F.A.I.L

Yep, a big.fat.FAIL. Seriously. We couldn't even make it 2 weeks. Nope.

It doesn't help that Jason has already been a big fat cheater head, eating the food at camp that definitely had preservatives/wasn't made from scratch DESPITE the fact that I would pack him a lunch. Cheater.

So, last night when we were driving by In-n-Out (mind you, you can smell it from the freeway) I said casually, "Ug, I want In-N-Out right now." Jason of course retorts, "OKAY!" I gave the lecture on no we can't do this, we are eating from scratch /no preservatives, we still have like 4 days left, In-N-Out is DEFINITELY not preservative free...blah blah blah, Yeah, THAT lecture. Jason said, "But I've already cheated, we can start over, this will be our last hoorah before we start again." Well, let's just say his protesting was totally UNconvincing and so I don't even have the ability to say that I caved because of a good argument. Nope. I caved because I was tired and knew that I needed to stop by the store on the way home to buy pine nuts for pesto and that there were a ton of dishes in the sink that I would have to wash before I even started cooking...and then they would have to be washed again after dinner (yeah right, who am I kidding, I would have left them there for the next day). So, a fake meal sounded fantastic. There you have it. We ate In-N-Out. And I had a TERRIBLE stomach ache and awful gas from it (TMI? haha). Let's say In-N-Out is not the best way to re-enter into the processed food world. And I don't even eat the meat there. (I have a grilled cheese with grilled onions :) ).

AND, no! I'm not starting all over like Jason suggested haha. We're done, "officially"..though we'll finish out the last few days.

But here is what I got from this whole thing.

1) Real pasta is very easy to make/freeze (with the machine)and tastes about 500 times better than the stuff from the bag. I will probably no longer buy prepackaged pasta...avoiding the preservatives but also having a better tasting meal in general.

2) No more processed snack foods (except for a special occasion like throwing a BBQ). I used to never buy nuts, such as almonds because I felt they were so expensive (at least for us). The almonds were $6 and I could get a bag of Honey Wheat pretzels for $1.50. A bag of Honey wheat pretzels lasts about 3 days tops though. It doesn't curb the hunger but just tastes...empty, so we eat a ton in one sitting. The bag of almonds lasted a week at least. We ate only a handful here and there and it seemed to do the trick. On top of the protein, good fat, and no preservatives...it was far more economical then I thought it would be. (we buy the roasted, unsalted kind).

3) Greek yogurt is fantastic. You have to hunt to find the one with no preservatives but they do have it (at Costco even). In a one cup serving you receive 30% of your protein. Amazing. I prefer the plain fat free one. I think the whole milk one has an absurd quantity of fat...I'm not sure how much though...that and whole milk in general doesn't sit well for me. I think we've decided that I'm allergic to milk fat? Who knows. :). It's fantastic topped with honey, almonds, and dates (my personal favorite). It seriously fills you up too and it's so much better than the sugary, empty carb yogurts that are out there.

4) We've always loved fruit but I think we lost sight of it, haha. It's like I forgot it existed. Weird right? Well, we are consuming very large quantities of fruits. Figs, oranges, bananas, blueberries, dates, etc....yum.

5) Homemade cereal is totally worth it. So much better for you and it lasts a surprisingly long time. Jason still has some of that granola left from when I made it a week and a half ago. It's great on top of yogurt too :)

6) The hardest thing to kick was quick-fix sweets. I.e.: prepackaged cookies and stuff like that. I really only buy one thing every week but I must confess...A vanilla Joe Joe was sounding pretty dang good around day 3 or so.

And I think that's it. It was a fun experiment even though we FAILED.

Oh well. I don't want to be legalistic about it you know :)