Vegetables that taste "vegetably"

What have we come to! This is an ad by the V8 company, featuring people turning their noses up to raw vegetables on a cruditees platter, with the voiceover claiming, "Do vegetables taste too vegetably ...?" Another commercial shows a young boy sitting in front of a plate of greens and his mother in a voiceover telling him he can't get up until he eats his vegetables; a fast-forward to the same "child" now as an old man sitting in the same position in front of the same vegetables, and the voiceover suggesting, "You could have had a V8!" Those poor saps are being promoted the virtues of V8 Juice, with the implication that vegetables are to be eschewed, rejected as flavorless, uninteresting, unappetizing -- add your own adjectives.  What a shame!  I know that the V8 company wants to sell its products; but people should be taught the virtues of eating vegetables; indeed, nutrition education should start in early childhood, and reinforced in the schools, rather than taking the easy way out and feeding children french fries touted as a vegetable.  C'mon! Get with the program!

"I'm only human"

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="272" caption="Vitruvian Man, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice Italiano: Uomo Vitruviano, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venizia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)"][/caption]

This has become one of most often-used excuse for everything from overeating to goofing off.  And I don't want to hide behind that one.  That said, there is one area of my diet/eating style that befuddles me: If I am successful in keeping my food/eating commitments for even a single day, I assume an attitude of "Gee, that was easy!" and conclude that since it was no big deal, I can do it again at anytime, and therefore can go ahead and indulge.  That, of course, doesn't help, because it produces the logical next feeling of guilt.  There, I did it again! I'm no good, I can't stick to it, it's bigger than I am.  I wrote the book on focusing on things other than food or eating; focusing on gratitudes; on friends and relationships; on hobbies and pastimes.  And yet, here I am being "human."  I despise that excuse, because it is so final, so definitive: In effect, being human is all we can be.  We will never be anything but human.  Does that limit us?  It shouldn't.  On the contrary - being human is an inspired, evolved existence, one that should propel us to be better than simple automatons in the way we conduct ourselves in relation to our environment, in the way we behave, in our choices.  Indeed, as humans, we have choices that go beyond our baser instincts, therefore, being human elevates us, rather than condemns us to an existence of simply responding to our urges.