Day 27: the day after

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

Day 26: pulling out the stops

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

Day 25: another day in the desert

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

Day 24: acclimatized

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.

Day totals:

Cost: $8.36
Calories: 1,994
Weight: 167.5

Day 23: Guest Appearance by Colbert

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.

The Colbert Report
Colbert Report Episode Guide,  More Colbert Report Videos,  Comedy Central Full Episodes

A busy but pretty good day.

Day Totals:

Cost: $6.62
Calories: 1,909
Exercise: 412 from 13,728 steps
Net calories: 1,488
Weight: 167.4

Day 22: getting the fruit and vegetables

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). 

Day totals:

Cost: $7.46

Calories: 1,946

Exercise: 203 - from 12,058 steps

Net calories: 1,762

Weight: 167.2

week 3 summary stats

Video version of the report.

We are now three weeks into the Food Desert simulation. Above you see a bar chart of my total food expenditures by day. 

Average food expenditure was $7.89, with a median of $7.58 and a standard deviation of $2.11. As you can see, there are several outliers. During week 3 specifically average food expendutre was $6.96.

Average calories consumed was 1,766; average calories burned through exercise (as tracked by fitbit) was 368, for an average net caloric intake of 1,413. Looking at week 3 alone, average consumption was slightly higher at 1,831, and average calories burned was slightly lower at 300, for a net caloric intake of 1,531.

As you can see, a program of reaonable caloric restriction combined with avoiding the worst foods available in convenience stores has resulted in a predictable weight loss, with an ending weight of 166.7.