Experiment #2: Eating Healthy From My Pantry

I love beginnings. Every morning. Every Monday. The first of every month. And now the beginning of a new year. I love resolutions too. It seems that lately making New Year's resolutions has fallen out of favor but not for me. Every January I buy and start writing in a brand new journal, even if the old one still has empty pages. I buy composition notebooks, the kind that students use for writing and lab work, specifically for this purpose. I use books with graph paper instead of lines so that I can make graphs and lists as well as write. I look back on the year that ended, dream about the things I'd like to accomplish in the coming months and years. Of course I will have forgotten or given up on most of the things I wrote down within a couple of weeks but then the first of the new month arrives and I happily begin again.

The scale is creeping up a lot higher than I would like these days and so, of course, these last few days I have been journaling about eating better and getting more exercise. I've also been jotting down ideas about this blog, what I'd like to do next, what can I do better. Now that the food levels in my storage areas are down to a manageable level, and I've learned that I can still feed my family on a quarter of what I was used to spending, I'm ready to launch a new shopping adventure from my pantry. For the next six weeks, I will blog about cooking meals that are light and nutritious. My focus will be on healthy eating and weight loss while continuing to use up the things in my pantry, or at the very least, not increasing my food stores.

The Rules
I'm sure the rules will evolve over time but here's my starting point:

1. My monthly food budget, not including eating out, will be $300/month.
2. I will serve at least two different fruits/vegetables at each meal and they will make up the major portion of the meal.
3. The primary sources of protein will be poultry, seafood, and low-fat dairy products. Red meat and fatty foods will be limited to one serving per day or less.
4. Carbohydrates such as white rice, pasta, flour, desserts, etc) will be limited to two small servings per day.

I've learned an important lesson from the last six weeks and it is that writing a daily blog requires more dedication and time than I have right now, so I'll be posting at least twice a week, more as time (and life) permits.

Adventure #2 Begins!