clean out your fridgeToday was National Clean Out Your Fridge Day! Not unlike Talk Like a Pirate Day and National Pancake Day, no one is actually forcing you to participate. However, if you're like me and you find yourself buying four jars of peanut butter because you can never see the first three, you might want to use today as an excuse to get rid of the clutter in there. I did, and what I found could actually have a serious impact on my health -- and not just in the "you could get food poisoning from eating that expired ham" kind of way.

You see, that's my fridge right there, before I celebrated National Clean Out Your Fridge Day. Yep, that's a chicken right next to the milk. Ewwww.

This is all of the expired food, random cardboard, and downright disgusting-ness I pulled out of my refrigerator. I'm really bummed about the old pumpkin hummus, as I meant to eat that. And I certainly meant to make a lot more meals with that tofu. Dangit.

clean out your fridgeYuck, right?

The main lesson I learned from this celebratory cleansing is that I have way too much dairy in my life. Even the fake kind. Clearly I'm not eating all of it since I'm throwing out so much expired sour cream and ricotta. But the fact that I still have a ton of dairy products left in my fridge means someone needs to be watching her cholesterol. Even after the clean-up, as I enjoy this organized view --

 

clean out your fridgeI still see a ton of cheese and yogurt products popping up in my Frigidaire. It doesn't necessarily surprise me since I am such a fan of the dairy. I just went on a dairy-free cleanse (among other things) yet the cow-based products dominate. My poor arteries!

I think this means we have to go back on the cleanse, and really try hard this time to skip the butter. Otherwise, my heart might collapse.

What would you find if you cleaned out your fridge? Did you do it today?