My teddy bear

This isn't a fresh story, but it is one I think of often, especially when I see father/daughter combos enjoying each others' company. It is one of the brightest recurring thoughts I have so I figured I'd share it this time. While waiting for Old Faithful to amaze us, Kaila and I were taking one arm pics and eavesdropping on all of the tourist conversations from around the world occurring around us. Somehow we got to sharing pictures with the nice father/daughter combo next to us from Shanghai (she was attending Northwestern) and when we showed them the picture of the bear family we had seen in the Sequoias, his engrish got faster and hard to understand but what we got out of it is that he had a picture of a bear to share with us as well. He calmed down enough to say 'this is my teddy bear' and smiled the biggest, most precious smile he could as he turned the camera to show us a picture of his daughter. My annoyance at the multitudes of 'drive-thru' tourists melted away into a puddle of happiness.

Who the (expletive) puts high fructose corn syrup in salsa?!?!?!?!

You would think tomatoes, peppers, and onions in a can would be safe from HFCS but alas, several of the free.99 salsas that I acquired from folks moving out have it way too far up their ingredient list!!! Guess Erin gets some salsa. Thank goodness for Green Mountain Gringo and their freshness.

Leaping until my legs get long enough

It's like when I was a kid, a real little one, walking on the beach with my dad and trying to keep up. My-size steps were too small, so I tried taking more of them in rapid succession, but my dad was still getting further ahead of me, which led to me leaping from one footstep to another until my legs got long enough. 

Dry July has been phenomenally productive thus far, and I'm really hoping my headaches have been from the increase in temperature outside or cleaning product usage in the Pomegranate Manor and that I am not having the withdrawal symptoms of an alcoholic. That would mean I am an alcoholic. Was an alcoholic. I'm not even sure if that is one of the symptoms- I'm just self-conscious because of my family's adorable habits. 

Back to the convoluted analogy about going paleo- thanks to an odd collection of food surmounting the cabinets as roommates and friends moved out of town, my original plan was to chop things one at a time as I ran out of the products. Unfortunately, I couldn't keep it straight in my head what was getting cut next, and what was already cut, and just how brown rice flour fit into the list and all of the sudden I considered 3 vegan carob chip cookies, and a breakfast burrito an acceptable shift meal. Clearly I just need to go all (read: most) or nothing so I packed all of the non-perishable items off the "list" and hid them under the pantry for when I have roommates or enough will-power to moderate grains, legumes, and dairy. One Erin Sullivan was the lucky recipient of the goodies from the fridge and "unrelated" gave me a key to her utilities-included-so-we-use-air-conditioning house. 

While at JR I took stock of our usual day-old culled selection of free food and much to my chagrin, but not surprise does not include anything on my list. Which is probably a good thing because it means that I will only eat the one or two things that eventually are, produce, or whatever I bring myself. Today I made an awesome snack mix that I was pretty proud of, until I started wondering just how paleo these crunchy pea snacks are. There is a tiny bit of sugar, and they are peas. But I'm pretty sure they were raw when dehydrated. I'll just limit them to one serving a day until I make some of my own! The other pouty lip discovery was that sriracha is balls deep in sugar and preservatives and should be hidden from sight. Hopefully I'll remember to check for a caveman happier version at JR tomorrow or make some of my own. 

Speaking of making my own, I'm stoked on having some pickled shredded carrots at my immediate disposal...in two weeks. Of course my grain-drained brain went straight to putting them on sandwiches, but having a tangy top to salads and tomato slices and grilled fish excites me as well.

Dry July

Consumption experiments are a relatively easy way to get a glimpse into the lifestyle of other people. Eating and drinking are one of the only things that all humans experience on a daily basis and taking on someone else's ideals about that daily habit can foster at least a minimal understanding of how they interact in society to fill their basic need. One month is a nice round consumption experiment time. You get past the ease surrounding the excitement of the first few days, over the hurdles that you didn't even know were there -eating out, going to a potluck, needing a snack on a long car trip, getting comfortable enough to feel a sense of controlled accomplishment and the experiment is over before another wave of cravings comes crashing down on your adopted ideals. Socially, it is much easier for friends and family to understand that you are doing a closed experiment rather than changing your habits and for some reason become much more accepting and even supportive. I'm not sure whether it is because they are more confident that you will succeed for thirty days or that they don't have to feel pressure to re-examine their own ideals, but that is a conversation for another time. 

Over the past three years, I've had forays into vegan, Bolivian (by proximity) and 100-mile diets and came out alive with a refreshed arsenal of recipes and a new respect and friendly awareness for those who consistently follow those principles and it is time to do it again! These past experiences were relatively easy because they were within reach of my daily habits anyway. What I have embarked on today is transcending the general one month time period into two because it is a little further away from the path I have been eating along for the past 6 years. It should not be out of my comfort zone, considering it is more similar to what I was raised on than my current diet- but with every move further away from the ocean and my dad's hunting skills, I eat less and less like the hunter-gatherers our bodies evolved to be. The goal here is to eliminate items the food industry has gotten me used to eating one at a time until I get to a full month of paleo. 

Dry July is a quick response to anyone who asks me if I want a drink and the kickoff to shedding the industrial fuzz covering my idea of food. Cutting all alcohol first probably emerged from the sore throat that I can feel approaching thanks to the series of goodbye dinners and parties and dancing that young adults tend to indulge themselves during when something like college or AC comes to a close. Next on the list is pasta since I just ate the last of it. Tomorrow I'll decide whether to cut one specific item a day or wipe out an entire category every few days. That probably just depends on the inventory in my kitchen. 

Happy Hunting!

spurts

Just glancing at the archive section- just to the right of this post- you can see that my blogging urges tend to come in spurts. Hopefully this one lasts long enough for me to share the link to this blog with my friends.