I AM in shape. ROUND is a shape.

It always leaves me a bit… well I’ll settle for “bemused” when people who consider themselves fully cognizant of civil rights struggles, who are only happy if political correctness exudes from their every discussion; think nothing of throwing phrases such as “No, this guy wasn’t like GROSSLY fat or anything” into a conversation without any pause to consider how that might sound coming out of their supposedly enlightened mouths.

Perhaps little moments like this are what get people up on that oppression Olympics high-horse so that they spout off a frustrated little sigh of “Fat is the last acceptable prejudice”.  You can be surrounded by people “in-the-know” who don’t follow the main-line flow of thought on anything; who are some of the quickest around to point out when something seen or said is misogynist and/or racist or homophobic; yet who can just turn right around and declare “Boy, if that woman would just get off her ass and stop stuffing donuts down her gullet maybe she’d lose a few, eh?”  Even if the phrases are not quite as blunt and follow more of a “polite social construct” (such as “joking” reminders that pastry goods go straight to your hips, or bemoaning that taking a day to lounge around will need to be compensated for with a good day of running to “counteract” the bad you’ve just been).  It just doesn’t fail to boggle my mind that the words appear without thought from the lips of otherwise very thoughtful people who usually make a conscious effort to speak AGAINST the usual main-line drivel.

That is what is rambling through my mind today as I review some of the mostly fun conversations I had this past weekend in which the title phrase from this post was heard. I’ve been spending so long blogging about this FA topic (and granted I’ve not even been at it that long!) it seems par for the course that trying to delineate some spectrum of “Okay” or “Acceptable” levels of fat against “Those Others” (who are, you know, ruining the world with their evil levels of consumption) is NOT (and should not be) a normal part of an otherwise social-issues-aware discussion.

If you consider yourself so aware of political/social/cultural issues from the “non-mainline” point of view, and find yourself eager to fluff up in self-importance and point out to others how their actions or statements are somehow “-ist” in some manner; why is it therefore so difficult to percolate for a moment upon how similar actions or statements against particular sizes (the Grossly Fat or the Sickly/Stickly Thin) might also be just as “ist”?  Put aside for a moment whether or not if you feel that people CAN or CANNOT (or even should or should not) change the size of their bodies (you should certainly know in which camp I tend to find myself there on that argument) and think about whether or not it is ANY of anyone else’s business if bodies DO or DO NOT fit the current accepted social definition of Normal (Acceptable) Human. This is what you do for any other “-ism”; why not for Fat-ism?  (Or Size-ism if you’re still squiggly about that “F-word”).

Just my own little plug for a bit of thought before speaking is what I guess this little introspective writing was aiming at.

Playing the trumpet takes lots of hot air!

This past weekend I joined a bunch of former high school band-mates and my middle-school band director down in Connecticut and played along with a group called “In Deep” on a handful of tunes.  We jammed away to the brassy parts of 25 or 6 to 4 by Chicago; Brick House; Sir Duke by Stevie Wonder and a few others.  For the most part it was great to play and fun to see other musicians again aside from the ones I see at my job for 30 minutes a day of playing.  I do wish it had been more of the laid back jam session I was anticipating and less of a strict Set Of Songs concert that it ended up being.  Yet fun was had.

Something I noticed with playing Saturday night, which I feels ties in strongly to my reduced appearances of late at the swimming pool, is that my lungs don’t have as much hot air to blow through the instrument as they did just a couple weeks ago.  Just goes to push a bit more light onto a previous thought of  mine that swimming laps twice a week really has been improving my fitness levels – as seen in the levels of breath I have available for tooting my little silver horn. My stamina for long notes or long “licks” definitely sees an increase in weeks that I’ve been swimming more consistently; even though my size remains pretty much the same.

At any rate; certainly not an epiphany moment of any self-important sort; more of a clinching of a few ideas that I’ve been having regarding the relationship/correlation between the strength of my musical ventures and the commitment to my extra-curricular (so to speak) physical activity levels.

