What’s in your grocery cart?

I finally gave in and made a trip to Kroger this morning.  I ran out of bread a couple of days ago, but didn’t want to stop at the grocery store after work that day because it was snowing. The snow itself didn’t keep me from shopping that evening.  I just didn’t want to deal with all of the crazy people who hear the word “snow” and decide they need to go out and buy enough food for a month.  So I did without…no big deal…

I’ve got plenty of oatmeal so I took some to work and had that for breakfast.  I had soup and salad for lunch for a couple of days.  I had a baked potato and cottage cheese for dinner.  I’m really making the effort to eat the food I buy and not throw things away just because I was too lazy or too tired or too whatever to prepare something.

This was the second week in a row where I bought only healthy foods…no frozen pizza, no chips, no candy, no cookies…wow!!  Now I’m not saying I’m not eating the occasional piece of candy.  I have some candy left over from Christmas and I’m allowing myself to have a piece if I’m still within my calorie range at the end of the day.  But the funny thing is, I don’t always want a piece.  How cool is that?

I came close to staying within my $50 a week food budget…spent $53, so not bad.  I did buy a couple of things that weren’t on my list when I saw them on sale.  I try to stock up on things that won’t go bad when I find them on sale for a good price.  One of the crackers I really, really like is this flaxseed cracker by Back To Nature…

Then, in the dairy case, I  came across these Laughing Cow spreads that go perfectly with the crackers for a healthy, fairly low-cal snack…

So those were my two purchases that put me over my budgeted amount for the week…hey, I figure it could have been worse!!

What else did I buy?  Let’s see…grapes, green onions, bananas, Greek yogurt, skim milk, coffee creamer, cottage cheese, whole wheat sandwich thins, tuna, diet Pepsi (uh..yeah…I’m still drinking it…one thing at a time…get the eating under control, then think about kicking the diet Pepsi habit), eggs (wow, has the price of eggs gone up?!), a couple of boxes of Morningstar Farms products (I tried the bacon for the first time last week and I am hooked!)…and my Saturday off indulgence…a newspaper.  I used to subscribe, but ended up not reading more than half of the papers that were delivered to my house…I decided that was a waste of my money and a waste of some perfectly good trees.  So, on my weekend off, I treat myself to the newspaper…not such a terrible indulgence, is it?

I’m feeling pretty good about making healthier choices..oh, and have I mentioned that I’ve lost 8 pounds since the first of the year?!

So what was in your shopping cart?

The long and winding road to fitness, day 108

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Whew!!  This was a day that could drive anyone to drink…fortunately for me, I only drank diet Pepsi and water…I say fortunately because I was at work and they tend to frown on you drinking anything, oh let’s say, alcoholic, while on the clock.  So at least I got that right.

We had an early morning truck, early as in 5 am…lovely~  I must admit, the weather was great for working outside.  We didn’t even need jackets at that hour of the morning (night).  This was a huge truck, took a long time to get it unloaded and staged.  I had to work upstairs for a while organizing some of the seasonal merchandise that came in….lots of lifting and running around all day today. 

I’ll be honest here, other than some stretching and range of motion stuff for my poor sore shoulder, working the truck was all the exercise I did today.  And I don’t even feel guilty about it.  I’m so tired and sore right not that I don’t even want to think about much of anything to do with exercise (at least until tomorrow).  I know this kind of work isn’t really aerobic, but it is a form of strength training, I do believe…don’t agree with me?  Well, come on down this coming Monday and help us work another big truck at 5:30 in the morning.  We’ll be waiting for you, just ring the bell and someone will let you in.  Then we’ll see what you have to say about it once we’re done.

My eating was a little odd today.  I did eat a bowl of Cheerios with a banana and skim milk before I left for work.  Once we finished unloading and staging the truck, I ate  some little lite frozen pizza bites (they weren’t really that good, not likely I’ll be buying those again any time soon).  Lunch was a chicken breast, cole slaw and a biscuit.  I had a small glass of oj this afternoon and that’s it.  I told you it was odd.  As far as calories are concerned, it was okay, but not really the best day nutritionally.  Oh well, tomorrow’s another day.

