Peek Inside My Grocery Cart, Please!

Share your daily McDougall menus and/or keep a journal describing your personal progress.

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Re: Peek Inside My Grocery Cart, Please!

Postby Idgie » Thu Jul 12, 2018 10:00 pm

I'm somewhere in between. I try not to have so much food on hand that stuff goes bad, but I don't shop just for the next meal, because I love to cook improvisationally, and sometimes I have unexpected blood sugar-related hunger, so I need to have at least some food on hand, and I like having it.
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Re: Peek Inside My Grocery Cart, Please!

Postby roundcoconut » Fri Jul 13, 2018 9:09 am

Another day, another receipt!

This is what I bought for lunch --
* one head of lettuce (0.99)
* a package of Constellation tomatoes (3.99)
* one navel orange (0.89) -- (it's for an impromptu salad dressing -- I have dijon & black pepper too)
* one pound of carrots -- organic (1.29)
* 1 pound bag of frozen fruit -- strawberries, bananas, mangoes (2.99)
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Re: Peek Inside My Grocery Cart, Please!

Postby roundcoconut » Sat Jul 14, 2018 7:14 am

Yesterday evening’s receipt:

1 can kidney beans (no added salt) (0.69)
1 package mushrooms (1.89)
1 turnip (0.81)
1 rec onion (0.36)
Small can tomato sauce (0.39)
Cajon seasoning (no salt) (6.49)

That made a HUGE pot of soup. I used the above items, plus cabbage and celery and a few carrots. Only used a handful of the mushrooms and part of the turnip.

There was another trip to the store for some “extra” stuff — I bought a big package of frozen bananas and strawberries, and made a giant batch of banana ice cream. I think that might’ve been my first and last time — yes, it got some binge tendencies all riled up. No, it didn’t “satisfy” the binge tendencies. It just put me on shaky ground for a few days. Also, I am bloated this morning.

so, first cart was an A+. Second cart was a fail. The Big F.

No, it wasn’t peanut butter or bread, but it was a food pattern that could and would snowball, if I don’t pay extra careful attention over the next two days. So I have every intention of paying careful attention now, because people with binge tendencies will binge in spurts, or not at all. Just so we’re clear!

What a weirdo I am sometimes — the whole reason I ask people to look at my grocery cart was so it’s much harder to buy excessive quantities and do stupid things with them, and guess what I did (it was about 9pm last night)! Oh, dear. Well, now we know. Bad move on my part, but not permanent — can be fixed. :)
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Re: Peek Inside My Grocery Cart, Please!

Postby Idgie » Sat Jul 14, 2018 9:09 am

Well, it may have failed as a shopping trip, but it succeeded great as an experiment -- now you know that buying those things is a bad idea for you.

My receipt from yesterday:

Sweet potatoes (lots)
Rapini (broccoli rabe)
Spring onions
Cabbage
Portabella mushroom

Partner bought ground beef, buns, a donut, and sweet pickle relish
Idgie, Southern CA
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Re: Peek Inside My Grocery Cart, Please!

Postby Lyndzie » Sat Jul 14, 2018 9:17 am

I really like this thread for a few reasons:

1. You’ve had years of success with this way of eating, but still occassionally struggle with old patterns of behavior around food. I find this comforting and encouraging, because I also get tempted by foods that aren’t health promoting. You are demonstrating how to minimize the damage and get right back on track the next meal. Bravo!

2. Since you’ve posted your daily food expenses, I feel better about the things I buy. Getting the good cherry tomatoes are really worth every penny - I usually get the Angel Sweet ones. Also, I can down a 15 oz bag of sugar snap peas on the drive home from the store, and that’s $5.29 gone in less than 15 minutes.

3. Your conversational writing style is like chatting with a friend and is a pleasure to read.
Lindsey
My food journal: Adventures in Eating
My pregnancy journal: Maybe a Baby 2017
www.lindseyhead.coach
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Re: Peek Inside My Grocery Cart, Please!

Postby roundcoconut » Sat Jul 14, 2018 10:51 am

Just a weird comment:

Your doctor should give YOUR GROCERY CART a check-up, and not give you a check-up.

Because if Dr McDougall were to stand at the check-out line at the Wegman's (or wherever), he would be like, "Lady, go put that back on the shelf. You're going to wind up with an autoimmune condition and a big behind." (That's what Dr McDougall would say, because he loves to be politically incorrect. Oh well. People would probably give him the middle finger.)

Once the damage is done, and doctors are inspecting your arteries, then they are trying to have a soft touch, and not lose your business, and all that other nonsense.

People should get their triglycerides, based on the crap they are putting in their grocery cart. Also their cholesterol. Also their prescriptions.