Yet, no one looking at me playing, aside from perhaps those who hear me every day, would be able to tell at a simple glance or few note-listen if I’ve had a two-swim session week or a few week stint of swimming lap-lessness.  No one can look and KNOW any one person’s personal activity levels.  No one has a right to judge another for what perceived lack (or over-abundance) of physical activity another person seems to have.  Each person is their own best judge of what their body needs and what they are comfortable and happiest and able to provide in the way of activity.  Each Individual.  Not me, except for myself; not you, except for yourself.

I know by the feel of my airflow and the strength of my arms when I play that jazzy horn just where my own personal level of fitness is falling.  I have been learning how it feels when I am less fit than I could be and when I am more fit than usual.  Yet something that bears repeating is that there is no moral obligation for me to remain on either side of my own personal fitness or health spectrum.  I’m not a fat woman advocating that you choose to “Remain Fat” and therefore deny all possible physical adventures.  Nor am I a fat woman declaring that you must Be Healthy (in all the stereotypical diet-minding meanings of the word) to prove your worth to the world despite your size.

What I am thinking and trying to get across in a rambling way here is just that: I am the only truly good mental keeper of my own level of fitness.  I am my own best judge for my level of health.  Only I know when I am full of just enough hot air to play my trumpet the way I want to play.  Just as you are YOUR own best judge of your level of health on your own personal fitness spectrum.  Anyone that tries to tell you otherwise is likely trying to sell something.

I’ve been thinking of that little ditty lately:

Jack Sprat could eat no fat;

his wife could eat no lean.

So between the both of them;

they licked the platter clean.

Mr. D and I have been finding that we’re very much like the Sprat family portrayed above in the little nursery rhyme.  Though, the roles are usually a bit reversed.  He seems to be the one who enjoys eating up the fats and sugars while I tend to usually nom the foods traditionally seen as “lean”.  But no matter which way it works out; it seems that there are many foods that we both find ourselves preferring opposite sections of; which results in very little wasted food at our house.  I find that to make us very lucky that our preferences work this way.  I also find myself a bit amused at how well Team D works together to “lick the platter clean”.

Examples? He loves the dark meat of chicken.  I best enjoy the white meat.  He feels the best part of iceberg lettuce is that inner-most yellow-ish crunchy bit.  I prefer the darker outer green leaves.  Mr. D noms up the very sweet center of the watermelon; I much prefer the crisper chunks closer to the rind.

The example which brought the nursery rhyme to mind most recently though was a lotus-seed paste and egg yolk filled bun we had at dim-sum in Chinatown (Boston) this weekend. During the August Moon Festival.  Sooo many people walking around in above 90 degree temps but we all had a great time walking for hours around the festival!

Anyways, that bun was incredibly tasty to both of us.  Yet what I loved most (the filling), was not at all what he found to be the most delectable (the bun).  It just made me reflect a bit on how vastly different all of our human taste pallets can be.  Food experiences are not universal by any means.  And sometimes, if you’re lucky, you might be teamed up with someone whose experiences mesh enough with your own to result in a cleaned plate and two happy tummies.

Didn't get a picture of the bun at dim sum but here's a dragon head which was part of the August Moon Festival taking place in Chinatown, Boston this past weekend!

Just a quick picture post to show off my first-ever self-grown tomato!  It was…soooo tasty with mozzarella cheese and romaine lettuce.  I made the vinaigrette with fresh basil chopped into it too.  Felt like a happy summer success that I just had to share!  And let me tell you; this with a bit of chicken from one of those rotisserie chickens at the grocery store made for the best dinner salad I’ve had in a while. Yum!

You know you want a bite...unless you don't

… I’ve started a blog for the jazzy-style band I play with!  We’ve dubbed ourselves the “Lunch Time Band“.  Because…well we practice during half of our lunch period at work!  So if you want to see and hear some of the things this woman is able to do with her body as it is feel free to pop on over.  Especially check out the “Current Song List” link to hear snippets of us playing.  Yes, that is me on trumpet blues-ing it up!

Now to continue on this musical theme I’m off to my belly-dancing class.  We worked on a few new choreographs last week and after an hour and a half of dancing I was starting to feel confident that these new songs will be awesome!

