Eating Off the Grid*
It was so much fun to write about local eggs that I'm going to start a regular (I hope) series of posts about my efforts to divorce myself as much as possible from factory foods. One of my resolutions this year was to, "get back on track," but that really translates to, "get off the grid." First, some self-indulgent background:
In 2002 when I was 20 years old I went 100% vegan and it was amazing. I lost weight, was able to exercise more efficiently, felt energized, my seasonal allergies disappeared and, probably most importantly, I was minimizing my footprint. At the time I believed that it was an essential step to take in the fucked up, backwards, over-processed world that is American food. Any sort of lifestyle diet requires a lot of homework, though, and as years passed and I learned more and more about responsible agriculture it became clear that, while veganism could do a lot of good, it wasn't the best choice. Going local was. It was actually Diana's eggs that broke me; I couldn't resist and, for a while, was doing a good job of sticking to being half-vegan, eating them and nothing else. That didn't last long. Then came the cheese, and the insanity. Suddenly I was digging in to everything I had hated for six years: fatty fried foods, candy bars, CHEETOS. It was all so delicious, so familiar but somehow new. And it went way too far. Weight: gained. Allergies: in full force. Energy: gone. I know that I won't return to veganism but my goal is to go as local as possible. Hopefully the journey will be entertaining to someone other than me.
*It turns out that Eating Off the Grid: storing and cooking foods without electricity is actually a book by the most-likely delightful Denise Hansen, MS RD. I'll be buying that (stories about my adventures without electricity to come in the future) and figuring out another title for these posts. Ha. :)
In 2002 when I was 20 years old I went 100% vegan and it was amazing. I lost weight, was able to exercise more efficiently, felt energized, my seasonal allergies disappeared and, probably most importantly, I was minimizing my footprint. At the time I believed that it was an essential step to take in the fucked up, backwards, over-processed world that is American food. Any sort of lifestyle diet requires a lot of homework, though, and as years passed and I learned more and more about responsible agriculture it became clear that, while veganism could do a lot of good, it wasn't the best choice. Going local was. It was actually Diana's eggs that broke me; I couldn't resist and, for a while, was doing a good job of sticking to being half-vegan, eating them and nothing else. That didn't last long. Then came the cheese, and the insanity. Suddenly I was digging in to everything I had hated for six years: fatty fried foods, candy bars, CHEETOS. It was all so delicious, so familiar but somehow new. And it went way too far. Weight: gained. Allergies: in full force. Energy: gone. I know that I won't return to veganism but my goal is to go as local as possible. Hopefully the journey will be entertaining to someone other than me.
*It turns out that Eating Off the Grid: storing and cooking foods without electricity is actually a book by the most-likely delightful Denise Hansen, MS RD. I'll be buying that (stories about my adventures without electricity to come in the future) and figuring out another title for these posts. Ha. :)
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