Knowing How To Shop

If there is one things you should know about me, it's that I LOVE to shop!  This is good and bad.  I've learned to channel my shopping to getting good deals for things that we need and will use, mainly groceries.

So I was in Superstore today to get one of those burner liners as I was cleaning a big mess on our stove and realized one had disintegrated.  This was the cheapest place to get them, but they didn't have any.

Actually, I had to go back to look for it because I was having soo much fun finding deals.  Here's what I got for under $10:

Okay, deep breaths.  This is a box of lean sirloin burgers, regular $15.99 that I got for the, get this now, 

Super

Low

Price of....

FREE!!

Yatta!  I love stores that have a policy that if the item doesn't ring up on sale, you get it for free.  There is nothing better than free :D .  Now when the rest of the family  has their carby beef burgers, I can have this containing only beef, salt and spices, no fillers.

The yogurt was 50 cents and will be good for my daughter's lunches.  It's usually $3.50 or so when it's not on sale.

The garlic was 49 cents each, usually $6.99.  It is so good and potent.  I absolutely avoid any garlic from China.  I won't go into it here, but if you google it. you'll find out more than you want to know.  

Finally, the turkey slices, 0 carbs and lower sodium.  They are delicious.  They were $5.99 each for 2 for $2.50.  I mean, really?  What a deal!  This will be great for lunches too and just rolling up (like I did this morning with some mayo).

Good deals, sigh, I need a life, lol!

On the weight loss front, well, nothing is happening.  I got on the scale and I was the same weight at I was last Thursday.  I'm sticking to low carbing more rigorously than I have in my life.  I keep telling myself usually after a whoosh comes a stall and it's not a real stall until you can't lose for  longer than just a week (I'd say a month for so, but usually whooshes will come).

I don't want to go all crazy with counting every little thing I eat and tweaking things.  I'm eating clean, keeping my carbs low, 100% avoiding sugar, flour and fillers.  It's the way to go.

I've had exercise on the mind.  I know I need to start but it's hard to get going.  My heels have been killing me the last few days for some strange reason.  A year or so ago I had really bad plantar fascitis and it made everything I had to do on my feet torture.  I know it's not that but I worry about getting it again.  I got it from exercising too much at the time.  I even continued when I was at my worst then left having to crawl around the house.  I literally tortured myself to lose weight and I'm sick of doing that.  

I want to do something I can live with.  I want food I like to eat.  I want movement I can enjoy.  I want to live a life that makes me happy.  I am not in competition with anyone.  Life isn't a race. I need to be the best me so I can be the best for my family.  I want to be a good example to my daughter, who really needs to lose weight too but I don't want her to develop the bad body image I always had.

For the first time in my life, I love how I look.  I think now, at the age of 40, I look better than I ever have in my life.  Yeah, I'm still fat, but confidence makes up for a lot.  A big smile instead of always looking gloomy goes a long way.  A REAL smile, not a fake one, like I spent most of my life wearing.  I don't have a perfect or even a good life in some regards.  But I have a lot of satisfaction knowing I'm a good person and I'm WORTH taking care of.

So even if I don't lose all the weight I want, I can live with myself.  I am feeling better, my clothes are already starting to fit better, it will all come together :D

Today's Menu Plan:

Breakfast: 2 eggs fried in butter, 2 turkey slices with 1 tsp. mayo, black coffee with 1 tsp. coconut oil

Lunch: garlic fried pork, spinach and cauliflower and broccoli

Supper: hamburger patty, baked green beans

snack: skyr yogurt, radishes, 2 turkey slices w/mayo

Amazing Shop Monday

ok, I had things I was going to write about but I am sooo stoked about my shopping trip that I have to write about that first!

Last week, I posted a shopping trip that cost me $35 and I had a good amount of food, not all of it low carb.  Well, this trip is mostly low carb, cost $35 and there is an amazing amount of food.

Voila:

Boom, that's a lot of meat!!

This was bought at Sobeys and I was practically dancing down the meat isle.  Several things were 99 cents a pound!  Most of the rest was $1,99 and the others were $5.49 a pound.  The flavoured meats were buy one, get the second one half off, so even more savings!

Lemme break it down.