What fun things are you working on now?  Do you have relaxing plans for the weekend or a full festival of things lined up to do.  I find that relaxing weekends are few and far between for me lately, I seem to plan too much to pack into 2 or 3 days!  I’m working at the public library on Saturday and joining co-workers in Boston on Sunday for some “Dim Sum” in Chinatown.  Sometime this weekend I also need to practice for a musical venture coming up next weekend down in CT! Busy woman I am this weekend, how about you?

I’ve read a lot of very good posts very recently about what it means to be a “good fatty”; how maintaining that healthy behaviors don’t necessarily lead to weight loss but can still encourage better health might actually be alienating to anyone who DOESN’T follow all of said “Healthy” behaviors by insinuating that there is some sort of delineation between Fat and Following the Rules and Fat and Naughty.  As though one camp somehow deserves accolades, understanding, respect in all the ways that FA proposes…and the other somehow just doesn’t…or at the very least gets treated like the outcast family member who ends up reading in the corner at all those happy FA parties.*

And it was by reading these posts and finally shining a bit of light on that dark little mental monster hidden deep (or not even that deep) in my own mind that I’ve pulled to light for analysis my OWN habits here while blogging: especially those of declaring, perhaps too often, that I do Everything Right Yet Remain Fat and Healthy… as though continuing to not yet lose the Health Lottery somehow makes me a poster-child for FA or something.  Is this behavior of mine, of declaring loud and proud that I follow the rules, just another diet-esque trapping into which I’ve fallen??  Am I just a stage two FA troll; pushing the virtues of HAES instead of WW; disdainful somehow of any who do not follow the RIGHT set of Lifestyle Changes???

What do you do when something pulls you up mentally short and leaves you questioning what you even blog about in the first place and if it makes you any “better” than those shilling the very thing you claim to distrust (ie: diets)???  You poke it with a stick of course and analyze the hell out of it!

The first post that really helped me to poke a stick into that mental crevice and analyze my own behaviors (namely that of speaking up loudly when I behave in any way culturally seen as Good For Health; and remaining a bit more silent, head turned away, whistling, toeing the dirt when I behave in ways deemed Bad for Health) was The Good Fatty by JoGeek:

Maybe there’s a part of me that I haven’t managed to excise yet which still contains the internalized message that I have to toe a certain line in order to deserve to be accepted as a fat person. Maybe I’ve transformed that message into the idea that I would be somehow “letting down the team” if I didn’t exercise and eat a balanced diet whenever I could afford to do so; That I have some kind of responsibility to the FA movement to be as perfect a representative as possible.

Or is it simply anticipating the fat prejudice of others? It could be that I’m afraid of being diagnosed with diabetes or heart disease (I expect both will show up in my life like genetic clockwork) because if I am fat and have one of the stigmatized “fat diseases” it will somehow take away the authority of my message.

Over at Another Change the post Addicted to Life really got me thinking about this further with this quote especially:

I know intellectually how FA activists work against the symbolic opposition of the “good fattie” (someone with pristine nutritional and exercise habits who remains fat) vs. the “bad fattie” (someone with imperfect eating and exercise habits). But as I’m trying to find my own voice in FA circles, I can feel the weight of internal pressure about how I’m not being a “good example” of Fat Acceptance, and I’m not being any sort of example for the idea of Health at Every Size. Talk about cognitive dissonance.

Cognitive Dissonance indeed!  And boy have I been feeling similarly and struggling with this very set of confused feelings.  Am I really hiding some sort of prejudice against anyone NOT being all “healthy” as defined by HAES, saying somehow that any disease or mis-health that befalls them is “their fault”???  After poking around for a while I have to say that this isn’t the main thought behind why I proclaim my adherence to behaviors more strongly allied with current thoughts on what is healthy; though I’m sure some of that lingers inside somewhere; a vestige of that dieting mentality whereby those who fall off the diet-wagontrain somehow are deserving of any ill health they may come upon.  That is a bit alarming to me and is something I’m  going to address, because it has no place here. Because I can’t go around claiming it is wrong to pick on fat folks and then feel, even a smidgen, that it is OK if they are picked on because they are part of the wrong group of fat people!!  I don’t think that is the message I’ve pushed here and it is never a message I’ve intended; though as we all know sometimes it doesn’t matter your intentions; all that matters is others’ perceptions of your words and actions.

