From the Melanated Man:
If you are wondering why I have been doing so many posts on food lately, that is where my mind is at the moment. In the next week or two I will begin to get back into melanin, metaphysics, and much, MUCH more! I hope you are getting something out of these posts, if not, I know I am. It’s been a liberating experience for me. My goal is to shine my light so your light can shine as well.
Peace and Love to my melanated family,
The Melanated Man
Ingredients for Hamburger Helper
From the Melanated Man:
For those of you who only check out how many calories are in your food so you can shed some pounds, it may be best to do a double take for that ingredient list. You are doing yourself a great disservice if you don’t.
You should know at this point that I STRONGLY recommend eating foods that preferably have ONE ingredient, which is the food itself, such as an apple or head of cabbage
ONLY THE FRESH PRODUCE BABY!
But if you HAVE to get foods in a can, carton, box, or bag, the rule of thumb is to buy prepackaged foods with NO MORE that three (3) ingredients. Most likely than not they don’t contain preservatives and additives. The task is DAMN near impossible to pull off, even with prepackaged organic foods sold at ORGANIC supermarkets. But it’s doable and you have to be CONSCIOUS of it (I’m not perfect either, but I’m improving.)
Notice the Hamburger Helper ingredient list above. It lists AT LEAST 26 ingredients, with Monosodium Glutamate (*or MSG) listed as one of them.
And you thought MSG was only in Chinese food, right?
One word of advice…DON’T TRUST FOODS WITH INGREDIENT LISTS YOU CAN’T COMPREHEND!!
Even your spices and herbs.
If you don’t have passing knowledge of chemistry, LEAVE THE SHIT ALONE!
Trust me, foods like the Hamburger Helper picture above will definitely kill you, physically AND *metaphysically.
Peace and Love to my melanated family,
The Melanated Man
*Future post
Some examples of SAFE prepackaged foods: Skinny Pop, olive oil flavored Boulder Chips, Wild Oats Green Beans
Previous Post: What Sparked My Transformation (Part 1)
From the Melanated Man:
So…
Where did I leave off? Oh yeah, I needed a change.
As I mentioned earlier, me and my fiancee (now wife) were staying with her parents in our hometown Atlanta for her last year in medical school. AND as mentioned earlier, the situation was a putting a major strain on me as an individual and our relationship with my wife. You add in the fact I wasn’t working in my field, I had gained the weight back I had lost and then some, and loved ones dying around me left and right.
It felt like I was having a mid-life crisis before the age of 30.
Luckily, my wife received an internship in St. Petersburg, Florida for a year right after she graduated from medical school. So that opportunity to salvage myself as a husband, father, and overall as a man had came. I was going to make the best out this blessing.
We move to St. Pete, and slowly but surely, I start to get back to being myself.
I begin to lose weight and by learning from my mistakes in the eating department I start to also evaluate and change my eating patterns. I am home with the newborn while the one-year is at daycare, taking it one day at a time, enjoying every minute of being a stay-at-home father (I detest that label.) Also, I am reading a few books concerning the plight of my people and expanding my understanding of our struggle in this world, so to speak ( I’m still a lightweight but learning everyday.)
Unfortunately I did not find a job in the engineering field, although I was at this time still in communication with my previous, or current, employer while living in St. Pete.
(More background on my work situation)
Couple of years after graduation, the black-owned engineering firm I was blessed to work with had issues with finding projects. Or WE had issues with finding projects. Which meant no money was coming into the company. So TECHNICALLY I was laid off although I was still coming into the office to doing work. The principal of the firm, my manager, would promise to pay me out of his pocket for the time spent looking for work and finishing up old projects. Like a fool I feel for it. It wasn’t consistent, and eventually, it stopped coming altogether. I became bitter.
There were other issues that occurred, which I don’t care to elaborate on, that caused me to be even more bitter at my manager. Promises of projects coming through rarely were fulfilled, if at all. All this coincided with the OTHER issues mentioned above. For a while, I hated my manager and really thought I was taken advantage of, even though he gave me my first job offer out of school.
So why was I still in contact with him after our departure in Florida?
My manager himself was going through a change within himself that I could sense (he was a big guy himself so he knew of the struggles of losing weight.) Everything in me didn’t want anything to do with him; at the same time I believed in second chances and felt deep down the guy had my best interests at heart (crazy me, right?)
