Another Challenge

60 Meals

I can see that setting myself a challenge works for me.  I stick at it.  It gives me a focus and a goal.  Earlier this year I challenged myself to have a craft stall at a nearby village Open Gardens event.  I enjoyed the preparation period, the actual event and the whole experience.  This challenge came on the back of making lots of decorations for my daughter's wedding - favour boxes, place names, table plan etc.  If someone had said I would do that a decade ago, I wouldn't have believed it possible of myself.  Doing the wedding crafts gave me confidence in my own ability and so I enrolled to have a stall to see if I could sell some of my creations.



Lullington Open Gardens 2014

I worked hard and achieved the goal, the date came and went.  I broke even money-wise and was happy with that.  Some would say that wasn't a success but for me it was a great confidence builder that could not match a monitory profit.  I have a stall booked for mid-December so that will be interesting too.

I have enjoyed this 60 day challenge with all its ups and downs, but in particular the days I cook good wholesome healthy meals I gain confidence in my own ability and want to do more.  So perhaps my mindset about cooking is changing and I need to keep going.  My next challenge will be to cook 60 difference meals.  I wont set a time limit but will chart my progress.  Creating new dishes will build my 'new habit' muscles, it will keep me doing weekly food shopping and help me maintain any weight loss from this challenge.  I will have broken the cycle of laziness of just grabbing a pizza or fishcakes and oven chips like I did before.

Autumn and winter are now showing their chill so hotpots and warm nourishing dishes will be needed.  Christmas must be every dieters nightmare and I intend to write a '60 days on' blog which will incorporate the festive season with its food trials and joys.

I feel I have a long way to go before being a regular healthy cook as a natural part of who I am.  Denying myself bread, biscuits, cake, chocolate and crisps is easy, but shaking off the 'lazy cook syndrome' is a harder egg to crack!