So why does this message of fighting against showing off as an FA poster child strike so close to home for me?  For one thing; I’ve been struggling with feeling as though any week when I don’t get out to swim or when I have Non-Healthy meals more than once that I have somehow gone over and fallen off some non-existent HAES wagon or something… as though for some reason my only and best purpose in blogging is in holding myself out as an example of How FA could be Using HAES! I’ve been feeling pinned in by thoughts like “Well, I shouldn’t put anything up because I haven’t gone swimming all week, or I ate something greasy that upset my stomach last night so I’m not as “enlightened” in the ways of FA as I keep proclaiming, someone might just call me a LIAR! (Which, come on, I already have been so I don’t know what I’m really afraid of there!)  But this is so fundamentally flawed!  How is it any less FA to talk about the awesome chocolate chip cookies I baked than it is to discuss the beauty of fresh blueberries?  It shouldn’t be.  And I need to shift my way of writing if that has truly become such a concern of mine.  There is no need for my own mind to supply the sorts of obstacles to my speaking out that the rest of society is already so willing to eagerly provide me.

So, I’m not here to be all, “Nah, nah!  I’m not “dieting” I’m just changing my LIFESTYLE!  I’ve moved my desired focus from Being Thin(ner) to Being Healthy(er) and that makes the way I’m acting somehow magically All OK!  Whee!”  At least, after a bit of introspection that is what I’ve decided is NOT why I’m here; which might mean my posts do alter slightly in tone now.  But, that’s what blogging is about, no?  Putting down in electronic permanence the path your thoughts have taken over time.  I’m here to explore the life I have While Fat.  Some of my behaviors might mesh with what is currently accepted as being Inherently Healthy.  Some may NOT.  I need to stop being entirely vocal about only the Healthy behaviors and so silent about the rest because you know what, I am NOT trying to be a poster child for FA.  The true “poster” image of FA is a conglomeration of thoughts, beliefs, sizes, shapes, eating habits, activity levels… there IS no One Way of behaving that means you are Doing FA Right.  Just by refusing to be silenced and existing in the body I have is a way of being an example of FA.

Just as any person can boast a shirt saying “THIS is what a feminist looks like”; perhaps what I’ve gained today is a feeling that I need to shift my own mental focus and really understand (more than just “For Others”); that Anyone With ANY food/exercise behaviors IS a poster-child for FA; even me, but even not me.  Perhaps we need a shirt which boasts “THIS is what a Fat Acceptance Activist looks AND ACTS like”.

The point that the above posts have helped me clarify, for myself at least, is that: eating and exercising behaviors do not have moral ramifications which are manifested by means of outward looks OR EVEN health and no one has the right to judge the choices or lifestyle of another person.  Yes, that even means dieters.  If you don’t push your habits on me, I won’t push my habits on you because neither of us has any sort of Inherent Right to judge the other.

Whether a person never touches something considered “naughty food”, eats it only once in a while or thrills to its taste every day; we are all deserving of existence and the rights to it.  If I have in any way alienated anyone with previous posts by singing the “I’m Healthy but Fat” mantra; I apologize here in earnest. Because, frankly, my own (or your own) personal current stake-hold in the lottery of Healthy! Personhood!, is no one else’s business.  No matter a person’s size or shape, no matter their Actual Eating Behaviors and/or Activity Levels: we are each granted the right to exist in peace. I am just as much a FA and Fat Rights activist on days that I choose to swim laps as I am on those I choose to go home early instead.  I don’t have to fit some sort of mandatory level of Healthy Hat-tipping first in order to deserve the right to FIGHT for equal treatment of all body sizes/shapes/behaviors.

