This has been a great experience for me, but there's no way it's a diet I could ever actually live. I will, however, eat as much local and organic food as I can. I like knowing where my food is from and supporting the amazing local food companies we have.
I can't believe it's Day 10 already. Just shows how fast time flies! My meals have been extremely basic today because I am out of food. Breakfast was toast and honey, plus I killed off my bag of granola from Saturday. Lunch was an egg, cheese and tomato sandwich and an apple. Dinner was venison chop, asparagus and another apple. I'm headed to the store tomorrow to stock up for my last four days. The catch here, is that I'm headed back to Chicago for the final two days. That shouldn't be hard at all! My family loves to eat. This will suck. Come Saturday morning though, I'll probably treat myself with Dunkin Donuts and coffee. Oh, and a banana! This has been a great experience for me, but there's no way it's a diet I could ever actually live. I will, however, eat as much local and organic food as I can. I like knowing where my food is from and supporting the amazing local food companies we have. On the non-food front, I watched Black Swan for the first time. I knew it was going to be weird, but that shit was crazy. Hats off to Natalie Portman for becoming a dancer; It's really hard to be a ballerina.
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I'm not much of a honey-eater. In fact, I'm quite positive the honey in my cupboard made the move from my old apartment a year ago and hasn't been touched since. Well, at the Farmers Market Saturday, honey sounded very, very good to me. I haven't eaten anything sweet in 9 days so this is exactly what my tastebuds wanted. Sunday morning breakfast was toast drenched (OK, not drenched) but covered in honey. It was delicious. As with many of the local organic foods I've tasted over the past week, they taste just like the real deal... but they don't have all that artificial stuff in them. This bottle from Soder Apiares was $3.50. Not bad in my book.
Up and at em! At 6:45am my alarm went off so I could get to the Des Moines Farmers Market. Wow, that's early! But I'm glad I went. I picked up a loaf of whole grain bread from Daily Bread Bakery in Algona. It was $4.50, I think. Usually a load of bread at Aldi is a buck. In this case, the taste and freshness is worth the extra few dollars. I had a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich for a late lunch with this bread. It was great! They also had a very tempting chocolate bread. Mmmm... I also picked up some granola and honey, I wanted to get homemade jelly, syrup and grass-fed lamb, but it was too expensive.
Come on, will power. I played in the Whiff It Tourney today to raise money for Miracle League. For most, that meant 6 hours of sweating it out on the field and drinking and eating way too much off the field. For me, it meant 6 hours of torture. I refrained from having a beer, cake batter shots, and munchies. I stuck to my locally-made granola and popcorn and water. That sucked, but I got through it. I am a meat and potatoes kind of girl. Thursday night at the Valley Junction Farmers Market was successful. I found tomatoes, strawberries, and grass-fed beef by Morrell Natural Meats in Waukee. I can't say I've ever had grass-fed, hormone/antibiotic-free beef before. Lucas and I got two 8 oz. ribeye steaks for $12 each. That didn't seem too expensive. We grilled them up, and they were very good. Mine was lean, juicy and flavorful with just salt and pepper. Lucas thought it was a bit fattier than he expected. Some people say they notice and a difference in taste and some don't. I think it tasted a little different, in a good way, but that's also because I was looking for a difference. It's like people who swear they can tell Pepsi from Coke or Bud Lite from Miller Lite, but then fail a taste test. If you've never had it, I recommend giving it a go. Let me know if you can taste the difference. What was a noticeable difference today: my failed attempt at running 7 miles. I got a double-side cramp after 10 minutes of running! I haven't cramped in months. I realized 1) I'm low on potassium because I can't eat bananas since we don't grow them in Iowa 2) I don't have any carbs to really burn off. My meals are so much smaller and lower in fat that my body has no fuel to burn. This is not good for my Tough Mudder training, but I am not worried. I will just have to work really hard the week before the race. On the non-food front, it was my first time playing ladder ball. I've seen this game played at just about every football tailgate, but somehow my group has never had it set up. For never playing, I didn't do awful. We lost repectably 15-12.
