Illegal Happy Meals?!

In Santa Clara, California a bill will take ordinance in 90 days that make the sale of McDonalds Happy Meals ILLEGAL. yes, that's right ILLEGAL! Stores can be fined up to $1,000 if caught selling Happy Meals.

Let's take a step back and look at the real issue here, childhood obesity. Are Happy Meals really to blame for childhood obesity? Not in whole, any educated person knows that. Sure Happy Meals, fried food, chicken fingers from Chili's, school lunch menus and just about every isle in a grocery store is to blame for obesity as a whole. But it's not the child's fault for their obesity. It is their parents.

This issue was brought up the other day during a boot camp I participate in. When a friend of mine, who works for a children and teens fitness center was ordered to take the blood pressure of a 12 year old female. The adult sized band would not properly secure around this child's arm. The 12 year old isn't particularly to blame here, it's her parents. This child can not go to the grocery store by herself to choose fat free Ranch dressing over regular salad dressing, she can't pick up the grapes or yogurt over the potato chips and fruit roll ups. No, her parents do the grocery shopping, they purchase the food there for they are inhibiting their child to accustom poor eating and dietary habits.

When you are 6 years old, crying because your hungry, throwing a temper tantrum because you're exhausted what is your parent going to do, heat up some Tyson chicken nuggets in the microwave, or prepare you baked Alaskan Salmon with an oil and vinegar salad on the side? Reverse the rolls, when your 6 year old is crying, throwing a temper tantrum and all the while you have a migraine, what are you gonna do? Exactly. we'd all opt for the microwavable chicken nuggets.

Back to the illegal Happy Meals, this news cast video (click the back button to return back here after watching the video) says that it is the toys in the Happy Meals that are to blame for childhood obesity. The toys in the Happy Meals aren't to blame for a child eating the french fries or the cheeseburger silly it's choosing to go to McDonald's for dinner. Meanwhile McDonald's and other fast food restaurants offer item substitutions such as apple slices instead of fries, or low fat milk instead of a soda to help stop childhood obesity. These companies are doing everything they can to comply with the ever changing realism of obesity while keeping their heads above water.

Taking a look at the Happy Meal nutrition information, a 4pc Chicken McNugget meal with apple slices, low fat caramel dip and a sprite is 390 calories and 12 grams of fat. Let's take that sprite out and sub it for water or a diet soda, we just took out 140 calories. Now were down to 250 calories. If this child eats 3 Chicken McNugget Happy Meals in one day with a water, and that's it- we're looking at 750 calories.

HOW DOES 750 CALORIES CAUSE CHILDHOOD OBESITY?!

IT DOESN'T!!

Take a look at a Big Mac meal, 540 calories for the sandwich alone, plus you get a medium french fry with that, that's another 380 calories, and let's say you go healthy and opt for a diet coke with 0 calories. That's a whopping 920 calories! And that's just for lunch. I get the nations fear of obesity that's on the rise, but why cut out Happy Meals? Why not cut out the Big Mac, or the Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese (740 calories alone). If they think the toy is so appealing for the children to make bad choices in choosing a greasy fried chicken nugget, first of all why are the parents taking their children there? Secondly, all the major corporations would have to do is change the toy, or take the toy out. A Happy Meal is still a Happy Meal with or without the toy, it's based on size and portions. Change the toy to a dumbell or a workout video, the kids will still crave a cheeseburger from McDonalds and that's a fact.

Therefore, I propose that Santa Clara County of California take a second look at the real causes of childhood obesity and realize it's not the toy, it's the parents.

Let me make a quick real life reference that anyone reading this will understand and most likely agree with. I am 21 years old, my two older sisters, ages 23 and 24, we grew up on the Happy Meal. We also grew up on kickball, swimming, t-ball, climbing trees, roller skating, street hockey, bike rides, etc. I think you get my point. Sure we had Gameboys, Sega, Super Nintendos, but that never stopped us from spending most of our time out doors playing. We weren't exactly upper middle class back then, so expensive food was pretty much out of the picture, Happy Meals were cheap and McDonald's had a play land. What more could a kid ask for? My parents enrolled us in swimming lessons, swim team, baseball leagues, cheer leading, anything and everything active; we didn't worry about childhood obesity back then even though my sisters and I would still feast on the 4pc Chicken McNuggets and fries and we'd probably have a regular soda with that too.

