Tuesday, April 24, 2012

A small trip to the grocery


For me, part of living deliberating (or consciously) means watching what I put in my body. For years I was raised in a house where my parents drank Diet Coke like it was water, we gorged ourselves on American cheese, and everyday was like Thanksgiving with out of control portions and way too much carbs and fat. And Iʼve taken huge steps to change that. Iʼve almost completely gotten rid of soda from my diet. And I started excluding specific foods from my diet as well- including pizza, burgers, American cheese, and bacon. Foods that do nothing to nourish my body & instead just reduce it to waste practically.

Anyways, Iʼve started buying more consciously as well. Today my mother-in-law drove my husband and I to Costco so we could stock up on essentials & get to use her membership discounts. We ended up getting there just as the store closed, and get this- she left her keys in the car. With all the doors locked. With the engine running.

Long story short, we never made it into Costco. While I donʼt like to support Walmart (or Costco, really) and do my best to avoid purchasing from them, we were in desperate need of groceries.

So this is what I purchased:

Concentrated pineapple juice (for cocktails!), $1.44
Flash-frozen corn (2), 1.96
Fresh chicken breast (10 lbs.), 21.00
Flavored Sparkling water, strawberry & peach (2), 1.36
Generic strawberry low fat yogurt, 2.18
Chocolate almond milk, 4 pack of 8 oz., 3.81
Vanilla almond milk, 1 quart, 3.42
Fresh strawberries, 3 packs, 4.98
Red grapes, almost 2 lbs., 2.60
Fresh bananas, 2.5 lbs., 1.44
Smart water, 1.25
Honey Bunches of Oats cereal, 2.02
Granola/raisin cereal, 4.50
Gatorade for the husband, 1.00

The total I spent was $55.34. Not bad for the amount of food I got, I think. It hurts to dole out a chunk of change all at once, but when I think about how much I spend going out to eat for lunch, this was nothing!

Its really difficult to change your diet up, but buying fresh reduces packaging waste by so much. No chips, Pringles, boxed dinners, etc. The amount of waste created is enormous! We all indulge every so often but I am making a serious attempt. Also, avoiding animal products helps to reduce the impact of your purchase decisions. The only animal products I bought were the yogurt & chicken breasts. Iʼd never tried almond milk before, and I didnʼt really like soymilk. I always stick with plain old cowʼs milk. But it turned out to be fantastic! Iʼm happily surprised.

On another note, I made tea today. I donʼt own a kettle & didnʼt want to waste money on one, so I boiled water on the stovetop. I have a little reusable cup that I can put loose tea leaves in, so I simply brewed it in the pot. I was pretty excited that it worked so well. My intention is to make high quality iced tea. Hopefully it turns out nicely.

xoxo Becca

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