Peek Inside My Grocery Cart, Please!

[roundcoconut]

I want to invite everyone here to peek inside my grocery cart for three or four weeks!

Two reasons for this:
1. (the silly reason):
because I am an exhibitionist, and I perform better if there is an audience, however small!
2. (the awesome reason):
because focusing on what's in my grocery is the right thing to pay attention to, when you're an "in the house, in your mouth" kind of person

The big important things you'll notice is that if I BUY too much, I EAT too much.

If I BUY the wrong ratios of foods, I EAT the wrong ratios of foods.

The opposite is also true: If I buy ENOUGH (but not too much), I then eat ENOUGH (but not too much).

Side note: I was recently commenting on someone else's post, that if you binge eat in the middle of the night, then whose freaking fault is it for keeping ready-to-eat foods stocked in your kitchen in preparation for your 1am binge? I mean, seriously!

Well, if I turn that around to myself, then it is obvious that i can premeditate doing the wrong things or doing the right things, by what's in my grocery cart. Isn't this genius? (I'm excited!)

So there y'go. Sharing my grocery cart, one receipt at a time!

[roundcoconut]

I stopped at the grocery store before work this morning, and here's what I bought:

1. Fruit -- two bananas, plus a bag of frozen fruit (banana/mango/strawberry blend -- 1 lb)
2. Legumes -- one can of no-salt-added chickpeas
3. Veg -- a package of "Constellation" cherry tomatoes (16.5 ounces) and one head of iceberg lettuce
4. Fat -- one medium avocado

My intentions for the fruit (because yeah, that's kind of a lot) was to be able to use the frozen fruit as colorful floaty things for my water, which was my first consumption of the day -- 2 x 16 ounces of water, with frozen fruit floating in it.

That's the only thing that really requires explanation -- everything else is kinda self-explanatory.

There'll be another trip to the grocery store after work, so that is not all my consumption for the day, but it IS all my consumption till 5pm! Thanks for looking peeking in my grocery cart.

[Idgie]

Fun idea! Do you mind if I join in?

[roundcoconut]

Idgie, yes! Please play along, it'll be fun!

It is funny, because I was just laughing to myself that there are all these plant-based doctors that say, "Don't put (numerical) boundaries on how much you eat", but nobody says, "Don't put boundaries on how much food you buy at the grocery store".

So i suppose we are not violating their recommendations, by putting limits on how much food we bring into our house before taking another trip to the grocery store, right?

In other words, I think the plant-based doctors can say "don't count calories", but real people DO need boundaries, and perhaps the grocery store is where we set our boundaries.

For me, I wish I were joking about this, but a few weeks ago, I bought five cans of no-salt-added beans, because my normal grocery store only carries no-salt-added kidney beans and black beans. So, I bought five cans of no-salt-added cannelini's, garbanzo's, and navy beans. And I fell victim to the "in-your-house, in-your-mouth" principle and finished off the beans the second night they were in my possession. Too much food!

So there y'go! That is why it's important to draw the line at the grocery store (for me anyways). Post freely, and it'll be a blast.

[Idgie]

I'm not finding myself overindulging on plan-compliant foods, but if I have non-compliant food in the house, I'm likely to grab it in tired/hangry/weak moments, so I'm especially careful in the grocery store. That helps with the bill, too -- if it's not MWL-friendly, I can't buy it, so I can't buy most of what's in the store.

Now, I should point out that I don't live alone, and while my partner eats healthier than the average American, some of the food we buy when we're out together is stuff the partner chooses, and I don't worry too much about that. I don't have a problem not eating my partner's foods.

Today, we have a heat wave, and tomorrow I start MWL, so I may decide to eat some of the sandwich my partner bought today at the store, but maybe not, since I am filling up on MWL-friendly foods and there's tons of produce in the house. Right now, I'm eating a bowl of beans, corn, and salsa.

