Chapter 22---90 Day Challenge

Chapter 22--90 Day Challenge

Good Sunday Morning Everybody, how the heck is everybody?  It has been hot here, super hot.  In fact I have to work on my AC in my pickup and living room if its going to stay this hot.  I saw a meme the other day on Facebook talking about how God makes Oklahoma summers this hot so everybody will realize Hell is no place to spend eternity.  After the weather we have had this week, there shouldn't be an atheist in western Oklahoma!  Its been so hot I've even been coming in around 3 or so and watching TV and sitting by an air conditioner.  Yesterday, we watched a documentary on Netflix called "In Defense Of Food".  It had its usual crap in it.  You know, modern agriculture is responsible for all the woes in the world and the like, but I have to admit, especially for a network that slants left, it had a lot of good information in it.  Most of the time these documentaries want people to be vegetarians if not vegans, live on weeds and sprouts that you find on the mountain top, sit around at night and bang on your bongos, and smoke some wacky weed.  Well I was pleasantly surprised there was actually some common sense approaches to living healthier and how you can really apply those facts to living your daily life on a farm, homestead or even in town.  

So 60-70 years ago, where did our food come from?  Well, for the most part, a huge percentage of it was local.  You had home deliveries of milk and eggs.  You had farmers that took their harvests to local grocery stores and the produce was actually consumed locally.  Such a novel idea isn't it? Grow food local, sell it to your neighbors and buy your stuff locally too?  Change is inevitable, but change isn't always good.  Before my time, by several years, in the 40's through probably the 60's, my family, along with everybody else around here got their work done on a Saturday afternoon or into the evening, loaded everybody up, including their stuff to sale, which included cream and eggs and off to town they went to do their weekly shopping.  People got haircuts, kids went to the movies, moms did the shopping and dads, well dads did what we do best, we sat on a bench on main street somewhere and talked to other dads we hadn't seen since last Saturday. Stores stayed opened late to get all the business they could and sales were to be had.  Every smaller community around the country was like that.  Everybody depended on everybody, very few people went hungry because they knew how to grow food and also because their food supply was local.  In a lot of aspects it was idealistic, wasn't it? Then everything changed and I mean everything! Things started costing more.  People started wanting more and that upset the apple cart, not just in big cities but across rural America as well. Now I'm not the type of guy who thinks you can live in the past.  In fact, I think that if you live in the past, you are falling behind.  You have to keep forging ahead or you slip backwards.  That doesn't mean there still isn't a lot of good things that happened in the past, that we have obviously forgotten that we need to remember. Which brings up the 90 Day Challenge and how Deb and I came up with it.

There is all sorts of challenges these days.  It wasn't to long ago we had the Ice Bucket Challenge or whatever it was called.  It wasn't to long ago idiots were eating Tide Pods and snorting condoms.  Lets hope this challenge goes a little better then those last two.  In this documentary, the host and narrator's main points I think, were everything in moderation and eating real food.  Sounds easy enough doesn't it?  Well yea, but we are going into it knowing otherwise. We have been engrained too long, about eating conveniently. Eating quickly and eating whatever.  Well, that's fixing to change, at least for 90 days, HAHA.  I would say, especially around here, in the mid to late 60's we started to see a change in lifestyles.  Consumer goods started to become more expensive.  So what did that do?Well I think the biggest change was in order to survive, at least at the level people wanted to, we became a nation of households where both the husband and wife had to work to make ends meet.  Now don't confuse that statement with some idea that I'm a macho male that believes the worlds problems can be blamed on women going into the work force.  That's not even close to the point I'm making.  The fact is, to pay the bills we became two income families, especially around our area.  Most wives went to town to work in order to get benefits, it wasn't even the paycheck, it was insurance, but the paycheck sure didn't hurt!  So, at the end of the day, when both adult members of the household got home, nobody felt like cooking, but everybody had to eat.  So we popped these TV dinner "things" in the oven and later the microwave, and while it wasn't the best alternative to a home cooked meal, everybody had nourishment.  It was processed, it didn't look like anything anybody had ever seen before, but with enough salt, fat added and sugar it didn't taste half bad and it was quick and convenient, and after all that's what we thought we needed. We moved into a generation that needed everything now, including our food, but yet we went to a more sedimentary lifestyle right? People were leaving farms, left and right. The number of people working hard factory jobs also decreased.  More and more people were moving into a cubicle to work their 8 hours. Nobody was exerting and working hard like they used to. While, for the most part anyway, our checking accounts were getting bigger, so were our waistlines. Now expand that 50-60 years down the road.  We literally eat crap, that our grandparents and older generations wouldn't even recognize as food and we don't get the exercise that we used to either. So we have more health problems then we used to.  It only makes sense. 

Now I know some of you are out there trying to nail me about modern medicine.  Modern medicine has saved countless lives, you say.  Well my response would be, Well Duh!  I can look across my immediate family and down, even a couple of generations, to see people who wouldn't be around if we were still in the 50's or 60's or even the 70's or 80's.  That's not what this is all about.  Nor am I some person if I get sick that goes out side, picks a couple of weeds, makes some tea, drinks it, and am cured in 12 hours. But as I get older, I can see and rationalize relatively  easy, how a good diet, one with limited processed foods, can keep you healthier, longer.  So lets get into this challenge my wife and I came up with last night.

