matter of fact--this one slightly bigger than the first.  In a way I'm a little sad because we have to break the news to the "egg man" that we buy our eggs from locally.  We typically buy 3 dozen from him and his wife every Sunday (Korey and I are egg-ivores if there were such things--we go through a TON each week).
The point of this little story isn't to allow you to see just how darn domesticated I am.  The point is to discuss the value of being able to have things that are given to you by nature, organically created, and tended to with nurture and care.  All of the attention, money, you name it, has gone into the creation of not just that first little jewel but into the creation of many a meal, snack, hors deuvers--all from 20 yards away from my front door.  I know what goes into the chickens, how they are allowed to roam around as they wish and I know that the eggs they eventually give me will be 1000 fold more nutritious than any egg purchased at any grocery store.  Even the "organic, omega-3" eggs can't hold a candle to these babies!
Now for the nutrition part...
There are few things on this planet that are more nutritious than an egg.  Egg's have gotten such a bad reputation over the years via conventional wisdom and doctors telling us not to eat them if we wanted to keep our cholesterol down.  That evil yolk of deadly saturated fat quickly became the target of much criticism.  So society's answer:  cut eggs of your diet and if you dare eat anything resembling an egg, it must come from a carton in the form of a liquidy jelly-like substance, colored with yellow number 40 to trick our minds into thinking we're consuming an egg. 
An egg is a solid source of protein, easily digested protein for that matter (unless you're allergic to them, that is!) and contains all nine of the essential amino acids.  Guess what?  There is no significant like between egg consumption and cardiovascular disease!  So, doc, you can take that and shove your theory on dietary intake of cholesterol you know where.  Eggs are great for your eyesight since they are high in lutein and zeaxanthin.  The choline found in eggs is a powerful nutrient to help the body protect itself from damage to the brain, nervous, and cardiovascular systems.  Eggs (the yolk mainly) is one of very few sources of naturally occurring vitamin D.  Speaking of the yolk, EAT IT!  Yes, it's the FAT in the egg, and YES it houses the cholesterol.  If you remember nothing, try to remember this:  there is no actual length between dietary cholesterol intake and serum cholesterol levels (the level you have tested each year during your annual exam)!  Repeat that to yourself and REMEMBER IT!  The yolk is a source of healthy fat and is also crammed with all sorts of vitamins and minerals.  Just a factoid that goes right along with this discussion:  No you don't need a rooster for hens to lay eggs (I've gotten this question a LOT).  However, if the egg is fertilized by the rooster that increases the nutrition of the egg that much more.  I don't want to know the source or the mechanism that makes it that way (probably am safer not knowing) but it's true.  How do you tell:  when you crack the egg, there will be a tiny red dot on the yolk.  That's all I'm going to say regarding the nutrition.
I can't think of many better ways to start off a day other than with some fresh, organic, freely-roaming chicken eggs.  I look forward to the umpteen hundred I'll get yearly from my brood!  Note:  I'll have PLENTY to go around...keep this in mind if you'd like to give home-grown eggs a try, I may need some folks to help get them off my hands! 

So, I probably have done everything under the sun when it comes to cardiovascular activity:  jogged/walked, cadio-kickboxed, high-intensity stepped, sprinted, stair-climbed (all for countless hours at a time)--you name it, I've done it.  This includes gut-wrenching hours on the pavement of the streets of Greensboro, pounding out what seemed like endless miles.  And for what?  Okay, so there is that fact that I can say I've completed a marathon and 3 half marathons; BUT, aside from that, it didn't grant me anything other than dreadful, BORING, pretty much useless time wasted.  You go into these "things" thinking, "I'm going to get fit and look great and I'm going to do by way of (fill in the blank)."  Let's make this clear and simple:  More is NOT better!  I can tell you this from experience. 
You already know that I did the whole "I'm-gonna-lose-weight-by-going-vegan" thing, remember?  Well, at the same point in my life I decided to make another ridiculous decision and that was to start training for lengthy races--my first being a half marathon.  Long story short, not only was I depriving my body of much-needed nutrients that even a sedentary person would need to remain in okay health, but I was doing this while putting my body through hours of undue and unjust stress without giving it what it needed to operate at it's peak or to fully recover from all of that running.  I was literally breaking myself down on the inside and not seeing a damn bit of difference on the outside other than I started to look more "soft" than I did before I made those two not-well-thought-out (or well-educated) choices.
