Week 1 in Review and Shopping for Week 2

I'm a bit surprised, but pleased, by the amount of stuff left in my fridge at the end of this week.

Part of this was because I got lazy on Friday. Instead of making artichoke dill Bruschetta with strawberries, I threw some turkey chili and leftover apricots in my lunch pail. Also, I had leftover cilantro turkey patties and potatos for dinner isntead of making the cilantro pesto burritos. Both recipes looked great, but I was beat at the end of this week and didn't feel like doing much more than warming stuff up in the microwave. Since I had plenty of stuff do to this with, that worked out pretty well for me.

Also, I don't think I've been eating enough greens. I have a BUNCH of greens left, so much that I nixed shopping for all of them this week except for another bunch of swiss chard, which I saw is used in one of the bulk recipes. All said and done, I literally cut my shopping pricetag in HALF this week. Awesome. It still feels like a lot to me, but I know that's deceptive for the reasons I stated previously. Also, I bought another jug o' Kefir and an extra banana since I have opted for smoothies a couple more days than the menu indicated. LOVE me them smoothies, I do...plus they're quick and I'm lazy.

I have in my freezer: 4 cilantro turkey patties, 4 generous servings of chicken white bean and chard soup, and 2-3 portions of turkey chili. I also have plenty of gluten free breads left, eggs, cheese, extra onions, and artichoke hearts. Part of this is due to me over-buying last week. I also have a whole mango left, and about half a pineapple, and half a cantelope melon (I mixed this up with honeydew, which I think I was supposed to get. Oops.) The fruit leftovers are due to me being NON COMPLIANT with the night time snack suggestions. Color me shamed and guilty. I have trouble at night because I stay up too late and eat bad stuff. Swapping more sleep for the bad stuff is most certainly the answer, and I am working on this new, healthier habit.

Which brings me to a frustration I've experieced for the last few days: CRAZY, MANIACAL, ALL-CONSUMING chocolate cravings. I dunno what gives. I'm not one to pass up chocolate when it's offered, but I'm not normally one of those women who dreams about it every night. It's very weird. I'm wondering if it is a hormonal thing, or just sugar that I'm actually craving.

This week's shopping was not only cheaper, it went much, much faster. I knew what I was doing, man, I owned that grocery cart. I went to QFC instead of PCC (our local co-op) to do the bulk of my shopping, and most things were both more affordable and much easier to find.

The only stumbling blocks this week were dates and okra. I didn't even know what okra was, and I wasn't sure if the dates were supposed to be dried or regular. Either way, I couldn't find either after looking at two grocery stores, and I'm thinking I'm ok giving up on them at this point. I'm sure Whole Foods has some, but I really don't feel like going out again. I might try tomorrow.

So, about the Okra - I asked one of the purple apron dudes at PCC where I could find it. He looked at me and flushed (he was like 18) and asked me what it was. My response? "Umm, I don't even know." Yeah, I shoulda done some research on my own before I relied on The Beaver to figure it out for me. Anyway, Boy Wonder scampered off to ask his superior what this mysterious product was, and later returned to tell me it was: "A big, hairy vegetable thing with like bean in it or something. We don't ever have it, he says."

The produce Oracle hath spoken. I shall not find the big hairy bean like veggie thing that I seek here. So be it. I came home just chomping at the bit to look this thing up on Google though, based on that ever so eloquent description. Ready? Ready? I know you're excited.....

OKRA STATS


Ahh, so! It's not that weird. I know what this stuff is. It's pretty good, too, if I remember correctly! I'm probably going to have to go get some now. Note that the information in the link above more delicately describes our little vegetable friend as "fibrous" rather than HAIRY, with "seeds inside" as opposed to BEANS IN IT. It wasn't just the description the poor kid gave me, it was the hand gesture that went with it - you would have thought I was looking for a dachshund. Anyway, the high fiber content gets me pretty excited to go find some. We all know how I feel about fiber.