So, I’m not going swimming today.  I’ve had to backspace through a LOT of rational and reasoning why that I keep trying to put here but the point after all of this reading, thinking and now posting is this: I don’t HAVE to have an excuse.  What I do with my food intake and my body’s movements or lack-thereof do not need to be excused in order to make me an acceptable human being.  I am not beholden to HAES or WW or any other regime of living in order to prove my worth as a living, breathing, body filled with the spirit of life (in whatever form you take that to be). The same goes for you and every other body out there.  I guess sometimes it is just good to be reminded of that, even it if means poking your (albiet now FA tinted) assumptions with a big old stick of introspection.

*I WAS this child during family gatherings all growing up.  Usually because I found family “parties” to be insufferably boring once talk got onto relatives I didn’t know or care about and I didn’t want to hear about how if I ever got outside instead of staying in and reading then I might be a thinner kid…

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

I love those lolcats sometimes.  They really can bring a huge smile to my face.  Even if you don’t hold that it is okay to accept your body as it is everyday; don’t you have at least one moment, even once in a blue moon, when you reflect upon feeling awesome?  When you feel amazed at an activity you completed which you never thought to take on? Or upon having eaten or drunk something just incredible; in the perfect amount, and having a resultant “happy tummy”?

Today I celebrate that feeling of happiness with a salute to the corn muffins (the recipe for which I modified and added enough blueberries to make them barely muffins and more like blueberries held together slightly by corn muffin batter) I had for breakfast and which continue to make my own tummy very happy indeed.

What is making your own tummy (or body) happy today?  Did you run a new, longer distance?  Did you eat a fantastic garden-grown tomato?  Did you get to see a new show while lounging for a bit and relaxing both your body and mind?  Or perhaps you found and/or altered a new recipe for a delicious baked good?  Whatever brings you happiness today I hope you can share it, if not here, then at least with yourself.  Accepting those small moments of self-aware happiness is a small but wonderful step towards more frequent self and body-acceptance.  So enjoy them!

It is not often that I come across a forwarded email and get a chuckle; even those passed along that are labeled as “jokes”. Even less frequently do said same notes bring on the urge to pass it along. The email I got today, however, made me chuckle and smile and not only reminds my of a previous post of mine, but also (for me at least) seems to be a *tad* bit less reminiscent of those Cranky Lady (Maxine?) emails about skidding into your grave with chocolate in one hand and freshly bought shoes in the other; and more of a positive approach to thinking about your life and how relevant your body’s size is to your appreciation of it.

Though, perhaps, it is only through the lens of FA and my struggles to see myself as I am and accept myself for who and what I am that this even brings that though up. If so, thank you FA; for bringing such ideas to my mind, and apparently to that of the person who sent the below to me today. Small changes, make a world of difference; one tiny adjustment at a time.

Recently, in large city, a poster featuring a young, thin and tanned woman appeared in the window of a gym. It said:

THIS SUMMER DO YOU WANT TO BE A MERMAID OR A WHALE?

A middle aged woman, whose physical characteristics did not match those of the woman on the poster, responded publicly to the question posed by the gym.

To Whom It May Concern:

Whales are always surrounded by friends (dolphins, sea lions, curious
humans). They have an active sex life, they get pregnant and have adorable baby whales. They have a wonderful time with dolphins stuffing themselves with shrimp. They play and swim in the seas, seeing wonderful places like Patagonia, the Barren Sea and the coral reefs of Polynesia . Whales are wonderful singers and have even recorded CDs. They are incredible creatures and virtually have no predators other than humans. They are loved, protected and admired by almost everyone in the world.

Mermaids don’t exist.

If they did exist, they would be lining up outside the offices of Argentinean psychoanalysts due to identity crisis.  Fish or human? They don’t have a sex life because they kill men who get close to them not to mention how could they have sex? Therefore they don’t have kids either.  Not to mention who wants to get close to a girl who smells like a fish store?

The choice is perfectly clear to me; I want to be a whale.

