Just back from Chicago last night where I attended the American Public Health Association (APHA) annual meeting and presented my food desert research ( http://intofooddesert.blogspot.com/ ). I recorded the presentation with my iPhone and have mow mixed that with the slides and made a YouTube video of the lecture. It's about 17 minutes.
The lecture was well received. I had some good comments from a few nutrition researchers and had some interesting conversations afterward. It was well received.
Chicago was very nice - I wish I had had more time to tour.
I did get to Buddy Guy's Legends blues club one night and saw some real Chicago blues, and had Chicago style deep dish pizza at Giordano's
Glad to be home. Would have had more fun if Kandie had been along. Maybe next time.
Kerryn and I will be submitting the paper soon - wish us luck.
I just published the 4 weeks stats, so these won't be that different, but they will reflect the final results of the experiment. After I talk about those, I'll talk about the additional data forthcoming. 1. Summary Stats
The final average daily expenditure was $8.53/day. This is distorted by the presence of Lobster Day. The median, which is a good measure of central tendency when you know you have outliers, was $7.47, which is very close to the average expenditure of $7.60 when I exclude Lobster Day from the population.
Standard deviation of cost was $5.42 with Lobster day, and $1.85 without it.
Average daily calories consumed was 1,852 with Lobster Day included, and 1,787 without it. The standard deviation was 396 with Lobster Day and 176 without it. The median calories consumed was 1,816, which is about what I was shooting for.
Calories burned through exercise averaged 324 per day with a standard deviation of 236. The median was 341. Lobster Day made little impact on calories burned since it was independent.
Net calories per day averaged 1,527 with Lobster Day and 1,457 with Lobster Day excluded. Standard deviation with Lobster Day was 490; without it was 308. Median was 1,524.
Weight is one of the health outcomes we are tracking for this experiment. Starting weight was 175.8, ending weight on day 30+1 was 163.5, or a 12.2 pound loss.
I am using day 30+1 as the final weight since the weight was taken first thing in the morning (as usual) and would have reflected the consumption and exercise from day 30. Day 30's weight was 164.6, which would have resulted in a 11.1 pound loss.
2. Next Steps
As I mentioned in my Day 30 update, I went this morning (Day 30+1) to get post-experiment labs drawn. As soon as those are available, I will post pre- and post-experiment results for comparison.
Over the next week or two I will be entering all of my food consumption data into the USDA's Supertracker program ( https://www.supertracker.usda.gov/foodtracker.aspx ) to assist Kerryn in doing the nutritional analysis. Supertracker is very robust in terms of nutritional data, but it's clunky and generally not user friendly. So I will take the data I entered into Loseit.com over the last month and re-enter it into Supertracker. When that is done, we'll share the nutritional analysis.
Finally, I plan to take my price list from the convenience stores and compare what I paid at the convenience stores to what I would have paid for the same/similar items at a local grocery store to determine how much more I paid to use a convenience store.
When all of that is done, I will also provide some final qualitative observations about the experience.
So there I was, potato chips to the right of me, candy bars to the left of me, cheap beer and wine in front of me, hot dogs slowly rolling under a heat lamp behind me...
Ah, it's good to be done. A visit to the food desert has been interesting, but not fun. I would not want to live like this forever. But there are a great many things I would not want to put up with that I do not have to, and this experience is not the worst of all possible worlds. We'll see how the lab results come out to get the final picture.
Like Day 29, Day 30 started out without much of a plan. I guess I was just tired. Since I was ready to leave the house earlier than usual, I decided to make Power Oatmeal and eat it in the kitchen (I usually just have coffee at the house and bring my breakfast to work to eat at my desk).
Breakfast
Quantity
Cost
Calories
oatmeal
1
$0.33
153
peanut butter
1
$0.27
180
milk
1
$0.31
83
coffee
3
$0.28
8
raisins
1
$0.43
120
$1.63
544
If there is one meal I could skip easily, it is breakfast. I'm not much of a breakfast food fan (despite my diet this past month), and I know I will want to eat more at night regardless of whether I have eaten a lot or a little during the course of the day. So knowing my own behavior, I try to save my calories for the evening. But it does feel good to come to work with a full belly, and the Power Oatmeal has staying power - you aren't hungry 30 minutes after you eat it.
