Bodies vs. bank accounts vs. schedules

For anyone on a budget and trying to lose weight, there’s a battle between your wallet and your body. I have this friend who keeps saying, “But vegetables and healthy foods are inexpensive! It’s actually cheaper to eat healthier!” I usually end up restraining myself from asking this friend whether or not they have actually been to the grocery store this decade.

There is some truth to the statement – sure, carrots are pretty cheap, and so are lentils and split peas. You can find a good deal on chicken breast almost anywhere. But they get boring fast, and food boredom is a sure way to create diet breakdown. Many of the items that are healthy but have interesting tastes, textures and nutrients cost as lot more than the staples. See avocados, peppers of any color besides green, white asparagus, many berries, etc. And, if you don’t want pesticides or genetic modifications, you have to shop at specialty or organic supermarkets, which of course are even more expensive.

Making a meal that is healthy and satisfying can be expensive, not just because of the money you spend to make sure your beef has no rGBH in it. The real expense here is time – your time. I don’t know about you all, but some days, my time is more precious than my money. I have a 9 to 5 job (lol @ actually being 9 – 5, more like 8:15 to 6 minimum), I have an ongoing art project that occupies about 9 hours a week, I’m trying to get half an hour to an hour of exercise three times a week, I like to read books and follow my favorite TV shows, and I have a partner that I want to spend quality time with. Where the hell does that leave any time for cooking? I barely have time to grocery shop.

That’s why turning to processed foods and packaged items is so tempting – it’s not about how yummily delicious they taste or whatever, it’s that I don’t have time to waste doing food prep most nights or most mornings. And the thing is – my life if fulfilling. I want to keep my art projects, my hobbies, my reading, and my boyfriend. And my job. Is the tradeoff for this that I have to be fat?

I don’t think so, but it’s sure as hell making it more difficult to eat right.

In/Out for Sunday, August 10

Everyone always says to that weight loss is as simple as calories IN vs. calories OUT. Well, I wish it were that simple, but things like psychology, schedules and inherent body tendencies tend to muck it up. However, I think it’s a valid point, and I think I should track what I’m eating and my exercise on a daily basis. I’m not going to get really obsessive and count calories for everything on here, though. When I can easily figure out the calories for what I am eating and do it, I will post it. But I am not aiming to start an untenable diet that I can’t keep up. The point is for to be able to eat enough healthy food to satisfy my hunger that isn’t overeating. I’m a big girl and I know what foods are healthy and what aren’t; it’s a matter of not giving in.

Okay so, today, August 10:

IN:

Brunch: Fruit salad (melon, peach, grape), 2 hash brown patties with a bit of ketchup, 5 or 6 spoonfuls of vanilla low-fat yogurt, and a cup of orange juice.

Snack: 4 Finn Crisp thin rye crisps with chevre crumbles (about 150 calories), an organic root beer (150 calories), a white chocolate fudgsicle (60 calories). Finn Crisp thin rye crisps are a great snack because they are high in protein and fiber, while also being super tasty. They’re a perfect partner for chevre or cream cheese and peanut butter.

Dinner: Half a Trader Joe’s Pesto pizza (465 calories) and a cup and a half of cucumber-green pepper-tomato salad dressed with lemon juice, olive oil and dill. Diet Hansen’s Black Cherry soda, which has no calories, caffeine, or sodium.

OUT:

Swimming: 16 laps (800 yards or about 0.45 miles); online exercise calorie calculators are giving me answers varying between  275 – 450 calories burned.