Category Archives: Challenges

The Pendulum Swing, 100 Thing Challenge Part 4

12 Oct
0
Posted by Posted in Blog, Challenges

My last “100 things” post revealed how indulging in little purchases sent my list well above the limit. In true fashion I have since overreacted to the slip up and trimmed my list all the way down to 77 items. How? Well, I found a way that makes maintaining your personal inventory easy. By shifting your focus to upgrading, repairing or replacing, rather than buying new things, it’s easy to maintain control over junk creep. I upgraded my laptop with 2 extra gig of ram and replaced the damaged charger cord, bought a very cool tooth brush I had long coveted, and replaced tattered clothing with more fashionable, better fitted ones.

It has been more satisfying, and easier to manage since there are no new things to keep track of or add to my list and now that my stuff is in tip top shape, I feel less distracted that nagging feeling that something was not quite right. And here’s another interesting paradox. Although I own even fewer things than before, I feel as if I have everything I need. Each item is now better suited to it’s job, works just right or fits perfectly.

I better appreciate each shirt and every gadget and with fewer items I’m even finding it easier to make everyday decisions. It reminds me a conversation I had at a dinner party once. I was chatting with an ex-Mormon (or No-Mo-Mo), eventually I couldn’t resist my urge to ask if she ever missed any part of the mormon faith. She said “the only thing I miss is always knowing what to do, fewer options made my chooses feel easy and correct. I almost never know if I made the right choice anymore.” That statement really stuck with me and now I feel I understand what she meant. It’s like the common belief that Einstein wore the same thing every day and had a closet full of the exact same suits, shirts, ties, and shoes. He didn’t want to take time or focus away from his work to spend on the repetitive task of decide what to wear. It would seem that having a few good choices is far better than having many mediocre ones.

If you learn from a mistake then nothing was really lost. My previous 100 thing failure has become, as one particularly insightful friend would call it, a teachable moment.

My Very Few Items

        Clothing
  • Shirt – White Tank Top
  • Shirt – Spaghetti Strap Top Black Lace
  • Shirt – Spaghetti Strap Top Orange
  • Shirt – Long Sleeve Knit Top, Horizontal Striped
  • Shirt – Solid Red Fitted T-shirt
  • Shirt – Patterned Yellow Fitted T-shirt
  • Shirt – Patterned Black & White T-shirt
  • Shirt – White Buttoned Down Top
  • Shirt – Work Out
  • Shirt – T-shirt for Lounging at Home
  • Sweater – Gray Wrap
  • Shall – White Lace
  • Shrug – Black Ballet
  • Pants – Fitted Dark Jeans
  • Pants – Black & Orange
  • Pants – Black & Blue
  • Pants – Charcoal Coloured Dress Pants
  • Pants – Work Out Shorts
  • Pants – Stretchy Yoga Pants for Lounging at Home
  • Skirt – Long / Black
  • Skirt – Short / Red Striped
  • Skirt – Mid Length / Grey
  • Dress – Pink and White Sun Dress
  • Dress – Little Black Dress
  • House Coat – Kimono
  • Socks – 10 Pair
  • Underwear – 10 pairs / 2 Bras
  • Bathing Suit – Polka dot one piece
  • Bathing Suit – Bikini
  • Shoes – Blown Moccasin Stye Winter Boots
  • Shoes – Black Exercise Shoes
  • Shoes – Grey Ballet Flats
  • Shoes – Heeled Boots
  • Long Warm Coat
  • Sun Glasses
  • Hat – Warm Tuque
  • Gloves – Warm Brown
  • Belt – Wide and Black
  • Hip Sack – Blue

Grooming

      1. Jewelry Pieces (3 items)
      2. Make Up Palette – Mac Palette
      3. Make Up Brush / Grooming Kit
      4. Hair Straightener
      5. Hair Brush
      6. Hair Comb
      7. Hair Clips
      8. Toothbrush – OHSO Pocket Toothbrush
      9. Diva Cup
      10. First Aid & Repair Kit