• !.99/lbs:
• 3 mumbai chicken breasts (my favourite for making the kids chicken noodle soup)
• 2 pkgs tangy thai pork chops (I've never had it but it was cheap!)
• 3 packs thin cut pork chop

• 99 cents a pound:
• 2 packs of stewing pork
• 1 pack pork riblets

• Pork tenderloin $2.47
• Tub of Skyr Icelandic yogurt (I heard about this a lot when I used to low carb but it's the first time I've ever seen it in a store)  $2.50
• 1/2 ham, Jamie Oliver humanely raised pork  $3.72
• 3 bags of grated cheddar ($1.50 each!)
• 1lbs bag romaine lettuce  $2.00
• Real mayo $2.99
• Bag of pepperoni $2.99
• 1lbs coffee $1.84 (not the best but good enough when you're poor)

It can be very hard to afford to eat meat so it always makes me happy to come upon a food sale like this.

I started taking CLA yesterday.  I bought a few bottle for 99 cents a few months ago.  I was going to wait until I started exercising to take it but upon reading on some low carb sites, I decided that it would be very beneficial to start now.  I am taking 1 1250mg capsule a day for now of the Tonalin CLA and may decide to take more.  I have two or three bottles of 120 capsules and it's best before next year, but I want to stretch it out.

I stepped on the scale and I was up a little but I know that daily fluctuation is a thing.  I am trying to drink more water, as sometimes that helps and it's a good idea not to get dehydrated.

Yesterday, the cauliflower crust pizza I ate for lunch was soooo filling!  I had a little mayo on the side and I think that really helped the fullness factor.  I couldn't even eat supper, although I had a sausage and sauerkraut before my 8pm cut off time so I wouldn't be starving.

I had made a big pot of chicken broth, so I will use that to make a chicken soup for supper.  

Meal Plan:

Breakfast: black coffee, two eggs fried in butter

Lunch: 2 slices chicken pesto cauliflower crust pizza

Supper: Low carb chicken soup

Food Prices

One of the biggest reasons I was hesitant to go low carb again is due to the high cost of food.  It is unreal how much food prices have soared due to the crappy Canadian dollar, droughts, shipping costs and whatever other reasons there are.

Every time we eat a meal, I am mentally calculating how much it costs.  Every time I shop, I hunt the bargains.  I am not fussy and will eat whatever.

Our Walmart converted into a Supercenter just before Christmas.  Right now, as much as I hate it, I am finding the most bang for my buck there.  

All the other stores will mark produce down but by the time they do, it's in pretty sad shape.  Walmart will mark them down a couple of days before the date, plus they have a rack of produce in bags that cost only $1 each!  Plus in general, they have pretty decent prices.

I don't always luck out with good deals but I always make sure to check.  Here are yesterday's good buys:

1lbs bag of radishes $0.97

Large clamshell container of organic baby spinach $2.98 (half price)

3 large avocados $1.00

2lbs bag of baby carrots $2.00

Large english cucumber $1.47 (to compare, these are $3.49 at other stores)

Pork rinds $1.97 (probably not a good idea since I ate the whole bag, lol!)

I also popped into Sobeys to pick up hubby since it was stormy out.  I found a few bargains there too.

3 200g bags of Roast Beef  $0.99 (regular $5.49)
3 small packs of stewing pork $1.99/lbs (I will season this with garlic and bake for supper)
Greenfields Ham $3.49/2lbs pack (regular $9.99, all natural, humanely raised)

I am feeling good eating this way.  I am thinking I can do this.  I'm not really having any cravings or feeling lousy but I'm pretty early into it.  My scale was wrong (I had to re-calibrate it) but I am still down.  My official weigh in will be at TOPS tomorrow.

Today's Menu Plan:

Breakfast: 2 fried eggs, black coffee and a few radishes

\Lunch: Leafy greens, can of tuna, mayo, sauerkraut

Supper: Baked garlic pork, string beans with butter, cucumber slices
Snacks: a bag of the roast beef deli meat, 2 hard boiled eggs
Midnight binge: 1 hb egg, more meat, less than 0.25 cup peanuts, heaping tablespoon natural peanut butter, lots of regret, lol!

Before I go, two things.  I will update my menu plan to reflect what I actually eat so I can better keep track of things.  And secondly, sorry for the crappy pictures.  I'm using my not so fancy HTC phone.  I figure this blog is mainly for myself and it's easier to transfer pics from it so unless this blog somehow goes big (which I doubt!), please put up with my crappy pics ;)