Today's grocery haul:

jarred roasted red peppers (I use for making hummus)
baby carrots
fresh cherries
white corn on the cob
red bell peppers
sugar snap peas
celery sticks
tomatoes
kimchi
salsa

Partner's stuff:
diet coke
pre-made sandwich (non-vegan)

[roundcoconut]

I'm not finding myself overindulging on plan-compliant foods, but if I have non-compliant food in the house, I'm likely to grab it in tired/hangry/weak moments, so I'm especially careful in the grocery store.

Yep, all the more important!

For what it's worth, I believe that we have to have the confidence to ask (certain) people to keep certain foods out of our sight, and out of our reach. Like, you are probably not going to start wolfing down diet cokes anytime soon, but if there are other foods that are harder for you than others, I think it would be reasonable to ask if your partner could keep these in the fridge at work, or in your partner's trunk, or wrapped in tin-foil (opaque) on a down-low or up-high shelf.

Out of sight, out of reach. Like, if he buys a candy bar, you don't even have to know about it. It's in his trunk, and he never even tells you it's there.

I mean, the worst somebody else can say is "no, I will not help to keep your hardest foods out of easy reach and out of your field of attention". (If your requests are confined to the one or two foods that are hardest for you, though, I can't see why a decent person would decline.)

Especially partners who work eight or so hours outside the home -- if they like twinkies so much, why NOT work them into that person's lunchtime routine (and thus away from your fridge and your cupboards). However, the foods that are easy to abstain from, that your partner likes to eat, I can't see any harm in having those things around. Like sausage. Or diet coke.

I have a situation, where I share a 3-bedroom condo with another person. He is not somebody who I know on any personal level -- just renting. And he is one of those people who finds alcohol hard to resist, but he can leave chocolate cake on the counter until it grows mold and has to be thrown out.

So I'm going to have to get crafty, and just find ways to move junk food into different places. After all, the worst he could say is, "Why do you always move my stuff off the counter and wrap it in tinfoil?" (Luckily, he does not have a sweet tooth, and this does not happen very often.)

To some extent, I would be smart to ask for forgiveness, not for permission. Like, maybe once a month, I can wrap his cookies in tinfoil, and just leave a note like, "Hey, I put your cookies in tinfoil in the fridge so that they would still be here for you when you got home! My sweet tooth doesn't do so well with on-counter cookies, and I didn't want to devour your food. "

I gotta get crafty!

[Idgie]

That seems totally reasonable. In my case, though, we've lived together 15 years and I've never had a problem with eating food that I think of as belonging to my partner. I guess my taboo against eating other people's food is bigger than my desire to have a particular food.

[roundcoconut]

That is good to hear!

Most people don't do nearly as well around junk food (theirs or other people's). Just ask the free pizza in the office.

I am ALMOST safe around other people's food, but I can foresee some occasions where I need to wrap stuff in tinfoil and get it out of my sight!

[roundcoconut]

What I bought this morning to bring to work:
- three bananas (a little high on the portion size, admittedly)
- one can no-salt chickpeas
- one can no-salt corn
- rolled oats (0.25 lbs)

This is, in my experience, too much food (a premeditation to eat to a "10" on the hunger scale), but I was having some massive binge-ideation this morning. I settled for a C+ in what I bought for lunch today, and that's just how it went down today.

Note that my usual staples of bell peppers, tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, peas, broccoli are flagrantly absent from today's shopping cart. I was not thinking terribly clearly!

I mean, MOST of the time I can count on myself to be clear-headed in the grocery store. Today, I was definitely visited by binge tendencies, and was not terribly clear-headed!

[Idgie]

We're in a bad heatwave, and cooking makes the house miserable, so we went to the store to buy a bunch of stuff that ca either be eaten cold or just quickly heated. I read labels carefully and stayed with MWL-compliant stuff:

Canned soups (split pea, vegetable barley)
Canned potatoes and sweet potatoes and beets
Hominy
Salsa, two kinds

(Partner got hot dogs and pitas. I'm not the slightest bit tempted by hot dogs, and I plan to use pepper strips to eat my hummus, not pita.)