Office and Electronics

      1. Laptop – Macbook with Second Skin Folder
      2. Video Camera – Flip
      3. Camera – Point and Shoot / Olympus Water Proof Digital
      4. Phone – iPhone & iPhone Mobile Tail
      5. Hard Drive – 500 GB
      6. Hard Drive – 100 GB
      7. Thumb Drive – 10 GB
      8. Headphone – Wrap Around
      9. Headphone – Ear Buds
      10. Podcast Microphone
      11. Battery Charger
      12. Solar Powered Battery Charger
      13. Label Maker
      14. Notebook – Mole Skin
      15. File Folder

Items Just For Fun

      1. Book – Non-fiction
      2. Bike – Hampton Cruiser
      3. Art Collection

Every Day Items

      1. Keys
      2. Money Clip
      3. Business Card Holder
      4. Messanger Bag – ChicoBag
      5. Portable Purse Hanger
      6. Water Bottle – Nalegeen
      7. Aeropress Coffee Maker

Travel

      1. Suit Case – Carry On
      2. Suit Case – Blue, Air Canada, Medium Sized
      3. Hanging Toiletry Kit – Victorinox

Resources for this article:

Dave’s original post that inspired his later book

The Times’ Article About the 100 Thing Challenge

The Zen Habits’ blog article

One Drawer Fashion, The 333 Challenge

12 Sep
0
Posted by Posted in Challenges

image of my meticulously organized Single drawer of clothing

The Challenge

Originally proposed by Courtney Carver of the Be More With Less book and blog, the 333 challenge is an effort to live for 3 months with only 33 items in your wardrobe, including jewellery, shoes and other accessories.

With the 100 items challenge having already whittled down my clothing collection substantially, reducing it even further is a significant challenge. A tangential issue is that I’m not actually doing all that well at keeping my possessions to 100 items, at the moment I’m sitting at around 110 since indulging in a retail therapy experiment for my “30 days to find my zen” challenge.

The Rules

  1. When: October 1 – December 31
  2. What: 33 items including clothing, accessories, jewelry, outerwear and shoes.
  3. What’s not included: these items are not counted as part of the 33 items – socks, underwear, sleep wear, in-home lounge wear, and workout clothing
    How: over the next two months, outline your 33 items, by the 1st of October, box up the remainder of your fashion statement, seal it with tape and put it out of site.
  4. What else: consider that you are creating a wardrobe that you can live, work and play in for three months. If you purchase items for project 333, stick with the one in, two out approach. Consider the essentials and stick to 33.

In July, I began the initial part of the 333 challenge by sorting through clothing and considering something I rarely had before, fashion. Actually making the 333 list exposed my deep fashion naivety when it occurred to me that I didn’t know the names for the types of clothing I owned, such as the shrug, the knit top or finding out that it’s a button down top not a button up. I still have a few weeks to finalize my list of the wearable items that will get me through work, play and travel for three months, but this is my preliminary list:

My 333 List

    Shirt
  1. Shirt – Spaghetti Strap Top
  2. Shirt – Tank Top
  3. Shirt – Long Sleeve Knit Top
  4. Shirt – Red T-shirt
  5. Shirt – Yellow T-shirt
  6. Shirt – Patterned T-shirt
  7. Shirt – Star Trek T-shirt
  8. Shirt – White Buttoned Down Top

    9. Pants

  9. Pants – Jeans
  10. Pants – Red
  11. Pants – Black & Red
  12. Pants – Black

    13. Skirt

  13. Skirt – Long / Black
  14. Skirt – Short / Red Striped
  15. Skirt – Short / Grey

    16. Dresses

  16. Dress – Sun
  17. Dress – LBD

    18. Shoes

  18. Shoes – Flats
  19. Shoes – Walking
  20. Shoes – Heeled Boots

    21. Coats & Sweaters

  21. Long Coat
  22. Long Grey Sweater

    23. Accessories

  23. Sun Glasses
  24. Hat – Fedora
  25. Belt – Black
  26. Hip Sack – Blue
  27. Shall – White Lace
  28. Shrug – Black Ballet
  29. Vest – Leather
  30. Jewelry – Ear Rings
  31. Jewelry – Necklace

The challenge officially starts October 1st and I’m excited to use the limitations of the 333 challenge to spark my fashion creativity and passion.

