At first sight this goal is going to seem a bit hypocritical largely due to the fact that I work in a restaurant, but here me out, and keep in mind I'm not grouping all restaurants into one category but viewing things from a birds eye view on this matter.
For starters, eating at home is a good way to save a buck or two. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that something like a soda or bottle of salad dressing is marked up way beyond the cost you can get it for at the grocery store.
Secondly you don't learn much about food or how to prepare it when you eat out. I find it way more fun to cook at home with friends than to go out to eat and only see the finished product. Cooking can be fun! Try something new!
Last and probably most importantly it is generally more healthy. Giving up eating out is one of my final few steps in completely rearranging my food diet this year. There will be three or four more steps down the road a bit farther to see just how close I can come to eating the diet of a primitive vegetarian caveman.
Here is a link to a great article by Jack Busch who seems to feel passionately about this issue as well. I think he makes some great points about the subject while not necessarily pointing a finger of blame at the restaurants. After all, restaurants cater to the popular demand which is up to US!
So here is to giving up eating out for the rest of the year. To make it a true challenge I will include not eating shift meals while I am at work as part of this effort for the rest of 2014!
For starters, eating at home is a good way to save a buck or two. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that something like a soda or bottle of salad dressing is marked up way beyond the cost you can get it for at the grocery store.
Secondly you don't learn much about food or how to prepare it when you eat out. I find it way more fun to cook at home with friends than to go out to eat and only see the finished product. Cooking can be fun! Try something new!
Last and probably most importantly it is generally more healthy. Giving up eating out is one of my final few steps in completely rearranging my food diet this year. There will be three or four more steps down the road a bit farther to see just how close I can come to eating the diet of a primitive vegetarian caveman.
Here is a link to a great article by Jack Busch who seems to feel passionately about this issue as well. I think he makes some great points about the subject while not necessarily pointing a finger of blame at the restaurants. After all, restaurants cater to the popular demand which is up to US!
So here is to giving up eating out for the rest of the year. To make it a true challenge I will include not eating shift meals while I am at work as part of this effort for the rest of 2014!
End of Week 31 Update
Easier said than done, but indeed, done. I was under the impression that I had picked a fairly tricky week for this goal. On Friday we left for our family vacation at Edisto Island. The way I saw it, if we went out to eat, I would not be able to eat anything but a salad due to the fact that I have exempt meat from my diet already so rather than paying for a salad making my own grub sounded like the better option. Between the food my mom and I packed into the car it ends up we probably could have fed the whole island.
It ended up being a blessing in disguise that I picked this week to start out with cooking my own food for the rest of the year. Not only did I have 40 more hours of free time in my week to do so but my mom took an interest in helping me with cooking our own meals, many times turning the tiny little kitchen into a full on cooking show winging together everything from veggie burgers and homemade pesto to blackberry pie and okra gumbo. It looks like the real challenge here will end up next week when I get back to Blacksburg and am working around a much tighter schedule.
There were so many highlights of the week. We have been going to Edisto since I was a kid but I have to say that this was my favorite trip. Building up to vacation I was wondering, am I really going to spend my whole vacation picking up trash, volunteering, cooking, reading and running? My usual Edisto vacation would happen more like roll out of bed around 11, ride my bike to the beach, walk the beach for hours looking for sharks teeth and have a few beers or some wine when night time rolled around . . . for 7 days in a row.
Easier said than done, but indeed, done. I was under the impression that I had picked a fairly tricky week for this goal. On Friday we left for our family vacation at Edisto Island. The way I saw it, if we went out to eat, I would not be able to eat anything but a salad due to the fact that I have exempt meat from my diet already so rather than paying for a salad making my own grub sounded like the better option. Between the food my mom and I packed into the car it ends up we probably could have fed the whole island.
It ended up being a blessing in disguise that I picked this week to start out with cooking my own food for the rest of the year. Not only did I have 40 more hours of free time in my week to do so but my mom took an interest in helping me with cooking our own meals, many times turning the tiny little kitchen into a full on cooking show winging together everything from veggie burgers and homemade pesto to blackberry pie and okra gumbo. It looks like the real challenge here will end up next week when I get back to Blacksburg and am working around a much tighter schedule.
There were so many highlights of the week. We have been going to Edisto since I was a kid but I have to say that this was my favorite trip. Building up to vacation I was wondering, am I really going to spend my whole vacation picking up trash, volunteering, cooking, reading and running? My usual Edisto vacation would happen more like roll out of bed around 11, ride my bike to the beach, walk the beach for hours looking for sharks teeth and have a few beers or some wine when night time rolled around . . . for 7 days in a row.
The reality of my time on Edisto this year was crystal clear when we departed the island. I still got to play golf, find sharks teeth, relax on the beach, and do all the fun things that we usually do, however by sticking to my goals and weekly schedule I also got to experience A LOT more. I got to see a huge king snake from about 10 feet away while my Dad and I were picking up old beer cans. I got to meet some local people such as Nona the environmentalist and hear some of the concerns of someone that lives on the island year round. I got to volunteer with people in the sea turtle program that were excited about the right things and helping others get excited about it as well. I acquired a better sense of the Edisto community while attending the local market and by taking the 14 mile bicycle ride away from the densely populated part of the island to George and Pinks fresh vegetable stand. By picking up trash I got to experience fire ants on my legs, huge spiders inches from my face, and a constantly nervous feeling watching for any one of the 5 poisonous snakes that were available to be stumbled upon. All of a sudden, Edisto Island was teeming with adventure, liveliness, opportunity and I could not get enough of it!
