It’s a new year, and like everybody else, I’ve started my yearly self-improvement project. Also like just about everyone else, this includes a diet. I know, I know. But this is going to be my year. The year I finally lose the baby weight, the year I start running half-marathons again!

I decided to go with the South Beach Diet, because my friend Cathy had such great success with it, and because I know it works. (I tried it for 3 days last year, and immediately lost weight, then had a cupcake at Double-Shot’s birthday party and gave up.) I’m six days in, and have lost 5 pounds, and am determined to stick with it this time.

The hardest part is NO DRINKING for the first two weeks. I mean, I love me some bagels and cream cheese, but no red wine is a killer. (And not killer like Cellar Mouse’s berry cobbler, killer like 4AM colic.) So far, I’ve only been tempted once, when I opened a bottle for a dinner guest, and decided I was better off not even taking a sniff. Luckily, Mudpie and Cellar Mouse were right next door, so the Beaulieu Vineyards ’07 Cabernet Sauvignon didn’t go to waste. (I’ll leave them to tell you how good it was.)

What’s helped is that Sober Dad and I recently joined a meat CSA. I was vegetarian for 6 years before having Double-shot, and have fantasized about going vegan enough that Sober Dad has declared a moratorium on vegan cookbook purchases. The more I read about it, the more it seems to me that eating less meat is better for your body/mind/heart and the environment. Still, if we’re going to consume meat (oh, and we’re going to) we can at least make sure it comes from a local farm, and is sustainable and humanely raised and slaughtered. Enter, Chestnut Farms in Hardwick Mass.

We’re paying $80/month for a 10-pound share. I was worried that this would actually be too much meat for us, but this was the smallest we could order. And we’ve been quite happy with the selections so far. Our first month we got bacon, ground beef and pork, pork chops, two steaks, and two large bone-in chicken breasts. Now, this isn’t your average supermarket meat – it’s grassfed meat, which means it’s super lean. Sober Dad actually thought the ground beef tasted something like lamb, with a somewhat “gamier” flavor, but I have to admit my palate just isn’t that discerning when it comes to meat. While waiting for pictures of me in my bikini (ha!) please enjoy this shot of Sober Dad making real meatballs with ground beef and ground pork (and stay tuned for some delicious carnivorous recipes!).