We, as a couple, have literally talked about this kind of a challenge for several years.  While I can see this won't be absolute, and I don't mean the vodka,well, I might about a week into this challenge!  We will have to see how it goes I guess, I think this will be somewhat easily attainable.  Let's go over the ground rules.  What will we be eating?  Well we will be eating food.  Foodstuffs that our grandmother or great grandmother would recognize as food! Food that if we don't raise it,  we could raise at least theoretically. What does that mean?  Well, in a protected environment could we raise tea and coffee to drink?  Well it would be tough but yea we could do that.  Can we raise Dr Peppers? Or can we grow tomato soup out of a can or Mac and Cheese out of a Box or mashed potatoes out of a box?  No we can't.  That's the preface behind the next 90 days.  Instead of spaghetti sauce out of a can, we will be making it.  Instead of donuts bought at the grocery store, we will make them if we want a sweet treat. Instead of Bar S or Oscar Mayer ham, we will cook one of our hams and slice it for sandwiches.  When it cools off we will make homemade chicken and noodle soup, not eating it out of a salt laden can. See where we are going here? We aren't coming into this with some grand illusion that this is going to happen perfectly.  For one thing, I don't see the wife giving up Dr. Pepper and for that matter I'm not giving up the few soft drinks I drink now either, decaf or not.  But how much better will we feel if we even decrease them by 10 or 15 %?  A lot I would bet. Maybe the key word in all of this is moderation.  We don't eat a lot of sweets, but during a hot afternoon if I want a cold snickers or ice cream sandwich, I'm going to go get one.  What I won't be doing is eating 5 ice cream sandwiches, which I have a tendency to do.  Those kind of habits lead to me having less energy to do the kinds of things I need to do and want to do.  So hopefully this will be a game changer. Another way to look at it is we will be consuming food stuffs that have had less hands on it.  So under that idea, the less hands that have touched it, the healthier it should be.  That only makes sense.  Obviously, if its in a can or a box more people have probably touched it then if its sitting in a bin at a store or farmers market. 

Now a valid concern in all of this is how much is it going to cost to do all of this?  Well the answer is I don't know. We will try and keep track of it as we go, at least to some extent. To eat healthier is more costly.  But in my heart of hearts I don't think it will be astronomically more.  We ate a boughten pizza last night.  Is boughten even a word?  It was like $8 or $9.  We could have easily made a crust, put some sauce, meat, veggies and cheese on it and come in under way less then that and it would have tasted better and been better for us.  I can see our main hindrance may be planning!  We also aren't going to throw away stuff we already  have in our pantry.  That would just be silly. What we are going to do is work to replace anything processed in our pantry  with food that is healthier and at least processed by us so we can control what is in it.  Sounds like a plan doesn't it? 

I don't think I'm going to cheat death.  Death comes for everybody on earth. Also with my family genetics, I'm going to be prone to heart disease and cancer.  That's just the way it is. But if there are  some things you can get away from, why wouldn't you?  When I was 25, 60 seemed like it was a world away.  I ate and drank whatever I wanted.  I worked hard, stayed up late, didn't take care of myself and it didn't seem to affect me.  Now that I'm 45, 60 seems like its just over the next hill.  I don't have the energy I used to have, and I take medicine to control blood pressure and cholesterol and I spend too much time in front of  a computer screen.  I'm just like everybody else.  But since I'm like everybody else, if I can make a big change, then so can everybody else as well.  Hell, if I can make a slight change it will be worth it. 

So tomorrow morning we start the 90 day challenge.  Eating things that would make great-grandma think of food.  Eating things that aren't processed or refined. Eating things that have better nutrients and STILL taste good.  Just as important will be eating things that we still want to eat but maybe in a different form.  What's going to be our golden rule on this one? Well how about the Oscar Wilde quote, "Everything in moderation, including moderation". Don't call the Cattlemen's Association.  We aren't giving up steak, or hamburgers or roasts.  We aren't  giving up bacon or sausage. That would be downright sacrilegious to give up bacon. We aren't going to totally give up caffeine, although we are already doing a better job of cutting that intake down.  All processed foods will not be going away, even drinks.  I don't know if I can make it through these hot days without Gatorade, but we will be drinking more water.  I won't be giving up all soda, but will be cutting it down, as well.  Day 1 won't be perfect. I already know that.  Hell day 90 won't be perfect either.  But if we as a household just make an improvement that can be seen in our energy levels and our waist lines, it will be a great success.  Who knows, maybe I'll celebrate with a bottle of Crown and a six pack of Sprite on day 91!

Now how will we be accountable?  Well obviously Deb and I will have each other. But we were thinking about either posting daily videos on YouTube or maybe just doing a Facebook live video once or twice a day.  That's were you guys come in.  Please help us make this story go big! We are only human, the more people we are accountable to, the greater chance of success we have! Please help us stay accountable!

To help grow this blog, please share it will all your friends and family. You can also keep up with my escapades on either Facebook at OKredneckfarmer, or on Twitter @OKREDNECKFARMER.   You can even find me on Instagram now.  Just search for dvcowboyz and you will find me. You can also email us at bodarkspringsfarm@gmail.com.  Until the next time, have a great rest of the day and a better tomorrow!