52 Changes - Time to Catch Up

Damn, damn, damn.  Last time I posted one of these I was a week late but determined to catch up to the present.  In the time since, I have not only failed to catch up, but I've fallen farther behind.  So today I will put into words the changes for the weeks of 7/5 and 7/12, which are changes 7 and 8 if anyone's counting.  I tell you, making changes isn't easy!

So for 7/5, here's a bit of a cop-out, but still a good thing to strive for.  Minimum blog post requirement.  I know, I know, this has to be like the fifth time in the year that this blog has existed that I've tried to put some requirement of this type on myself.  And it's been very clear that if I go too ambitious with it, there's no way I can make it.  This time around I want to force myself to write at least one post per week.  Lately I've been meeting that goal, but now that it's quantified, I'll need to hold myself accountable.

The thing of it is that it's not for shortage of ideas that I don't blog often enough.  I think every week I could very easily contribute one of the '52 Changes' series, a 'Kitchen Zink' item about something cooking-related and either a photo stream like last time or one of the really long vignette-style posts I wrote more frequently earlier on.  It's just that I'm always doing so much stuff I can't write as often as I like.  Between actually watching the movies I blog about, reading books, going out and doing stuff, and this job thing, there aren't a ton of hours left for blogging.  If only somebody paid me for this...  :)  But back in the real world, I'm going to make sure I write one post per week, minimum.

Change number 8, for this week, is to make an attempt to eat more mindfully.  That's a cute little catchphrase, but what does it actually mean?  Well, I love to cook, as you know, and have no problem spending hours in the kitchen just to make a certain meal.  (Or in the case of the sauerbraten I'm working on, days.  It literally has to marinate for 3-5 days before it can be cooked.  Wow!)  That's no problem.  It's fun for me, so it's not a chore, regardless of how long it takes.

But then, especially if I've been cooking for a long time, I'm usually pretty hungry by time we sit down, and I'll start chowing down without always paying full attention to the flavors I'd just spent ages crafting.  Note that this doesn't happen a lot, but occasionally I'll find myself really digging in, and force myself to pause and say "hey, take a minute and really enjoy this."  From now on, I'm going to try to really force myself into that mindset before I get too far ahead of myself.  Supposedly you also eat less if you are more conscious about it,  which is why you should eat as fast as possible at an all-you-can-eat buffet.  Kidding.  But for real food that I make, and to a lesser extent everything else, I'm going to try to slow it down.  I'm pretty sure this is the way the French do it, and in the culinary world, who better to take inspiration from?

This'll be a challenge, but to the extent possible, I also want to extend this to breakfast and lunch.  Normally breakfast is a bleary-eyed bowl of cereal that I munch in automaton-like fashion while attempting to wake up enough to dress myself.  Lunch is spent in front of a computer screen where I usually have a sandwich and fruit.  Those frequently degenerate into robotic eating while I either watch or read the news, respectively.  I'm not going to force myself to deliberately savor every bite of granola every morning, but just a little more mindful would be a good thing.

Neither of these is a huge change, as they are things I frequently do anyway.  But now that they're listed, they are on tap for always happening.  This blog is supposed to be fun, and food darn well is supposed to be fun.  Making time for both should be a pretty enjoyable experience.