Where's the Beef?

I got the idea for this blog entry from my Colorado Parent magazine and haven't read the article but thought a perfect entry for me right now.

There's this great book, "Satan, I'm Taking Back My Health!" by Dr. J. Kunjufu that I started reading last week and I'm hooked. Well, sort of. Have you ever read something and been so inspired that you're willing to change your entire way of living and thinking? I have and it usually doesn't stick, but I always take some of the key points away and apply them to my every day life. This book was that kind of book.

Long story short, I've been convinced to reduce my meat intake drastically. I started the "no meat eating" less than a week ago and it's actually been okay! Boca's meatless products are decent and fill my craving for a burger, so I can still have my sorta-vegetarian lifestyle and eat my burger too! My main concern with such a diet is my need for beef, I've never been really big on chicken or fish, so it should be easy. Right?

Until...I see a big juicy steak on television. On the Food Network there are a few cooks I like to watch, but there's one who makes beef quite frequently and it looks so good you can literally smell it through the television. Yum-O! Beef burgers and steaks are my weakness. Not those fatty, raw steaks but a healthy-looking, medium-well sirloin cut that oozes beefy deliciousness that even Oprah can appreciate (remember her big court case regarding beef?). So when soy just won't cut it, what's a beef-eating girl like me, er, ex-beef-eating girl like me to do?

For me it's not all or nothing. There are special times during the month when I crave a real burger, and if a girl's gotta have it a girl's gotta have it. You know, a Fatburger burger with lettuce, tomato, onion, mayo, mustard, ketchup...shut yo' mouth! Just thinking about it makes me salivate.

Until...I smell the hunk o' beef cooking. Why have I suddenly been reduced to nausea when I smell that beautiful meat cooking in all its cow-ness? Let me tell you, it's the only thing keeping me from tearing into my coupon book for a Fatburger coupon. Maybe it's mind over matter, maybe it's just not that "special time" of the month when I need my beef. Heck, maybe I won't ever eat a thick white bun filled with cow again. If I don't, so be it, but should the craving strike and I just can't get the obsessive thoughts out of my mind...I'll be the first one in line at Fatburger and I'll be sure to have them slide an order of skinny fries next to it. As Nas would say, "Mmm-mm-mm, Deeee-licious!!"