Wish me luck :)

Too Much Stuff Fail, 100 Thing Challenge Part 3

03 Sep
1
Posted by Posted in Challenges

Edited by Patricia Taylor

After two months of doing the 100 Thing Challenge, I’ve run into some…well…challenges. My initial 97 items have ballooned into 112. It wasn’t even until I went through my things in preparation for this article that I noticed how many new items I had actually acquired.

How does this happen? How do we accumulate so much stuff without even noticing? I asked around and did some research and discovered that we are all suseptable to a few common traps.

The Trap of Justification

Whenever we think about making a purchase, there are little justifications we use to convince ourselves the the item we want is really and item, we need. If you are anything like me the internal monologue of retail rationalizing sounds a little bit like this:

“Do I need it? It’s a bit pricy, is it really worth it? Can I get it cheaper? Well I’m here now and I have that money coming in next week from X, Y and Z. I deserve a little treat anyway, and I think I’d use it. Imagine all the stuff I could do with it. Yeah I should get it.”

Next thing you know you’re bouncing home, purchase in hand, confident you made the right decision and have enriched your life with this new trinkets. Fast forward a week or two later, where is that item you were so sure you couldn’t live without?? In a closet? In a drawer? Or in the trash?

The Trap of “I Deserve It”

At the beginning of May, around my birthday, two interesting “stuff” related things were happening. First, I was feeling very grateful that most of my friends were giving me digital gifts, or taking me to dinner or a shows for my birthday. Nearly no one bought me physical items that would count towards my list. I felt warm and fuzzy when I thought of how this reflected the support of my friends and family, though part of me suspect it may have actually more to do with convenience since I am notoriously hard to buy for.

I also found myself unable to resist a few birthday purchases. It was so easy to tell myself “well it’s my birthday, I deserve it” and buy a new iphone and other gadgets guilt free.

I suspect that this trap of rewarding ourselves with new stuff is a huge contributor to our mass consumption, crippling credit card debts and over stuffed houses and minds. There is nothing wrong with celebrating your successes, in fact doing so can contribute to overall better quality of life.; but what about taking a nice bike ride, having an lazy afternoon or curling up at your favorite coffee shop with a good book from the library. Why not start a habit of reward ourselves with experiences rather than things, it’s at least as satisfying, usually cheaper and better for the planet.

The trap of Things as Crutches

Whether it’s retail therapy issues, buying things to reinforce identity or being unable to resist a sale, it helps to know the “why” behind the things you buy. Take some time to do a little soul searching and ask yourself why you keep buying all that unnecessary floxum and jetsam.

In the last couple months I have fallen pray to many of these traps and I realize now that I’ll have to try a lot harder if I want to keep to 100 items.

