Woah. So what happened. Today is Day 21 and you haven’t heard a peep from me in almost a week. I’ve cheated. I’ve been unfaithful to the produce in my vegetable drawer. Remember on Day 15 (a Wednesday) how I told you I had popcorn for dinner because of PMS and that I would explain later … well it’s later. A lot later.
Blame it on Aunt Flo
My boyfriend says I shouldn’t blog about this. He says it’s TMI. Perhaps, but so are a lot of things on the Internet. And if this is the most intimate thing I ever reveal about myself online, then I think I’m doing OK. So here goes: PMS hijacks my life every month. It’s true. I get irritable. I lose my patience. I curse at drivers. I roll my eyes at strangers who walk slowly in front of me at the grocery store. I sigh a lot. And I CRAVE junk food. Ice cream. French fries. Buffalo chicken anything. And in the case of Day 15 — Popcorn.
Or Blame it on Me
So, half way through my project, I slipped and had some popcorn. But it didn’t stop there. It opened the flood gates. I stuck to my Farmers’ Market breakfasts and lunches on Day 16 and Day 17, but for dinners I caved. On Thursday, I convinced my boyfriend to take me out to dinner. On Friday, I ate my restaurant leftovers. On Saturday, I stuck to my farmers market diet for breakfast and lunch, but after riding 10 miles in the Bull Moon Ride in Durham, NC, I noshed on some free BBQ. Sunday rolled around and I cheated again.
I was semi-back on track Monday (Day 20) eating farmers market granola for breakfast. But I had soup from my work cafeteria for lunch because I was too lazy to prepare a meal that morning. For dinner, I made a tomato and zucchini casserole and it was excellent. Here’s the recipe (given to me by one of my blog readers, Judy).
Majority Farmers’ Market
I didn’t go to the Market this weekend because I had plenty of leftover grass-fed beef, cheeses and pork sausage in the fridge and tons of tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers and onions remaining. But, last night I found (much to my disgust) that my meat had spoiled (is this a side effect of buying meet with no preservatives?) and my cheese tasted funky enough to make me throw it all out.
So today was Day 21 and I’m not too proud of what I ate. So tomorrow I’m going to stock up on some supplies at the Durham Farmers’ Market and try to do a majority farmers market diet for the remaining nine days.
And then when this project is over I’m going to eat chocolate and cake, maybe even some chocolate cake. Because, I’m really, really craving it!
Well you and your sister should get along just fine, LOL!!!
If you buy more meat there, cook it all up at once and freeze what you don’t use.
A hint with any cheese: Try not to touch it with your hands. It will last longer! Love Mom
Definitely need to freeze the meat, even vacuum-packed raw meat won’t keep for more than a few days in the fridge. Cheeses are variable. Hard cheeses tend to keep longer than soft ones (plus, on the harder ones you can just cut off the moldy bits and consume the good parts). Here’s a good article on storing cheese at home: http://www.wikihow.com/Store-Cheese-Successfully-at-Home
My family has fallen into a “market when it’s convenient” thing. Local sausage or fresh produce becomes a treat a few nights a week on the day we visit the market or the day after. We mix it in with the usual fare and it works great for us! I imagine it’s a bit like a diet – you start to crave what you’re denying yourself!
You don’t know me, but I found your blog via the Eat at Joe’s blog. Just wanted to stop in and say that if this experiment were easy, it wouldn’t be much fun reading your blog. We all fall into temptation sometimes! Good luck with your remaining time. Stay strong!
Hi Ginny,
You have been a huge inspiration to me with this project. I have been impressed with your discipline and “stick to it ness”!!! I love your blog, and I love you too, even more since I can see you are human!!!
(((HUGS))) TT
Hi Ginny,
I have really been enjoying your blog. I don’t think I want to read a blog by some perfect person who set the same challenge and then each day tells what wonderful things she makes and how easy it all is.
Everyone I know who has pledged to do some kind of local eating project has set a goal of some percentage of their food that would be local and has definitely built in some allowances for “luxury items” such as coffee and chocolate. You set a high bar for yourself, and I think you are doing quite well considering that.
I’ve caught up with you after your early days on the project. You’re doing great – and love the extras that go on in the comments – like your mother’s observation that if you don’t touch cheese it will last longer
I’m thinking when your 30 days are over, you could do a PMS blog – like 1 year of PMSing. Just don’t tell your boyfriend.
Oh, and BTW, my “boyfriend” and I have that same dishwasher thing going on here….