I skipped the pre-cooked whole grains, because they all had a tiny bit of oil in them, but then I got home and my mom had gotten a sample of brown rice & quinoa in the mail that she doesn't want, so I have that to try, as well.

[roundcoconut]

Yum! Split pea soup — I TOTALLY have split peas in the house, but can’t be bothered to cook them.

Idgie, your cart looks pretty darn solid. Yay! (Also: Bam! Pow! Kazam!)

My evening purchases at the grocery store (and thus my dinner):

2 yukon golds (slightly over one pound)
2 large mangoes
1 pound bag of carrots
1 green bell pepper
2 onions

Yes, that’s far too much in the quantity department, but now that I’ve written that down, i can scale it back, and know that I won’t end dinner at an 11 (as in, Thanksgiving-stuffed) (as in “Every Day Is Halloween When You Eat Like I Did This Week!”)

Well, I sometimes have to crawl out of a hole gradually — today, eat until grossly stuffed, but definitely manage to close the kitchen after the meal is over. Tomorrow — buy a bit less.

I would pack on pounds quickly if i continued to stuff myself, but that’s not my intention. Just had so much binge ideation today, so settling for the C+ on the evening trip to the store as well.

On a relaxing note, I am watching season 1 of Love Boat. Good times! Guest stars are John Ritter (crossdressing in this episode), Sherman Helmsley (fighting with his wife on the ship), and Jaclyn Smith (taking time away from her husband). I am 43, which is to say that i am old enough to have watched Love Boat when it was current. It was on Friday night, and my grandmother used to let my brother and me stay up and watch Fantasy Island too, which I’m pretty sure was broadcast right afterwards.

(Oh dear me. Lord Google tells me I’m wrong, and that Love Boat was aired on Saturdays. Which makes sense — my parents were out doing who knows what and my grandmother was watching my brother and me. I got it half right anyways!)

[Lyndzie]

Roundcoconut, I want to participate as well. Yesterday my hisband and I went to Trader Joe’s. It’s not nearby, so it was a trip to stock up on the specialty things I like from there. I am omitting the stuff that we bought that I won’t eat. I’m fortunate that the off-plan stuff I like (expensive cheese and chocolate) aren’t what my husband likes (potato chips and non-dairy ice cream).

Watermelon
Rainier cherries
Apricots
Canned Black beans
Roasted slivered almonds
Pistachios
NSA Marinara
NSA crushed tomatoes
NSA diced tomatoes
NSA tomato sauce
Frozen hash browns

We keep a really stocked pantry because we have lots of mouths to feed.

Also, I’m super surprised to find out your age! Your writing style is so youthful (this is a complement), but that does explain the wisdom you have to share as well. I always appreciate your opinion, even when I view things differently.

[Daydream]

I like seeing what is in everyone's cart!

Roundcoconut, how often do you go to the market each week?

[roundcoconut]

I honestly go twice a day.

I bring only my lunch produce to work with me — thats my morning stop.

Then i stop after work and buy only my dinner food.

Ive never done one of those weird huge grocery hauls, where you buy a whole grocery cart worth of food.

Shopping meal by meal is the way ive always done it (whole adult life) and its a matter of “if its not broke, dont fix it”. Also, i am in a position to do my grocery shopping on foot at times, and this pattern lets me get some steps.

Yesterday for example, i realized i was almost out of TP and coffee, and so i did that trip by foot.

Would LUV to get down to using the car only every other day, even to get to work. Am finally living in a place where this would be easily possible, but havent gotten this groove in rotation until ... well ... today would be an excellent day to let the car sit in the parking lot all day.

[roundcoconut]

My grocery receipt from this morning:

- one pound bag of carrots
- two apples
- package of “constellation” tomatoes
- humongous organic cucumber
- bottle of dijon mustard

This is a huge improvement over yesterday’s trips to the store. I seem not to need as much food today, from going way over-portions yesterday. Funny how that works!