These days, children are packing on the pounds because of convenience. The parent's ARE to blame for this, we all know it, the parent's just don't want to hear it. Again, what's easier and less stressful on you after your 8, 9, 10 hour work day? Sitting your kid down in front of the Xbox Console with Tyson microwavable Chicken Nuggets or teaching them to throw a baseball and getting a 250 calorie Happy Meal afterward?

Happy Meals shouldn't be banned from Children, Parent's stupidity and laziness should.

SPANKING: TO GIVE OR NOT TO GIVE

Read this article on spanking your children before reading the rest of this blog post.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100412/hl_time/08599198101900

I only got through half of this article before I had to stop and gasp for air from laughing so hard. I didn't even finish the rest of the article because of it's stupidity and lack of reasoning. Let me start off by saying, as a 21 year old female, when I did something wrong or misbehaved I got a spanking. Never the belt, but it ranged from my mothers hand (hehe sorry mom but it never hurt :)) to a wooden spoon to the bamboo stick my sister Allison broke (yes in the middle of a spanking). But never did I have aggression, nor my sisters, have aggression problems by the age of 5.

My first issue with this article is the fact they only studied 2,500 children. 2,500 is not enough to provide serious reliable evidence, they should have tried for more like 25,000 kids and then i'd actually give real credit to the study.
Secondly, a study at DUKE University, let me repeat myself, DUKE UNIVERSITY, said kids who were spanked within the first year of their little life scored lower on cognitive tests by the age of 3. You're really blaming spanking for dumb kids? Come on!! from 1 year to 3 years is a big step in a child's life, they're learning everything in site, developing motor skills, beginning to understand the concept of human reality and human relations, and DUKE UNIVERSITY says these kids scored lower because they were spanked? Hmmm.. doesn't sound quit accurate does it? Maybe these kids scored lowered because they have other issues, such as mental disorders, learning disabilities, or maybe they just down right don't develop as quickly as other 3 year olds. But mostly i'd attribute it to the parents of these children. What did these parents do for their children? did they help them learn with Reader Rabbit and flash cards, teach them baseball outside to develop better motor and coordination skills? Or did they just let them sit in their crib all day long watching lifetime movies while their parents, either worked, smoked crack or neglected them while doing laundry and other house hold chores? I'd say it was probably the latter that caused these children to score lower on their cognitive tests by age 3, not spanking. Besides, think about it, how does spanking a child affect their ability to recognize a ball as a spherical shape called a ball, or color as a color? That's right it doesn't.

Lastly, like I said I couldn't even finish this article because of its poorly studied subject, my final thought about children who were spanked at least twice a month by the age of 5 had a 50% higher aggression problem. Really? What 5 year old doesn't have a selfish nature? Maybe their selfish tendencies were misconstrued to be aggression. When my sisters and I were 5, let me remind you we all were spanked as children, we all had selfish problems, when I took Allison's Barbie from her, what'd she do? She'd probably hit me and take it back. I wouldn't call that aggression, I'd call it being sisters at age 5. We were selfish, and what's mine was mine and no I wont share it. There's no real evidence showing that spanking is related to aggression in children. Of course out of the three proposed ideas, this one could actually have some validity, but I'm not thinking by a 50% increase.

