Reboot?

For budgetary, health, and ethical reasons I've stopped eating out. When I went off my year of eating consciously, it was carte blanche for me to go back to many of my bad habits. Yes, I still buy humane meat from the store, but I was eating out for many (read: most) of my meals, and that meat was most assuredly not humane. Over time, pretty much everything was thrown out the window.

So, last week I declared I would only pay for one meal out a week. Yes, I see the loophole; if someone ELSE wants to pay for meal out, they are welcome to. Loopholes are fun.

Anyway, since I'm back to eating in, I am once again going to take up my challenge to live more consciously, albeit more realistically than I originally planned.

1. I still want to stay away from industrialized agriculture as much as possible, so anything processed will be minimally so (obviously no box dinners, or "kits"), & organic (or local), but I'm giving myself bread as an exception. It was just too hard to find bread that fit all my criteria last time.
2. I will buy organic chicken and grass fed beef. Luckily, both of these can be found at my grocery store, and the beef can also be found at the farmer's market.
3. When possible, my fruits & veggies will be local and/or organic.
   
4. I will not consume high fructose corn syrup, except that I will allow myself 8oz of soda a day. Kicking the soda/caffeine habit was painful the last time, and I can't gear up to do it again just yet.
   
5. I will still eat food I'm served by others... Doritos at a party don't count; I have to find the better options.

Okay, so this is TOTALLY watered down, and basically just appears to be the way everyone should eat anyway. Yeah, I know. But, I think my downfall was being too extreme, and although I wish I could have done it, I didn't. So, I'm hitting the reset button and starting at level one instead of level 5. And this allows me to travel, socialize, and eat out while still making good humane choices and not have to wonder how I would find food to fit my criteria.

I'm not sure how much blogging I'll do, but canning adventures will probably commence shortly as peach season is around the corner, and I need to replenish my salsa supply.