Monkeying with my diet

As I travel down the path to Luddism and liberation, I've come to the opinion that this means to be a locavore, consuming primarily foods produced in my local area. This is problematic on several levels: As someone who has traveled the world, lived all over the place, and finally settled in a place and climate very different from the one of my origins, I've developed a taste for exotic foods, including staples that aren't available from local sources. Foremost among these is rice. I eat tons of rice, I can eat it as the foundation of any and every meal. Unfortunately, rice doesn't grow (that I know of) in the Northern Shenandoah Valley.

For the mean time, at least, I'm eating rice anyway. What I did decide to change though was to cut down on my meat consumption. Basically what I decided was this: Until I could regularly acquire locally produced meat, I would give up meat for lunch and dinner and eat all the rice and vegetables I want. I've been at it for a little over a month now and in spite of the fact that I've been chowing down on white rice, I've actually lost weight. My pants fit again!

Other than consuming 2/3 less meat than normal, the only other change I've made is to completely give up Coke. I didn't drink that much anyway - less than one can per day on average.