New Year, New Smell, New Food

My office smells really good right now.

It's a fact.

Quite often my office doesn't smell nearly as fresh. But right now it's amazingly scented thanks to the surf wax scented candle Sheena got me for my birthday.

I was just asked if it was a resolution to have a better smelling office.

It is not.

I don't make resolutions.

I've found that making resolutions is like lying to myself. I tell myself on December 31st that I will do something in the next year. I then spend 364 days thinking: "I've still got time to do that." On the 365th day I'm too busy to get it done.

That is if I even remember.

So I've stopped lying to myself by making resolutions that I've learned I'll never keep.

I also don't understand why you'd wait to do something in January, when it can be a new year's resolution, and not do it right away.

This year, partly because Christmas season is a time of eating too much of all the things that will shorten your life... Hello fruit cake!

This is quite the tangent, but while we're talking about holiday foods it must be said that I love a good fruit cake. And what's not to love about it? You've got cake, a wonderful place to start, and it's full of candy. But what's more, the candy is actually fruit, so a devious brain tells you it's not that bad for you. And it tastes so good.

Getting back to above, this year Sheena and I are attempting a "life style change." We are not joining a gym. We are not buying spandex. We are not vowing to loose so many pounds.

We are simply following some plan in Sheena's head to eat more responsibly. That means eating less fat, especially animal fat thus reducing our carbon foot print, eating more legumes, healthier bread products and generally less processed and refined things.

Phase one is only supposed to last 2 weeks. Some sort of a "cleanse" where we only eat vegetables. We're sort of doing a Vegan Atkins thing.

I'm as confused as you are.

I've never eaten more chick peas in my life.

Please allow me the opportunity to bring you up to speed with all this. We're four days in. Fro the first two days I was perpetually hungry.

Have you ever noticed how much advertising there is for food. I have no scientific proof of this, but I'm certain 98% of what's advertised is consumed orally.

And none of it is good for you.

It's all burgers, chips, beer, gum, candy, soda, other assorted fast foods and prescription medication.

When was the last time you saw an advertisement for a carrot?

Probably never right?

Mmm, healthy, tasty, life sustaining carrots. I could use more advertisements like that right about now.

We've been finding ourselves reading a lot of Vegan recipes recently. To their credit they sound good. Or maybe that's to my credit as it demonstrates a more open mind. My mind was certainly not as open when I was only 30.

I've also found new food names, and thus new words, tossed around our house. Now it should be said that, generally speaking, I don't like to eat foods with names that rhyme with negative adjectives. For example, if the food's name rhymes with awful I'm not likely to touch it. Which is why I've never eaten Falafel. There is an obvious exception to this. I love stew. And it rhymes with poo. It just does not matter. I love me a good stew: especially the gravy. Yum yum yum.

Then yesterday we're eating Falafel for the first time.

It's not that bad.

I'm still leery of bulgur.

It sounds so vulgar.

To reiterate, this is not a diet.

This is not a resolution.

This is essentially a two week detox followed by a more sustainable diet. A diet that is sustainable because less resources will be required to created it, that's right we care about the earth, and more sustainable because we can still eat the stuff we love just with more moderation.

I'll let you know how it goes.