Raw Evil

Ok friends, I know I've been all sugar and cinnamon and praise about a lotta stuff lately, so here's the other shoe dropping right now.

'Member those "Matter of Flax" Whole Life Flax Krisps I told y'all about last week? How they're all supposed to be Raw Food and whatnot?

These things are the most disgusting chunks of nastiness ever to pass my lips, I think. Remember that I'm not a picky eater. I have never tasted anything so gross. They were freaking expensive too, and that kinda pisses me off. If you took a used teabag, dipped it in salt, and then ran it over with your car and left it in the street to bake on the asphault for a week and THEN ate it - the taste would be similar to but probably better than these things.

I just noticed this company also sells "no bean" hummus. WTF? What's the point of that??? You'll note that the Spinach "no bean" hummus is "back by popular demand" according to their online store.

Ok, I feel kinda bad now because this is clearly a small company doing their best and maybe I just got the wrong kind or whatever but MAN...

UGH. The kind I bought are "Herb Garden" flavored, allegedly. Be warned. Try a different kind or something.

Thursday (Day 4)

This morning was much, much better than yesterday. I got smart last night and prepped everything I could in advance for today, so that made my morning a lot easier. The only prep I really needed to do was pop a gluten free biscuit out of the freezer and into the fridge, and chop up some fruit. This morning I made a cheesy egg n’ spinach breakfast sandwich. It was WAY good, as evidenced by the picture. I don’t think many folks realize how substantial just two eggs can be for one person. The only minor bummer I ran into was due to gluten free substitution. I had selected some gluten free rolls and they have about twice as many calories per roll than a regular English muffin (330 vs. about 120, I think). So I cut it in half and did more of an open-face sandwich thing, which worked out pretty well. I think I might just use my tapioca loaf next time, although I just saw some interesting high fiber options on the Ener-G site. If I can find them in the store, that is.

BT-dubs, for those interested in GF alternatives, Ener-G brand gluten free pretzels are SO FREAKING GOOD. Seriously, I think they’re better than regular pretzels. But I digress.

This seems to be the biggest challenge I’m encountering so far: balancing the need for gluten free breads with a higher fiber content and not going crazy with too many calories (and not too big a price tag, please and thank you!). I assume the Glycemic Index is thrown off a bit too since most GF stuff seems to be rice based. Not sure about that, I’m not as well educated about GI levels. Anyway if that’s as tough as it gets I should be A-OK.

The breakfast sandwich and fruit left me feeling really FULL. I’ve never felt totally FULL and satisfied on my way to work, EVER. The smoothie is very filling too but I think the sandwich was a little more so. It made my morning so much better! I never thought eating a real breakfast would make so much difference, but I was off and running without bemoaning how little sleep I got last night (I didn’t get much, maybe 5 – 6 hours tops). Usually on this little sleep I am not anywhere near the top of my game, so this was pretty awesome. At about 10:30 or 11 AM it occurred to me that I still felt pretty good – not hungry, not even thinking about food. It’s kind of sad to think HOW OFTEN I thought about being hungry and wanting to eat before. God forbid I can actually concentrate at my job first thing in the morning, ya know?

For lunch I had chicken and white bean soup with chard and peas. Remember how I was talking about cilantro being a mood enhancer? Add dill to the list. I don't know if you can really TASTE the dill in this soup, but you sure can smell it. The flavor is really delicate and super good. I'm also impressed by how the texture of the vegetables has been maintained over time - the soup has been sitting in my fridge since Saturday, but the peas are still crunchy - well, crunchy isn't the word - they're "al dente" I suppose. Fresh.

