Day 1 – 100-mile diet: Back from vacation and going locavore

So yesterday (September 15) was the first day of our 100-mile diet challenge. Having just gotten back from vacation helped a lot since we had pretty much emptied the fridge before we left for 10 days so very little temptation there. Unfortunately though, having had very little time to prepare more filling foods, our first day was a bit of a sparse one. We had tons of veggies and fruit from the local farmers market, so our lunches were really pretty much that. I had a simple cabbage and veggie soup with a tomato broth, tomatoes and cucumbers cut up and a nectarine for a snack. Okay, the nectarine was local when we bought it in Virginia, but we thought throwing good food out wasn’t very green either.

Dinner was wonderful though : My mom (being very supportive of our decision to do this) had prepared for us a yummy spaghetti squash, stuffed with all local produce like carrots, peppers, zucchinis, onions, garlic, etc. She was honest with us about the butter, although local, being salted. But we thought that on the grand scale of things, that was alright until we get ourselves organized. We bought amazing local sharp cheddar and top the spooned out spaghetti with it and had a feast!

We went shopping for supplies last night, so our second day should be a better fed one for sure!

Hardest challenge of Day-1 for both of us: No caffeine… Not that we drink that much coffee on a day-to-day basis, but we do drink a lot of tea and neither are 100-miles. You don’t realize the effect caffeine has on your system until you are trying to get through your day without it at all. Hopefully our bodies will get used to it soon and the rest of the week will not feel so sluggish.

If any of my readers have ideas and suggestions about herbal coffee and tea replacers, I’m all ears! We are planning on going wild chickaree hunting tonight (they grow all over the field by our house) and will hit a local Amerindian herb garden this week-end.

So that was our first day. I will try and keep a daily diary of our experiment in local eating. I will be better about posting images as well. Hope to ear from you guys for ideas, encouragement and comments. I’d love to know what you think.