Lunch was a pair of PB&Js.
Lunch
Quantity
Cost
Calories
bread, wheat
4
$0.52
266
peanut butter
1
$0.27
180
jelly
1
$0.18
56
coffee
3
$0.28
8
$1.25
510
I brought a pear with me and planned to have it with lunch, but when lunch came, I set it aside planning to eat it later, and the day got away from me and I forgot about it.
By the time I left campus, I had decided wanted to have a nice final meal, and since I was pretty low on spending so far, I decided to stop at the Circle K and pick up one of their salads and a banana.
I actually bought 2 bananas ($0.46 - how can you go wrong?) and decided right then that they would be my final desert dessert.
When I got home, I decided to make one final omelet with all the fixings (at least all the fixings I had been able to acuqire in the desert): onions, peppers, ham, cheddar cheese. I cooked the onions in olive oil to improve the flavor and healthfulness. I ate half of the salad (because the salad was really quite large) with Italian dressing I had purchased for IFDLD (International Food Desert Lobster Day).
It was a nice meal, food desert or not. I would have liked a little Cayenne pepper, but that's just me, and I never found it in the desert.
Dessert was baked banana with honey and cinnamon. If you've never had a baked banana, you really should try it. They're especially good with some marshmallows on top. Honestly, the best way to have them is fried, but Kerryn would probably frown on that, so let's not mention it.
And that was all the food I ate on Day 30 because on Day 30+1 I was going to get my blood drawn, so I had to fast the rest of the night. After my stomach settled, I walked for an hour on the treadmill for exercise.
Day totals:
Cost: $8.07
Calories: 1,706
Exercise: 462 from 13,939 steps
Net calories: 1,244
Weight: 164.6
Day 29 started out with a complete lack of creativity. I woke up with no plan, and no plan gelled on the way down the stairs to the kitchen. So breakfast was PB&J with coffee.
Breakfast
Quantity
Cost
Calories
bread, wheat
4
$0.52
266
peanut butter
1
$0.27
180
jelly
1
$0.18
56
coffee
3
$0.28
7
$1.25
509
Now the good thing was that as I was standing in front of the refrigerator trying to figure out the rest of the day's plan I realized my previous self of day 28 did actually have a plan for day 29 - only my day 29 self had forgotten. Economists who study behavior often talk about how we treat our future selves as separate from our present selves - and we often engage in something called "hyperbolic discounting" - which is a fancy way of saying we do things like eat twice as much today because tomorrow our future self will get serious about dieting. In other words, our present self treats our future self like a red-headed step child. In this case my past self actually did something smart for my future self and made a nice chick pea salad for my Day 29 self to eat.
This recipe made two servings, so I ate half for lunch:
chick pea salad
Cost
Calories
15 oz can chick peas
$0.99
428
1/2 cucumber
$0.50
10
1/2 green pepper
$0.65
14
5 oz onion
$0.39
32
Corn
$0.65
120
2 tbsp balsamic vinegrette
$0.35
30
$3.51
634
so lunch was
Lunch
Quantity
Cost
Calories
Chick Pea Salad
0.50
$1.76
317
coffee
3.00
$0.28
7
$2.04
324
Dinner was macaroni with peas and olive oil, and two hard boiled eggs.
Dinner
Quantity
Cost
Calories
macaroni
2.00
$0.31
210
olive oil
2/3
$0.23
60
peas, canned
1.00
$0.50
120
egg, boiled
2.00
$0.29
155
$1.34
545
I had a bag of peanuts in the afternoon, and then when I got home from work (late), my father was having a gathering at the house, so I couldn't make dinner right away, so I grabbed a second bag from the kitchen and headed up stairs to wait till I could come back down and make myself dinner. This is the problem with living in someone else's space. Househunting stinks!
So I ate a lot of peanuts (($1.00; 520 cal) on day 29, though not by plan.
Day totals:
Cost: $5.62
Calories: 1,898
Exercise: 0 from 5,326 steps. I have to confess, the exhaustion from house hunting combined with my foot bothering me really just left me in no mood to do anything last night.
Good times, good times! 28 days in the bag. Here's the Week 4 roll up:
Spending through Week 4 took a bit of a bit on day 26, henceforth and forever known as International Food Desert Lobster Day, or IFDLD for short.