My Too Many Items

      Clothing

    1. Sun Glasses – Clic Googles
    2. Hat – Fedora
    3. Hat - Fox Tuque
    4. ***New*** Hat – Ball Cap
    5. Belt – For Pants
    6. Belt – For Dresses
    7. Shirt – Warm Weather / Spaghetti Strap
    8. Shirt – Warm Weather / Spaghetti Strap
    9. Shirt – Warm Weather / Spaghetti Strap
    10. Shirt – Warm Weather / Tank Top
    11. Shirt – Warm Weather / Tank Top
    12. Shirt – Warm Weather / Tank Top
    13. Shirt – Warm Weather / T-shirt (Fightlinker)
    14. ***New*** Shirt – Warm Weather / T-shirt (Firepedia)
    15. Shirt – Warm Weather / Red Jacob T-shirt
    16. Shirt – Warm Weather
    17. Shirt – Warm Weather
    18. Shirt – Warm Weather
    19. Shirt – Button up
    20. Shirt – Cold Weather / Invader Zim
    21. Shirt – Cold Weather / Black
    22. Shirt – Cold Weather / Black
    23. Shirt – Cold Weather / Black and Grey Striped long
    24. Shirt – Cold Weather
    25. Shirt – Cold Weather
    26. Sweater – Lulu Lemon
    27. Sweater – Long & Grey
    28. Sweater – Work Out
    29. Vest – Leather
    30. Pants – Jeans
    31. Pants – Pin Strip Black Formal
    32. Pants – Lulu Lemon
    33. Pants – Lulu Lemon
    34. Pants – Work Out
    35. Pants – Work Out
    36. Pants
    37. Pants
    38. Pants
    39. Shorts
    40. Leggings
    41. Leggings
    42. Skirt – Long / Red
    43. Skirt – Long / Blue
    44. Skirt – Long / Partnered
    45. Skirt – Long / Black
    46. Skirt – Short / Black
    47. Skirt – Short / Grey
    48. Dress – Evening
    49. Dress – Sun
    50. Dress – Cocktail
    51. Suit – Grey Pinstripe
    52. House Coat – Kimono
    53. Socks – 10 Pair
    54. Bathing Suit – Pokka dot one piece
    55. Bathing Suit – Bikini
    56. Bathing Suit – Bikini
    57. Underwear – 10 pairs
    58. Shoes – Flats
    59. Shoes – Converse
    60. Shoes – Heels
    61. Long Coat
    62. ***New*** Black Jacket
    63. ***New*** Hip Sack – Blue

Grooming

    1. Small Jewelry and Costume Pieces (12 items)
    2. Make Up Palette – Mac Palette
    3. Make Up Brush / Grooming Kit
    4. Hair Straightener
    5. Hair Brush
    6. Hair Clip
    7. Hair Clip
    8. Comb
    9. Toothbrush – Electric
    10. Face Cloth
    11. First Aid Kit

Office and Electronics

    1. Laptop – Macbook
    2. Video Camera – Flip
    3. ***Replaced*** Camera – Point and Shoot / Olympus Water Proof Digital
    4. Old Camera Broken- Point and Shoot
    5. ***Replaced*** Phone – iPhone
    6. Old Broken Phone – iPhone
    7. Hard Drive – 500 GB
    8. Hard Drive – 100 GB
    9. Thumb Drive 10 GB
    10. Headphone – Roots
    11. ***New*** Headphone – Ear Buds
    12. ***New*** Headphone Splitter
    13. Podcast Microphone
    14. Battery Charger
    15. ***New*** Solar Powered Battery Charger
    16. Label Maker
    17. Notebook – Mole Skin
    18. Filing Portfolio

Hobbies

    1. Book – Non-fiction
    2. Book – Fiction
    3. Bike – Hampton Cruiser

Every Day Items

    1. Keys
    2. Money Clip (Bulldog clip)
    3. ***New*** Business Card Holder
    4. Water Bottle – Nalegeen
    5. ***New*** Reusable Coffee Mug
    6. ***New*** Aeropress Coffee Maker

Travel and Repair

    1. Passport
    2. Suit Case – Carry On
    3. Suit Case – Blue, Air Canada, Medium Sized
    4. Suit Case – Day Pack / Hydro pack
    5. ***New*** Flight Case -Blue
    6. Sewing Kit

Home Decor

  1. Comforter and Sheet Set
  2. Art – Water Color Painting
  3. Art – Waterhouse Print
  4. ***New*** Art – Print
  5. ***New*** Art – Print

Resources for this article:
Dave’s original post that inspired his later book
The Times’ Article About the 100 Thing Challenge
The Zen Habits’ blog article

The Game Begins, The 100 Thing Challenge Part 2

03 Sep
0
Posted by Posted in Challenges

A few weeks ago I posted an article about the “100 Thing Challenge” (a year long experiment to live with only 100 personal items) and my desire to try it out for myself.

Just in time for spring cleaning the “100 thing challenge” was exactly the kind of personal experiment I needed. The challenge would allow me to shrink my suitcase down to the essentials for the sake of my new travel lifestyle as well as explore my interest in larger issues related to stuff, such as minimalism, hoarding and environments impact. I buckled down and meticulously sorted through my various possessions, making detailed lists, hard decisions and giving a lot away. Going though and questioning the nature and uses of every possession was eye opening. I never realized how many things I kept for sentimental or odd reasons. For example, I found it difficult to give away thing I had never used (and likely never would) because I felt I hadn’t got the value of them yet. It was a hard process but my lighter suitcase and mind are more than worth it.

