Friday, March 9, 2012

End of February Experiment

So we decided to change our diet to meet our budget instead of meeting our budget to fit our diet. The result was that we actually saved a good deal of money but that was really the only positive result.
We had a lot of the same dishes over and over. I can tell you I am glad to be on a pasta hiatus after this month and I love pasta. At the end of the month, the meals got tougher and tougher to prepare because we had planned for quick meals - spaghetti and sauce, creamed soups, lots of soups. We thought we had planned for a month but the food went faster.
Since we are used to once a month shopping it didn't really occur to us to go to the store to buy more food. We did stop in for milk and bread but even that seemed to go faster.
Aside from that, we all felt awful. Come towards the end of the month we were so cranky and exhausted. I can't say that it was 100% related to the diet but it was not a fun month to have to live through.
For March, we have decided to try to return to the diet we ate before moving to the city and going gluten free. We ate nothing made of white flour and sought out whole grain foods instead of just whole wheat foods.
It's a more expensive diet but whole grains keep us full longer. We, also, recently got rid of our cable. As strange as it sounds, we no longer feel the need to snack at night and we're going to bed earlier. March looks to be a warmer, sunnier month (in between the rain). It might mean actually having the chance to spend time outside. It might mean some early foraging. If the weather stays nice we should have mushrooms after all the rain.
The other thing we might start this month is organic milk. That will depend on the cost of the whole grains. We might have to alter our diet one item at a time.
On another note - March is National Nutrition Month. I should have mentioned that earlier to explain my reasoning behind all the website reviews. I have one more site I want to share with you but since it's geared towards kids I want to get my son playing on it before I write the review.

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