Take Your Protein Pills and Put Your Helmet On

Five, four, three, two...
On the day before the Eat Local Challenge began last year, Cranky and I got the bright idea that it might be prudent to pack in some of the sorts of meals that would be off-limits for the next 31 days. We chose to have a last supper of Mexican food.
We thought we might be able to stave off certain hankerings, although we weren't entirely successful. Cranky stuffed an entire non-locally sourced burrito into his mouth one day in August, and I ate a handful of the tortilla chips that came with it.
OK, this is all really TMI, and even TS (too silly).
The Eat Local Challenge is a personal mission, and participants can define it any way they like.
As you may have already guessed, though, I like to define it rather narrowly (although I'm going to be a little laxer this year than last).
So, once again, Cranky and I have been on a binge the past couple of days, snarfing foods we won't see again until June.
Yesterday it was potstickers and Szechuan tofu at a local (hah, local!) restaurant.
Tonight it's going to be a seriously lowbrow, but tasty, pasta dish.
Tomorrow, we're thinking pizza. It might be an upscale pizza from a place that tries to use local foods as much as possible, but I know the white flour isn't from anywhere around here.
It's amazing how you develop cravings when you're on a controlled diet. Last year I was dying for the taste of soy sauce (and I fell off the wagon because of it). I was surprised, though, how little I yearned for white bread — well, maybe a little — uh, yeah — (even though I did bake some local whole-wheat bread, just for the heck of it, but hey, where did that yeast come from?).
But even more amazing is that as Cranky and I gird our loins for the coming four and a half weeks of eating locally, we're finding it kind of artificial to pack in a couple of soon-to-be-illicit last meals. We kinda had to rack our brains to come up with our three days of "pre-cheating." Not that we don't adore eating those kinds of foods, but this just feels fake.
Ah, well. The dried chili pepper is local, and so is the sprig of parsley.