J500 Media and the Environment

Dear Journal (I choose journal over diary because the word ‘diary’ seems like I am about to write out all of my secrets, when in reality ‘journaling’ seems to be a lot more about reflection),

Today I ate the following:

Breakfast: 1 Bowl of Kashi Go Lean Crunch cereal with skim milk

Lunch: 2 plates of a Mexican fiesta (aka a mish mosh of ground beef, chicken, black beans, lettuce, salsa, sour cream, queso and chips)

Dinner: Beef tips with veggies, potatoes and gravy, corn, salad with good ‘ol ranch dressing.

After dinner until now: 10 peanut butter M&M’s (during my night class) and a bowl of cereal with skim milk

So journal, what does this all mean?

It means that what I am capable of eating is actually pretty limited. Since I have payed for my meals at the sorority house already, I choose 97% of the time to eat there whenever possible. Although, when I begin to think about what my sorority house is feeding me, I think about how my sorority house has the mentality of a college student: “Cheaper is obviously the better route in life…[when you’re in college]” Buying groceries from discount stores like Checkers and ordering large amounts of packaged food to feed 40 ‘women’ (as we are supposed to call ourselves) from companies like Sysco, it seems that my ability to go organic is rather limited.

So Journal, I read this article about what is put into the Happy Meals I choose to eat on the weekends (since the sorority house only makes meals on weekdays), and I was merely stunned at what I was putting into my body. If anything, I was reminded of the clever, yet horrifying Meatrix videos. My conscious began to feel guilty for the food choices I am making each day. Yet, do I have a choice when in fact my meals for the majority of the time have already been paid for?

I showed my best friend the Happy Meal article and her response was, “So I’m pretty much eating silly putty, breast implants, and detergent.” I responded by saying, “Yes…yes we are.” Then, I got queasy. And then she said, “It’s just so expensive to eat healthy and organic.” I nodded and pondered this idea, Journal, and I’m just so perplexed.

Everybody (I mean the majority of our class and many others out there) wish they could just switch to organic, but there are just so many obstacles lying in our path.

Help me Journal…help me come up with a way to eat healthy and organically without making that tremendous dent in what money I even have. Also, help me have a good, clean conscious that won’t make me feel bad about everything I put into my body.

Sincerely,

Dena Hart