In some magazine I was reading, every month it interviews some woman, and asks her what her vice is.  More often than not, it’s “chocolate” or “sweets” or (or sometimes “shoes” or “shopping”) or something else that’s bad for us.  For me, it’s fruit.  I would eat fruit all day long if I could.  Grab a banana, sit in front of the TV with a huge bowl of grapes…. grab a peach!  But then I have to remember that it is food and that I need to control myself.  Even though they’re really good for me, eating 4 cups of grapes is still about 500 calories. I wish that fruit had zero calories.  That would be awesome.  I would rather eat grapes than cookies or brownies or something.

I think I’ve decided I need to put movies/TV shows on my iPhone.  Then, I’m going to the gym, and I will work out and watch an ENTIRE movie.  The WHOLE thing.  And then I will allow myself to go home.  I’m not working during the week (as of yet), so I don’t have much else to do with my time.  And I need to exercise more.  It’s good for me!

My mom and dad both wear pedometers everyday for some fitness contest thing they’re in.  Its City of Fitchburg Employees on one team, and then there are other teams that they play against.  Everyone keeps track of their steps with pedometers that the city got for free thanks to some grant (and I looked up Pedometers on Amazon.com, and the ones they have are $25!!!).  So anyway, I’ve been walking with my mom a lot these past few days.  Yesterday, we hand delivered some of my sister’s thank-you notes, and walked 6 miles!  And then today we walked to Saima Park where there was some luncheon for the Pedometer club people.  That was about 4 miles!  So she’s really kicking my dad’s butt with her steps.
Anyway, she’s not really into fitness or walking or anything, and if she only walk 4,000 steps in a day, she’s fine with it, even though its recommended that everyone walks at least 10,000.  As soon as the fitness competition is over, she’s giving me the pedometer, because I’m crazy about fitness.  And if I looked at my pedometer at 6pm, and it was only at 4,000, I would say “ok, after dinner I am going on a 6,000 step walk!”  I would be SO disappointed in myself if I didn’t achieve 10,000 every day.  I would also keep track on my calendar how many I did a day.  My mom isn’t keeping track at all, personally.  My dad is keeping track for the team, but she doesn’t care how many she does.  I would want to improve my steps everyday, and maybe even keep a graph or something!  I’d also be very interested in how much I walk at work waitressing, cause I’m always on the go, and I’m there for 7-8 hours a night.  I am super, super excited to inherit this pedometer.

Yesterday I was watching a House, M.D. marathon on the USA network.  And I saw an ad.  A girl was giving a guy a popsicle, and he said ‘Whoa, I don’t want that, it has high fructose corn syrup in it!”  And I thought “Yes!  that’s great… I too don’t want to eat things with HFCS in it!”  But then the ad changed, and the girl asked, “Why don’t you want to eat it?”  And the guy couldn’t come up with a reason!!!!  So then she said “it’s natural, made out of corn, and has the same amount of sugar as honey does.”  Or something along those lines.  And then the guy was like “Oh, awesome.”  And he ate the popsicle.

Then, several commercial breaks later, there was another ad with these two women.  They were at a kid’s party, and the one mom was giving the kids gross red sugary drink.  The one mom spoke up, “Hey!  That has HFCS in it!”  And then the other lady was like “So what?  It’s made of corn!”  And then all the little kiddies got to drink their red sugary drink.

Here’s the website for the campaign so you can watch the ad, and I hope, be as equally disgusted at them as I was.  http://sweetsurprise.com

Here’s how the conversation should have gone:

Robin: Whoa!  Don’t eat that, it has HFCS in it, and that’s bad for you.
Person 2:  Really? Why?
Robin:  Well, it is in a lot of processed foods, which just aren’t good for you.  Also, things high is sugar is bad for you as well!  Plus, foods that contain HFCS are often high in calories and low in nutritional value.  So you should eat fruits, veggies, and other natural things rather than stuff that has HFCS in it!  Like 100% fruit juice instead of a juice cocktail.
Person 2:  Wow, you’re right.  Eating HFCS isn’t that good for me, and I should definitely eat foods that are all natural instead!

Exactly.