It's Sunday so you know what that means when there's a challenge running. It's time to check in with your successes and mishaps for the past week. Share what you've learned and what you're struggling with.
I promise I will get some posts done this coming week directly related to the challenge. Sorry to have left you hanging half the month waiting for them. They are coming. If I don't follow through on this promise, you are welcome to track me down and make me eat every cricket in my house - raw or deep-fried.
I'm doing well with everything but sugar. The biggest challenge being added sugar in so many foods or recipes. I did make my own peanut butter one day since I couldn't find any at the regular grocery store without it. A few recipes called for sugar that would not have tasted as good without it so I went ahead and used it.
ReplyDeleteAlso, my husband made plans with two other couples to eat out last night. We went to a sushi bar so I was able to get away with just eating a few pieces of sushi, which all had seafood in them, and had tempura veggies for dinner. They were all interested in the challenge and it did lead to a discussion about our eating habits but I would have felt like a huge dork just sitting there with my glass of water not eating!
I'm not a big foodie anyway but what I am learning is that if I treat eating as just feeding my body when it's hungry I'm much less likely to eat something just because it looks yummy.
I could have done better this week. I ate out with my daughter one day, and got a sandwich that had a little cheese - there were no vegan choices at all and while I probably could have had them leave off the cheese there wasn't too much else to the sandwich. Eating out itself was bad, too, but we were out for the day and we had car trouble so it was even longer of a day than we planned. It is rare that I spend the day with only one daughter, and eating out is such a treat for her, that I couldn't bring myself to say no to that. Then last night we got takeout, since I was exhausted from cleaning out the house all day (we did produce a TON of stuff for the charity pickup on Tuesday) and I had not thought ahead to figure out what I could make that would please everyone. The takeout had no noticeable dairy but I confess I did not question anything since I did not want to know the answer! And then to top it all off I ate more than I should have instead of saving it for another day. I am feeling very stressed out lately - I think partly due to having to figure out food so differently than before (for some reason last month was easier and I'm not sure why) and partly because I'm having trouble finding time to exercise and then I get crazy. But the kids go back to school in 2 1/2 weeks and hopefully I can get into a better routine then.
ReplyDeleteIB Mommy - sugar is in tons of food, isn't it?! It's pretty hard to avoid entirely and there are some recipes that need that bit of sugar. Just stay aware of where you can reduce it and alternatives that you can make or find.
ReplyDeleteHey, it's great you had a conversation with others. I agree that was better than drinking water only. Japanese restaurants usually do have some good options, though for future reference: miso soup, cucumber salad (ask them to hold the octopus or squid if they make it that way), and vegetable sushi. If veggie sushi is not on the menu, some sushi chefs are open to making custom rolls.
JAM - relax a little and make this about the journey of learning to change your eating instead of just trying to be at the destination instantly. There's a definite learning curve, and adjustment period to such changes. Getting frustrated with yourself is not particularly helpful. Chalk up the lapses to lessons and see if you can determine ways to do it differently the next time.
For instance, look into restaurants that have better sandwich options that can be modified without leaving you two slices of dry bread and a limp piece of lettuce. LOL To tell the truth, I just had a Subway sandwich yesterday because I was out all day and it's an easy place to get a very filling veg sandwich: wheat bread, mustard, sweet onion sauce, load up on the veggies, no cheese, and I'm good to go. Is a national chain my preference in the big picture? Not really. Is there a local bakery? Yes. Does it have decent veg sandwiches? Um, not really, nor is it particularly amenable to customizing. So, for the rare sandwich out, I may very well end up at the chain (especially when it's within 1 mile of where I am on a short lunch break.)
And, both of you (and everyone else), remember that striving to improve is a worthy goal. Being perfect, likely to annoy everyone.
I've posted my Sunday Confessional here: http://greeneonion.blogspot.com/2008/08/sunday-confessional-3.html.
ReplyDeleteHere are the highlights:
SOW - Overate one day.