So anyway, I was thinking about the mysterious slice o' avocado that has made its way into the meal plan's lunches the last two days, and two things come to mind: one, I never realized I like avocado so much. They're dang tasty. Two, what is so magical about an avocado that it's worth putting an eighth of one into my lunch bag? Now that the logistics of the plan and all the information has started to gel and become managable in my brain, I am curious about the role of different things I'm eating, and why I haven't eaten them before. I had no idea how narrow and boring my diet was before - I'm not a super picky eater so I just thought boring food was no big deal. Anyway, I did a little googling. It sounds like avocados are basically little multivitamins, though I'm sure the folks at avocado.org would call this a gross over-simplification. Whatev. Also, my boss offhandedly mentioned that peas have a bunch of fiber in them. Never noticed that. You never know where the good stuff is hiding.

I will admit that I fell into a little late night pig out session yesterday. Meh. It was more a behavioral issue than it was a hunger issue. Basically it was a 100% behavioral issue. I EAT FOR FUN AND I CAN'T BE AN ADULT AND MAKE MYSELF GO TO BED AT A DECENT HOUR, OK??? Judge me if you will, I'm not happy about it, but I'm working on it. Anyway, I found that with all this fresh stuff in the house, probably the worst thing I pigged out on was buttered gluten free toast and some leftover yoplaits that were gonna go bad if somebody didn't eat 'em. I had a bunch of toast and some fiber loaded crackers with peanut butter. So, yeah. A lot better than past experiences, in which I would actually down an entire container of Ben and Jerry's all by myself (no joke, there is an entire DAY'S worth of calories in one container, on average), usually supplemented by french fries or popcorn or something equally salty in nature to you know, "balance it out". And I'm surprised when I gain wait - dumbass. Oh, and like 8 gallons of diet coke. Before bed. Great idea. So when I wake up the next morning and can barely open my eyelids because my face is so swollen, I have only myself to blame.

Basically I'm saying that even if I deviate from the meal plan there is a kind of safety net in place just from having better quality options in the house.

Morning Rush Hour

You know that Ice Cube song, Today was a Good Day? That was one of my favorite songs when I was younger (I was probably to young to understand what all the lyrics meant, but it had a chill vibe to it that I liked). Anyway. Today was a Bad Day, unfortunately. Or at least so far, it's not even noon.

I woke up too late to make myself the breakfast sandwich that I was SO looking forward to and in fact, I barely had time to throw my lunch in a bag before running out the door. No smoothie, no nothin'. So instead I had some apple slices with peanut butter - I hope that's an OK choice. It's just regular old Kroger peanut butter, but it actually doesn't seem to have too much sugar in it (3g per serving). I hate, hate, hate starting my day off behind the eight ball and frazzled like that. EURGH I hate it. To make things worse I forced myself to get on the scale for the first time in a month and that's just never a happy experience. I know I'm well within normal limits but I've put on about 10 pounds in like, a month. I tend to bounce back and forth within the same ten or fifteen pound range, which is just enough to make finding pants that fit an annoyance every morning.

Anyhoo, I'm kinda of puzzling over my evening schedule right now. Typically I like to go to the gym right after work, but then I usually don't get home until 8 PM or so. I don't think I can really bring lunch AND dinner with me to work without feeling like I really have no life (and lugging a giant sack with me every day), so I'm not sure what to do about that. I thought about maybe eating both my snacks at 5 PM and seeing if that would get me through a workout. But does that mean I'm going to be eating dinner too late at 8 or 8:30 PM? Hrmmm. Tonight I'm going to try to stay on the menu plan's schedule for a 6:30 dinner, and then maybe work out afterwards. We'll see how that goes.

By the way, for those of you who have never done body fat testing, you're really missing out. After pinching the crap out of me in various tender locations, my trainer told me I'm about 23.5% fat. She said that's pretty good, and since she had trouble pinching fat off of me, I should be happy. I'll take her word for it. I wasn't about to disagree with anything she said while she had those skin pincher things handy, anyway. Just kidding. She was a really nice lady named Kathi who works at the Northshore YMCA (highly recommended - really nice facilities).

I'm not going to set a weight loss goal or anything like that right now, because that's not so much my priority. I'd love to shave off some fat, for sure, but I'm more concerned with FEELING better - having more energy, seeing improvements in my skin and nail quality, being less hungry, etc. I'll address progress in these areas as I move forward.