The following are my rules and guidelines for the challenge.

Rules and Guidelines

  1. The number 100 is arbitrary; you might pick 200, or 50 items. It’s entirely up to you. Just make sure the number is realistic but still challenging. The goal is not to lower your quality of life. If you can’t make it to 100 items with out making your life more difficult, then change your number.
  2. You may wish to count some groups of items as “one set” if they are important for you to keep and would other wise take over your list. Dave Bruno, the author of the “100 Thing Challenge” book, uses the idea to count his huge library as “one library” since reading is very important to him.
  3. This challenge is a personal one. Resist the urge to pressure friends or family into throwing away their junk, it’s not nice.

My Exceptions and Item Sets

  1. Show Biz Items: Props, AV equipment and costumes will not be counted since they are for work
  2. Underwear: A pack of 12 will be counted as one set
  3. Socks: A pack of 12 will be counted as one set
  4. Consumables: Items such as toothpaste, shampoo and food will not be counted.
  5. Items with accessories (ie cords, covers, plugs) will be counted as a single item
  6. First Aid & Repair Items: Anything from a needle and thread to ducted tape will be put into one kit along with Tylenol and bandaids and considered as a single item. (The First Aid & Repair kit)
  7. Records and Files: Each file box or portfolio will be counted as one item. Digital files do not count.

After ample tossing and sorting I have finally arrived at 97 items, which means I have 3 items of wiggle room. Success!

My 100 Items

      Clothing

    1. Sun Glasses – Clic Googles
    2. Hat – Fedora
    3. Hat - Fox Tuque
    4. Belt – For Pants
    5. Belt – For Dresses
    6. Shirt – Warm Weather / Spaghetti Strap
    7. Shirt – Warm Weather / Spaghetti Strap
    8. Shirt – Warm Weather / Spaghetti Strap
    9. Shirt – Warm Weather / Tank Top
    10. Shirt – Warm Weather / Tank Top
    11. Shirt – Warm Weather / Tank Top
    12. Shirt – Warm Weather / T-shirt (Fightlinker)
    13. Shirt – Warm Weather / Red Jacob T-shirt
    14. Shirt – Warm Weather
    15. Shirt – Warm Weather
    16. Shirt – Warm Weather
    17. Shirt – Button up
    18. Shirt – Cold Weather / Invader Zim
    19. Shirt – Cold Weather / Black
    20. Shirt – Cold Weather / Black
    21. Shirt – Cold Weather / Black and Grey Striped long
    22. Shirt – Cold Weather
    23. Shirt – Cold Weather
    24. Sweater – Lulu Lemon
    25. Sweater – Long & Grey
    26. Sweater – Work Out
    27. Vest – Leather
    28. Pants – Jeans
    29. Pants – Pin Strip Black Formal
    30. Pants – Lulu Lemon
    31. Pants – Lulu Lemon
    32. Pants – Work Out
    33. Pants – Work Out
    34. Pants
    35. Pants
    36. Pants
    37. Shorts
    38. Leggings
    39. Leggings
    40. Skirt – Long / Red
    41. Skirt – Long / Blue
    42. Skirt – Long / Partnered
    43. Skirt – Long / Black
    44. Skirt – Short / Black
    45. Skirt – Short / Grey
    46. Dress – Evening
    47. Dress – Sun
    48. Dress – Cocktail
    49. Suit – Grey Pinstripe
    50. House Coat – Kimono
    51. Socks – 12 Pair
    52. Bathing Suit – Pokka dot one piece
    53. Bathing Suit – Bikini
    54. Bathing Suit – Bikini
    55. Underwear – 12 pairs
    56. Shoes – Flats
    57. Shoes – Converse
    58. Shoes – Heels
    59. Long Coat