Average cost per day with IFDLD included is$8.65. If we exclude the effects of IFDLD, the average daily cost was $7.65.
Once again, IFDLD had a significant impact on calories consumed. With IFDLD in the data, average daily calories through Day 28 were 1,865. Without IFDLD, average calories consumed was 1,785. IFDLD had little effect on exercise. Average daily calories burned was 331 with IFDLD, and 337 without.
Finally, weight appears to have stabilized in the 166 range - at about a 10 pound loss for the experiment.
It will be interesting to see what Kerryn makes of my nutritional intake over the whole experiment, and whether she regards it as sustainable, and what it would take to make it sustainable if not.
I started Day 28 with Power Oatmeal because I knew I had a lot of work to do and I wanted energy and not to be hungry.
Breakfast
Quantity
Cost
Calories
oatmeal
1.00
$0.33
153
peanut butter
1.00
$0.27
180
milk
1.00
$0.31
83
coffee
3.00
$0.28
8
raisins
1.00
$0.43
120
$1.63
544
I didn't have any bananas, so I used raisins for the fruit component.
Lunch was just left overs - baked pasta - from last night.
Lunch
Quantity
Cost
Calories
macaroni
3.00
$0.47
310
sauce
1.00
$0.34
60
olive oil
0.33
$0.35
40
mozzarella
1.70
$0.89
118
coffee
3.00
$0.28
7
$2.33
535
In the afternoon I had a bag of honey roasted peanuts ($0.50; 230 cal) as a snack.
I wound up having a very late dinner, two chicken salad sandwiches and some carrots with ranch.
Dinner
Quantity
Cost
Calories
bread
4.00
$0.13
266
miracle whip
1.00
$0.17
40
canned chicken
2.00
$1.29
101
onion
3.00
$0.23
16
carrots
5.00
$0.62
63
ranch dressing
0.50
$0.24
70
$2.68
556
After dinner I went walking - up and down the street. Sort of a real life treadmill. The street is about 1/2 mile round trip, so I walked up and down it five or six times until I hit 10,000 steps. It was snowing last night, which was kind of nice. We got another 4 or 5 inches.
Day Totals:
Cost: $7.14
Calories: 1,865
Exercise: 388 cal from 13,258 steps
Net calories: 1,316
Weight: 165.8
Went to bed late after pestering my wife for an hour on the phone - because I was jazzed up on good food, good conversation, and a bit too much after dinner coffee. Woke up not quite as jazzed, but unable to sleep, probably for the same reason. So went down stairs and made myself a small indulgence - an omelet with ham, cheese, and onions.
Breakfast
Quantity
Cost
Calories
eggs
2.00
$0.59
155
onion
4.00
$0.31
30
green peper
0.25
$0.32
7
oil, olive
0.33
$0.35
40
ham
28.00
$0.59
35
coffee
3.00
$0.28
7
$2.44
274
Lunch was just some quick PB&J sandwiches because I was working, and I was actually heading towards a crash - I was so tired. I'm glad it was a Saturday.
Lunch
Quantity
Cost
Calories
bread, wheat
4.00
$0.52
266
peanut butter
1.00
$0.27
180
jelly
1.00
$0.18
56
coffee
3.00
$0.28
7
$1.25
509
After lunch I made it through a couple of articles I was reviewing, and then I really did crash. I napped for about two hours. When I got up it was time to start thinking about dinner.
My folks were making pizza (jealous! I have yet to find yeast in any of the convenience stores I have gone to - though plenty of nasty frozen pizza), so I was on my own.Actually, we've eaten almost no meals together this month, so that's not like it's something new. I grabbed a bag of honey roasted peanuts ($0.50; 230) and headed out to get some more supplies.
I thought I would go to the Tedeschi in downtown Dover, rather than the one on 108 that I normally go to. As I was heading there, I passed by Smiley's Discount Beverage and realized I hadn't tried them out yet.
Smiley's has a nice selection of beer and wine. And it has the standard milk, (some) bread, and eggs. And a few cans of this and that. But it's not Tedeschi, which hands down has been the best convenience store for me this month.
I did score a 5 oz can of white chicken for $1.29 which was a pretty good deal, considering I haven't seen a similar sized can of tuna for less than $1.99. That will be lunch some time in the next couple of days. And it really is only a couple more days! Three to be exact. This diet has been a pain the butt.
