I’m kind of stuck in a rut.

I’m sure you’ve all felt like this…

just blah

ho hum

wah wah wahhhh

wokka wokka

Sooo until things start lookin a little more cheery, I’ll be watching serious Mad Men marathons, getting my butt in gear for the Disney Half Marathon, and planning NYC adventures.

Lata  alligatas. Have a great week!

Other than exercising, how do you get out of your ruts?

I won’t lie the video that Nicole sent of Jamie Oliver cooking chicken nuggets and Scott‘s vid of McDonald’s 4 Year Old Hamburger only added to the freak out. Watch them if you haven’t already.  Thank you two for sending them in.

—

Anyway, enough nugget talk. A few weeks ago my camera broke #fail, so until then, my posts are going to be a lot more magazine-y. I kind of like the change in content though.. change is good. At least for a little bit anyway.

Sooo every few weeks I fall in love with a new random word.. a little while ago it was Goober thanks to this song:

I <3 Patrick.

And of course there’s always the word Epic.

But right now it’s fearless.

Pretty interesting question right?

I know the cliche thing to say would be, go skydiving or pull an Eat Pray Love to travel the world –which don’t get me wrong are all fine and dandy, but other than those, what is one little thing you can do to be fearless?

Here is where you may think I’m crazy. This is probably super nerdy.. but when I think fearless, I think of Simba. Yes, Lion King Simba.

In the beginning he was this cute little lion cub and out of noooowhere he grew up to be the most fearless leader that everyone in Pride Rock looked up too.

That is some kinda transformation, right?!

If we were all a little more fearless, we could accomplish a heck of a lot more in our lives… just like cute little Simba.

(don’t judge.. you know you love that movie)

I don’t wanna spill the beans right now on my fearless plans.. but lets just say in August I’m flying up to New York City. Dun dun dunnn.

You’re just gonna have to wait and find out.

Hugs!

I’ll admit at first I was a little taken aback. It’s fast food.. who doesn’t like fast food? I’m American people.. grease and French fries make me happy!!! I know we’re all on the health trend, but does that inner love for something deep fried ever go away?

Hmm. I definitely admire those who’ve completely broken off all ties with Ronald McDonald and the Burger King himself, but how do you do it??? I need help with the whole no strings attached thing I guess.

To be fair and support both arguments, I’ve done some research on these little guys.

PRO-NUGGETS

The only thing I have to support my Pro-Nugget Argument is that they taste good… in fact they taste darn good. These  hunks of golden, crispy goodness dipped in honey mustard sauce are pure #win my friends.

Juicy Good Evidence:

1. Women Accused of Punching Out Drive-Thru Window for McD’s Chicken Nuggets

2. Women Calls 911 Three Times When She Hears McD’s is out of Nuggets

Not the classiest of evidence, but hey, you get my point.

As a little girl, whenever my mom or dad mentioned McD’s, my heart always went pitter patter for their Happy Meals. And I won’t lie, the toys were pretty sweet too. Lets just say this mad love for the Golden Arches has only grown going into my adult years.

So hmm… my love has grown for these deep fried bad boys, but maybe now it needs to mature. Let’s take a look at the cons for McD’s nuggets.

ANTI-NUGGETS

The first place I visited to research these controversial nuggets was the McD’s website. On their toolbar I clicked on Food -> Chicken which led me to this tantalizing image:

Holy. Yum.

The McDonald’s website states that: “Tender, juicy Chicken McNuggets made with white meat, wrapped up in a crisp tempura batter. Made for sharing, or, if you want ‘em all to yourself, then that’s our little secret.”

Sounds good right? Wrong.

Digging a little deeper I unearthed the ingredients. Yes, all 30+ of them:

White boneless chicken, water, food starch-modified, salt, seasoning (autolyzed yeast extract, salt, wheat starch, natural flavoring (botanical source), safflower oil, dextrose, citric acid, rosemary), sodium phosphates, seasoning (canola oil, mono- and diglycerides, extractives of rosemary). Battered and breaded with: water, enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), yellow corn flour, food starch-modified, salt, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, calcium lactate), spices, wheat starch, whey, corn starch. Prepared in vegetable oil (Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness). Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent

Holy. Crap.

What, do chemists concoct these things that McD’s innocently promotes to children as Nug Nugz? Ok, so this is when panic mode really began to kick in. WHAT HAVE I BEEN EATING??!!

ldkfjgdlkfjgdlkfjdjlgdgflj.

Furiously I Googled for more information. What I discovered next only added to this foodie freak-out.

Juicy Bad Evidence:

“But perhaps the most alarming ingredient in a Chicken McNugget is tertiary butylhydroquinone, or TBHQ, an antioxidant derived from petroleum that is either sprayed directly on the nugget or the inside of the box it comes in to ‘help preserve freshness.’ According to A Consumer’s Dictionary of Food Additives, TBHQ is a form of butane (i.e. lighter fluid) the FDA allows processors to use sparingly in our food.. Ingesting five grams of TBHQ can kill.”