Grooming

    1. Small Jewelry and Costume Pieces (12 items)
    2. Make Up Palette – Mac Palette
    3. Make Up Brush / Grooming Kit
    4. Hair Straightener
    5. Hair Brush
    6. Hair Clip
    7. Hair Clip
    8. Comb
    9. Toothbrush – Electric
    10. Face Cloth
    11. First Aid & Repair kit

Office and Electronics

    1. Laptop – Macbook
    2. Video Camera – Flip
    3. Camera – Point and Shoot / Canon Cybershot
    4. Phone – iPhone
    5. Hard Drive – 500 GB
    6. Hard Drive – 100 GB
    7. Thumb Drive 10 GB
    8. Headphone – Roots
    9. Podcast Microphone
    10. Battery Charger
    11. Label Maker
    12. Notebook – Mole Skin
    13. Filing Portfolio

Hobbies

    1. Book – Non-fiction
    2. Book – Fiction
    3. Bike – Hampton Cruiser

Every Day Carry

    1. Keys
    2. Money Clip (Bulldog clip)
    3. Water Bottle – Nalegeen

Travel and Repair

    1. Passport
    2. Suit Case – Carry On
    3. Suit Case – Blue, Air Canada, Medium Sized
    4. Suit Case – Day Pack / Hydro pack
    5. Sewing Kit

Home Decor

  1. Comforter and Sheet Set
  2. Painting – Original
  3. Painting – Waterhouse Print

Resources for this article:
Dave’s original post that inspired his later book
The Times’ Article About the 100 Thing Challenge
The Zen Habits’ blog article

03 Aug

Spring Clean Like a Minimalist, 100 Thing Challenge

Spring cleaning is trending on twitter which means nice weather is just around the corner. I have a deep love for the spring scrub and purge ritual that steams from childhood. Working together as a family to de-cluttering and downsize, wash and scrub is a cherished memory. Opening all the windows and doors to get the staleness of winter out and bring in the smell of spring that always gave me the satisfying feeling of a fresh start.

People just need to reboot now and again, a chance to feel free and clear of all that built up mental and physical junk. In high school and college the semester breaks cut your educational career into manageable chunks and I think we can use spring cleaning as a way to break our lives up in the same way. Every year around this time I make a big deal of getting everything under control; laundry, home repairs, the closets, the fridge, everything.

This year I thought, why not shake things up, why not do something a little more interesting, fun and introspective? Why not narrow my personal things down to 100 items and get ride of the rest?

The idea first came to me from the Zen Habits article on the 100 items chalenge, which sparked my interest and sent me on a wild google search for others who had challenged themselves to this practice in radical minimalism. Low and behold Dave Bruno, the originator of the idea, had written a book on the topic. In the spirit of minimalism I bought the kindle version and started to read.

I love the idea of the 100 Thing Challenge and want to try it out for myself, so I will. As of the end of this month I will own no more that 100 items. Over the next couple weeks I’ll be narrow my worldly possessions down to the bare essentials. If this sounds like something you might be interested in doing yourself I recommend you check out Dave Bruno’s wonderful book “The 100 Thing Challenge”

How I plan to explore this challenge:

  • Read Dave Bruno’s “100 Thing Challenge“ book
  • Find & read other books and resources about the human relationship with stuff, consumerism, minimalism and hoarding
  • Go through my things and reduce to 100 items
  • Check up on my 100 items periodically to see how I’m doing
  • Explore the effects on my life and my happiness

Resources for this article:
Dave’s original post that inspired his later book
The Times’ Article About the 100 Thing Challenge
The Zen Habits’ blog article

A Year of 30 day Challenges

13 Jul
1
Posted by Posted in Blog, Challenges

Turning 24 was different. It was the first birthday I began to feel remotely grown up. This new sense of looming adulthood was alarming and made me call into question my efforts to become the woman I wanted to become.

After a 11 months travel binge, retuning home for my birthday was a great opportunity to reflect on what I wanted out of my next trip around the sun. I made a list, a go to solution, of important things I wanted to work on then spent the next few weeks working on all my resolutions, on and off, in an attempt to cram in personal development in the same characteristic way I used to study for finals. Vowing to eat better, get more sleep and answer all email within 48 hours then abandoning the me resolutions to watch an episode of Monk on Netflix and eat an entire bag of potato chips.