BUZZ - Had Coca-Cola and chocolate one day
SWEET - Same as for BUZZ
CAFE - Yeah! I didn't eat out!
LOW RIDER - I had a lead foot one day.
BUY NOTHING - I bought nothing new. I did have to buy a used tire to replace a flat on my car.
QUIT NOW - Again, we did not eat out.
It was easier this week. Not a perfect week, but not too bad either!
I can really feel this challenge working - I concertedly make the effort to take my lunch each day. It is so much more calming in a busy workday not to have to run out and get lunch. I have eaten out once and I planned that - totally worth it! YUM.
ReplyDeleteNo seconds - that can use some work - 'nuff said.
Still reminding myself about the water faucets.
Also, have plans to build a sheet mulch pile in the back yard for a garden next summer.
I am still driving with my eye on using my fuel efficiently.
However, after my last blog entry (http://weblog.xanga.com/Madewyn/670593391/lemme-go-round-in-circles.html), I could definitely use some work on my state of mind! HA!
"Tomorrah is anotha day, Rhett."
~Mad
I did pretty well last week, with the exception of one day. The day the deer died in our yard, I was bawling my eyes out and didn't feel much like cooking... so we got Chinese takeout. I just can't cook every night.
ReplyDeleteBeen skipping chocolate! That's enough to celebrate.
SOW and CAFE went well this week. VEG -- I got that vegan dinner in, but since I came home for lunch (walked 3 blocks) and my partner made lunch for me, it was no where near vegan. This one's hard because I'm trying to do it within the structure of eating together. SWEET -- I probably made my goal but I'm not sure -- there were two breakfasts of chocolate chip real pound cake (on sale at a bakery we rarely get too, a treat that was very hard to pass up). LITE -- hmm hard to say whether I made my goal -- depends I guess how you categorize bean thread.
ReplyDeleteThis challenge is definitely making me focus proactively on how we (I) eat.
I'm still doing well with no seconds, but it has been hard to avoid the sugar. We went camping, and there were s'mores. I know I didn't have to eat them, but I did. And dessert at a restaurant on my anniversary. That's pretty much it. It's the social situations that are difficult, but at least when I am at home or work, I'm being pretty conscientious.
ReplyDeleteIB Mommy- I feel your pain! about sugar anyway. I am diabetic and boy is it tough making choices with no sugar! I make my own peanut butter with just peanuts, a dab of oil (not olive oil) and a pinch of salt-
ReplyDeletehere is my new favorate sandwich Maybe it will help some of you out
ReplyDeleteLATS (Lettuce Avocado Tomato) Sandwich
1 Tbsp. mayonnaise
2 tsp. Thousand Island dressing
2 slices whole wheat bread (toasted-optional)
1 leaf lettuce
1/2 medium tomato, sliced
½ fresh Avocado, seeded, peeled and sliced
Alf Alfa Sprouts (optional) Instructions
In small bowl, combine mayonnaise and Thousand Island dressing. Spread one side of each slice of bread with mayonnaise mixture. On bottom slice of bread, layer lettuce leaf, 2 tomato slices, 2 bacon strips and 4 avocado slices. Top with Alf Alfa sprouts if desiredTop with second slice of bread.
Things are going quite well with the SOW - I haven't taken any seconds of a dish at all, and I have only been eating firsts when hungry about 75% of the time, I would say. It has been a good mindfulness excercise for me to check with my stomach first before deciding to eat, and then stopping when I don't feel hungry anymore, instead of just finishing what I have set out in front of me. (No waste involved, I just save that part of my lunch or dinner for later). I have also found myself thinking about how fortunate I am to have food to eat when I do feel hungry.
ReplyDeleteSince I found some herbs in my yard to make tea with, I have definitely cut my consumption of caffeine by at least half. I've also been having my tea without sugar or honey more often, although probably not quite at the 50% less level. I hardly ever go out to eat, but I have done so a couple of times this month so far. One dinner was an important one planned in advance - taking out my intern student for dinner to celebrate her acceptance into a NYC graduate school. So I was doing that one no matter what!
