Day One

And so begins my quest. I can’t write journey because my son, Patrick, will close this book and stop reading immediately. This is no journey. It’s a diary that begins with a fragment that I have been encouraged to rewrite.
What a way to start! But start I have.

After dropping Katie off at school, I winded my way over to Whole Foods to choose some things to eat.
With Michael Pollen’s and Marion Nestle’s words humming in my brain I chose carefully. I looked at labels. I looked at prices. I chose local. I chose simple.

I bought strawberries and pineapple. Neither are local. But what’s a girl to do? I don’t think there is a Wisconsin grower who has pineapples in his field. And I like pineapples and strawberries. If I am going to start eating fruit, I will have to start with the flown in kinds.
We have apples in the house and those are local. It’s fall. I think I will be eating lots of apples.

Organic eggs were on my list. They say Certified Organic. They are brown.
I read last night that it does not matter a bit what color the shell is; that’s nice to know. No use spending extra on color. In this year I hope to find a really local source for eggs. I have 364 days to do that.

What else did I buy? One container of Greek yogurt: plain.
I intend to mix homemade strawberry jam into the plain yogurt.
Seriously, if I am going to do this, I have to be honest with myself.
I will never eat plain yogurt. But I shall try this.

Oh yes! I bought grass fed ground beef, (two small packages) and a whole chicken.
Both on sale.

Michael Pollen says, “Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
(Thus the small packages.)

This simple philosophy will help me keep focused on eating whole nutritious foods and not eating too much.

It is thought that eating healthy is much more expensive than eating cheap.
I am hoping that by eating less, that cost will even out. It just seems logical.

I know myself well enough to know that if I deprive myself of the food I long for,
I will be unhappy. I am determined to do this for a year. But I don’t want to be depressed for a year. How I will have a healthy spirit….remains to be seen.
I will be preparing my “treats” so I have more control over the ingredients and I will not be obsessive.

I will do my best. And then I will be merciful with myself.
But I will persevere.

Day one is always a good day.

Except for the headache that comes with caffeine withdrawal.

I better go look up the most healthful way to deal with a caffeine headache.