- The Omnivore’s Dillema by Micheal Pollan

“McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets, originally made from old chickens no longer able to lay eggs, are now made from chickens with unusually large breasts. (lol?) These chickens are stripped down to the bone, and then “ground up” into a chicken mash then combined with a variety of stabilizers and preservatives, pressed into familiar shapes, breaded and deep fried, freeze dried, and then shipped to a McDonald’s near you.”

- Super Size Me

“‘McNuggets’ sold to American fast food lovers contain dimethylpolysiloxane, an anti-foaming agent used in Silly Putty. They also have more calories and fat than those sold in the chain’s British restaurants, according to a CNN study.”

- Via this article

Wowwwww. Pretty crazy stuff right? I’d really like to thank Lisa at Early Morning Run for commenting and bringing this to my attention. You were dead on the money with this one.

—

If you’re interested, here’s another article from the Los Angeles Times about McDonald’s new marketing strategy. I’m sure you’ve all seen it– it involves cute kids, red Happy Meal boxes, and hope… boxed hope that is.

This commercial is supposed to promote it’s highly successful Ronald McDonald House charity… but honestly, it’s underlying agenda seems to just be targeting young kids.

Are their healthier Happy Meals really taking off? You be the judge.

“Although McDonald’s said the apples are a popular alternative to fries, spokesman Walt Riker declined to provide any figures on Happy Meal sales, including how apples compare with fries in popularity…. ”When customers ask for a Happy Meal, 93 percent of the time they are automatically given fries.”

Epic #fail Mcdonald’s.

Thoughts?

Mmm sunrises.

So I haven’t been the best foodie lately, but here are a few random things I’ve remembered to snap pics of. Trust me, you would get extremely bored of daily McDonald’s chicken nugget posts.

The Twitter world can probably attest to this. Unlike Ke$ha and her boys, McD’s has blown up my phone –as well as my Twitpic gallery.

Alright so usually at some point in the day, I munch on some Greek yogurt. Recently though, the shelves in every Publix have been completely blown out of the wata of Chobani. Apparently, the Greek Yogurt trend has finally caught on outside of the blog world my friends.

Keep your friends close, but your Chobani stash closer.

My favorite late afternoon pick-me-up has been the simple, yet tasty PB & J wrap.

Side note: Do you remember the old Disney show, PB & J Otter?

It was all about the Noodle Dance back in the day.

Snackage.

I haven’t been too much of a salad fan lately– but this one rocked my world. Ken’s Italian Dressing will change your life.

—

It’s almost the weekend!!!!!! Who’s excited?? I absolutely cannot wait- definitely plan to live out on the beach Friday night through Monday afternoon. My whole family is camping right now in Georgia, so I’ll be out on my own looking for 4th of July fun. I can’t wait to just relax and enjoy the weekend with friends.

Anyone in the Tampa Bay area wanna go to the beach with me this weekend?

—

Last thing reaaal quick: I recently got the new Droid Incredible and have fallen head over heels in love with it.

I tell ya, if Google took over the world one day, I think I’d be ok with it.

What phone do you have? What are your favorite apps?

The guy texted back! I feel like a giddy little school girl with those tiny anxious butterflies fluttering around in my stomach. Eeeeeeeek I’m excited.. he seems like such an awesome and goofy guy.

Tomorrow I’m meeting up with him and next weekend we’re getting together for the 4th.

Life. is. good.

So anyways, today my mom and I went on the longest bike ride of our lives. Ok scratch that, it was no Echelon Gran Fondo, but it was really really freaking hot.

We rode on the Pinellas Trail from Dunedin all the way up to Tarpon Springs.

Along the way, we made a pit stop at Wall Springs Park.

Thank goodness I saw this sign. I almost went for a quick swim in the trees.

Chillin with some seagulls. You know how I do.

Pardon the always shhhexy bike helmet hair.

Pretty sure boardwalks are one of the best inventions everrrr.

Cat tails have always looked like corn dogs to me. #nomnomnom

(Sometimes I forget that hash tags are only for Twitter.)

::Palm to forehead::

We finally made it to Tarpon Springs, the Sponge Capital of the World.

Holy Spongebob.

Fact: I literally almost fell over the seawall attempting to take this pic lol.

For flower arrangements, wall decorations… or sponge baths.

Bullwinkle anyone?

On the way back to Dunedin my mom and I split an Oatmeal Raisin Clifbar. Yum, yum, gimme some.

2 hours later.. we finally made it back to the truck.

Hottest day ever.

Do you like taking bike rides in the morning, afternoon, or night? I have no motivation in the AM or PM.. so it’s the afternoon for me.

Mind over matter.