Overall, I'm relatively pleased with how this challenge is shaping up, and I think I am developing habits I can continue doing, which is the best part of all!
Rob- I've been dying for a tomato sandwich! I need to find a good recipe for bread.... whole wheat, no sweetener, no dairy..... and I've been too lazy to look. I think I can manage with no mayo but it will be a first.
ReplyDeleteYour sammich sounds yummy:)
ib mommy- why don't you make a ciabatta bread? Just use a whole wheat pizza dough recipe, then rub olive oil on the top and some herbs, and bake as long as you would for a pizza. It's really great for tomato sandwiches!
ReplyDeleteBobbi - overall better than not. Was the sugar buzz worth it, though? hehe
ReplyDeleteMadelyn - taking lunch to work creates more time to relax during that break. That, of course, assumes you don't desperately need to get away from work any chance you get. ;-)
Sorry your brain got mushy on ya. Been there, done that!
Abbie - I read about your deer and felt very bad for you (and the deer). I can certainly understand needing down time that night! Congrats on the chocolate - that's a toughie.
Susan - I think I mentioned last week that we may have to make compromises to keep the peace in the home. Discussion and negotiation may be needed to keep moving in the direction you personally choose, but only you know for sure. Interesting breakfast... Bean thread's made from mung bean starch, right? Should be okay, although I don't really know much about whether it's terribly refined in the process.
Joyce - I would have a hard time rejecting s'mores on a camping trip and it's difficult to get vegan marshmallows! Social situations bring in all sorts of outside pressures and expectations that make personal food choices more challenging. Good job on the seconds part.
Rob - good suggestions. I like the sandwich without the thousand island or bacon. In fact, instead of avocado slices (which seem to slide outta my sandwiches), I just mash the avocado right onto the bread instead. Some nice fresh lettuce and tomato, and maybe thinly sliced sweet onion, do the trick.
Theresa - good job! That's so nice to have herbal tea available from your very own garden. And I love that you are really combining the SOW with mindfulness.
This is good, I like challenges. For this past week I made vegetable soup and that was a big feat for me. I also snacked less on junk food. I had a bad moment yesterday and ate orange chicken from Panda and that kinda made me sick. Overall I am more conciencious of my choices and limits. I'm gonna try a new soup recipe this week too, I love soup.
ReplyDeleteI've been doing prettty well, I guess...We've been entertaining friends from out of town for over 10 days (they just left) so now I feel like things will finally get back to *normal*. Kind of. The one category I've been extra bad on is BUZZ - having people visit who love coffee is just too tempting. I mostly only had 1 cup per day, but I did not necessarily NOT have chocolate later that day. Sometimes I did, sometimes not. So eh on that one.
ReplyDeleteI'm still trying to get the swing of the SOW down; for instance today at lunch I felt a little hungry and could have eaten more pasta, but I decided to hold off, eat my salad and see how it went. I didn't have any more, but then like 30 minutes later devoured about 10 chocolate chip cookies. Ugh. So, probably would have been better to have the dang pasta, but there you go.
I've been doing pretty well on LITE - we dove into the world of sprouted wheat pasta today for lunch and YUM! is all I have to say. There is a giant tub of white sushi rice cooked in my fridge, but my (now gone) out of town guest made that one night for dinner. So you, know, not perfect, but not bad considering.
Rachel - glad you're enjoying playing along! Soup is great (although I much prefer it in the colder winter months.)
ReplyDeleteChessa - company is fun but throws a monkeywrench into these things oftentimes. With SOW, remember to go back and snack on regular food, not desserts. With several cantloupes in the house this past week, I've done much better with choosing fruit over sweets. Keep your favorite veggies on hand for snacking, too. (I love cold, cooked green beans!)