Who makes up these games? Ladder ball, bean bags, washers? I love them all! I'm trying to space out how many times I eat the same food again. So since I had toast for breakfast, I have to eat my eggs toastless for lunch. That's ok though because I have asparagus. Low and behold, my first experience with local, organic asparagus tastes the same as the stuff from Aldi. I've been waiting to see if my body starts acting up with only local, organic food after being used to processed stuff for the past 25 years. So far, I don't see or feel any changes. I don't know if that's good or bad. It just is.
Dinner will be some venison chops and more asparagus with a side of popcorn. What a combo! I really need some more food. Thankfully, the Valley Junction Farmers Market starts tonight at 5:30-8:30pm. I'll be there! I'm really hoping someone has some fruits they've been growing in a greenhouse that are ripe. Plus the Des Moines Farmers Market kicks off its season Saturday morning. See ya there too at 7am! I'll be throwing 'bows if I have to. On Day 5, I'm already running low on food. I spent $80 last Friday and began the challenge on Saturday. I can only eat toast and eggs so many times a day. All I really want is a tomato or strawberry or banana. Is that so much to ask? Unfortunately, those items aren't in season yet, and we don't even grow bananas here in Iowa, so they are off the list altogether. Campbell's Nutrition in the plaza on 42nd and University in Des Moines has a lot of great stuff. It was my first time in there. However, again, being early in the growing season there isn't much local produce right now. I lucked out and found some asparagus. I Can't wait to eat another green food besides cucumber. I also grabbed some more yogurt from Kalona SuperNaturals. Love that stuff! If you're looking for organic, this is your place. However, the products are far from being all local. Wednesday nights are currently my Friday nights so I finished off my day with a glass of Jasper Winery Edelweiss. I've never had Edelweiss before. I'm more of a red wine gal, but every now again a glass of white is perfect. I hate to say it, but this wine disappointed me. It was kind of flat; There was no real high or low notes in the flavor. Don't be mistaken, I will still finish the bottle. Maybe it'll grow on me... Credit: Iraq for Sale Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers is an intriguing documentary. It came out in 2006 showing just how much a handful of private companies were benefiting from the war. I'm talking billions of dollars here. I've heard of companies like Blackwater and Halliburton before, and I knew there were some private contractors involved in the war, but not to this extent. I almost didn't finish the film because of how upset I became. To these companies, their profit is worth more than the lives of their innocent, hard working American employees. And the American government sat back and let it happen. It's sick.
Government really is corrupt, and it's so frustrating. Lawmakers, politicians, advisors, they get on their high horse and forget about the other 300 million Americans their decisions are affecting. I swear, some days I think about running for office because I actually care about my neighbors and want to make this country better. Some people lose sight of that and just worry about getting re-elected. Lucas butchering a chicken I bought a whole chicken the other day. It was dead, and in fact frozen. Lucas so kindly butchered it up for me, and I threw it in the crock pot this morning with some rosemary. After cooking for 4.5 hours, it was ready! I can't say it tastes any different than the frozen stuff I get at Aldi, but again, glad to know I'm supporting other Iowans. (Of course, I can't remember where it's from off hand. I'll get that information up soon). It cost $13, which I don't think is that bad considering a bag of frozen chicken breasts is around $7.
There was a cinnamon roll at work today. I was proud of myself; I looked at it briefly and walked away. No biggie. It was also my first time riding my new bike! I went along a new path today which was much harder coming back (up hill) than going out. It's the path back by Ashworth Park off Grand and 45th in Des Moines. Very scenic. I took the trail west which led me to 63rd and Grand. I made it 12 miles, but my legs were burning. I tried to push myself though - Tough Mudders don't take the easy way out. OK, I'm not a Tough Mudder yet, but I will be in 19 days! |