I woke up to the whistling sound of my return air duct singing, “Change me!  Change me!  I’ve sucked in as much dust and dirt as my little fibers can handle.”  Yes, of course it’s a disposable filter.  I know they make non-disposable filters, but they’re very expensive and I’ve been told they don’t work as well.  I guess I’ll be researching that today, as I have no plans to just turn it off and freeze to death.  (What?  It’s possible to freeze to death in 50° weather.) 

Several people know what I’m doing with this challenge, as my behavior kind of requires me to talk about it.  In addition to it being publicized on all mainstream social media, I have to talk about it, or people will think I’m just doing crazy stuff.  Not that doing crazy things is out of the norm for me.  Don’t buy anything disposable.  Let me just say, other people buying disposable things for me is not okay, but thank you for offering.  :)

Here are a few reflections from day one:

Tiny pre-packaged food items.  Wow, there are a lot of these!!  I decided these are just unacceptable during the challenge.  I try my best not to use them when I’m not doing a challenge.

I really wanted to eat some of the leftover salad from yesterday’s meeting.  I pulled out the oversized (disposable) plastic bowl and starred at the dry lettuce.  All of the savory sauce that should be coating the leafy greens is being held hostage by little disposable plastic containers, off limits to me.  So much for the salad.  I hope someone else finishes it, as I hate to see it go to waste.  The lettuce looked as sad as I did as I slowly slid the top back on and placed it back in the cold cave of leftovers.

Next up, yummy little dinner mints.  I’m sure these were purchased for guests, so I shouldn’t be eating them anyway.  These little pre-packaged morsels of minty goodness will be greatly missed.  Should I also mention that they’re a great follow up to eating garlic or salsa.  Maybe I’ll need to sit a little farther away from people after lunch.  Thank you little mints, but I’m not welcome to eat you anymore.

Things I didn’t think about.  There are so many things that are disposable, even I couldn’t think of them all.

1. Deodorant comes in disposable containers.  Don’t worry, I still have a couple of weeks before this becomes a problem.
2. Beer comes in disposable containers.  I like beer.  Kegs are not disposable… ;)
3. Eating out is expensive.  I can eat at a full service restaurant, as long as there’s nothing disposable involved with serving it.  Since cooking will be time consuming, I’ll be tempted to eat out more.  Did I mention I hate to cook?
4. Vacation.  This crossed my mind, but we’re taking a road trip during the challenge.  I guess we’ll be stopping to eat.  Actually this is a good thing.  No fast food, only cool hole-in-the-wall places like you see on Food Network.  I can do that!
5. I can’t shop at Aldi.  This makes me incredibly sad.  The only things I could buy would be cucumbers, apples, avocados and tomatoes.  I love Aldi.
6. Cat litter.  See?  I told you I didn’t prepare!  I need cat litter… bad!  That’s high on the priority list today.

Today, I need to find grocery stores that will allow me to bring and use my own containers.  Unfortunately, I don’t live in Austin, where they have a grocery store for freaks like me.  I wonder how long it would take me to drive to In.gredients?  I guess I’ll start at Whole Foods, then Sprouts.

Last night, I went to a Meet-up in Dallas.  They had beer.  I hesitated, stared at all the people drinking one, then grabbed one for myself.  I said I wasn’t going to buy anything in disposable containers.  I didn’t buy it, it was free.  Obviously I feel guilty about it though, so I’m ‘fessing up.  You can judge me on this if you like, but I savored that beer and appreciated it more than I’ve ever appreciated a beer before.  Today, I’ll whistle the same song as my HVAC, “Change me!  Change me!”