Cottage Cheesing It

Ok Kids,

I want to share with you my experience with cottage cheese.

Growing up I hated it. It was gross, it was what Vomit wished it could be. Every time we went to Grandma Grandpa Bakers we would have a leaf of lettuce with cottage cheese and a pear or piece of canned pineapple. That became the way cottage cheese was served in our house too. Lettuce. Blob of milk rot. Canned Fruit. Ugh....


I think this goes back to a depression era or post WWI where the felt you needed to get some vitamin C. They would serve a glass of orange Juice and Milk at every meal. I am not sure if the cottage cheese and pear combo did something but after eating it for the first time I gagged and nearly vomited. My mother got mad at me for being rude, and insisted I just eat it.

As I grew, it was fairly easy to avoid. When meals came out and cottage cheese was a part of it, I would mix the cottage cheese into whatever else was on the plate making it look like I ate it.

One day, my mom saw what I was doing.

"You must eat your cottage cheese! All of it!"
"If I do, I will Vomit."
"Eat it NOW! And do not say another word."
"I will puke..."
"EAT"

I took a bite, put it in my mouth. I tried to swallow. It would not go down. But soon we had bigger probems. I started to puke, and puke and puke. Puke came out my nose. All over the kitchen table, all over the plate, all over the floor.

And it did not stop.

I think I threw up everything I had eaten for the past week.

Whether or not I was sick, and the timing coincided with Cottage Cheese, or whether it was because it really is gross i will never know.

But, from that day forward, my mom never made me eat cottage cheese again. She would sometimes put it in a lasagne, but i could eat everything but the little white milk-turds.

So for the next 30 years I hated and avoided it.

But here's the deal. When I hit 40, I wanted to get in shape. I wanted to gain muscle. To do that you have to eat healthy and eat lots of protien.

Cottage Cheese is the perfect food. It is almost all protein, And a good source of calcium. Your mom loved it, she could eat it with anything.

Because I loved your mom, and because I wanted to find a good food to eat, i tried it. Initially I had a TON of mango and just a little cottage cheese. Then gradually advanced to about a cup of cottage cheese for one mango.

But now, I love it. Its great. I eat it plain sometimes. Its not a cookie or candy bar, but it is a good solid nutritious snack that I enjoy.

So here is my point.

In life there will be a ton of stuff that you will hate, that are good for you.
There are lots of things that will be good for you but that you wont want to do.

Figure out a way to learn to do it and it can open a whole new world.

The second point is this.
Cottage cheese wont do me any good if I don't also lift weights and work out. Recognize your goals and figure out ways to make them happen.

I love you kids. I sure am proud of you.