Real Food Week 3 Results and Week 4 Challenge
Written by Ashley Kelmore, Posted in Random
Well, we continue on with this experiment and it’s getting interesting, especially because the ‘big’ challenges are still looming. Last week was the local meat challenge: nothing that was raised further than 100 miles from where we live. Effectively that meant being vegetarians for the week. We don’t tend to cook meat at home, so that left eating out, and even eating out it was mostly vegetarian choices. We did, however, go to Local 360. Granted, their version of local is 360 mile radius, but frankly I’m okay with that. Plus, supporting such an awesome restaurant with such a cool mission was fine with us!
We both continue to keep up with the other aspects of the challenge for the most part. A couple of days it’s been more like five fruits and vegetables instead of six, but it’s definitely a very conscious effort. And during this experiment I found that a lunch of steamed zucchini topped with grated parmesan is a really fantastic meal. Add some berries on the side and that’ll hold you for a bit for sure. The drink limitations are still in effect, made easier by the pack of sparkling water we ordered that arrived last week. I’m planning to stay with that one a more permanent basis, so diet sodas are hopefully primarily gone, but I’ll definitely still be enjoying the occasional spiced cider or hot chocolate this fall. I’ve always preferred to eat rather than drink my calories, but cutting out some of the chemicals in the diet drinks is a nice change.
So, we move on to this week’s challenge: no fast food and nothing deep fried. The fast food ban isn’t really that much of a challenge for us, as other than the late night visit to Dick’s or Hot Mama’s Pizza, we don’t tend to patronize those places unless we’re on the road. But the deep fried limitation will be a bit harder. I was faced with going out to Mexican food for dinner last night, and thankfully my friend is also not partaking in fried foods so we were able to just say no chips please. If they were on the table that was going to be a test. I really love chips and salsas, but all that oil hanging on really isn’t great. Subbing in a salad to replace fries when getting a sandwich or burger will be a good choice, although not one I’ll ALWAYS follow going forward, because French fries are yummy. Which reminds me, I really want to go to Vol de Nuit when we’re in NYC in November. Mmmmm. Belgian fries.
I can, however, already tell that this is not a challenge I’m going to continue with in its entirety past this week. I think I will incorporate a little more fried food common sense into my food choices, as it’s not REALLY something I think about that much. Making sure I don’t double up on fried food in one week is probably a realistic goal past this week. And the next time we’re going to be on the road, I’m going to look to pack stuff so we don’t have to stop at a fast food restaurant.
Next week almost seems like a cheat: try at least two new whole foods. Hmmm. Maybe we can pick a grain or something? Or perhaps eggplant or spaghetti squash. That’s right, I’ve not actually eaten either of those things, but who knows! Maybe we’ll find a cool new food we like.
1 Comment