Goodbye, junk food.

I have been eating too much junk. It's time to change that.

As busy as we got in the home stretch of grad school, Joe and I started a bad habit of turning to junk food: stuff like Taco Bell, wings and beer, and pizza became standard meals on the weekly. This happened in spite of the fact that we love cooking and have a lot of above-average quality tools in our kitchen.

After today, I'm done. A couple of weeks back I started to feel crappy. The stuff coming out of my body was abnormally smelly and irregular. TMI? Whatever, I didn't like it either. I figured that it would pass, but it still hasn't. Last night I had an awful headache that lingered into this morning along with some serious gastro-intestinal discomfort inclining me to stay home. It's got to be the shit I've been eating.

Last week we finally started meal-planning. That was inadvertent step one toward improving our diet. I'm still feeling like poo, though. On Sunday night I was grossed out by the stir fry I made and made a naughty trip to Burger King to appease my stomach. Last night I gave in an ordered some pulled pork at Max & Erma's. Oh, and a couple of beers. In two work days I drank three lattes. I have not been good to my insides.

It ends today. Beginning tomorrow morning I will:

1.) Start each weekday with a green smoothie. After all, we dropped a few Benjamins on a Blendtec back in August.

2.) Eat a PB&J and Greek yogurt for lunch at work. Joe makes the best PB&Js. I'm already disciplined in this respect but maybe once or twice per month I forget my lunch at home and end up making a run to Wendy's. It's so hard to order a salad sans dressing when they've got that awesome but terribly unhealthy spicy chicken Caesar salad.

3.) Come home for a snack of vegetables, chips and salsa/hummus, or nuts. No more ghetto nachos or Churchill's donuts. Goodbye, forkfull of melted sharp cheddar.

4.) Drink only one beer in a sitting. I really only have a weak spot for beer during trivia on Tuesday nights. Most often I opt for club soda in lieu of beer, but on those nights that I do drink beer, I end up having two of those tall mofos. I love you, beer, but you aren't good for me.

5.) Only eat when it is time to eat. This includes time for that post-work snack and a similar snack between dinner and bed.

Fortunately we've got a good foundation for all of this started because, aside from the cheese, we don't have anything in our house regularly that I classify as "junk food." Our fridge right now is filled with almond milk, a few beers, Greek yogurt, a block of parmesan, vegetables, soda (I've been fighting that battle for a few years), and hot sauces. Oh, and there is a pumpkin cheesecake in there that I baked earlier today, but I just made that to be a good wife and to keep me busy. Our dry food cabinet is mostly seasonings, grains, and snacks like Clif bars and nuts. A neighbor child actually once raided our kitchen and was whole-heartedly disappointed in our selection.

The problem I have is that it's all too convenient and normal for me to drive over to Starbucks or Chick-fil-a when I have a craving. The next time I get that urge, I'm going to do my best to mentally refer to this blog post.

No more junk.

What can you do to improve your diet? Is your fridge a shameful display of preservatives and hormone-ridden junk that is destroying you or an exhibit of fresh and organic nutrition for your body to love?