He kept calling and we talked, not necessarily about engineering-related topics, but FOOD. As I said before I had lost weight myself my first couple of months in St. Pete, and he did as well, so I didn’t mind receiving more advice from him regarding the topic. The more we talked, the more I learned not only about how I SHOULD eat, but I began to understand how MISGUIDED I was.
I began the realize THE MATRIX I was operating in, and by the WAY we have been taught to eat, it affected our (black-melanated people) well-being and livelihood.
And that’s where my TRANSFORMATION began to materialize…
My manager and I would converse about the perils of eating meat and how the natural diet of our ancestors with HIGH melanin content consisted of only fruits and raw vegetables. We discussed how the food that we are given/offered has “put us to sleep,” and our eating habits was one of the most important, if not THE MOST IMPORTANT, foundation in blacks realizing their potential and freeing themselves from enslavement.
At first it seemed off the wall to me. But then I started to implement new habits that consisted of no meat, more fruits and lightly-cooked vegetables, and no processed and refined/denatured foods. I started to recognize a change in not only my physique but also my demeanor and personality.
The INsecurities I had previously concerning my role in my own family, my jobless situation, and the life I had so far leading up to the point prior to my TRANSFORMATION started to fade away. I had more energy in all my realms: physical, mental, spiritual, etc. My outlook on my life and life in general began to change dramatically positive.
All because I changed my eating. That I was my doorway.
All of my life I had been a big man. To me the food issue/problem/deficiency that we have resonated with me because I had LIVED it.
That’s why I NOW believe the powers that be have it in for us. Nobody talked to me about food the way my manager, who at this moment I consider as a close friend/companion, had.
Not my parents, teachers, friends, or my damn doctors. Quite honestly I’m glad I didn’t give up on that relationship with my manager; it may have spared me a lot of heartache.
My wife had the opportunity to finish her residency training back near Atlanta, so we were able to move back near family so we could have help with our girls. I didn’t want to leave St. Pete (I miss the near 365 days of sunshine!) but I knew at the time it was best for our family unit. Plus, I was going back a new man!
Around moving time, I had lost around 70 pounds and feeling real good. At this point I was eating little to no meat, more fruits and raw vegetables, and very, very little processed foods.
I was still associated with the old firm so I still had my job. There was a project here and there I could work on to keep my skills sharp, which I appreciated. My manager never gave up on me either, so the feeling is mutual. Our relationship improved tremendously through our conversations.
My wife and I were on good terms heading back to the A.T.L. We began to operate as a family unit: me, her, and our two baby girls. We were a well-oiled machine.
I was on Cloud Nine.
Then we moved back.
Life is still great.
But am I starting to separate myself from the pack?
(TO BE CONTINUED)
From the Melanated Man:
For most of my young life I had a normal American childhood. Besides the fact that my parents divorced when I was 10 and I discover only a couple years after their divorce that they ADOPTED me at birth, my childhood was pretty normal. I played my video games, watched my Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, played outside with my friends, and pretty much ate whatever the hell I wanted.
That sounds like a normal, healthy childhood right?! Maybe the playing outside in the SUN. *I had stressors just like every other American kid, so I ate to ease the stress.
I played football in middle school and high school. I played fullback and defensive tackle, so if you are not familiar with the positions, that meant I had to be a hefty boy to play that position. Plus I was lifting weights, so I thought HAD to eat a lot to obtain the energy to sustain the activity. I weighed between 260-270 pounds in high school. Some of it was muscle and most of it was fat.
Unfortunately my football talent did not transfer to the collegiate level; I carried that weight with me to college anyway. I collected that dreadful “Freshmen Fifteen” during my freshmen and sophomore years.
And like everybody else, I thought *gaining weight was normal as you got older since our metabolism slows down as you age.
Plus, *college is stressful, especially if you’re majoring in engineering. So eating was my joy and stress reliever.
My last year in college I became semi-conscious and decided that I wanted to lose some weight. And I did; I dropped down from 275 pounds to 210 pounds around my graduation. I only ate less of the bad stuff, not totally cut it out; then I exercised more often.
I had one more year of indoctrination college, so my stress level was pretty low of course.
(Reminiscing…)
Looks scrumptious, doesn’t it?!
I used to eat your regular 3 meals a day from a child to a young adult, plus snacks. I was a growing boy. I ate the normal palette: from fried chicken to steak and ribs, from OVERCOOKED collard greens to sweet potato soufflé, from pecan pies to red velvet cakes and king sized Snickers bars. I used to LOVE some Barq’s Root Beet, especially that rare Barq’s Red Cream Soda you can only find at movie theaters. Of course I loved sweet tea as well. I would destroy all-you-can- eat buffets with ease. I WAS A GROWING BOY REMEMBER?!
