Stefanie's Mission Statement

Well, imaginary cyberspace friend, it's just you and me again. I feel like I'm with an old familiar friend when I'm writing to you ;). I just finished a book called "The Omnivore's Dilemma." I started reading it a few months back and got about a third of the way through when I got distracted in my life and set it aside to do other things (you know...move, change my whole life, etc.), but I picked it back up because just reading the first third opened my eyes to what I was putting in my mouth so much that I couldn't wait to see what the rest of it brought me. I was not disappointed. I don't know if I'll ever be able to look at a piece of meat the same way again! Especially meat from a fast food restaurant or even a sit down restaurant. For example, an ad on TV for a local restaurant boasts that their Grade A USDA choice beef is from cows who are only fed an all grain diet. Wait. That's probably not something you want to be proud of because, in case you didn't know, feeding grain to a cow is like feeding grass to us. They can't digest it without great difficulty and it wreaks havoc on their system. Also, if they're being fed an all grain diet, that means the cow was raised on a killing farm, where he lived a lovely life standing in his own feces and being pumped so full of antibiotics, there was no way he was getting sick in his short, unhealthy life. Don't even get me started on the hormones to bulk him up! And yes, we are ingesting that whenever we eat meat from a cow that was fed an all grain diet. Sigh. I love learning about food. And I love that I have such a passion for it! I have never enjoyed reading non-fiction before. But that was mainly due to the fact that I had to read history books that were quite boring (at least to me...yeah, once again...wrong degree there). I started reading another book called "The China Study." I'm only in the first part of it, but already it has made me say out loud...on the train...no way! How's this for no way...in 2006 "we [spent] one out of every seven dollars the economy produces on health care." That was five years ago (almost). And we all know the economy tanked since then, so who knows how much is spent now. I know we, as a country, haven't gotten any healthier (in general). The man who authored this book, T. Colin Campbell boils it down to this: "The answer to the American health crisis is the food that each of us chooses to put in our mouths each day. It's as simple as that." I am so excited to read the rest of this book and compare it with what I've read so far. I can also tell why Jim gave this to me...vegan boy ;). We'll see what happens.

So, I've been going without dairy this week. It was two different people who led me to try it, and I figured if two people, that I trust eat well and are well informed, told me I should try it.... Okay. It's been hard! There is dairy in everything! Unless I go to specialty stores and get the non-dairy stuff, I could not eat chocolate! Even the darkest 80% make you want to choke on some dust of chocolate had milkfat in it!! I couldn't believe it. I have eaten way less sweets this week, but it seems like I've eaten more breads. I've eaten more fruits and veggies, which is a great thing. And I discovered bananas don't upset my stomach as much as I thought they did (although I know now I can't run with one in my stomach!) I also discovered I like soy chocolate milk. Oh, and oops...soy peppermint hot chocolate (as I am typing this, I realize that this contradicts my previous statement about chocolate...there was probably trace amounts of dairy in the mocha used to make the hot chocolate). So, I've learned soy is not the devil. And not as gritty as I remembered it being. I will admit, I haven't tried soy milk, plain and simple. I guess I probably should before my week is up...tomorrow :). Now, I don't have terrible skin, but one of the two said my skin would start to look better...I'm still holding judgement out for that one as I have a zit forming below my lip as I type ;). I do feel better, though. I hate to admit it, but I do. As I was riding the train home today from work (yay for public transportation!) I just kept thinking that I feel great! Both mentally and physically. I didn't think that there was a connection until right now. I know I won't be able to give up milk completely, but this week has been such an eye opener to exactly how much dairy products I've been consuming...all of my life. And it got me to thinking...if I consume that much dairy in my foods, why the heck do I need to drink 3-4 glasses of milk on top of that?! The system is screwed up. I could probably give up drinking milk out of the carton and be perfectly fine in my daily nutritional requirements that dairy provides. On a side note, it has been fun to get other people to find non-dairy things for me. It's like a hunt! The chocolate hunt left me a little sad because I came home empty handed, but other than that :).

So, reading these things has got me to thinking about my future and what exactly I want to make out of it. I've been thinking about a mission statement because all great companies/people have one and stick to it. I've never had a mission statement for my life because I've never had a mission in my life and reading today brought back all of that passion that led me to so drastically change my life. It has been simmering these past couple of months, but today it boiled. I think my mission statement will start out with a quote I read today and end with what I will accomplish and with what dedication I will put into it. Okay, let's see if we can flesh this out, shall we, imaginary cyberspace friend?

Stefanie's Mission Statement
"There are, in effect, two things: to know and to believe one knows. To know is science. To believe one knows is ignorance" Hippocrates. My goal is to know. To learn, study and continue to learn and study everything about nutrition. To not be complacent in this knowledge, but to foster it's growth for the good of the community as a whole. My goal is to never compromise my nutritional standards and to be the best Dietitian I can be. I will not strive for recognition, but will, instead focus on the rising generation, one individual at a time.

Okay, that sounds pretty good. :)