End of Week 31 Totals
Soda - 0 ounces
Water - 111.79 Gallons
Liquor - 0 shots
Tea - 392 cups
Trips to unhappy places - Jimmy Johns (1)
$ to support neighbors = $570.60
Fried food consumption - 2 dorito chips
Breakfasts eaten - 168
Pushups - 1200 Crunches - 1080
Days Flossed - 152 (missed two days)
Coffee - 0 cups
Sunrises attended - 21
Beers drunk - 0
Gallons of Trash Collected - 486
Items planted -12 jalapenos, 12 bell peppers, 8 yellow pear tomatoes, 30 canna bulbs, 1 chinese pistache, 30 sensitive plants, 24 carolina reaper peppers, 12 ghost peppers, 31 scorpion peppers, 5 brussel sprouts, 12 tyria hybrid cucumbers, 14 congo watermelons, 6 hybrid prizewinner pumpkins, 45 devils tongue peppers, 14 black sea man tomatoes, 33 peruvian white lightning habaneros, 16 mammoth russian sunflowers, 30 big smile sunflowers, 100 zinnia's, 100 basil plants, 100 green onion plants, 12 chinese lanterns, 30 garden beans, a bed of mint, 50 Celosia flowers, 7 Red Maple Seeds, 30 brussel sprouts, transplant 34 pepper plants, transplant 13 sensitive plants and 3 watermelon plants, transplant 15 pepper plants and 6 sensitive plants, transplant 21 pepper plants,
Letters written - 17
Meat eaten - none
Donations made - Bike the US for MS, Personal Mission Trip, Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, Against Malaria Foundation, Deworm the World Initiative, Project Healthy Children, charity: water, Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, YMCA Thrift Store, Volunteered at Plenty!, Against Malaria Foundation, Food supplies to Plenty! food pantry, Deworm the World Initiative, Edisto Island Preservation Alliance,
Movies watched - 0
Glasses of wine - 0
New dishes cooked - Vegetable Korma, Ukranian Vinaigrette, Lamb's Quarters Quiche, Thai Spicy Eggplant with Sweet Basil and a side of Bean Sprout Salad with Peanut Chili Dressing, Pan Bagnat with grilled peppers and basil vinaigrette and a side of Classic Gougères, Vegetarian Feijoada and Brazilian Bananas, Baked Eggplant Parmesan (mixture of this and this recipe), Somalian Fataa'ir Farmaajo and Barooddo Qudaar, Portobello Burgers and homemade pesto, Stir fried tofu with yellow curry powder,
Okra Gumbo with Chickpeas and Kidney Beans,
Miles ran - 471.1
Facebook and Twitter time = 0 minutes
Books Read - The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter, The Other by David Guterson, The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert, currently reading A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf by John Muir and loving it!
Nights camped - 2
Ice fails - 1
Items dispersed - 21
Hours volunteered - 7.75
End of Week 31 Totals
Soda - 0 ounces
Water - 111.79 Gallons
Liquor - 0 shots
Tea - 392 cups
Trips to unhappy places - Jimmy Johns (1)
$ to support neighbors = $570.60
Fried food consumption - 2 dorito chips
Breakfasts eaten - 168
Pushups - 1200 Crunches - 1080
Days Flossed - 152 (missed two days)
Coffee - 0 cups
Sunrises attended - 21
Beers drunk - 0
Gallons of Trash Collected - 486
Items planted -12 jalapenos, 12 bell peppers, 8 yellow pear tomatoes, 30 canna bulbs, 1 chinese pistache, 30 sensitive plants, 24 carolina reaper peppers, 12 ghost peppers, 31 scorpion peppers, 5 brussel sprouts, 12 tyria hybrid cucumbers, 14 congo watermelons, 6 hybrid prizewinner pumpkins, 45 devils tongue peppers, 14 black sea man tomatoes, 33 peruvian white lightning habaneros, 16 mammoth russian sunflowers, 30 big smile sunflowers, 100 zinnia's, 100 basil plants, 100 green onion plants, 12 chinese lanterns, 30 garden beans, a bed of mint, 50 Celosia flowers, 7 Red Maple Seeds, 30 brussel sprouts, transplant 34 pepper plants, transplant 13 sensitive plants and 3 watermelon plants, transplant 15 pepper plants and 6 sensitive plants, transplant 21 pepper plants,
Letters written - 17
Meat eaten - none
Donations made - Bike the US for MS, Personal Mission Trip, Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, Against Malaria Foundation, Deworm the World Initiative, Project Healthy Children, charity: water, Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, YMCA Thrift Store, Volunteered at Plenty!, Against Malaria Foundation, Food supplies to Plenty! food pantry, Deworm the World Initiative, Edisto Island Preservation Alliance,
Movies watched - 0
Glasses of wine - 0
New dishes cooked - Vegetable Korma, Ukranian Vinaigrette, Lamb's Quarters Quiche, Thai Spicy Eggplant with Sweet Basil and a side of Bean Sprout Salad with Peanut Chili Dressing, Pan Bagnat with grilled peppers and basil vinaigrette and a side of Classic Gougères, Vegetarian Feijoada and Brazilian Bananas, Baked Eggplant Parmesan (mixture of this and this recipe), Somalian Fataa'ir Farmaajo and Barooddo Qudaar, Portobello Burgers and homemade pesto, Stir fried tofu with yellow curry powder,
Okra Gumbo with Chickpeas and Kidney Beans,
Miles ran - 471.1
Facebook and Twitter time = 0 minutes
Books Read - The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter, The Other by David Guterson, The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert, currently reading A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf by John Muir and loving it!
Nights camped - 2
Ice fails - 1
Items dispersed - 21
Hours volunteered - 7.75