Overwhelmed by my own overcompensation, I needed a beter solution.

One late night, whille ignoring my resolution to sleep better, I decided to watch some TED talks. A video by Matt Cutts about creating 30 day challenges struck me. I decided to chose a year of fun 30 day challenges that would help me work with more focus and hopeful more success.

I am naturaly an obsesive person so this apealed me me.

Bellow is a table created to make it easy to follow my challenges, new articles will be added for each area. I hope you will watch the video embedded at the end of the article and consider starting a 30 day challenge yourself.

[table id=1 /]

This is the “try something for 30 days” Ted Talk referenced above. Matt Cutts is an engineer at Google, where he fights link-spam and helps webmasters understand how search works. Read more at Psychcentral.com.

If you want to follow along with my challenges, book mark this page as the table will be updated with any new post. Let me know if you’re doing any challenges your-self I’d love to read about your experience. Please email me at info@carisahendrix.com.

Resources for this article:
Ready For A challenge Via Psychcentral.com
Matt Cutts’s Inspiring Ted Talk
How Long to Form a Habit? Via PsyBlog

Getting Ready for a Meatless Month

05 Jun
0
Posted by Posted in Challenges

For my second 30 day challenge I decided to tacle my unfortunate meat-etarian diet. Inspired by the book the Omnivore’s Dilemma as well as a recent rounding of my belly area (a symptom of having a boyfriend who can whip up 5 star meals at a whim) I figured it was a good time to give meatless meals another try.

This was not the first time I had experimented with vegetarianism. I had tried once durring my “get out and protest” phase at the age of 15. I had managed to stay off meat for 6 month before the alluring smell of sizzling bacon one morning beat out my desire to feel in-group and superior.

Later on, after moving out of the house and reading Fast Food Nation, I tried to go veg again. But working full time while trying to jumpstart my career in entertainment left little time to plan or make nutritional meat-less meals. As a result I would often skip meals or rely on cheese wis and ichiban (early bachelorette staples I now avoid). After 6 month I looked ill and my hair was beginning to thin out. I returned reluctantly to eating meat. It was much easier, with options like deli meat and frozen dinners, to maintain the very basics of nutrition.

Since that negative experience things have changed. I have more free time now, and a much better understanding of basic cooking and proper diet. I am in a much better place to explore vegetarianism again and am excited to get started with this month’s challenge.

Why Go Meat-less?

When ever someone catches you avoiding the meat dishes on a menu they usually ask “Are you vegetarian? Why? Are you an animal activist or is it a diet thing?”

As much as I like the ideas of being nice to cute piggies and cows, it is not the motivating force behind why I want to stop eating meat. The environmental impact of our over-consumption of beef, pork and poultry is stagering and the impact on our national health is equally bad.

Bacon or sausage with breakfast, deli meat at lunch, and steak, burgers or a roast with dinner, our meals revolve around meat. The majority of North Americans consume 1/2 pound of meat a day, 7 times the recommended daily amount. I experienced this first hand. Born in northern Saskatchewan where pork abounds, and raised in Alberta on Alberta Beef, meat has been the central part of every meal.

Some Data To Consider

  1. It takes an average of 78 calories of fossil fuel to produce 1 calorie of beef protein where as it takes 1 calories of fossil for 1 calorie of soybeans.
  2. It takes 3 to 15 times as much water to produce animal protein as it does plant protein.
  3. The methane produced by cattle is 20X more poisonous that C02.

These stats made me realize that the environmental impact of my lunch was not worth the momentary pleasure.

How I plan to explore this challenge:

  • Re-Read the Omnivore’s Dilemma & Fast Food Nation
  • Research and Explore Issues Around Vegetarianism, Vegan-ism, the Whole and the Organic Food Movement
  • Challenge Myself to Cook a Variety of Interesting Vegetarian Recipes
  • Practice Self Control
  • Make an Effort to Eat more Fruits and Vegetables

Resources for this article:
the Omnivore’s Dilemma