…Now back to the story.
I thought I really accomplished something with that weight loss. Not to mention I was receiving my civil engineering degree at the same time. Life was good; I was on Cloud Nine.
And then it was downhill from there.
I started working for a small BLACK-OWNED civil engineering firm, alternating from office work to field work on regular occasions. At the same time I’m trying to balance a long-distance relationship with my fiancée. So the stressors of getting paid kibbles and bits as new employee, and not seeing my woman that often by eating. ENJOYING myself eating. I gain a couple pounds here and there; slowly but surely, the BIG GUY is coming back.
Two years after graduation, I technically still have a job with the firm, but work is so slow those kibbles and bits becomes almost non-existent. Not to mention my fiancée is pregnant, with two years of medical school to finish. So I continue to eat…
…ALOT…
…Another two years later, I am out of work with a fiancée, an infant child and another one on the way.
At this point, my weight had reached 290 pounds!!! Ain’t that a bitch?!
(More background on the situation…)
Just to give a better understanding of my plight at this point, not only was I not working, me and my fiancée, with our baby girl and another on the way, are living with the in-laws!
Granted my pregnant fiancée was able to finish her last year close to home AND me, but still…
I’m stuck at my in-laws’ house looking after my infant child. Needless to say, that situation contributed to my madness. Is it a cliché to dislike your in-laws?
I let the stress of my life situation, which I take 100% blame for, get the best of me (I should have foreseen my job being lost, and worn a condom to prevent further nonsense. SMH.)
I had a family that I couldn’t take care of financially. Not being able to find a job in my field was a very humbling situation. Being a Christian believer I dealt with the guilt of having children out of wedlock, which caused me a great deal of stress.
All of my relationships, old and new, were influx as well, which caused me even more stress.
My pregnant fiancée and I were nearly on the brink of pre-marital divorce. Also I lost beloved members from my family circle: my aunt who was a matriarch of my extended family, an uncle who served as a patriarch, and my very own dad. All of them died from heart attacks! All before retirement age, which still may be 65.There were other family members who passed as well from various illnesses that seem all to common for OUR community.
AND, my mom was having heart issues of her own during this time.
Queue the violins…
I figured my loved ones either had bad genetic luck or were called home by Jesus Christ. I also figured they probably didn’t take care of themselves the best way they should have, but it’s only so much you can do, right?
I still didn’t connect the dots with the FOOD I was eating, or the life I was taught to live in general.
I assumed I just needed to cut down on my *calories and get back to exercising and I would gradually lose the weight as I did in college.
I needed to keep applying for jobs in my field and hopefully my luck would change. Put on that good CORPORATE WHITE act to get in the door.
I needed to learn to manage my stress better as well. People gain and lose jobs all the time. Loved ones die as they get older. Shit happens. That’s life.
“All will be well in due time,” I thought. “I have the American spirit to achieve. God still favors me.”
First, I needed a change of scenery…
to get away from the NORMAL I had been used to all of my life up to this point…
to save a marriage that had not even started yet…
raise my children the way I saw fit…
to get the HELL out of my in-laws house…
…so I can rediscover myself.
So far I have gotten more than I bargained for…
(TO BE CONTINUED)
*Future post
By the Melanated Man from the cell phone…
As I type this post, I’m watching this show on OWN called “Welcome to Sweetie Pies” and it caused me to have a thought. I detest the TV these days, but I’m watching it with family who are still unconscious (hate to say that.) But anyway, you may have heard of the show. The show is broadcasted by the Oprah Winfrey Network. Here is a brief synopsis from OWN.com:
Robbie Montgomery was one of the original backup singers for Ike and Tina Turner in the 1960s. After her professional singing career ended, Montgomery — who is known as Miss Robbie — took her mother’s soul-food recipes, which had been passed down through generations, and created Sweetie Pie’s, an iconic St. Louis soul-food restaurant that now has two locations. This docu-series follows Miss Robbie as she prepares to open a third restaurant with the help of her son and business partner, Tim. With all of the business dealings going on, Tim and his girlfriend are busy preparing for their wedding and the birth of their first child. Miss Robbie, who is in her 70s and has never been married, also looks for love.
If I’ve learned anything from the tel-lies-vision (stole that one!) is that it only leads to destroying black-melanated people, aside from the fact the damn thing puts out radiation and artificial light that’s physically killing us.