P.S. We are in an age when media puts into our heads the idea that only
skinny people are beautiful, but I prefer to enjoy an ice cream with my
kids, a good dinner with a man who makes me shiver and a coffee with my friends. With time we gain weight. [Perhaps] because we accumulate so much information and wisdom in our heads that when there is no more room it distributes out to the rest of our bodies.  So we aren’t [just] heavy, we are enormously cultured, educated and happy. Beginning today, when I look at my butt in the mirror I will think, good gosh, look how smart I am.

[Bracketed words added by myself to enhance just a bit!]

I AM as the whale.  I am not offended if you decide to grace me with that label.  Because I DO feel graceful, majestic at times, larger than life, and happy to swim through my life and take whatever comes my way (or whatever I find in my travels).  Sure, it might be nice to fantasize about being that mermaid. I won’t even deny that the idea would and likely will still cross my mind from time to time. But that doesn’t mean that fantasy must consume my life, making it worthless until said impossible goal is obtained. Quite frankly, I’ll take being the Happy, Sex-having, Playful, Loved, and Wondrous Woman that I already am to being a confused non-existent Creature of Mythology any day!

“Great is truth, and mighty above all things.” Old Testament: 1 Esdras iv. 41.

“The truth is always the strongest argument.” Sophocles (c. 496 B.C.–406 B.C.): Phædra. Frag. 737.

“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.” John Keats (1795–1821): Ode on a Grecian Urn.

” Truth is generally the best vindication against slander.” Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865): Remark made when requested to dismiss Montgomery Blair, Postmaster-General.

“There is nothing so powerful as truth,—and often nothing so strange.” Daniel Webster (1782–1852): Argument on the Murder of Captain White, April 6, 1830. Vol. vi. p. 68.

“That a lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies;
That a lie which is all a lie may be met and fought with outright;
But a lie which is part a truth is a harder matter to fight.” Alfred Tennyson Tennyson (1809–1892): The Grandmother. Stanza 8.

“The lie was dead
And damned, and truth stood up instead.” Robert Browning (1812–1889): Count Gismond. xiii.

"Truth is not measured in mass appeal"

I’d apologize for all the quotes but for some reason the idea of truth and lies has been topmost in my mind for a while now. I think a lot of the objections I see here to what I propose (namely that you CAN and SHOULD accept your body as it is and that doing so is not a moral failing, regardless of how near or far that body may be to/from the current culturally accepted “normal” body type) all boil down to the one concept once you strip away all the fluff. And that is that we are a world filled with minds more ready to accept that Every Single Fat Person is simply LYING to them; then they are ready to accept that Human Bodies Are Different.  Regardless of arguments for health, fashion, just pure “Uck!” factor, costs to others that fuel an individual’s Fat Opposition beliefs

People seem so easily convinced that it is SIMPLER to believe that a fat woman such as myself lies about her eating habits, exercise levels, health markers (those ones OTHER than weight), perceived self-love levels and overall mental and physical health. It is simpler to believe that I, and anyone of the many others who decry the myth that Fat automatically equals Unhealthy (or that it is anyone else’s business either way really), are Liars, than it would be to listen to a simple truth that would shatter current misconceptions about the functioning of human bodies.

Truth, that concept waved away in a favorite fiction of mine as something which “depend[s] greatly on our own point of view” is something that I nevertheless value greatly.  I don’t tell lies.  Not only because I personally find them reprehensible, but also because I would never be able to remember to tell them consistently.  What I write here is the truth of my own life and experiences; my own struggles and the actual realities of what I do. And, in a world (or at least a country, being in the US here) which purports to hold to the idea that everyone is INNOCENT until proven guilty (that is, we are all presumed to be telling the TRUTH until proven as Liars) perhaps you could take a moment to extend that courtesy to myself and others arguing in a similar self-acceptance vein.  Just because you BELIEVE we are all LIARS because our statements don’t mesh with the view of the world you hold to; does not MAKE IT actually truthfully so.