My step sister stopped in at the store today to give me some pictures of my mom and her dad from when they went to Hawaii…1985…unbelievable how young they looked.  It was so nice to spend a little time catching up with Kathy.  One of these days I won’t be working all the time and we’ll get together and do something fun and exciting!

So did you have a more exciting day than I had?

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 81

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Wow..this was a long day.  We went in to work at 5 am to try to get some work done before it got too busy.  Oh, did I mention, this was my day off?  But I told my boss I’d come in for a few hours.  I had to cancel my hair appointment that I had scheduled for 10 this morning, but I was able to do some of the things I needed to do this afternoon.  I left work at around 11:30, so it still felt like I had the day off…well, except for that getting up in the middle of the night thing…  I was able to finish what I went in to do though, so one task complete, a million more to go…

I managed to eat pretty well today and walked, biked, did lower body strength training and stretching.  I stopped at the grocery store after I finished everything else and picked up some healthy food…spinach, peaches, sweet potatoes, cottage cheese (I think I’m on a cottage cheese kick right now), skim milk, whole wheat bagel thins, popcorn, turkey chili (with the cooler temps, I thought chili sounded good) and some Crystal Light raspberry green tea on the go things…little individual packets that you mix with water…pretty good.  I thought that would be a good alternative to diet Pepsi or other drinks at work.

I couldn’t believe it, today it only got up to about 64 degrees after nearly 100 on Saturday…crazy!  One thing about colder weather, I like making soup.  I make a pretty good vegetable soup in the crock pot…oh, and a minestrone that is delish.  Something to think about in the next few days.

Do you change how you eat when fall arrives?

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 64

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Another good day today.  At least I finally managed to get more than a few hours of sleep, right at seven hours last night.  I’m aiming for the same tonight.  That makes the entire day better.

I ate well today…finished the day just under 1700 calories, walked for 35 minutes, plus lots of action at work.  I didn’t realize, until I was already home, that I ate exactly what I’d planned to eat all day.  No vending machine stuff, no candy…yea me!!

I ate that Asian pear today.  Sorry to say, that fruit isn’t making it on to my favorite fruits and veggies list…it was okay, but that’s about it.  Kind of mild tasting like all pears I’ve ever eaten.  It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great either.  Give me a slice of melon or a juicy ripe peach any day.  But at least I tried something new.  Maybe I’ll go for a new veggie next week, since that seems to be what I have the most trouble eating adequate amounts of.  Any suggestions?  What I should probably really plan to do is try out some new recipes for veggies…something to look into, right?

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 63

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Oh, I was in a much better mood today…I got in an adequate amount of sleep last night…and I didn’t let myself get overly hungry either…plus I only had to work part of the day since I went in and worked on my Sunday off.  Combine all of those elements and you’ve got a happy girl on your hands!!

When I left work today, I stopped at Kroger for a few groceries.  You will not believe this (I can hardly believe it myself), but I bought diet Pepsi today.  What?  I’d gone how long without it only to cave and buy it today? But I did, and you know what?  It still tastes just as good as it ever did.  Do they put something in those things that make them addictive?  Don’t say it’s the caffeine…there’s plenty of caffeine in coffee and tea, but coffee and tea don’t call out to me like a diet Pepsi does.  One of these days…I swear, one of these days I will succeed in giving it up for good.  Someday but not today.

I rode the exercise bike this evening…the nice thing about an exercise bike is I can read from my stack of magazines while I get in a cardio workout.  I’ve got to do something to reduce that pile of magazines, guess I better put in a lot of miles on that bike, huh? 

My eating was so so today…I know I didn’t have enough veggies once again.  But I made up my cucumber, tomato and onion salad to take to work tomorrow…so I’ll be sure to get in a couple more servings tomorrow.  I bought an Asian pear at the grocery store today.  I don’t think I’ve ever had one of these, not being the biggest of pear fans.  But they looked interesting, so I said, “why not?”.  I’ll let you know if that goes on my like list of freggies.

It looks kind of like an apple, doesn’t it?

I also bought a box of the Fiber One brownies…this time I thought I’d try the peanut butter ones.