I went off to Tedeschi after visiting Smiley's because I still needed a few things for dinner, and I was out of bread.
For dinner I decided to have baked pasta again, and ate half a can of corn.
Dinner
Quantity
Cost
Calories
macaroni
3.00
$0.47
310
sauce
1.00
$0.34
60
olive oil
0.33
$0.35
40
mozzarella
1.70
$0.89
118
coffee
3.00
$0.28
7
corn, canned
1.00
$0.65
90
$2.97
625
I know today wasn't the healthiest day, and it followed on the least healthy day of the diet, but that's what happens when you lose focus I suppose. It takes time to recover.
I picked up a can of garbanzo beans at Tedeschi - I was pretty excited about that. But what to do with them? I don't have my usual spices. Certainly no tahini. Stay tuned to find out!
Day totals:
Cost: $7.17
Calories: 1,638
Exercise: 322 from 11,911 steps. I walked for an hour on the treadmill. No running for a while. :(
Weight: 166.5
I've been limiting myself in this experiment so far with a hard constraint of only shopping in a convenience store and a soft constraint of generally sticking to a budget of around $8/day.
I'm writing this on Day 27 because yesterday (Day 26) I decided to throw the second constraint - the dollar amount - out the window. I invited myself over to the house of my friends Lisa and Mike to cook us dinner. My goal: the nicest dinner I could make in the Food Desert.
So Day 26 started out like many other days in the Desert - PB&B with coffee:
Breakfast
Quantity
Cost
Calories
banana
1.00
$0.19
90
bread
2.00
$0.26
133
peanut butter
1.00
$0.27
180
coffee
3.00
$0.28
7
$1.00
410
I made a quick lunch of grilled cheese and coffee:
Lunch
Quantity
Cost
Calories
bread, wheat
4.00
$0.52
266
cheddar cheese
2.00
$0.80
220
I can't believe
10.00
$0.13
40
coffee
3.00
$0.28
7
$1.73
533
I didn't tell Lisa and Mike what I had in mind - only that it would come from the Desert.
I acquired my ingredients over the course of several days of scouting and buying. Something here, something there.
The big prep at home was to make gnocchi - a pasta made from potato and wheat flour. I made the gnocchi using potato flakes. I've done this before - I call it "cheating gnocchi".
1.5 C flour
1 C potato flakes
1 egg
1 C warm water
mix together. add flour if the dough is sticky. roll out to about 3/8 inch thickness. slice into finger tip size pillows. roll the pillows off the end of a fork to give shape. that's it.
I also baked brownies from a package, and completely forgot to photograph them. But everyone knows what brownies look like.
On the way over to Lisa and Mike's I stopped to pick up
the lobster - yes, lobster! at the Citgo station on Rte 1 going in to
Portsmouth. I know - you don't see live lobster in every gas station
convenience store, and you don't see them much around here - but there
they were.
First course was a salad I picked up atthe Dover Citgo, enhanced with some additional cucumber and green pepper from Tedeschi. And Italian dressing I bought for the occasion.
Second course was the gnocchi with white wine cream sauce. No problems finding white wine in convenience stores.
Then the main course - lobster with melted butter.
Desert was brownie sundays - brownies with Haagan Dazs vanilla ice cream and hot fudge.
I had a couple of beers while we were cooking, and a couple of glasses of wine with dinner. After dinner we drank coffee.
Dinner
Quantity
Cost
Calories
garden salad
1.00
$1.82
15
Italian dressing
1.00
$0.35
100
Gnocchi
1/3
$0.40
278
White wine cream sauce
1/3
$2.65
462
lobster
1.00
$12.71
175
butter
1.00
$0.18
102
brownie
1/8
$0.65
428
Haagan-Daas Vanilla Ice Cream
1.00
$1.66
333
hot fudge sauce
1.00
$0.48
65
beer
2.00
$2.66
300
white wine
2.00
$8.50
300
coffee
3.00
$0.28
7
$32.34
2,566
Oh, and I had a bag of honey roasted peanuts ($0.50; 230 cal) for a snack.
So that was the day. No exercise, but I still managed to burn some calories because of all the cooking.
