We've passed the 20 day mark in the 100 Days Challenge. I hope the rest of you have done better than I did in the past 10 days.
You might recall that I told my friend that I had set strict guidelines for myself initially in this challenge because I "tend to do better with clear cut black-and-white rules. Give me an inch and I'll take a mile." Well, once I relaxed those guidelines and decided it was okay to spend money, under certain circumstances, on food during the challenge, it was all over.
We're not even talking about a slippery slope here, folks, we're talking jumping off the freakin' cliff. You already know about the Chipotle burrito with my sweetie and the Sweet Tomatoes dinner out with a group of friends. If you checked on my daily food log on the other blog, you are aware that I ate at both Chipotle and Sweet Tomatoes again on my own. (I didn't pay for the second Sweet Tomatoes meal, though, as I got a free coupon through my weight loss challenge group.) Over the weekend, my sweetie decided he wanted a burger from the vegan restaurant and told me, "You don't have to come." Ha! Let him go get a tasty burger on his own? I don't think so.
Pretty damn pathetic, if you ask me. In 10 days, I ate out FIVE times. That's way more than usual and I'm really supposed to not be eating out at all. And I'm not even telling you about one other meal out because you'd quit reading my blog because I'm such a hypocrite, so we're just going to pretend it didn't happen. So, 5 meals out in 10 days - I blew off my own challenge for almost 20% of my meals! Sheesh.
Unfortunately, the challenge carnage did not end there. Unbeknownst to you, I had told my sweetie at the beginning of this challenge that I would still shop for food if there was a good deal on something that would be good for the emergency food supplies, even though I am ostensibly trying to rotate my stock and eat up some of the food. Well, sure enough, this past week there was a good sale on canned tomatoes. I did not get enough local organic tomatoes to can as many as I need, either through the CSA or our garden (and I can't afford the Farmers Market prices for tomatoes). So, I spent some money to stock up. Once I'd spent that money, it seemed silly to force ourselves to have homemade sushi without the avocado so I sprung for a couple of avocados at the beginning of this week, too.
I know what you're probably thinking. Either, "This Chile really is a loser and I'm not going to listen to anything she says again!" or "There goes Chile being too hard on herself again."
I'd say the first choice is more appropriate. I chose my challenge and I entered it voluntarily. I set up my criteria knowing that I need strict rules. Against my better judgment, I relaxed those rules and tried to fool myself into thinking I'd be okay with them. Let's be honest with ourselves here. Rules are there for a reason. You shouldn't mess with the rules. An alcoholic can never have just one drink and a black-and-white thinker can never have just one exception. It doesn't work. I gave myself an inch and I took the whole damn mile.
So, I've got 78 days left after today. What am I going to do with them? You know, I don't have a clue. I'd like to say I'll go back to being strict and not spending a cent. On the other hand, I want to think I can be an adult about this and make good choices, even though I proved that theory spectacularly wrong this past 10 days. Right now, I'm torn between simply tossing in the towel and admitting defeat, buckling down to do this correctly, or setting a new rule with a dollar limit for food expenditures whether at the store or restaurants.
Anyway, enough about my failures. How did you do?
15 comments:
Actually, I've done well. I had a friend give me a big bag of basil on Monday and instead of going out and buying ingredients for vegan pesto, I made basil flavored hummus since I already had all the ingredients on hand except for lemons (aka fruit, the one thing I'm allowed to buy).
So far so good, but I know that at some point, my own basil will be ready for harvest and I'll be buying supplies to make and freeze pesto. And in November, pecans are in season and I'll be stocking up for the year.
So I know that at some point, I'll fail the challenge, but it's a planned fail. But then again, I wasn't nearly as strict as you were. I could certainly have lived without fruit for a few months or not eaten out, or not planned to do my normal stocking up. I know that if the economy or the agricultural atmosphere was that extreme, I'd get by just fine. Which is the point of such challenges, though, isn't it? Knowing what we can do, not necessarily following it to the letter when we don't have to...
I don't know. What do you think?
Well ... my husband was out of town for four days, and I did great ... until my wrist started feeling a little sore, and since I type for a living, I wasn't taking any chances, and I dropped the push-ups, and just did the jumping jacks.
Then, my husband got back from his trip, and it was kind of one day on, one day off for exercise.
This past weekend, I cleaned out the chicken coop, which was a very physical job, and then I did a bunch of other stuff that had me standing in an awkward, hunched over position, and so I had a back spasm, which hurt, and I didn't exercise.
I only had to do 25 jumping jacks ... you'd think I could manage that, but no-o-o-o ....
My back feels better, now, and I really have no excuse. So, I'm hoping to get back on the exercise train.