Night of the Living Deuce

A warning, before I continue:

If you are a squeamish person - do NOT read this post. If you are a sensitive person with tender sensibilities - DO NOT read this post. If you are a fairly inhibited individual who cannot find room in your heart for the observation of bodily functions as data points - DO NOT READ THIS POST.

Let me spell it out: I'm going to write about poop. If you don't want to read about poop, get thee off to cleaner pastures. Don't worry, there won't be any pictures, but there will definitely be an enthusiastic discussion of feces.

For those of you calloused, perhaps morbidly fascinated folks who stuck around, this is going to be interesting for you. A little background, before we begin:

I started to get real sick with something that nobody could seem to diagnose in late 2003. I was tired all the time, I got frequent migranes, I felt bloated constantly, and I always, always felt like I had to pee. This constant feeling of needing to pee eventually turned into constant bladder pain. It was also virtually impossible for me to go numeros dos. I took laxatives every day for over a year just to maintain some semblance of regularity. Not recommended. Try planning your day around when you think the Senna's going to kick in. NOT awesome.

What was going on inside my gut was anything but regular, and it took until late 2005 / early 2006 for someone to figure it out (thanks, Bastyr University). It turned out I am allergic to gluten. So, everytime I ate bread or anything with gluten in it, I was basically eating the protein equivalent of cement, as far as my intestines are concerned. This lead to...well...you can do the math. In short, the constant need to pee was mostly because my poor bladder was getting squeezed to death by all the inflamed, angry organs around it (and perhaps a Vitamin A deficiency, but that's just one theory).

As soon as I stopped eating gluten I got better. And that, my friends, was awesome. So, I am pretty happy - no, DELIGHTED - whenever I feel the natural urge to go number two. It totally makes my day to have intestines that work properly. Don't laugh! Don't you dare! Spend two years without 'em and you'll be pretty freaking happy too, thanks so much!

On to my point: YO. In the last couple of days I have been a very, very happy lady. Holy crap, have I been happy (pun intended). It is AMAZING to see not only the quantity but the quality that seem to result from a very high fiber, whole food diet. The thing is, with the Perfectly Produce meal plans - you don't really feel like you're eating a ton of fiber when you're eating it. It just tastes good. Plus the probiotics in stuff like Kefir are really good for intestinal health.

Let the record show that the poo-poo train is the only way cholesterol can leave your body, too. If you've never had problems with "irregularity", then at least you should be happy about this fact. All that baloney that General Mills tells you about Cheerio's lowering your cholesterol is so ridiculous that it makes me want to puke. A serving (1 cup) of Cheerio's has 3 grams of fiber in it. Only one of those is soluble. Compare this to 1 cup of cannellini beans at 11.3 grams of fiber. Not only that, but they have protein and will actually fill you up. I have to eat, like, a BOX of Cheerio's before I feel anything approaching full.

Just saying. Sorry, Cheerios. I'm sure there are worse choices out there but I highly doubt that ONE serving of Cheerio's a day is going to make a huge difference in your "heart health". Maybe if you're replacing a 6 egg omlette with bacon and cheese, but come on...let's get real, y'all. So anyway, if you add up one day of Perfectly Produce meal plans fiber contents, I bet you just thinking about it will make you run for the WC.

Review of Day 1 and Day 2 in progress

Ok folks, I have never been a breakfast person. Never mind breakfast, I’ve never been a MORNING person. Anytime I’ve eaten breakfast in the past, it’s been more out of obligation than anything. I normally have a really bad habit of downing 2-3 cups of coffee in the morning and waiting as long as I possibly can to have lunch. I’d occasionally have a fruit or a yogurt around 10 AM, and end up starving by the time noon rolled around. I’d feel like I “woke up” my digestive system just enough to get really, insanely hungry at a really inconvenient time. I love it when I’m sitting in a morning meeting and my stomach starts eating itself so loudly that everyone else in the room can hear it. Of course they politely pretend not to, but you know they’re wondering. It’s kinda like throwing one shoe in the clothes dryer and listening to it bang around until the cycle winds down.