If these can keep me from buying  something sweet from the vending machine at work, it’ll save me about 250 calories a day…I can go for that!

Now I’m ready to make some salsa…I’ve got a few tomatoes that will be ripe in another day or two…then watch out!  Salsa!!  Was it on the Seinfeld show where they kept saying “salsa” over and over again?  I can’t help myself…there are just some words that I enjoy saying repeatedly, and salsa is one of them…along with origami…okay, now you’re getting a clue into how crazy I really am…not serial killer crazy, just crazy in a weird way…

Do you have any quirky little mannerisms you’d like to share with the rest of us?  Come on, don’t leave me hanging here by myself.

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 47

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Ah, sheesh…I really didn’t want to have to post this…I ate a cherry pie from the vending machine at work today.  I was hungry (no food left in my lunch bag), tired and stressed…not a good combination for me, and I caved…and that’s not even the worst of it.  I was going to get a bottle of water from the Coke machine (I know that’s not the green way, but I really wanted it), put my money in only to find out that the water was empty.  Unfortunately, this machine won’t return your money…stupid machine.  I guess I could have walked away and just considered the dollar to be a  random act of kindness, but I didn’t (wasn’t feeling all that kind by that time), so I pushed the button for the diet Coke.  I don’t even really care for diet Coke that much.  I drank about a third of the bottle, so at least that’s something.  I’m trying to put a positive spin on this so that I don’t get too angry with myself, but it’s hard.  I’ve been doing so well and didn’t continue that streak today.  So, it’s time to start a new streak…I’m going to do it.

I didn’t get anywhere near enough sleep last night.  I simply stayed up too late writing.  Better than staying up too late eating, right?  Then I went in to work an hour and a half earlier than normal, so didn’t work out before work, which I knew I wasn’t going to do.  Worked like a maniac on the truck though…that’s a pretty good, day long workout.

So, my goals for tomorrow…eat only what I bring to work (and make sure I actually bring enough to eat), get at least a short workout in, and get at least 7 hours of sleep.  Nothing too  difficult, I should be able to do it all. 

What about you?  Do you have a difficult time forgiving yourself for your slip-ups?  Do you allow those slip-ups to completely derail you or are you able to just shrug them off and continue moving forward?

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The long and winding road to fitness,day 45

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Another wild and crazy work day has come and gone.  Yesterday I felt like I accomplished a lot.  Today I felt like I didn’t finish a single project that I started.It was just one of those days where someone was needing something every five minutes.  Then I’d find myself wondering what I’d been doing before I had to go show this person how to do something, or that person where something was, or answer a phone call about an application…and so on and so on all day long.  But the day is over, I did the best that I could, and that’s just going to have to be good enough.

I was much more successful with my eating than I was with getting any work done.  Once again, I totally followed my eating plan, didn’t eat any candy or anything from the vending machine, and didn’t have a soda of any kind.  And no headaches from caffeine withdrawal.  Of course, having iced tea helps with that.  I read a fabulous blog about how the sweetener in diet soft drinks can cause symptoms similar to MS and lupus (there’s a link to it on my previous blog)…now if that’s not enough to scare me and keep me from drinking a diet Pepsi, I don’t know what will be.  I pretty much ate the same things that I ate yesterday.  I do that frequently.  I know all the experts say to vary your diet, but when you live by yourself, it’s hard to cook just enough for one meal.  So I always have leftovers to take to work for a few days.  I don’t mind, it makes meal prep quick and easy.

I walked for 45 minutes today, no strength training.  But I did do a lot of ladder climbing once again.  See, there are health advantages to my job.  Yes, I know, the stress is a disadvantage, but I think I’ve been doing a pretty good job of coping with it lately.  At least I haven’t been using food to relieve the stress.  Now there’s some progress!  Speaking of progress, I forgot to mention that I lost another pound last week…total of 13 pounds dropped since I’ve been doing this little fitness blog.

 I do a lot of walking, lifting, and ladder climbing for my job.  I tend to view it as extra  exercise, not my real workout. What kind of exercise do you get in your every day life…exercise that most people don’t think about when they think of exercise?