There, we're both keeping each other company in our failure misery. I feel better .... how about you :)?
Me? (Gulp) Well, I did eat out once but it was with my former boss, a very nice man, and he picked up the tab.
I'm home alone a lot now (newly retired) and getting plenty of exercise -- there was a storm and it tried to wreck the new polytunnel and so I hauled hundreds of pounds of round rock from the dry wash to throw on the edge of the poly. That counts, yah think?
With the rain coming I rescued all the drying beans I could, and gathered the potatoes and garlic and onions while I was at it, and some late-found delicatas, and tomatillos, along with baskets full of tomatoes, and some crabapples and rose hips -- we're swimming in food ideas right now, so it's not hard to eat free.
Beloved's not participating, though, and some of the things that come home with her are well within my tolerance for ... umm ... failure (there, she said it).
Aw, Chile, you may be a challenge failure, but at least you are a very funny one. ;)
Heather - you get a gold star! Basil-flavored hummus sounds good. I'll bet it would be good with roasted red peppers...
I have to agree with what you say at the end. I know if we had to avoid spending money - say, if we simply had none - we could do it. Perhaps I'm rebelling against the strictness of the challenge because we're not at that point of desperation yet. Eating out does serve as a way to relax a bit. We get to enjoy sharing a meal in a completely relaxed atmosphere where I'm not tired from making the meal and my sweetie isn't dreading having to clean up a trashed kitchen afterwards. We can spend the time just enjoying each other and good food. (We don't waste money on bad food out.)
Wendy - well, you had legitimate excuses for missing some days of exercise. It sounds like you managed to work hard in other ways, too! So, sorry, but you still get a silver star.
Risa - so why didn't your former boss invite me, too? Then I could have eaten out guilt-free! ;-)
If your Beloved has brought the things into the house, then by the time you see them, they are present in the pantry, right? I mean, you didn't buy them, you're just cleaning out what's there. Yeah. See? There's a way to rationalize almost anything. hehe
Ruchi - I'm so glad I could entertain you. You'll love this. At the weigh-in this evening, I - not surprisingly - had gained a few pounds thanks to all the meals out. With only three of us showing up, but with a kitty from last week's big showing of 7 folks, that meant a new gal easily won the $70 with just a 1 1/2 pound loss. The coordinator kidded me about my gain and pointed out that I could have won the big bucks by just losing a pound and a half since I weigh about the same as the new gal.
My response was to tell her that I wanted the new gal to feel welcome. Winning is a nice way to do that. Then I turned to the new gal and said, "I gained weight just for you!" She laughed.
For my dont use any new plastic challenge I learned a lot. For one I've become really good at carrying my stainless steel lunch container whereever I go, because we're always popping in somewhere unexpected even though we don't plan to do so. This has saved me from bringing in any new plastic. We eat at the co-op once a week and usually it is sandwiches. But I wanted to try their buffet bar. We eat out and people watch and I usually have it to go but when I saw the lady pull a plastic togo container I asked if I could have a glass plate instead and take it out. They were okay with it. So yay.
On the down side, I tried to use Dr. Bronner's soap to wash dishes and in combination with our hard water there were streaks on every utensil and I just can't use that stuff. So we're back to using ecover to wash dishes.
I also looked into buying cheese wrapped in wax which is often made in places like Italy and comes in 20-30 lbs. The entire thing would be something like $300. But I am going to buy it to avoid the plastic and just store it in olive oil.
There were some slip ups here and there, but over all pretty darn good.
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And that is too funny about gaining weight for the newcomers. When you come here and ride some of our hills in San Diego, you'll win the kitty big time.
Thats why I don't do challenges much. My take is I either do whatever it is anyway or I don't and if I think it is a good idea I will do it regardless. In moderation to begin with and, if that is successful, it becomes just another part of life.
I really prefer the moderate effect rather than the hard core challenge. That way I don't need to beat myself up so much. I might add that it has taken years to get to this stage and I have the shin splints, damaged tendons, arthritis etc to prove it!
So....please don't beat yourself up for not being perfect because perfect never exists.
Ouch, I think I'm getting old - I'm starting to sound like my Grandma :)
viv in nz
You are being too hard on yourself! I don't know if I've ever commented before but I've been a loyal reader for a long time. My suggestion is to choose a $$ amount you can live with, get the cash, and only eat out to that $$ amount. When it's gone it's gone, til the next week - or month- or whatever. I give myself $20/week for lunch out, a latte whatever. I'm usually out by Wednesday but it's OK- because Monday was a pleasure. You get my drift. Don't throw in the towel! You are inspiring a lot of people and the fact that it's hard for you too only makes you human.