Also, wouldn't it be funny if the person who is buying the stupid packaged cookies, had to pay for lipitor? The cost of eating pure fat wouldn't look like an easy purchase that way.

And the tomatoes and snap peas (expensive) wouldn't look expensive, because you wouldn't get Zoloft added to your cart, or colonoscopies, or stents. :)
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Re: Peek Inside My Grocery Cart, Please!

Postby roundcoconut » Sat Jul 14, 2018 11:06 am

I really wish the two were paired -- here's your Earth Balance margarine for $3.29, and here's the generic Zoloft prescription that goes with it ($10 copay) -- meaning, your stupid margarine basically costs $13.29.

My point is, absolutely NOBODY would pay $13.29 for margarine.

You would put the margarine back and buy the Angel Sweet tomatoes AND the 15 oz bag of snap peas. Because you like them, and you still make out cheaper than the margarine.

Or, what if you had to buy a new pair of fat-pants when you paid for your 12-ounce vanilla soy latte? That would mean $3.49 for your calorie-bomb, plus $25 for the pants that you aren't going to enjoy wearing anyways, because you are now wearing a size higher than you like your butt in jeans.

Really, every single person here would be like, "$28, 49 for a latte? Hell no. Do I look stupid."

You would buy some watermelon for 1/5th of that!

Thinking like an economist! :)
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Re: Peek Inside My Grocery Cart, Please!

Postby roundcoconut » Sat Jul 14, 2018 11:19 am

This morning's grocery receipt:
- frozen peas (1.00)
- 2 orange bell peppers from the about-to-rot rack (0.99)
- 3 navel oranges from the about-to-rot rack (0.99)
- 1 can garbanzo beans (no salt added)
- 1 pound bag of carrots (0.79)
- 1 head of lettuce (0.99)

The questionable item from today's grocery purchase:
- some kind of spice paste??? (1.29) -- it was an impulse buy! (Quite possibly a mistake.)

Super duper cheap! :)
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Re: Peek Inside My Grocery Cart, Please!

Postby roundcoconut » Sat Jul 14, 2018 6:59 pm

Evening grocery receipt:
* can of no-salt VegAll (didn’t wind up using this) (0.79)
* can of no-salt diced tomatoes (0.73)
* a knob of fresh ginger (can never have enough (0.36
* a pack of constellation-brand cherry tomatoes (3.99)
- 3 pears in a bag on about-to-rot discount (0.99)

With these groceries, and stuff left over from yesterday and from lunch, I made a salad and a soup. Couldn’t be happier! :)
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Re: Peek Inside My Grocery Cart, Please!

Postby roundcoconut » Sat Jul 14, 2018 7:37 pm

1. Eliminate All Animal Foods -- check! Duh. (Meaning, I wouldn’t even consider that kinda thing.)
2. Eliminate All Oils -- check! Duh.
3. Eliminate All High Fat Plant Foods: Nuts, Nut Butters, Seeds, Seed Butters, Avocados, Coconut, & Olives -- check! (I’m not above an avocado once a week or so, but not every day)
4. Eliminate All Flour Products -- check! Flour sucks.
5. Eat Whole Grains and Potatoes -- none today
6. Eat Legumes -- ate a whole can of chickpeas, which qualifies as a starch also! :)
7. Make Green & Yellow Vegetables One-Half to One-Third of your meal — I ate a bag of peas, a few roasted onions, 3/4 head of lettuce, and some cabbage and celery in my soup. (Also red and orange veg, which are less calorie dilute — carrots, tomatoes)
8. Eat Uncooked Foods -- check! Duh.
9a. Restrict Fresh Fruit to No More Than Two Servings a Day -- nope! I was at two for the day, and then i had two or three pears on top of that! — minor fail!
9b. Avoid Dried Fruit, Fruit Puree, and Fruit Juice -- check? I juiced a whole orange for a salad dressing. So delicious! I don’t drink fruit juice or anything! Duh.
10a. Use Simple Sugar Sparingly -- check! Duh.
10b. Get some exercise every day -- Kinda! 7,800 steps, but the day is not over
11. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself — I did a bit sloppyl on this tonight! — ate very calorie dilute foods, and was quite full, but not in a crappy or unhealthy way. Then ate a little more, ad ended at a 9.8. Kind of a minor fail here too.

This is probably an B- in my book. So, mediiocre. Not as good as I’m capable of.
Last edited by roundcoconut on Sat Jul 14, 2018 9:15 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Peek Inside My Grocery Cart, Please!

Postby VegSeekingFit » Sat Jul 14, 2018 8:32 pm

Hi Roundcoconut!

Love your thread here! You're such an inspiration with your success and your way of writing is compelling!

On the grocery topic, made me think and look. I have changed the stores that I frequent- and have observed that people who shop at fruit market or international market look healthier in general.