Yesterday, I geared up for my first blueberry / banana breakfast smoothie courtesy of Perfect Produce’s handy morning recipes. “Recipe” is a little misleading because it took all of about five seconds to make. “Stuff to throw in a blender” is perhaps more accurate. My schedule was a little out of whack due to the holiday, but I basically just shifted all my meals forward an hour and a half or so, which seemed to work out ok.

This smoothie was so good I was actually looking forward to getting up and making another one on Tuesday. I’m the kind of person who hits the snooze button 10 times before dragging herself out of bed in the morning. I didn’t do that today. It was that good. Word to the wise – go easy on the Stevia powder. The tartness of the Kefir and blueberries is super good and I for one prefer not to mute it too much. A pinch really does go a long way. The fiber mix makes it really, really thick and filling, and the recipe gives you a little more than one big glass full. Another tip – rinse your glass and your blender ASAP after making this. The mixture comes right off when you rinse immediately, but when you’re lazy and let it sit in the sink all morning (not that I’m that kind of person ::cough::), it will be a little more work to get off later. At least soak your stuff in water while you’re out doing whatever it is you do all day.

I have previously sneered at smoothies, thinking they wouldn’t keep me full for more than 2 seconds, and that’s no doubt true for ordinary, sugary, unsophisticated smoothies that are no better than chunky Kool Aid. Not so for this puppy. I can actually go a whole morning without obsessing over lunch.

For lunch, I had an apple mango tuna salad with apricots and almonds. Sound funky? It’s awesome. I don’t know if the picture really does justice to the gigantic MOUND of salad allotted for lunchtime, but I actually kind of had trouble finishing it, which was also awesome. I had to double check both this and the smoothie recipe to make sure that I had divided the portions correctly.

Yup, this is one serving. Granted, the recipe called for “small” apples and I used pretty “large” apples, but I doubt that is going to make too big a difference. I hope not anyway, because I like being able to actually feel full. I was a little apprehensive about that when I started the plan, only because I am accustomed to overeating – a LOT. I figured I was probably in for a period of adjustment while my supersized stomach shrank back down to normal. So far, I’m not feeling deprived.

The one area where I was a little dismayed at portion size was my trail mix snack. It looked kinda skimpy to me. However once I munched my way through the dried soy beans, it actually put a pretty good dent in my hunger. I think the texture forced me to eat it more slowly, but that might just be me. I have really bad, sensitive teeth for my age. I might see if I can find some toasted soy beans or something a little less hard to chomp on for next time. Until then it’s fine, a nice salty-ish sweet-ish treat.

Dinner: I was so proud of my chili. I had company over and I was actually happy to feed them something I made in my own kitchen. That’s pretty much a first for me. I have occasionally made a successful plate of Duncan Hines brownies (that I’m allergic to) or a decent salad, but this was actual, real food that tasted like something homey and good that someone’s momma would make.

I supplemented my berries n’ cream snack with a couple gluten free chocolate chip cookies (c’mon, it’s a holiday, and they were really, really little I promise). Other than that, the only deviations from the plan were coffee and a couple hard candies. Oh wait, I lied, I had a really small glass of white wine with dinner. Today has been much the same (minus the wine, it’s only noon for crying out loud), and I’m happy to say that the morning hungry grumpies were conquered even though I was sitting behind a desk all day with a clock staring at me.

Tomorrow’s breakfast is some kind of sandwich-y thing that I haven’t studied too closely yet, but I’m looking forward to it. It occurred to me that the Perfectly Produce meal plans might do more for me than just nutrition and weight management – it might actually help me instill some order and routine in my life that is greatly lacking right now. I have a tendency to allow an unhealthy cycle take over my week: later and later nights mean more and more stressful and rushed mornings, and by Friday I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck. It’s a really bad habit that makes me miserable. Maybe this will help – I hope so.