Long before this time in my life, back when I first got the initiative to start trying to lose weight, I definitely fell into the trap that I needed to not only eat less but MOVE MORE to get results.  Picture me:  NCSU student gym; 30 minutes on the elliptical, 30 minutes on the bike, 30 minutes on the treadmill; 1-hour long aerobic group exercise class; 15 minute abdominal group exercise class.  YUP, that's all in one day folks!  It's that MORE IS BETTER frame of mind we've all been conditioned to at some point.  Yes, I'll admit I got results initially.  This statement is analogous with any trendy diet:  You'll lose weight initially because you've either got excess to lose or your body has to take time to adapt to whatever it is you're doing that's different--or in some cases, BOTH.  But then what happens?  It all comes to a screeching halt.  You're left asking yourself, "But I've done (fill in the blank) for umpteen hours EVERYDAY and the scale is not moving!  What is going on here?" 
We've all been there if you're like me and have tried to lose weight before.  Well, frankly it's taken me quite a while to break down the conventional-thinking wall that we need to spend several hours a week stomping it out on a treadmill or going 500 miles on a bike the whole time you're at the gym.  A huge factor that feeds into the dread of doing these activities has nothing to do with the time spent doing it--it's WHAT YOU'RE DOING!  Simply put, if you don't like the activity, you're not going to want to do it, and you're not going to feel good while you're doing it, AND you'll dread the next time you'll "have to" do it before you even finish the time you're spending while doing it!  So ask yourself why spend so much time doing something that you HATE (I prefer the term LOATHE!) when you're really not benefitting physically or psychologically.
What really pisses me off is that the notion that we need to eat less and move more is still all that's being touted through the media!  Now, don't get me wrong--this principal definately applies to the woman whose currently trying to become the world's fattest woman (a soapbox subject on its own for me), with her weighing 1500 and some odd pounds by eating 20,000 calories a day.  Unfortunately she's near her goal, so maybe that's what matters?  But anyway, I digress!  Back to the notion of eating less and moving more for optimal health.
Eating less we can get into on a later date.  Moving more, I've already briefly touched on that.  Moving is good, really good.  Finding something you enjoy doing that incorporates lots of moving is even better.  Sports of any kind, for example, are a great choice especially if it involves a lot of full-body movement and gets the heart rate up for a period of time.  Here's where it's sticky from a "fun" stand point:  Though you need to find movement you enjoy, you should also incorporate other movements that truthfully suck while you're doing them BUT are over quickly and make you feel energized when you're done.  "What are you speaking of, some sort of torture is what it sounds like?"  I know this is what you're thinking and some people, including myself at times, could equate these types of activities with torture!  I'm talking about fast, quick, ass-busting (not literally, just figuratively!) sprints--whether in the form of running out or inside, biking, cycling, ellipticaling (I just made up a word).  Whatever the equipment, even if it just you, your own body, and a hill, move your weight from one point to another as fast as you can.........and then rest.  Rest only as long as necessary to move your weight again from one point to another as fast as you can.........and rest again.  Easy enough, right?  This is the type of "cardio" our ancestors did when sprinting to either run after their dinner or run in an effort to not become dinner!  What this means is that this is how our genes were made to perform:  short, intense bursts with periods of rest.  What this also means is that (given that you're working at optimal intensity) your "cardio" sessions could be cut down to as little as 15 minutes!  Starting to sound maybe a little less like torture, right?
I find it quite refreshing to start and end a cardio workout within 20 minutes or so--sure does beat those hour-and-some-odd-minute long bouts.  YES IT SUCKS while I'm busting my arse at 10.0 mph intervals on the treadmill; BUT, not only do I get rest between those sprints, my body welcomes the challenge and thanks me by BURNING FAT for fuel after I'm done!  Not sure about you, but I love reaping that benefit.  I can honestly say that since the lightbulb went on for me in regards to how to do cardio, I have been in the best cardiovascular shape of my life and have never been so lean (and MEAN some would say!).  It's definitely worth the challenge; it sucks, but you're done in 20!  Can't argue with that!