Getting Out and Sticking With the Plan

This weekend we went to the LEAF Festival and spent the day enjoying the weather and music and fun a huge festival like this can provide.  It was a good test for me in a couple ways: 1. Sticking to the diet with so many fun foods and drinks around.  2. See all the items for sale from vendors and not buying anything.

In preparation for the diet challenge I packed a lot of food.  We planned to be there from lunch time till bed time and I wasn't expecting to be able to find anything to buy and eat for myself.  Emerson also can't have gluten so we always pack all his food (which is extensive as the boy is always hungry.)  Being the kind of festival it is and in such a food conscious place (seriously Asheville is about the best town to have a food allergy or sensitivity) I thought we might be able to find something but didn't want to take any risks. Somehow we all ate all day and only bought one plate of curry (the was eaten mostly by John.)  What a success!  I should tell you about this sunflower seed bread I found.  It isn't much like bread, more like a cracker or not a bit like anything else and you'll just have to try it to see if you like it.  It is expensive but I don't eat more than one piece a day and enjoy it with hummus or avocado.  I really like it and I was totally surprised by that.

Usually at a festival browsing the vendors is a huge highlight for me.  I really am sentimental and have always liked to get a little something to take home and remind me of the place it is from.  This is never as rewarding as it seems like.  I almost always feel guilty for spending money on something I don't need and the amount of money I feel comfortable spending doesn't equate to a quality item anyway.  This time I just stayed away and did all my "window shopping" from a very safe distance.  It worked, and after the first couple times of passing by the booths and telling myself I didn't need anything and was purposely not buying I felt much less longing.  It felt good.

I did buy an experience and that was much cheaper and super fun.  Five dollars got me a few minutes on one of these and it was awesome.  Today my whole body is sore but that is because I did tons of flips and jumped 20 or 30 feet in the air each time.  It was amazing and so instead of bringing home a thing to clutter my house I brought home a memory that I might have skipped out on otherwise.