I pulled out all the stops for one meal. It's easy to blow through a lot of money. But it was back to business on Day 27.
The point of pulling out all the stops was to have a bit of fun after a long spell of dullness, but also to show what I could have been doing if I chose not to be both money and health conscious, and not break down and eat just the junk food. There is a surprising variety of things available in the Food Desert if one looks. But it takes effort. This meal would have been a snap to put together if I had had access to a regular grocery store, but it took visits to multiple stores and planning over days to make it happen. A real cost of living in a Food Desert.
Day totals:
Cost: $35.57
Calories: 3,739
Exercise: 173 from 9,582 steps - not bad for not actively exercising
Weight: 165.8
I'm a little behind blogging because I've been busy with work and house hunting. Day 25 was not a particulalry interesting day in the Food Desert.
Breakfast
Quantity
Cost
Calories
eggs hard boiled
2.00
$0.59
155
chobani yogurt
1.00
$1.79
140
coffee
3.00
$0.28
7
$2.66
302
Lunch
Quantity
Cost
Calories
bread, wheat
4.00
$0.52
266
peanut butter
1.00
$0.27
180
jelly
1.00
$0.18
56
carrots
5.00
$0.62
63
coffee
3
$0.28
7
$1.87
572
I did use the rest of the frozen peas to make my pasta primavera. Also added some green pepper. It was a nice dish.
Dinner
Quantity
Cost
Calories
macaroni
3.00
$0.47
310
olive oil
0.66
$0.35
80
onion
3.00
$0.23
16
peas
1.00
$0.90
105
green pepper
0.25
$0.32
7
$2.27
518
Ate a banana and a the other half of a bag of peanuts (I had used the first half to make the baked pear). The banana was free because it came with the yogurt from Circle K.
Snack
Quantity
Cost
Calories
banana
1.00
$0.00
90
peanuts
0.50
$0.25
130
$0.49
220
Day Totals:
Cost: $7.05
Calories: 1,612
Exercise: 42 - my foot is acting up. I rested it. I don't know if I'll ever be able to run again.
Weight: 167.1
Humans are remarkably adaptable. For example, I've been in New Hampshire for about six weeks now and this morning when I went out to the car, I was thinking how it was pretty warm - I didn't even bother to button my overcoat. It was 10 degrees F. Six weeks earlier in Texas had I walked out into 10 degrees F, I would have been shivering, sniveling, and whining.
My diet experiments tend to go through a similar arc. in the beginning they are quite trying. Eventually I get into a groove. And by the end, they are quite natural - even boring. Perhaps that's why no one has been reading these posts. But that's ok. Someday when I win the Nobel Prize for Economics, everyone will read them. Small children will be required to memorize what I ate on each day. Etc.
Day 24 started out with the return of the PB&B with some raisins and the ubiquitous coffee.
Breakfast
Quantity
Cost
Calories
banana
1.00
$0.19
90
bread
2.00
$0.26
133
peanut butter
1.00
$0.27
180
raisins
1.00
$0.43
120
coffee
3.00
$0.28
7
$1.43
530
Lunch was the leftover baked pasta. And coffee.
Lunch
Quantity
Cost
Calories
macaroni
3.00
$0.47
310
sauce
1.00
$0.34
60
olive oil
0.33
$0.35
40
mozzarella
1.70
$0.89
118
onion
3.00
$0.23
16
coffee
3
$0.28
7
$2.56
551
Dinner required a run to Tedeschi for more bread and cheese so I could make grilled ham and cheese sandwiches for dinner. When I walked in I saw they had pears and that got me thinking about making a special desert.
Dinner
Quantity
Cost
Calories
bread, wheat
4.00
$0.52
220
cheese, cheddar
2.00
$0.80
266
ham
62.00
$1.30
90
I can't believe
10.00
$0.13
40
$2.75
616
I had picked up the Oscar Meyer ham the other day and been waiting for an opportunity to use it. I bought it on a whim, but once I got it home I realized how expensive it actually was. According to the package it has 2.5 servings. I used two slices, and based on weight, that was right about 1 serving (62g/162g package). But I'll confess it was a nice change of pace in flavor.
My special desert was baked pears with peanuts and honey.
