Yet Tearyne Is Ambitious…

Photograph by Jen SFO-BCN

Across the African diaspora, you can see the foods adopted and adapted by former slaves and black transplants to foreign nations that have become apart of our modern lives. They are foods that reflect the cultures of the homeland (like watermelons, which were brought to the Americas from southern Africa) or that of our mixed heritages (the paratha in Trinidad and Tobago, resulting from some Trini’s Indian heritage).

Not all of these foods, though, have wound up so healthy for us in the long run. According to The Office of Minority Health, “ African American women have the highest rates of being overweight or obese compared to other groups in the U.S“, “about four out of five African American women are overweight or obese” and “in 2009, African Americans were 1.5 times as likely to be obese as Non- Hispanic Whites”. Call it “thick” if you want, but being overweight and obese isn’t a good look, and it comes with a long string of health complications, including diabetes and heart disease.


Sure, a call into being more physically active is great – I believe in it myself for a number of reasons aside from weight loss - but time and time again, researchers have stated that diet is much more important when it comes to weight loss; exercise is more critical in keeping the weight off and building muscle tone.  I think that by examining our food culture – the past and why it happened, and examining its effects today – we can take a step forward into changing this trend. This is a three part series, so feel take a look at the first part – the history of soul food after the jump.

Soul Food: Our History

Photo by James Emery

In North America, our variety of culturally black food is mainly what is known as “soul food”; I know that the majority of my readers know EXACTLY what I’m talking about. Collard greens. Cornbread. Macaroni and cheese. And of course, fried chicken. These foods from the black American past were usually the result of the fact that the finer cuts of meat were not available to the field hands; we got the leftovers. Southern plantation owners fed their slaves as cheaply as possible. Ironically, it turned out that some of these foods were better for us – the brown sweet potatoes that slaves typically ate that turned into our candied yams are actually more beneficial, health wise, than starchy white potatoes, for example. Greens were obviously a boon, rich in their vitamin and anti-oxidant value.

Photograph by Gveret Tered

One of the biggest adaptations to this condition was the use of various parts of the pig that slave owners didn’t want in African-American slave culinary practices. Pig ears, feet, intestines, and lard were re-purposed into things like chitterlings. Back fat, neck bones, and bacon were added to greens; pigs feet were boiled and eaten as an accompaniment to the greens. In order to survive, the slaves adapted; when you are a slave and prone to someone else’s whims, you don’t really have much of a choice in what you can eat. Sometimes slaves were afforded plots of land on which they could grow their own little field gardens, but this wasn’t always the case. What master said was good enough for you to eat, you ate, and you made do with what there was.

The biggest thing to understand is that the majority of these foods were high in both fat and calories. If you have ever done hard labor outside, then you know how much energy it requires and takes out of you. A slave was lucky to get in a meal in the morning and one at night, but between those two required periods of rest, it was work, work, working in the hot southern sun from sun up to sun down. This need for a high caloric intake wasn’t just with African and black Americans in slavery, but followed after the emancipation to the times of sharecropping. We were still doing the hard work from dusk until dawn… just under more of “our” terms. Eventually, too, blacks moved North, transitioning into the into the industrial workforce and labor zones. These jobs were also very intensive in nature as far as the energy need was concerned.

But what about in today’s world? Be honest – we live in a much more sedentary, sitting-on-our-behinds world than our ancestors did. The slaves, sharecroppers, and industrial workers of the Black American past didn’t work in an office from 9 to 5. (I’m not even going to mention the sector of us that just plain don’t work at all — and that goes for people of all ethnicities.)  In the next part of this post, we’ll look at how our old school soul food diet is hurting Black Americans today.

Right now, though, let me know: what’s your favorite soul food? How often do you eat any of it – only on Sundays, or a bit here and there throughout your week? How has it impacted your weight loss goals, and has your love of it made it hard for you to “start a new diet”?

I was doing research at the beginning of March into starting your own social media consulting agency/firm/business. I feel like I have a good understanding of what people like, what they want, and some knowledge about social media as an emerging platform in marketing today. I wanted to dabble in marketing at one point, and I’d really like to be into something innovative, where I can be my own boss. I’ve been finding a lot lately that I’ve been having very strange, odd personality clashes with certain kinds of people, and that I’d really probably rather be my own boss at this point. I don’t know what it is that causes this, usually. I tend to think it’s because people don’t understand me and my intentions, or they just don’t respect the way my mind works.

I was reading this article, and it was saying more or less why those with narcissistic personality disorders thrive on the internet and, in particularly, in social media. I tend to joke around a lot and accept that I am, in fact, a bit of a narcissist. I think it’s great to be into yourself, because it feeds into your self-esteem. If you’re not your biggest fan, then who else will be? Curiously, I read through a lot of the symptoms, and it bothered me a lot to realize that me claiming to be a narcissist is likely a lot more than a joke: I think I have this personality disorder. I tend to do things for myself without thinking about others (though this is not the reason for the personality clashes; more on that in another post.) – not usually out of a desire to be selfish, but because I just plain don’t actively think about other people, their needs, and their obligations.

Continue reading “(My) Narcissistic Personality Disorder” »

Yesterday I got all cute and dolled up, and to humor myself, I dragged my boyfriend to the mall, trying to find the skimpiest one piece I could find to try it on. There was a discovery of several things, one of which makes me wish I had taken pictures so that I could better visually share my findings with you… Click the break to read my findings!

1. Macy’s nor JC Penney’s has swimsuits that are suited to looking killer sexy. I was able to very obviously determine which stores were not going to have swimsuits that would situate my ample 36 DDD rackage (most of those stores were solely advertising bikinis in their front windows), but going through Macy’s and JCP was pretty disappointing. For one, most of their mainstream shopping demographic is not us. It’s mostly for older ladies. That said, I was able to find a lot of shirred front swimsuits (that one is from Saks Fifth Avenue) and safer two piece halter tops/aforementioned bikinis, but nothing really designed to be a sexy one piece.
2. Most of the urban/hip-hop stores that I saw have nothing to do with swimsuits. There are plenty, PLENTY of stores for our demographic that are selling killer shoes, and sometimes killer clothes, though I have noticed that mostly these stores are now carrying solely or mostly men’s clothing. That said, though, I saw none of the stores with swimsuits being advertised, nor inside the store at all. It was a little downer-ish, in part because I was hoping that at least one of them would be carrying the Baby Phat swimsuit line.
3. I am carrying more weight on my hips and middle than I thought. My weight fluctuated in this last month, due to a few factors like stress (my grandmother passed last month), so I’ve been around 186 to 192 pounds here and there. When I finally did find a decent size 14 swimsuit at Macy’s (black with a teal band at the top – it was very cute), I went to try it on. I wish I had taken a picture. I didn’t get all downer on myself, but it made me say aloud:

   “Where did that extra stuff on my hip come from???”
   (The lady in the stall next to me erupted into giggles.)

   I know that I need to bust in the cardio to reduce my overall fat content, but what I saw shocked me. My tummy is a little more than a cute little pooch right now, and I can forgive that. But there was chubbiness resting on my hips that showed up as a roll on the swimsuit. Definitely not good. My breasts look okay (as always), but I really need to get back to hitting the cardiotrain (as Alicia Marie calls it) soon.

4. If I want a sexy swimsuit, I’m probably going to have to order online. Most of the mall stores seem to either appeal to the mainstream demographic or tweens with no breasts. I want a swimsuit that emphasizes and flaunts what I’ve got, with some urban appeal to it. I loved the Baby Phat line of swimsuits that I saw, and so I’m likely going to peruse their site for awhile and see what they have as far as offerings. That will be another blog post for another time.