To piggy back on what every else is saying about you being so hard on yourself...
I've been reading Feeling Good by Dr. David Burns and I'm reading the section on guilt. First I strongly recommend the book for you to read, but especially the section on guilt. The section on guilt has some really useful exercises to help you deal with guilting yourself.
You are being a little too hard on yourself, Chile. The good thing is we can start over on life every 24 hours.
My report:
1. Used bones, some meat, celery seed, salt, pepper in making chicken broth from leftover chicken. I haven’t done that for a long time. There wasn’t really much meat as the final leftovers were given to the cats.
2. Used up the last of the lentils/rice/diced tomato dish with some chicken broth from item 1 above for dinner that night.
3. Had some leftover strawberries with oatmeal the next morning.
4. Bell peppers are going into the dehydrator today or tomorrow.
5. I failed completely at using up the mustard greens I had got at the store! I thought it’d be interesting to try they but maybe another time.
6. Had lunch out with some friends I haven't seen in a couple of months and used the leftovers from that meal the next meal.
7. Broken down and ordered pizza DELIVERED twice in the past two weeks. How many points off is that?
but they tasted good! :)
Keep up the good work, ya'll, but don't be too hard on yourselves.
peace,
shamba
Beany - being prepared for the unexpected is a great idea! I got one of the stainless steel containers - I just need to remember to take it with me. Not surprised with your soap problems. Say hello to hard water in the West. :)
Good plan on the cheese. I was just bemoaning the fact to someone on Tuesday that few people understand the savings/investment principles of bulk purchases. I was trying to get someone to buy my last box of cheesecloth. She told me it would last her 10 years so she didn't want to get it. I'm thinking, "Sheesh, I'd be thrilled not to have to shop for it for 10 years!" It's not that big to store but people just avoid bulk.
Viv - sometimes moderate change works, but sometimes a radical challenge is needed to shake up the status quo.
Hi Ellen! Yes, you have commented her but it's been a while. Nice to see you. I have some comments about whether I'm truly being too hard on myself coming up in a new brief post.
Beany - didn't like the book when I looked at it several years ago...
Shamba - good job! Sounds like you are getting pretty creative with all your leftovers. Sometimes, I've found that this kind of hyper-focus can lead to pizza incidents, though. :)
I'm late to the party, but I agree with all who say you are being too hard on yourself. So far so good on my challenge which continues to have a reciprocal effect on my partner. We're even being fairly successful at keeping cleaned up areas cleaned up.
Unlike your challenge, however, I structured a little give into mine, in case you didn't notice. First, I can self define a clean up project as . . . my sock drawer if I want, not that I have, or any pile of stuff that's been sitting around for longer than a day or too. And I'm going for 10 cleaned up areas in 10 days. There have been stretches of days where nothing new gets picked up.
What I'm really hoping for here is habit building . . . and a more organized house eventually.
Improvement is happening slowly but I hope sustainably.
You should give yourself an out -- like a dollar limit, or so many eat outs for the duration of the challenge, or per days you have gone without spending money on food.
I did so-so.
+ I *have* reduced my waste, but
- I still threw away some food that really should've gotten eaten.
- I also have been eating out a lot (usually Tuesdays and Thursdays), so although
+ I've made a huge effort to eat the leftovers,
- I havent' been working my way through any canned goods.
All in all, I'm calling it a victory, because despite my current inability to be perfect on my goals, I've made some good strides. I think I've cut my food waste about 75%, so I'm calling that a win.
As far as your challenge goes, I think both 1 and 2 are viable thoughts, when combined. Yes, you made the rules and entered the challenge voluntarily. Yes, you biffed it on some of it. However, I think if you're expecting perfection, you'll always be disappointed. A better idea maybe is to put the rules back in place (non-relaxed form, I mean) and strive to do better daily. If you botch some of it, it's okay - you can do better the next day.
And for the record, I don't consider the tomato purchases to be a failure. Admittedly, they aren't in keeping w/ the rules of the challenge, but they ARE in keeping with a longer-term plan (that I assume you have) of keeping enough food in the house to be okay in any emergency. Sometimes long-term preparation needs to take precedence over short-term challenges.
Chile, I agree with Allie -- I think the overriding principles are more important than the rules themselves. If buying tomatoes to preserve for the future is more in alignment with the principles of sustainability than strictly following the rules of a challenge, then go for the tomatoes!
If it was put to a vote, I would vote "There goes Chile being too hard on herself again."
I always enter a challenge with the thought that I am trying to change an old habit. And start a new one. Some sucesses, some failures. Part of life.
So I think you should celebrate the positives.
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