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I was recently very inspired by a post Layla made on creating new habits. Rather than making New Year's Resolutions, each month she picks a new thing she wants to do and gives it a try for a month. If it sticks, you continue with it but add a new habit the next month; if it doesn't, you gave it enough of a try that you know whether or not it's something likely to work for you.
This struck me as both fun and more likely to make new habits stick, so I gave it a try. My January choice was "tidy up a little every day." As you have seen, this was incredibly fun and very likely to stick, and I am still at it.
February's habit was "wear something I like that is either a piece of jewelry, or an item of clothing I don't normally wear." I stuck to this one less, largely because of the weather: it was not only quite cold, but I actually got snowed in for a while! (Most of my wardrobe is for warm-to-hot weather, and jewelry gets unpleasantly cold against my skin in cold weather.) But when I did do it, it was a lot of fun, so that's something I'll keep trying.
My upcoming March habit is something I'm very excited about. It's not something I plan to continue in its original form permanently, but rather a month-long challenge that I'd ideally like to continue in a modified form. It's to eat only food that's either already in my pantry, or food I buy at the farmer's market.
I will make exceptions for milk, which is highly perishable and not sold at the market, and food people offer me, like if someone invites me over for dinner or to a restaurant. I'm also going to buy some essentials in advance and replace them if necessary, but only ingredients for cooking, not snacks. (i.e., whole wheat flour.)
I got this idea from a book which I found in a backpack stashed in a closet while tidying up, Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally, by Alisa Smith and J. B. MacKinnon. They're journalists living in Vancouver who were disturbed by an article they read about the length most food they eat travels, which causes a lot of pollution. So they decided to spend a year only only what they already had in their pantry and food which came from no more than 100 miles away from where they lived. MacKinnon was a very skilled amateur chef and they owned a cabin in the woods, so they had a lot of resources many people don't. But it was a fun read, and it got me thinking.
I've already been trying to buy most of the animal products I cook at home from the farmer's market, as I can afford it, for ethical and taste reasons and to support locally owned small businesses - I'd rather eat less of them but have them be of higher quality. I've also already been trying to buy more produce there, ditto though in that case I'm trying to eat more rather than less. I'd also like to eat down the stuff I already have rather than letting it sit forever, degrading in quality. So this will be more of a ramping up rather than a sudden change.
My long-term intent is not to keep this going forever - I love restaurants and am certainly not taking them out of my life for good - but to eat more locally, cook more, and get better at cooking. So I am basing it on "farmer's market" rather than "transported no more than 100 miles" in the interest of not going insane or driving the vendors insane. Also, it's "any farmer's market," not just the two I normally go to, because I think it will be fun to check out some new ones.
I'd also like to try baking my own bread, which I have never done. I will start with commercial yeast, but also attempt making my own sourdough starter. The bread was inspired by a Michael Pollan book I read while snowed in, which I will review separately later as it was both inspiring and accidentally hilarious. (Sneak preview: cooking techniques which Pollan particularly enjoyed learning are ineluctably masculine, and ones which he liked but not to that degree are feminine. Bread baking is a very very manly pursuit, no doubt perfected by manly manly cavemen.)
I shall pretend that I am snowed in, with my only snowplowed path leading to the farmer's market.
I am going to try to chronicle this daily, ideally with photos.
Have any of you ever done anything similar? Any advice or simple bread recipes? I don't at all mind spending lots of time kneading - I used to do pottery and very much enjoyed that part, plus I had great grip strength - but the fewer separate steps, the better.
This struck me as both fun and more likely to make new habits stick, so I gave it a try. My January choice was "tidy up a little every day." As you have seen, this was incredibly fun and very likely to stick, and I am still at it.
February's habit was "wear something I like that is either a piece of jewelry, or an item of clothing I don't normally wear." I stuck to this one less, largely because of the weather: it was not only quite cold, but I actually got snowed in for a while! (Most of my wardrobe is for warm-to-hot weather, and jewelry gets unpleasantly cold against my skin in cold weather.) But when I did do it, it was a lot of fun, so that's something I'll keep trying.
My upcoming March habit is something I'm very excited about. It's not something I plan to continue in its original form permanently, but rather a month-long challenge that I'd ideally like to continue in a modified form. It's to eat only food that's either already in my pantry, or food I buy at the farmer's market.
I will make exceptions for milk, which is highly perishable and not sold at the market, and food people offer me, like if someone invites me over for dinner or to a restaurant. I'm also going to buy some essentials in advance and replace them if necessary, but only ingredients for cooking, not snacks. (i.e., whole wheat flour.)
I got this idea from a book which I found in a backpack stashed in a closet while tidying up, Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally, by Alisa Smith and J. B. MacKinnon. They're journalists living in Vancouver who were disturbed by an article they read about the length most food they eat travels, which causes a lot of pollution. So they decided to spend a year only only what they already had in their pantry and food which came from no more than 100 miles away from where they lived. MacKinnon was a very skilled amateur chef and they owned a cabin in the woods, so they had a lot of resources many people don't. But it was a fun read, and it got me thinking.
I've already been trying to buy most of the animal products I cook at home from the farmer's market, as I can afford it, for ethical and taste reasons and to support locally owned small businesses - I'd rather eat less of them but have them be of higher quality. I've also already been trying to buy more produce there, ditto though in that case I'm trying to eat more rather than less. I'd also like to eat down the stuff I already have rather than letting it sit forever, degrading in quality. So this will be more of a ramping up rather than a sudden change.
My long-term intent is not to keep this going forever - I love restaurants and am certainly not taking them out of my life for good - but to eat more locally, cook more, and get better at cooking. So I am basing it on "farmer's market" rather than "transported no more than 100 miles" in the interest of not going insane or driving the vendors insane. Also, it's "any farmer's market," not just the two I normally go to, because I think it will be fun to check out some new ones.
I'd also like to try baking my own bread, which I have never done. I will start with commercial yeast, but also attempt making my own sourdough starter. The bread was inspired by a Michael Pollan book I read while snowed in, which I will review separately later as it was both inspiring and accidentally hilarious. (Sneak preview: cooking techniques which Pollan particularly enjoyed learning are ineluctably masculine, and ones which he liked but not to that degree are feminine. Bread baking is a very very manly pursuit, no doubt perfected by manly manly cavemen.)
I shall pretend that I am snowed in, with my only snowplowed path leading to the farmer's market.
I am going to try to chronicle this daily, ideally with photos.
Have any of you ever done anything similar? Any advice or simple bread recipes? I don't at all mind spending lots of time kneading - I used to do pottery and very much enjoyed that part, plus I had great grip strength - but the fewer separate steps, the better.