Blog fail. Blogger fail. Bloggest fail.

Holy crap! Did you see that?! I just failed spectacularly at like 3 things all at once! Before I even started them!

First I was all “Oh, hey. I’m an ascetic. I’m only going to eat rice beans and greens for 3 months.”
Then I was all “Oh, hey. I’m a writer. I’m gonna blog about being an ascetic. Awesome.”

Then the sun came out. Apparently sunny Saturdays are not conducive to asceticism.  

Apparently they are much conducive to tacos. And cocktails. Not so much to rice beans and greens.

So I failed at asceticism. 

"No problem though," I thought to myself. "My friends know I'm broke...surely someone will buy me lunch or a drink." 

But alas, I failed to get either lunch or a drink bought for me.

Then, to top it all off, my internet broke. So now, not only do I have to buy snacks and drinks to use the interwebs, but I also totally space on blogging every single time I'm online--Fail #3.

Possibly I’ve been subconsciously blocking the blog out, so I don’t have to confront my failure. 

Either way, both diet and the blog seemed dead on arrival.

But look!

They have arisen! It’s like digital-dietary Easter! My sins of gluttony and forgetfulness are forgiven!

The blog begins anew! -- the diet too.

October 1 2010. 

It begins.

Rice. Beans. Greens. Blog.

Same rules as before, only now I have a support group. (And still no job.)

Henceforth I shall have discipline.

Henceforth, I shall eat three kinds of food and write about it.

Oh man.

It will be so rad.

You don’t even know.

Seriously.

Just wait.

PS: Ignore the date stamp. I wrote this 30 Sept 10. I swear!!

In the beginning there was excess...

During my 2 years living in a student co-op I never had to spend a cent on food or worry about what I was going to eat at a given meal. Eventually I found myself wandering aimlessly into the kitchen, opening up a fridge, and mindlessly munching on whatever I found there. During those years, I was also making way more money than I needed to pay my rent and my spending patterns beginning to mirror my eating -- I just did it, all the time, without thinking about it.

Then one day, I graduated from college and moved out of the co-op. With no one around to feed me anymore, no job and thus no money, I decided to reintroduce myself to my old friend Scarcity. If I could only reprogram myself to think more carefully about where my money went and what I ate, I might return to my pre-grad-school, super-frugal, super-cook. Heck, I might even begin to chip away at the mountain of student debt I'm suddenly standing face-to-face with

To that end, I decided to begin a 3-month experiment in the creative possibilities of ingredient asceticism, which basically entails eating rice, beans and greens every day for 3 months. Obviously, this won't be a very interesting blog if that's all I eat though. Also, I won't be a very interesting person...unless surly and disgruntled count as interesting. So, there are a couple rules I am going to follow:

1. All rices, beans and legumes, and leafy greens are on.
2. Oils and vinegars are on...like I'm going to live for 3 months without olive oil? C'mon.
3. All spices and condiments I already own are on.
4. $4/day discretionary budget: Limited to seasonal stuff from the "Damaged" bin at the co-op, coffee, or alcohol.
5. Anything anyone else pays for or presents me with is on.

It starts tomorrow. Who knows? Maybe in a week I'll say, "Hey, you know what? I don't really need root veg!" or "Damn, even the cheap fruit is kind of expensive." Or maybe I'll fail spectacularly. Then you can come on here and comment on what a loser I am. Neat!