Sprouted wheat pasta sounds intriguing. I assume the sprouted wheat is dried before grinding up to make the pasta? Did you make it yourself or buy it somewhere?
We've been out of town for the last two weeks--the first week in a place where we had control of our food and did a fairly good job at following our rules. We did buy home-canned chow chow and Jerusalem artichoke pickles at a farmer's market. Hand-processed by someone else seemed to be close to fitting.
ReplyDeleteThe second week was an unplanned trip--and we just tried to be as reasonable as we could be. (We found a cool coffee shop which composted, etc. and made smoothies from just fruit with no sweetener on request!)
We got home last night at 8pm after drinking lots of coffee on the very long drive--and ate pizza while we watched the Olympics on tv. And drank wine. Pretty much we killed all the rules, I think.
This morning: on to a fully committed challenge for the rest of the month!
I have actually kept a food log on my blog to keep track of my progress. SOW is going good and I think I am more up to 75% even though I only signed up for 50. SWEET is going well though I feel I am probably only at the 50% rather than above it.
ReplyDeleteMmmm, crickets.
ReplyDeleteI've actually been doing well without trying very hard. Surprising. I'm doing better in the buzz category, and surprisingly, my husband has decided to cut his buzz intake too (not because of the challenge, per se, but because life is taking us there). So I'm doing better than 25% there. Probably at least 50%, maybe 75%.
Melinda - 25% Buzz; 75% Cafe, Sugar, & Veg; 100% Lite & SOW
Oh, and I planted tea and coffee seeds. My first experiment in making caffeine a more sustainable habit.
ReplyDeletePurloined Letter - okay, you had your feast, now it's time to buckle down. :)
ReplyDeleteCalimaryn - a food log's a great idea! I'm horrible at keeping them, but I'm glad it's working for you.
Melinda - good job. I'll be interested to hear how your coffee beans do. My biggest question would be how to process them, though, after harvest. Do they only need roasting or are they complicated like cacao with fermentation required?
I'm doing well with the veganism. I just have one problem which is I'm not eating as much because a) I'm too lazy to cook sometimes and b) I still have contraband food in my house so I have a hard time visualizing something to eat.
ReplyDeleteThat last reason probably didn't make sense, so I'll explain more thoroughly. I'll be mentally putting together dinner from what ingredients I have on hand, and then go, "Darn, that's not vegan." Then I loose my train of thought and usually end up not eating anything. Which has done wonders on my waistline, but I need to actually be eating better since I'm still nursing my son.
One good thing about this is I'm getting more of a backbone about standing up to people about my ethics. I've had to tell a few people who wanted to feed me that I'm vegan. The first couple of times if was very embarrassing, but I've become more confident and it's getting easier. I don't expect people to cook for me, but if they want to I need it to fit the way I eat. Nobody has been offended yet.
So, all in all this has been an extremely positive experience. Even my hubby is getting into the spirit of things.
We're still hanging in there with this challenge, no going out to eat, no animal products, limited refined goods, and today we finished up the last of the coffee in our house. It will be nice to take a break from it, we love coffee, but became awful dependent on it, and we both feel this is a great first step to our quitting smoking, which is the real point. We are going to start "challenging" ourselves to go specific lengths of time with out cigarettes, as well as not having them at those routine times, like after a meal. It'll be hard, but hopefully this time next year we'll be reporting that we no longer smoke!!
ReplyDeleteKrista - that's wonderful that you're developing the self-confidence to stand up for your food preferences. I'm glad it's working for you. Of course, you do need to make the effort to find something to eat after discarding the wrong stuff!
ReplyDeleteIf your entire family decides to go this route, you can look into donating the "contraband" food to a Halfway House or Women's Shelter. I have found that both are willing to take perishable food, often even if it is already open.
Jennifer - good job on the challenge and good luck with going coffee free. I hope it does help you both meet your ciggie-free goals as well.
