Taking personal responsibility

My friends know I am very quick to lay some serious blame on corporations like Monsanto, McDonald's, Pepsi, Coke, Frito-Lay and Tyson Chicken. I'm also quick to point fingers at pharmaceutical companies, doctors who do not include nutrition, supermarkets, government officials and agencies who are in bed with the FDA, school cafeterias that knowingly feed children unhealthy foods and our medical system here in the U.S., which almost completely ignores healthy food choices. There's enough blame to go around to last forever.

But there is also our own personal responsibility to own up to, as well. And we just aren't very good at that. Yesterday, I was in the waiting room to see my doctor. I saw a mother and daughter struggle past me to sit down. The could barely fit in the chairs. The mother was using a walker. Both were extremely overweight. The second they sat down, the daughter pulled out a bag of potato chips and started eating. Hmm. Nearby, a father tried to console his antsy little girl by stating 'we will go to McDonald's after this, ok'? Hmm. Next to them, a middle aged couple talked about where the vending machines were (in the hospital!) so they could get a 'snack' or some candy. Hmm. Finally, a gentlemen on a cane told me he had recently had heart surgery, was on a drug thinner medication, had high cholesterol, high blood pressure and had diabetes as well. He smiled when he said 'I can't wait to get home to eat the butterscotch cake I made this morning. I'll take all their pills, but I'll be damned if I will let them tell me how to eat, too'! Hmm.

Making the right health choices is always a choice. So is making the wrong ones.

Ranman homemade breakfast of the day picture: granola, bananas, almonds with cinnamon and nutmeg. All organic.