Although my weigh-ins are on Mondays, and the beginning of a week is really Sunday, MY week actually really begins on Friday, because that's when I get paid, so each Friday is when I go for my weekly grocery and produce haul. For Produce we tend to go to a local place called Produce Junction because the prices there are less than half what you'd find in a regular grocery store, even on the discount table. And the food is great, we never have any real quality issues, plus they sell in bulk, which is great when about 70% of your diet is fresh fruits and veggies. The rest of our shopping is split almost entirely between the Giant near my job, and the ShopRite near where we live. We decided to stick with Skippy Natural for our PB, despite it having Palm Oil in it. It's one of the concessions I'm making being that none of us are rich and the eating plan is barely sustainable on my part-time minimum wage salary as it is. But anyway, I digress.
Every week I'm making a point of getting at least one new fruit or vegetable that we haven't tried. Last week was the green Sierra Figs, and the week before was Turnips. This week I got fresh Beets. I've had them out of a can a million times, they're one of my favorite salad toppings along with chickpeas, but I've never eaten them fresh. I'm sorry I didn't try it sooner! Hands down one of the best veggies I have ever tasted in my life. It's finds like this that assure me I can never get bored with this way of eating. There are so many different things to try, and so many different ways to flavor and prepare everything! I also found fresh off the vine Sugar Baby Melons, I can't wait to try the one we picked out. Next week I'm hoping to try a Canary Melon, as well as revisit an old favorite, Spaghetti Squash.
The grocery store find for the week was dried Lentils. I've had them in prepared foods and out at restaurants, but I've never prepared them myself. I'm planning to use them in a soup on Tuesday involving Lentils, Beans, Potatoes, Turnips, Carrots, Cabbage, and Ground Turkey. The other find was Herbal Tea with Honeybush, Orange, and Mandarin. I'm trying to try new teas every week as well to liven up my drink selections.
What I'm avoiding, even in the least processed and most natural forms, is things like pasta and bread. While I'm not going gluten free like my companion is, I still avoid these foods for a very simple reason. They just aren't they nutritious. I'd much rather have a potato of some sort, or other starchy vegetable, or a fruit, as opposed to what amounts to mostly empty-calorie filler-food. I was pretty hungry for most of a week eating the way I am, and found myself needing to nibble at something every 2 hours, 3 at most. But now that I'm more used to it I'm fine with going longer stretches. I don't need the bread to make my tuna or chicken salad filling, just the salad and some fruits and veggies are fine. So, I avoid it. It's a personal choice and not entirely necessary, but I know that personally it is helping me cut down calories drastically. Keep in mind though I am not cutting them out entirely. I've had pancakes for breakfast twice now, and tomorrow I plan to have Hot Cereal for breakfast with some berries and cottage cheese. But I don't eat my eggs on wraps anymore, I don't eat sandwiches, I don't have toast with breakfast, a sandwich for lunch, and pasta for dinner with a nice chunk of Italian Bread on the side, and a cupcake for dessert. I don't even eat some form of bread or pasta everyday. Just a couple times of week. The key is really moderation. I'm just trying to keep at least 70% of my diet fresh fruits and veggies, and at least another 20% protein, roughly. And not always on a daily basis, but at least overall.
Coming Up: My Ground Turkey Veggie Soup and my Turkey-Veggie-Quinoa Balls, as well as coping with Monday's impending Bus Trip to Atlantic City!
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