I posted my update here: http://going-green-mama.blogspot.com/2008/08/discretionary-challenge-midway-point.html
ReplyDeleteI was doing pretty well, but some personal crisises put this on the back seat. I think I'm back to a place where I can start refocusing on this.
Yeah, I really really should eat the fruit (we have a dang plum tree in the backyard! d'oh!). Good idea, I will really try to incorporate that into the mix. And stop buying the cookies in the first place, they are so tempting!
ReplyDeleteWe soooo didn't make that sprouted wheat pasta, it's from Trader Joe's. It was a little stuck together, so if you are not going to drain it and eat it within like 45 seconds I would toss with some olive oil. But it tasted really good, even stuck together! ;)
I could have done a lot better this week, but at least I didn't completely give in to my heart's (and stomach's) desires. I had a couple of chocolate-chip cookies and some chocolate my mom brought when she was visiting. Plus, I had a couple more cups of coffee than I normally do. But I'm hoping that re-stocking on Postum will help that.
ReplyDeleteI did keep refined foods to a minimum, although we had company over and they brought some things that I felt bad if I didn't eat.
It was a fell-off-the-wagon kind of week, but I'm picking myself up and dusting myself off and trying anew this week. The problem is that I get so discouraged when I slide back into old habits that it makes me want to give up altogether! I'm going to try and stay strong, though :)
RJS - thanks for your report. I commented over there.
ReplyDeleteChessa - plums, yum! Thanks for the note on the pasta. I've found the same thing with the brown rice pasta - it really sticks together while cooking if not stirred almost constantly for the first half of cooking.
Heather - I'm glad you mentioned the Postum. It reminds me I need to do my coffee post soon.
And you also bring up another really good point. Old habits are hard to break and new ones hard to form. Since we're going with the wagon theme, think of habits as ruts. An old habit that we've been with for years has worn deep ruts in our behavior patterns. These ruts are easy and comfortable because it takes very little effort to remain there.
A new habit is so unfamiliar it has barely made a mark in the ground. You have to keep at it, letting it wear a new rut, or groove, to ride in. If you slip into the old rut, it does take more effort to extract yourself and go back to forming the new one. The longer you stick with the new one though, the easier it will get. Eventually the old rut will fill in, grow new grass, and disappear.
Sorry it took me so long to check in; I've been exceptionally active this week instead of spending all my time reading blogs. Last week wasn't bad; I found out that if I'm hungry at 11:30, I should eat a little bit of something, and then eat the same thing at 3:00, when I'll be hungry again. The 4 meals a day don't have to be different and special, just enough to keep you going.
ReplyDelete'Course, yesterday I had to have a pbj sandwich, then a cheese sandwich 15 minutes later. I was really hungry.
Anyway, this just reminds me how little I'm looking forward to going back to school. We're only allowed 3 meals a day and 2 a day on weekends. Can you imagine surviving, only eating twice a day??? I hate it. I think I'm going to be eating out on the weekends.
Why are you only allowed to eat twice a day? That seems counterproductive to learning. The brain's gotta have it's fuel!
ReplyDeleteThat's what I said! But nooo, the cafeteria is only open twice a day weekends, and you're only allowed to go in once per its opening. I think it's something about the fact that most people are asleep until noon so why should they have to eat breakfast, but that's still wrong. Even if they've slept 'til noon, people still need 3 meals at least. And I eat four sometimes. Also, if you're planning on getting up early, and go to brunch at 10:00... that's your only daytime meal, next meal is at 5pm. It just doesn't make sense.
ReplyDeleteSo yeah. Next semester I'm going to try to figure out ways around two meals a day.
Can I be PLUS 50% on BUZZ, please... I normally drink 2 cups of coffee a day, but I've been spending time with Jamie which results in more cups of much stronger coffee. I'm a bad, but very happy Killi
ReplyDeleteLOL, Killi. No, I'm not going to sign you up for that. Enjoy your time with Jamie. Maybe next month you'll get back to your original level. ;-)
ReplyDelete:) I hope not...
ReplyDelete