This show epitomes our struggle with the STANDARD soul food dish, or death food. And our very OWN (no pun intended) capitalizes off it. The *vegetables are overcooked with no life whatsoever. The legalized drug sugar is dumped in the desserts like peach cobbler, sweet potato pie, THE SWEET TEA, etc. And the *meat…well hey! The powers that be are promoting our demise (surprise, surprise!)
You and I have eaten this food most of our life. We know the shit (because that’s what it is) is addicting.
Isn’t Oprah all for her peeps? If you’re reading this blog, you should know the answer to that question.
Happy thoughts to my melanated family,
The Melanated Man
*I haven’t been thorough on why meat (ALL MEAT) and overcooked veggies is so destructive to our bodies but a future post is coming it. Promise!
elevate (verb) definition from Dictionary.com:
1. to move or raise to a higher place or position;
2. lift up, to raise to a higher state, rank, or office; exalt, promote;
3. to raise to a higher intellectual or spiritual level
From the Melanated Man:
I know a woman. She is 94 years old, the matriarch of her family. Beautiful family. She would tell her sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters, and even great-grandsons and granddaughters that they should “elevate” themselves. I was thinking the other day how unique of encouragement that is to tell your loved ones. That a powerful statement! But I do have a couple questions:
-How can one person elevate themselves when they eat so much dead waste?
-How can a person elevate when their emotions and behavioral patterns mimic the dead mammals (MEAT) they partake of at the dinner table daily?
-How can a person elevate when they only use 10% of their brain (or so we have been told?)
-How can a person, who is black (melanated), think of elevating themselves when their spirituality is being abused by “religion?”
Just some food for thought…
Summary:
“Dr. Sebi is classified as a healer, pathologist, herbalist, biochemist, and naturalist. Sebi was born Alfredo Bowman on November 26, 1933 in the village of Llanga in Honduras. He had no formal schooling. He was taught by his grandmother in his through his childhood. Sebi came to the USA as a self-educated man who was diagnosed with asthma, diabetes, impotency, and obesity. After many unsuccessful treatments with conventional Western-taught doctors, Sebi was led to a herbalist in Mexico. Gaining healing from aliments listed above, he began creating natural vegetation cell food compounds geared for intercellular cleansing and the revitalization of all the cells that make up the human body.
In 1988, he took on the New York Attorney General in a Supreme Court case where he was sued for false advertisement and practice without a license after placing ads in newspapers, such as the New York Post, where he announced:
“AIDS has been cured by the USHA Research Institute, and we specialize in cures for Sickle Cell, Lupus, Blindness, Herpes, Cancer, and others.”
Before the trial, Sebi had to provide one witness per dis-ease he had claimed to cure to court. Instead, he brought 77 witnesses to court and the judge had no choice but to declare him NOT GUILTY on all accounts, proving that he did in fact have the cure to all dis-eases mentioned in the papers.
Several top celebrities sought healing from the doctor which includes: Michael Jackson, Magic Johnson, Eddie Murphy, John Travolta and the deceased Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes. Lisa had showed public support for the doctor’s teachings before she died in a car accident in Honduras after leaving Dr. Sebi’s USHA Healing Village. Makes you wonder?
According to Sebi, there is only one culprit for all DIS-EASES, which is MUCUS. Mucus buildup is the result of our starch and blood consumption (MEAT), which can be cleared primarily through fasting, bio mineral alkaline rich foods and herbs, which you can find on his website. ”
Take a look at his website to fully understand his philosophy:
http://www.drsebiscellfood.com/
References:
http://www.drsebiscellfood.com/
A Spirit Journey
I See This
Life is a broadway musical and everyday is a song. These are mine manifested as poetry.
Live Vicariously
A blog on race, equity, and urban education
The Melanated Mental Health Blog
This blog is dedicated to the analysis of Black Gnostic themes and alternative Black spiritual/theological practices.
Just another WordPress.com weblog
Elevating The Culture.
A Black Female Perspective...
A Site Dedicated to Counter-Racism Economics, Education, and Liberation
quirky actor, script & story writer and poet spreading insights, old and new, from unconventional sources
Black positivity
Culture & Sports Online
I am only responsible for what I say, NOT for what YOU understand!!
Blessed are those who struggle, oppression is worse than the grave, it's better to live and die a free man, than to live your life a slave
Expressions from the writer formerly known as The Melanin Man 