I like the idea of shopping each day, but not what I currently do. Am a hoarder of staples and may go to store(s) 2x per week. For fresh produce, definitely something to consider tweaking. Similar to what some of the Europeans do and makes sense.

I wanted to thank you for the "about-to-rot" purchases. I had never done that, but did purchase yesterday 6 tomatoes for .99 from that cart. They were fabulous. Just something I never thought of doing, but why not?

Anyway, rock on!! :D
"Just put one foot in front of the other and don't worry about the length of the path.
Once you get on that path, and the longer you stay on it, there eventually will come a time when you will not turn back." - Martina Navratilova
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Re: Peek Inside My Grocery Cart, Please!

Postby roundcoconut » Sun Jul 15, 2018 9:29 am

Idgie wrote:Well, it may have failed as a shopping trip, but it succeeded great as an experiment -- now you know that buying those things [fixins for 3 big bowls of banana ice cream] is a bad idea for you.


Yup! Now I know.

The thing that is really interesting, is that I have always questioned the wisdom of having one of those ultra-fancy $400 blenders, but I am finding it nevertheless true that I will happily eat all kinds of salads and raw foods, especially when there is some kind of sauce involved.

Also, everyone knows that if you're going to eat a giant salad, then you want about a half cup of salad dressing -- which is where things go south with any kind of fat-based salad dressing. I don't care if it's a tofu-based dressing, or a cashew based dressing, or an avocado-based dressing -- it's just going to be way too caloric if you eat 1/2 cup of that stuff.

And where the high-performance blender comes in, is that I've realized that ANYTHING can be the base for a salad dressing. People have tended to use cashews and tofu and avocado as their base, because we were stupid and lazy and lacking in imagination! :)

Shredded zucchini can be the base for a salad dressing. It's pretty flavorless and can be used more or less like tofu, or blended soaked cashews, or (god forbid) olive oil. It's just a flavorless carrier for the items that have flavor.

Fat doesn't have flavor. Fat's kinda gross.

I only know this, because I've been brushing my teeth with a combination of coconut oil, baking soda, and tangerine essential oil. Well, filling your entire mouth with fatty coconut oil is NOT joyful. We have these ridiculous ideas in society that the "mouthfeel" of fat is great. It's not. It's ridiculously gross.

Fat only is great because of the company it keeps. People like extreme fatty hummus, because they associate the fat with a delicious well-made hummus. Also, people (who are stupid and lazy and lacking in imagination! :) ) have the bad habit of thinking that when another version comes along, that the different version is probably inferior. It's not inferior -- just different.

So, basically, I bought a blender that has a tamper, which is ridiculously helpful for making sauces and salad dressings, and THAT'S the part that made me think of putting a bunch of frozen fruit in a blender and seeing what it could do.

Well, now all the plastic parts are going to smell like garlic, so I won't ever be tempted to make banana ice cream again. :)
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Re: Peek Inside My Grocery Cart, Please!

Postby roundcoconut » Sun Jul 15, 2018 9:39 am

This morning's grocery receipt:
- one head of lettuce (0.99)
- one pound bag of carrots (0.79)
- yellow cherry tomatoes (3.99)
- no-salt kidney beans (0.69)
- frozen peas (1.00)
- mixed frozen fruit - mango, strawberry, banana (2.99)
- 3 navel oranges from the about-to-rot rack (0.99) (for salad dressing)

That's a lot of food, and I think much of it will go home with me for dinner. I got carried away! :)
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Re: Peek Inside My Grocery Cart, Please!

Postby Idgie » Sun Jul 15, 2018 11:15 am

Have you tried Susan V's onion cream? It's a good basis for salad dressings, in my opinion: https://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2016/03/fat-free-onion-cream.html

Today's grocery haul:

Sweet potatoes
Mixed greens (got free with store reward)
Cabbage
Tomatoes
Red bell peppers
Carrots
Apples
Freezer bags

Partner got chicken wings and white bread
Idgie, Southern CA
My recipes (mostly MWL) are at https://www.drmcdougall.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=58361&p=586527#p586527
My new MWL-only recipe site is at http://mwlrecipes.weebly.com
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Re: Peek Inside My Grocery Cart, Please!

Postby roundcoconut » Sun Jul 15, 2018 4:00 pm

Idgie wrote:Today's grocery haul:

Sweet potatoes
Mixed greens (got free with store reward)
Cabbage
Tomatoes
Red bell peppers
Carrots
Apples


That cart should enter a beauty pageant. Love that!

And re Susan Voisin’s blog, I LOVE blending roasted onions. They have so much delicious flavor. Depth AND sweetness.

Lemon, or lime or even orange is a delicious source of flavor, too. I would bet this woman has excellent skills in the kitchen! :)
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