Personally though, I don’t care if you DO believe that I have been down the diet path and had the DIET fail ME no matter how closely I adhered to the “Rules”.  I really don’t mind if you would rather stick your head in the sand and ignore that despite eating a varied diet and exercising by means of swimming and dancing for between 2-3 hours of moderate-intense movement a week I still remain Fat yet Healthy by all significant markers over here.  If  you’d rather keep your hands over your ears, ignore my words and chant “La LAAAH can’t HEAR you! Won’t LISTEN to you!  You’re Fat because you’re lazy/overeating/a poor soul without a good metabolism/in need of therapy to deal with the issues obviously making me fat, etc.  It can’t be possible that you do Everything Right and remain Fat, because that would break my brain and my version of the Truth!!”, fine. That is your right as a thinking being.

But I know there are some folks out there, reading, and considering and actually contemplating if denying the truths I (and other fatties) expose, truly IS a simpler way of explaining the world.  To you I say, “Really?  The Whole World of Fat is Lying?  We are ALL OF US carefully constructing falsehoods that we then manage to aptly maintain over the years without fault? All of Us are just deluded beings; clinging to fallacies in order to explain away the way our bodies exist?  That?…is somehow SIMPLER than a truth which suggests that All Bodies are Different?  Honestly??”

Amongst the trees, 2 hours of picking completed

After this weekend I’m pretty much oozing antioxidants from my pores.  On Saturday the hubby and I picked 50 some pounds of blueberries between the two of us and Adam D’s mother.  We arrived at the farm around 9 am and left after “only” 2 hot, humid, picking-filled hours. So many berries!!

There was much washing, drying, sorting and freezing/cooling (as well as LOTS of re-arranging of space at home in my normal sized fridge/freezer) in order to prep this massive amount of berries into Eat Now and Save for Later batches and store them.  In all Adam and I ended up with about 40 pounds of berries (some went to our sister-in-law).  That’s still a LOT of berries.

Look at all those BERRIES!

In case you need a visual image to truly understand that amount of berries: when laid out in bags (or containers) they fill half of my freezer and over 1 and a half shelves of my fridge.  I have two huge containers of berries on the top shelf of the fridge, 6 bags on that lower shelf and 3 bags in the freezer at the point this picture was taken. (Yes, those are GS cookies in the freezer door.  Amazing how long they last in the freezer!)

I’ve since been able to move most of the berries to the freezer.  But I’ve also used a bag to make 3 batches of muffins.  I took one batch to work, to rave reviews.  Doubling the berries in the recipes makes for a very moist, delectably portable bit of what basically amounts to berries barely held together by muffin batter.

So Many MUFFINS!

Between those and raw berries for breakfast, the smoothies I made with berries and vanilla ice cream last night, and the many days of bowls of berries for dessert that will come as we enjoy these Fruits of Our Labours; I think the hubby and I are going to be blue on the inside and the outside!  Though I must admit, if I hear one more person wax on poetically about how many Healthy Antioxidants we’ll be getting from eating blueberries I’m going to roll my eyes so hard I’ll be seeing where I’ve been.  As if the enjoyment of the tasty fruit itself isn’t nearly as important as the benefits of the flavonoids they impart!

“Several researches indicate blueberry’s potential anti-aging and anti-inflammatory effects. It may also delay or prevent onset of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases such as memory loss and Alzheimer’s disease. Health benefits of blueberry may be explained by the capacity of its antioxidants to scavenge free-radicals which are causes for age-related human diseases.”

Perhaps.  I don’t really find that any one particular food stuff (whether dutifully eaten or religiously avoided) can hold the power to hold aging at bay; though I don’t deny that these little berries can contain nutrients useful to the body.  If I was eating these things simply in the hopes of lowering my Free Radicals then I would likely have to laugh at even myself.  There IS no fountain of youth; not even a BERRY of youth or Health.  But who knows, maybe that 40 pounds of berries, split between Adam D and I, will mean an added few months to our lives thanks to their near magical levels of Antioxidant Pow-ah!

But sometimes, isn’t a berry just…a really tasty freaking berry?  Which fills my fridge now almost past capacity? What about you?  Do you enjoy blueberries for their delicious muffin potential?  For their anti-aging Super Berry Free Radical Removing properties? Or do these little round fruits make you shrug or even gag?