Now before I finish this, I must say one more thing. In the beginning paragraphs of this article, it says you are better off with giving your child a time out rather than a spanking. It actually says " Instead the AAP supports strategies such as "time-outs" when children misbehave, which focus on getting kids to reflect on their behavior and the consequences of their actions." I would really like to meet a child that is sitting in time out that's thinking to his or herself saying "hm, maybe if I had just shared my G.I. Joe/ Barbie I wouldn't have to be in time out. Time out is a consequence when I don't share and play nicely. Maybe I shouldn't take back my toy next time someone steals it." I dont think so. I think a child realizes that they are separated from their play group but do they really know what for? Better example of when to use spanking over a time out. When you're at the mall or in any public place for that matter, let's say a restaurant. You, your spouse and two children are out for dinner. One child is 5 and the other is 3. The 5 year old reaches for a roll off the table and tosses it on the floor making the 3 year old laugh. So the 5 year old does it again, producing more laughter. Next the 3 year old take a roll and does the same thing. You continually tell your children to stop and move the rolls after from each but because you have now removed their rolls the 5 year old grabs his napkin, then his fork, then his macaroni dish, causing a scene and a mess on the floor. As you grab your child's arm telling them to stop they begin screaming!.. What now?! You pick the child up and take it into the other room, the child is still hysterical. At this point you are so embarrassed and frustrated, stop and think, will a time out really work at this moment? Probably not. So resulting in the ulterior choice, you spank your child. In a case like this a time out wont calm and hysterical child down, it wont even get them to stop and think about stopping the hysteria but a spanking will shut that kid right up. I'm not talking a beating, but a decent spanking will do.

Think about it. what would you do?

I know I dont have children of my own but I remember myself and my sisters as kids and the mess and aggravation we caused our parents. My question is how much worse off would we be had we not be punished through a spanking? Time out's wouldnt have worked for us. I can guarantee it.

I'm a Maverick

Well, it's official. August 26th I will begin my graduate studies in English at The University of Texas at Arlington.

I took this past Tuesday off of work to visit UTA campus and apartment hunt. To my surprise UTA placed itself right in the middle of a major road, why I'm not sure. Driving to campus there is a 6 lane road running right through campus, it's not as if it's just close to campus, or on the side of campus, but dead smack in the middle where they had to build a bridge across the road for students to get to their next class. I can't even begin to imagine all the horrible potential accidents just waiting to happen with this major road in the middle of campus.

Young drivers, talking on cell phones, text messaging, studying while driving, eating/drinking while driving is worrisome but place heavy foot and bike traffic around these bad drivers, that's a recipe for disaster. Makes me nervous to walk or ride around campus. Even worse at night i'm sure.

I signed up for 6 credit hours for the semester which I hope wont be too difficult or too easy. Luckily I have an amazing flexible job that allows me to work from anywhere in the world with an internet connection, and pretty much at any time I want. Gotta say LOVE LOVE LOVE this job!! Anyway, the two classes I signed up for are on Thursday afternoons and evening. 2-450 and 6-850pm. I know you're saying wow, that's 6 hours of class in one day, yeah well wait until you hear the rest... both classes, are in the same classroom. Meaning I am sitting in one classroom for 6 hours on every Thursday from August 26 to December 12th.

I think it wont be to bad. I just pray the classroom is comfortable enough for me to feel good to learn in. I'm picky about my classrooms. It's hard to explain. Next time you visit the UNT campus check out the Auditorium building Room 201. That's my favorite room on the entire UNT campus.

After setting up my classes, I went apartment hunting, which I hate to do.

Visited two apartment complexes, one was cheap, decent efficiency for $410/ month, the utilities sucked but I could have dealt, the reason I said no was because of the current residents. I did not feel it was a safe area for my as a female to live alone. Next I visited a "student housing" apartment, not meaning UTA considers it campus housing but you have to be a student to live there. The 600sqft effiency.. $861/month!!
Sorry! Cant afford that one!

I would really like to find a loft, 1bd/1bth, or efficiency for no more than $500/month, preferably with all bills paid, I dont mean caps where they're included in the rent, but seriously all bills paid or most bills paid. I know there are places out there where I dont have to pay for gas/trash/water and electric. Trash and gas should be paid for by the complex, I can deal with water and electric but I know there's places out there where the tenants dont pay for water. period. The complex pays for it. And it doesn't have to be real close to campus I'm only going once a week, so I can drive there. But I dont want it to be more than 15-20 minutes away.

We'll see what I can find.

But now I have 5 months left to do anything and everything I want before I'm tied down for the next three years to Mary Wollstonecraft and other Literature and my Thesis paper. I plan to do a lot of hiking, camping and floating the river during the rest of my time.