Snack
Quantity
Cost
Calories
pear
1.00
$0.99
103
honey
1.00
$0.37
64
peanuts
0.50
$0.25
130
$1.61
297
The recipe this is based on is here: http://www.skinnytaste.com/2014/10/baked-pears-with-walnuts-and-honey.html
I didn't have walnuts, so I substituted peanuts. And I forgot the cinnamon, which I did have. But it was still a nice, if somewhat pricey, treat.
My foot was bothering me today - I guess I've pushed it too hard trying to get back in to running, so I took the day off from exercise.
Only seven days left after today. Whew. I am ready to be done. It's not been terrible, but I just don't like the restrictions, and frankly I don't like the blandness.
Today I combined a couple of Food Desert staples: PB&B, and PB&J.
Breakfast
Quantity
Cost
Calories
banana
1.00
$0.19
90
bread
2.00
$0.26
133
peanut butter
1.00
$0.27
180
coffee
3.00
$0.28
7
$1.00
410
Lunch was the PB&J with carrots tradition:
Lunch
Quantity
Cost
Calories
bread, wheat
4
$0.52
266
peanut butter
1
$0.27
180
jelly
1
$0.18
56
carrots
5
$0.62
63
coffee
3.00
$0.28
5
$1.87
570
I grabbed a bag of peanuts ($0.50; 260 cal) for snack before my afternoon class.
That's a shot of the building I teach in on Tuesday afternoons. That's really not much ice compared to some other places, I just happened to have my phone out when I was walking by.
Dinner was baked ziti - except it was actually elbows, not ziti. I caramelized some onions in olive oil, then added the Hunt's sauce to the onions as well as a bunch of garlic powder and "Italian seasoning" (whatever that is - mostly oregano and basil, I think). I cooked the macaroni, then mixed the sauce and macaroni along with an ounce or so of mozzarella, then added the rest of the mozzarella on top and baked it until the mozzarella was just starting to crisp.
It came out nice. And the price was reasonable.
Dinner
Quantity
Cost
Calories
macaroni
3.00
$0.47
310
sauce
1.00
$0.34
60
olive oil
0.33
$0.35
40
mozzarella
1.70
$0.89
118
onion
3.00
$0.23
16
$2.28
544
I ran 10 minutes and walked 55 minutes on the treadmill while I watched Seth Godin videos on YouTube. I recommend this one:
After exercise I was a bit hungry, so I broke into the frozen peas ($0.90; 105 cal) I found at the other Tedeschi the other day. I put a little I Can't Believe ($0.07; 20 cal) on them for flavor.
Speaking of I Can't Believe, did you guys hear about the butter crisis in Norway? My colleague used this video in class to talk about supply and demand yesterday afternoon.
One of the challenges of the food desert is getting enough fresh fruit and vegetables. Or, fruit and vegetables of any sort for that matter. Fresh anything is relatively expensive, except for bananas. It appears bananas are optimized for convenience stores - they last a relatively long time, and don't require refrigeration. Typically if a convenience store has fruit, it has bananas.
So this morning started with the Circle K special - Chobani yogurt ($1.79; 140 cal) with a free banana ($0.00; 90 cal) and coffee brewed in the office ($0.28; 6 cal).
Lunch was PB&Js and carrots again - I have a new found fondness of PB&J. I think it's the lack of sugar in most of the other things I am eating - it makes the jelly just that much more special. Since I was eating in the office, I didn't bring along any dressing. I just ate the carrots naked.
Lunch
Quantity
Cost
Calories
bread, wheat
4
$0.52
266
peanut butter
1
$0.27
180
jelly
1
$0.18
55
carrots
5.00
$0.62
63
coffee
3.00
$0.28
5
$1.87
569
It was kind of a long day. I went out at lunch time with my realtor to look at houses and didn't find anything I wanted to live in. I grabbed some peanuts ($0.50; 260) and some raisins ($0.30; 90 cal) in the afternoon for a snack.
Dinner was a little sad. I wound up eating the left over pizza rustica ($1.73; 753 calories).
After my evening work out - running 12 minutes, walking another 18 because my foot started to bother me again - I ate an orange ($0.99; 63 cal).
So, although the day had it's ups and downs, as far as eating goes I think it was relatively successful. I managed to get 3 servings of fruit and a serving of vegetables (not counting the Regan era calculus of tomato sauce as a vegetable).