This evening I meet with my personal trainer, who’s going to tell me how fat I am. No, really. I’d say I’m pretty average-sized, but I'm definitely not in the best shape of my life right now. It’s all in how you feel. What I mean, though, is that she's going to take body composition measurements. I promise to share this with you guys no matter how unflattering it is. I’ll also post my starting weight so that you can see any changes over time.

First Bulk Cooking Session

Conclusions from my first bulk cooking session:

Best advice that I foolishly ignored during this session was "clean your vegetables on Friday". This took longer than I thought, although when I think back to the huge cart full o' goodies I brough home on Thursday, it probably shouldn't have surprised me.

Cilantro makes everything better, including the smell of my house and my overall mood. Seriously, if you're having a lousy day, shove your face in a bunch of cilantro. It'll help you get to your happy place.

Waterboarding should be abandoned by the CIA in favor of garlic peeling. Of course, I came to that conclusion before reading the helpful hint about crushing the garlic with the flat part of a wide knife. I chalk this up to my unusually steep learning curve in the kitchen.

Everything I made was simple, straight forward, looked and smelled great, and I am really glad that I'll have a little extra for the week since I'm only cooking for one. I had to try a cilantro turkey patty last night, and it was fabulous. I used gluten free tapioca loaf instead of Ezekiel bread (I'm guessing a lot less fiber, unfortunately), and that seemed to work fine as a subsitute.

All said and done my cooking probably took about 8 hours total. Fortunately, I was in no hurry, and I can see many changes I can make to bring this time down next week (cleaning veggies ahead of time, for one). Also, I didn't multitask much. Part of that was the new-ness of it all, but part of it was also that I didn't print out my recipies, I had them on my laptop instead. If I had everything laid out side by side, it would have been more helpful (more good advice ignored).

I found that some other little things that I never would have thought would make a difference really slowed me down. I only have one large stock pot, so I needed to switch the order of things around a little bit. I also forgot to thaw my chicken - oops. Probably the silliest thing that slowed my work was not having a sink stopper! I moved into a new apartment about a month ago and I never noticed this. So I instead was cleaning vegetables in two large mixing bowls that I had - not a best practice, I'm sure, and pretty tedious.

I wish I had taken some before and after shots of my fridge. The first, before I did my shopping, would show a largely empty white box with an overwhelming ratio of condiments to real, actual food; a couple 2 liter bottles of diet coke, some yogurt, and something in a plastic container that had withered away beyond recognition and had become more fungus than anything else.

The second: my fridge more full than I've ever seen it with green, healthy looking food...and the last with everything looking way more organized than ever before, portioned out and full, but with some room to spare.

First Shopping Day

Let me preface this commentary by saying that I have never in my life successfully shopped - or even attempted to shop - for a whole week's worth of real groceries. My idea of weekly shopping is more like: 5 cans of Amy's soup, a few apples, some yogurts, and some powerbars. Maybe a salad for lunch the next day ‘cause you know, it looks good and fresh, all prepared and ready to go…and some chips...and some gummi bears...and...you get the idea. If I couldn't carry it out in a basket, it wasn't coming with me.

Consequently, my normal weekly shopping wasn't really weekly, it was more like every few days. It was frequently supplemented by vending machines, eating out, junk food, impulse buys, delivery, etc. I could go through my credit card statements and figure it out, but I'm willing to bet I've been spending a LOT more than I think on food, and/or crap that tries to pass itself off as food.

This weekend is the perfect time to start the meal plans. It's a holiday weekend and I have Monday off, and I'm just coming off a pretty disgusting binge. I have had problems with binge eating / emotional eating since I can remember. I tend to be very black and white - either I'm eating too restrictively or I'm cramming everything that doesn't run away fast enough down my gullet. That's part of the reason I'm eager to try this plan. This latest bout included some wheat products, too (by "some" I mean "a hideous quantity") and I can actually feel myself getting fat and unhealthy right now. Bleh.

