Sunday, April 25, 2010

Food Discovery

This is my first time ever creating a blog, but I felt compelled to share my new food find with people who may be in a similar situation to mine.

First off, I've been struggling with weight my entire life. I'm 21 years old, and can't remember a time in my life when I was a "normal" weight. I've also developed some other bad habits in recent years, such as smoking. This blog will be about my journey to take back my own life, and finally be happy with myself.

As a struggling college student, I'll also be addressing the financial aspect of dieting, exercising, and going green, because I feel there are lots of people out there who would like to do this things, but don't find it monetarily feasible. I'm no expert on any of these - this is simply a record of my progress and advice to others as I discover things on my own.

Now that my introduction is done, lets get down to business. I went to Whole Foods today for the first time, and as I figured, it was EXPENSIVE$$$. I saw lots of wonderful products, but none that fit into my monthly budget easily - so I headed over to Wal-Mart instead.

Now, Wal-Mart certainly isn't known for being environmentally friendly or selling lots of healthy food, but certain things are there if you look. Today I found a Great Value (Wal-Mart) brand of dried fruits and trail mixes. I bought a bag of "Tropical Trail Mix" and am already in love with it! Ingredients include: Pineapple, banana chips, golden raisins, papaya, raisins, coconut, sugar, and sulfur dioxide (for fruit preservation). It's absolutely delicious and absolutely cheap ($1.48/bag). I particularly like it because a lot of trail mixes include several different types of nuts, which I'm not a huge fan of. It may not be completely organic, as it doesn't express that label, but the ingredients tell me it's pretty close. It also has a somewhat high sugar content, but has a decent amount of iron and protein in it as well (like I said, for a non-nut containing trail mix).

This may not be the best, most nutrient-rich, healthiest trail mix ever, but I feel like it's a big improvement over a lot of other things I could be snacking on instead. One step at a time.

Also, I've decided to quit smoking as soon as the pack I have now runs out (I don't trust myself to just throw it away). I figured at $5/pack and 1 pack/day I'm spending about $150 a month on cigarettes. $150 on cancer causing, disgusting, smelly, cigarettes. I can't believe it took a financial shocker like that to get me to quit - but whatever works, right? My plans with the saved money are to be able to buy healthier, more organic, and "green" products that are more expensive than the refined carbs and boxed food I live off of now. Maybe I'll get a gym membership as well.

Wish me luck in all of my new endeavors! Slow and steady wins the race...

6 comments:

  1. YAY we can quit together! It stinks and I miss it, but it's so much better in the long run. believe me!

    Eating healthy doesn't have to be insanely expensive. I have found that simply making a lot of stuff from scratch is cheaper and healthier. you will figure it out in due time. trust me, it took me a while to get it all hammered out and find out what I needed to buy vs what I didn't need to buy cause I could make it soooo much better haha

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  3. Way to go on quitting smoking. I quit 3 years ago and I kow how hard it is. You can do it. Have pleanty of healthy snacks to help with the crave.

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  4. Glad to see another Kentuckian in Mamavation. I had a nutritionist when I was a Mamavation Mom, and she designed a whole plan for me. What was great about it was that it was normal foods spread in smaller portions throughout the day. I didn't have to buy expensive foods to lose weight and feel healthier. Slow and steady definitely wins the race! Glad to meet you.

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  5. You and the Maniacal Matron sound like you have loads in common, I am glad to see she commented on your post. Whole Foods can be cheap for some things and crazy expensive for others (thus the Whole Foods moniker). Surprisingly WalMart is actually doing a lot of good with their green initiatives that are reaching a customer base that CSAs and Whole Foods cannot, there is no shame in their game. Good luck to you and your journey.

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  6. Yes, Whole Foods is very expensive. My dh and I jokingly refer to it as Whole Paycheck. Do you have a Trader Joes closeby? They are far more affordable...in fact, less so than the regular grocery store.

    There is good news about Walmart. They are going after the Whole Food market share and will be introducing locally grown farmers products, and organic foods, etc. I don't know when this is going to start...but kuddos to Walmart!

    The smoking is tough cause when you stop smoking, people tend to eat more. So what I would do is start chewing gum alot to get that oral stuff taken care of.

    I'm very proud you are a new part of the Sistahood! I just sent you your invitation by twitter about an hour ago. XXOO

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