Throughout all of Spring Quarter at UC I felt exhausted mentally & physically. I was taking 19 credit hours & spent all of my extra time at my apartment working on homework/projects or actually at work earning a paycheck. I live a 20 minute walk away from campus & nearly every morning it seemed too draining to even walk to class when I thought about carrying my books & walking through the spring/summer heat. Everything from school to work to relationships with friends & roommates was adding so much stress that even the most simple tasks like walking to school seemed overwhelming.
Thanks to a variety of influences such as: friends who are vegetarian or vegan like Alana, Kelsey, & Betty, my Farming & Art studio taught by Patty Corbett, the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, & documentaries like Super Size Me & No Impact Man, I really started to look at my life & realize how little I know about the food I eat or take the effort to go to the grocery & buy food instead of going through the drive-thru at a fast food restaurant. (Note: A Netflix account is free for the first 30 days & it offers a lot of good documentaries that stream online to watch instantly like No Impact Man, Radically Simple, and Food Matters. These types of documentaries are mostly found under "Social & Cultural Documentaries)
After watching some of these documentaries & reading more information about fast food and the food industry, I decided to make a goal for the summer from June 1st - September 1st to not eat fast food*. At the time, I was eating it about twice a week: when the gallery was still open I would buy my lunch, & then with closing shifts at Anthropologie I would often get some between 10 & 11pm when I would get off of work & wanted something instantly so I could get as much sleep as possible before school the next day. It's been a little over a month & I've lost 6lbs without making any other changes to my diet/fitness habits. This last Sunday I DID go to Burger King after church (the family voted on it) but with Mom as my witness I got their garden salad (the ONLY salad offered on the menu, by the way) without chicken or dressing, so all it comprised of was a tiny bowl of lettuce with a few bits of carrot slices & about 4 grape tomatoes.
* NOTE: In my goal, "fast food" refers to restaurants that offer a drive-thru including but not limited to: Burger King, McDonalds, Wendys, Taco Bell, etc. In the last month I've eaten a Subway turkey sub twice, which some people consider a fast food restaurant.
The first week was hard to break out of the habit, but since then it's been surprisingly easy to not eat it anymore, which is part of what inspired me to make this blog & discover new, hopefully fun ways to live well. However, I do have one vice...
COCA-COLA.
It started out innocently enough, with a can or two a few times a week, but I soon realized my coke dependency was getting out of hand. (Seriously, do they still put cocaine in it??) Last summer my goal was to wean myself off of the stuff entirely, but that soon changed to "only once a month" & then "only once a week", & I did stick to the once a week rule... until Germany. When I went to Germany in September sparks flew with my long-lost love. While everyone else was picking out new beers to try, I, the non-alcoholic drinker, was spending more money on a glass of coca-cola (with REAL SUGAR!!!) than everyone else was on a pint of beer. It was after that trip that my desire for coca-cola grew to an unhealthy amount. I'm now back to doing the once-a-week thing, but I know it's a dangerous path. I'm considering cutting it out cold turkey like I did with fast food. You might ask yourself, "Why not do it in a 3 month trial like with the fast food goal?" then I'll tell you it's because I know if I even made it past the 3 months, once that sweet sweet nectar hit my lips again there would be no going back.
Yet again, there's something to think about in developing my life goal live well plan.
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