Day 419 A Different Grocery Trip and Paid To Lose Weight

Day 419

A Different Grocery Trip and Paid To Lose Weight

I always talk about the positive aspects of losing weight, but what about the negative? Here’s one: It takes much longer to grocery shop! Grocery shopping before September 15th, 2008 was fairly fast and easy. If it looked good it was going in the basket. If it was loaded, who cares, let’s get it! I was grocery shopping today, not a giant trip, only about sixty bucks worth---still it took me over an hour! I’m reading labels, imagining portions by serving, calculating what is and isn’t a “good calorie value,” wow, it’s a little bit of work. But it’s totally worth the effort. If you ever run into me in the grocery store don’t be too surprised if you see something in the basket you wouldn’t believe I would buy. Remember, I’ve shouted, “nothing is off limits” this entire journey, so I grabbed a new flavor of Doritos off the shelf. It was cheesy enchilada and sour cream. I turned it over to discover eleven chips checked in at 150 calories. Now we’ll see how long the bag can last around the house. We’ve been known to let bags go stale during the last 419 days. It’s a calorie value thing. And bread? Oh wow, before my trip to the store I threw away a bunch of bread that we never touched. It was such a waste of money. I bet I threw away ten bucks worth of sandwich bread, hot dog, and hamburger buns---all old, and one was growing something nasty looking. This “cutting back” on bread thing, it wasn’t something we decided to do. We never said out loud “we’re cutting down on bread,” it just happened naturally. My basket at the store was filled with stuff I would have never bought before, but now I do in a completely natural way. Fresh apples, mushrooms, shredded lettuce, super lean ground beef, and more. This natural evolution of choices hasn’t been forced at all. It’s just the way this simplistic approach works. And it totally works.

It’s really cool to notice the weight loss all over me. I was looking closely at the pictures I posted here yesterday when I realized that I’m pretty sure my nose is slimmer. Maybe it’s just the different angle, but I swear it looks like I’ve lost some weight on my nose. I will tell you one thing for sure, my feet are smaller! As a young pre-teen, all the way until around 18 or so, I would wear size 12 shoes. Somewhere along the way I started needing size 13 and have even used 14’s. The special “OSU Orange” coaches Nikes are a size 12. I actually passed on these shoes at first, thinking they wouldn’t fit. A good friend offered them as a gift. I felt bad for turning them down, but I didn’t want to take them if they were too small. Someone else could have used them. Then I asked to try them out just in case and what do you know? They fit perfectly. Just like when I was 13. I’m a size 12 shoe wearer again!! Smaller nose, smaller feet, and oh boy---my wrists, they can’t possibly get any smaller. Maybe weight training will make them bigger, I don’t know. All I know is, my wrist bones are as wide as my wrists are showing. Am I making any sense here? You know what I mean. I just love losing weight and feeling like this!

I made sure to get in a walk tonight at the trail. I need to get Chris back out there with me because I’m still feeling good about that workout from Tuesday. It was a casual walk with my thoughts. I need to be alone with my thoughts occasionally. We’re going through some serious changes lately, things that I’ll explain in more detail in the coming days. These are tough issues that I need to share and will. I just need to work everything out in my mind before I start writing about it all here. It’s bad, but it’s not that bad. Life will progress, we will develop, and the sun will shine once again. Time heals all wounds right? OK---I’ll stop being annoyingly vague and wait until I can say something clear in a very straightforward and tasteful-classy way.

Everyone scattered tonight. Amber and KL had plans for a date, Irene had plans with her friends in Stillwater, and Courtney had plans with her friends across town. After my walk I decided to accept an invitation from some of my friends. Lauren and Skyler Donahue invited me over for Karaoke. They had a couple of their friends there as well. I sipped on a diet root beer and stayed for about an hour, never sung a song, just visited---and it was nice. But I really wanted to be home. I left for home and found Courtney had since beat me there and was sound asleep in her room. I turned on the TV (something I rarely get to do), channel surfed from the recliner, and eventually fell asleep for the night right there in the living room.

Before I forget to mention it, we did have a nice family dinner around the dining room table before everyone scattered. Taco salad is one of our favorite meals. I opted for a few hard shell tacos. It’s fast and easy---and it’s calorie friendly the way we make it. We use super lean beef, loads of lettuce, and plenty of salsa. We use regular tortilla chips instead of an edible bowl and we enjoy cheese and sour cream, but in limited amounts. It’s amazing how much less we spend on food these days. I haven’t spent a dime to lose this weight, in fact, I could easily argue that I’ve saved money. It’s actually paid us to lose weight…in so many different ways.

Thank you for reading. Goodnight and…

Good Choices,
Sean