Friday, February 4, 2011

(167) I Hate to Open My Cupboards

Yesterday  I was talking about purging my cookbook shelf, and that got me thinking...

I need to purge the cupboards too.

Since I've been dieting, I just dread opening up the cupboards. I hadn't really realized how much it had been bothering me...just one of those things where I'd walk in the kitchen and pace a bit before opening the doors, one by one, unhappy with what I find, each and every time.

There's stuff in there I can't have. Stuff I have no intentions of making. But it plagues me nonetheless. For example, hubby pulled out two boxes of chocolate cake mix the other day. Him and youngest were discussing making brownies, but we don't have any mix. So they found the cake mixes instead. Ugh!! They haven't made the cakes yet, so those boxes are still sitting there...

There are also some caramel-apple wraps. You know...those thin sheets of caramel that you are supposed to wrap around an apple and microwave for a few seconds. I could just eat the caramel. But I'm not.

And then there is the pasta.

Pasta is a weakness of mine. It's one of those things that I have made very seldom since I started this weight loss journey. I just have such a hard time moderating it. I LOVE it, and I want to eat LOTS of it. So I don't make it at all. Well, hardly at all... Which is why I have a cupboard-full. Spaghetti, linguine, farfalle, rotini, lasagna, vermicelli, orzo, macaroni, egg noodles, spatzl, and enough flour to make dumplings for an army.

Sigh.....

This is the one I really struggle with. I want to get to a place where I can eat a healthy amount and really enjoy it. But I'm not there yet.

So there it sits. Do I just throw it all away? I suppose I could donate the unopened containers. But that still leaves plenty. And there are the other people in my house to consider. Youngest isn't dieting. She's a very healthy weight, and her eating habits aren't terrible. Probably too many carbs and too much fat, but she also eats plenty of veggies and some fruit, so she's doing ok.

There is a part of me that just wants to empty out everything and start over. Get rid of all the pre-packaged crap, and stock up on just the healthy, low fat stuff, nutritional stuff. I guess I need a plan.

Hmm.....where to begin?

I think that I will start with one cupboard this weekend and take everything out, spread it out on the counter and start evaluating. I'm sure there are some things in there that just need to be pitched because they've been around too long. Thats a start. Then I'll separate the "truely junk food" from the marginal and questionable. If its junk and its been opened, its getting pitched. If its marginal, and unopened, I'll discuss with the family and pin them to a "you eat it by..." date else I'm throwing it away. If its an ingredient, I guess I'll have to take that into consideration.

So, the steps are:

1. empty
2. sort
3. purge crap
4. re-sort remainder
5. hold questionables for a short time
6. organize what's left
7. make a "pantry list" of healthy replacements

Anyone else have any suggestions? How have you handled your cupboards after starting a diet?

4 comments:

  1. I have done several pantry purges. I just open and trash bag and start tossing things in. Since the challenge though I have had anything like that in the pantry. On the few occasions when I brought junk in I ate it right away. I think my pantry is clean of junk right now.

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  2. I just went through this the other day. I cleaned out the cupboards and pantry. I threw it out ALL the crap.

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  3. I did our pantry last weekend, so sad, how many expired items we had. We boxed up what we could donate and I dropped off at a center this week.

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  4. Good job! You can't eat what isn't there! I have a hard time with this one because I recently moved in with my parents and my sister visits a lot, so we have tons of chips and dip in the pantry. I just need to pretend like they're not there!

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