All in all I ended up spending more than I expected on Week 1 shopping. I realize some of this is due to "startup costs" such as spices and oils. I also bought some containers and a blender. I must also account for being one person as opposed to a couple, so I definitely over-bought. If there were deals on bulk quantities I sometimes took it - i.e. the gigantic sack o' frozen blueberries was a way better deal per ounce than the little bitty one.

I'll be able to freeze stuff and have it last through the weekend, and I'll be able to cut quantities down next time, once I have a better feel for things. I might actually have company over for dinner every now and then, so that's good. Also, I did most of my shopping at PCC and some at Whole Foods. I was banking (literally) on PCC being more affordable than Whole Foods, but I would be curious to know what my total would be at Safeway or QFC. We shall see. Everything I bought was organic. Also, I bought some wheat substitute food that on average is literally 3x the cost of whatever I'm substituting. I am confident that once I learn how to shop intelligently and cut out all the extra crap I eat I will actually see a savings. But being as stupid about this stuff as I am, and having no frame of reference, I suffered a little sticker shock. It would be interesting to know what a realistic weekly budget would be, though I realize it probably varies quite a bit.

Mkay, so as I began my journey into the unfamiliar territory of the produce aisle, I realized this was gonna take a while. I have not felt so retarded in a long time. I'm sure it was hilarious to watch. Some examples:

• Shallots. No idea what these things looked like. Still don't really know what they are. Is it a root? Is it a weird kind of onion? It looks like a dried up horse hoof.
  
• Watercress. Took me 'till the second store to find this one. It comes with the dirt still on the bottom? Weird.
  
• "New" Potatos. This one had me completely befuddled. I saw Russet, I saw Yukon Gold, I saw Red...but I could not for the life of me find "NEW" potatos. Until I got to Whole Foods and I noticed (after puzzling over the table for about 20 minutes) that the tag on some of the potatos indicated they were a "New crop"! Then the light went on. Duh...I ALMOST asked someone about this but I'm glad I didn't for obvious reasons. Total Jessica Simpson moment.
  
• Fresh Dill. I found this stuff in a little plastic box but I have no idea how many bunches were in it, so I just got one and figured I'd make do.
  
• Nuts. It took me probably half an hour just to sort out the nuts, raw vs. slivered, bulk vs. packaged...yeah.
  
• Chard. Yo, I had no idea there were multiple color options on this stuff. I couldn't decide between red or green (and yes I spent a while looking for "Swiss" before I decided it was the same thing), so I got rainbow.
  

So the whole experience was quite educational. I am excited. It also occurs to me that because I'm shopping ahead of time and literally investing in my health in a way I will notice and will attach a concrete dollar value to - it will help me stick to the plan in order to get my money's worth.

Interesting gluten-free substitutions I found this week:

• Mary's Gone Crackers. The box says they "Taste Great!" Can't wait. They are made from brown rice, quinoa, flax seeds, and sesame seeds. I don't really know how they are made so I'm not sure if the flax will be intact. 140 kCal per serving (13 crackers, not bad) and 3g fiber, 3g protein. $3.99 for a 6 serving box.
  
• Matter of Flax (who comes up with this shit?) Whole Life Flax Krisps. They perport themselves to be ORGANIC Raw food. 120 kCal per serving (6 Krisps) and 5g protein, 5g fiber. $7.49 (ERRGH!) for a 4 serving box.
  

I did have some trouble finding Gluten free oat bran, but I did find regular GF rolled oats, so I figured those would do. Oats are another mysterious item for me - bran vs. steel cut vs. rolled...how many ways to sell oats can there be???

Anyway. Off I go. Tomorrow I shall clean and prepare for my cooking adventures on the weekend. I'm sure those will be full of bloopers too.