A Blog Decision

   On Thursday I will take the oral component of my comprehensive exams.  I am enrolled in a Public Health doctorate program.  As you might have deduced, my area of interest is public health law and reducing obesity by changing the food environment.
   I am interested in conducting research on laws and strategies that are meant to reduce the availability and consumption of foods that are calorically dense and nutrient poor - aka junk foods.  I am not out to BAN them or tell anyone that they cannot eat them.  My hope is that through policy, we can make nutritious foods the majority preference.  I think that this would happen if better for you foods were less expensive, more convenient, tasted better, were universally available, were what you saw advertised on TV and were what your friends and family were eating.
     This post - the one I don't want to write - should be my last for a while.  Here is why.
   First I should study hard for my exams.  If I do not pass my exams that would indicate that writing the blog was probably not a good use of my time!
    If I do pass them, the next part of my program involves 1) writing a proposal for my dissertation (research experiment)- 2) defending my ideas and getting my professors to approve my plan and then 3)conducting my research, analyzing my data, writing two papers about the study, and 4) defending my study and the results in front of faculty, family and friends.
   So if I don't pass - I have to study hard and retake my exams and if I do pass, I will have a whole lot of work to do!
   No matter what happens on Thursday, I have several end of the semester projects to complete- but they are all very interesting.
   Of course, I am leaving off the part where I work with faculty in order to have my tuition paid covered.
  The last consideration for continuing the blog is a rather disappointing review of the blog analytics.  With one or two fantastic exceptions, my readership for the blog is quite low.  I understand.  There are millions of Bloggers competing for readers. 
 My You Tube channel is faring much better.  I have over 240 subscribers from all over the world.  As my cooking and physical activity videos are relatively popular, I will continue to create and post them.
 You can visit my You Tube Channel here.
I have tried to stop blogging before - it is hard because I enjoy it so much and some of my readers are loyal and especially important to me.  It just makes sense to stop now....for a while.