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Kicking addictions to the curb

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I’ve been pretty fortunate in my life as far as addictions are concerned.  I’ve never been addicted to alcohol or drugs (legal or illegal).  I’ve never smoked cigarettes (unless you count the one puff I took when I was a little kid…just about made me sick).  I have, however, been addicted to caffeine, particularly in the form of diet Pepsi.  See, I don’t really consider a moderate intake of caffeine to necessarily be a bad thing.  What is problematic is ingesting large amounts of diet Pepsi, which has no nutritive value at all and contains chemicals that can actually be detrimental to your health.  I have given up diet Pepsi twice in probably the past two years and eventually went back to it just like so many of us women keep returning to the bad boys…we know they’re not good for us, but the attraction is there and hard to resist.

The last time I was at the grocery store, I made a conscious decision not to buy diet Pepsi.  Today I drank the last one in the house.  I figure this is as good a time as any to give it up for good.  I made tea to take to work tomorrow in place of the diet Pepsi.  Yes, tea has caffeine, but it also has antioxidants so is somewhat better for you than a beverage that is nothing but chemicals mixed with water.

I think I realized many years ago that I had an addiction to diet Pepsi.  I drank a lot of it every day, couldn’t wait to get home from work and feel myself relax as soon as I pulled that tab and heard that beautiful fizzy sound.  Kind of sounds like an alcoholic, doesn’t it?  I knew there was an addiction, but I didn’t make the choice to do something about it until much later.  Reading about the chemicals in diet soft drinks (and in soft drinks in general) opened my eyes to what I was putting into my body every day.  It doesn’t do a lot of good to try to eat clean if I continue to drink diet soft drinks. 

So, this is the next step in my quest for a healthy lifestyle.  It may not seem like a big step to a lot of people, but it’s huge to me.  Like they say, third time’s a charm…I’m going to succeed!

Do you have (or have you had) any addictions?  How do you deal with them?

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 44

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Long day at work today, just about 12 hours.  I’m so glad to be home.  Of course, I’ll just have to do it all over again in the morning…hopefully not for 12 hours though.  I do feel like we accomplished a lot, but there’s always so much more to do.  I guess the day there’s nothing to do is the day I need to worry about my job.

I rode the exercise bike and did upper body strength training this morning before I left for work.  I also walked for 45 minutes, in addition to a lot of climbing up and down ladders today.  Pretty good exercise day.  My eating was even better than my exercising today.  I consumed 1555 calories, ate only what I’d planned to eat, and didn’t have any diet Pepsi at all (or any other soda).  Overall, I think this was one of my best, easiest days.  For some reason, the stress didn’t seem to have any effect on me at all today.  Hey, I’ll take it that way any day I can get it.

I was delighted to see an old high school friend in the store today (hey, Jan!!).  We were able to chat for a few minutes.  Don’t you enjoy running into an old friend and getting the chance to catch up a little?

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 37

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Well….not such a great day of eating today.  I was so tired after working open to close yesterday, that I couldn’t drag myself out of bed in time to make anything to take to work today.  I ended up eating from the stupid, evil vending machine.  I had a bag of Cheez-Its for what I guess you’d say was my lunch today.  Unfortunately, breakfast was no better.  I ate a SuziQ…you know, those chocolate cakey things with the cream filling…not a lot of nutritional value in either of those choices, I’m afraid.

After work, I stopped at the grocery store, despite my vow not to go grocery shopping when I’m hungry or tired (and I was both today).  I walked down the cookie aisle, looked at the Fig Newtons (which really wouldn’t have been a terrible choice), then walked away.  When I walked by the deli, I looked at the BBQ wings, then walked away.  In the freezer section, I looked at the ice cream.  Then I looked at it some more.  Then I reminded myself that just a few days ago, I said I wasn’t going to buy ice cream.  I ended up buying a box of strawberry fruit bars…80 calories apiece…I think that was a better choice than the ice cream that I’ve been eating.  I ended up buying all healthy food and no diet Pepsi.  I think I’m getting closer to giving it up (again).  Anyhow, I’m feeling pretty good about my shopping trip…oh yeah, and that I have tomorrow off work!

Do you struggle to purchase healthier food and beverage choices?  How do you cope?

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