Sprouts Vs. Trader Joe’s

I love trying new foods. I went to Sprouts Farmers Market. I like the fresh bulk foods. They had every thing from almonds to lentils.The vitamin department is great. It’s like a mini GNC. The rest of the store was nice but lacked variety. I found new products that I haven’t seen at other stores which I love. I’ll review those later when I use them. Overall I think the store was nice but not on a regular basis. As a working mom I need a store that has a variety of foods. I’m looking for convenience. I only have time to shop at one store. I do like their magazine. Trader Joe’s wins this one for me but Sprouts is nice to visit.

Temptations Lurking at Work!

Work drives me crazy for many reasons. One of the main reasons is food. OMG! You would think it is a health maintenance organization we eat healthy. Not always the case. Lets start with cinnamon buns in the break room this morning. Lunch ,Mr Pickles sandwiches and potato chips. This is the average lunch provided for us during meetings. I forgot the cookies. Afternoon snacks were brownies provided by nurse. Did I mention candy bars by the dollar? We have several candy boxes floating around for school fund-raisers. How can I stay healthy around this? This was just today. I haven’t started on pot luck and pizza parties for meeting goals. It’s not easy. I have learned to say no,thank you. I bring my lunch and my snacks. We do have fruit sometimes but they put salt on it!!   The patients bring gigantic  coffee concoctions. Help me! I just keep saying no but some days its hard.

Gluten & Dairy Free Day 1

I searched my small town and found plenty of gluten-free products in the larger chain stores. Raley’s had the best choice. I found gluten-free waffles, crackers,pancake mix, cookies, and pasta. The problem is I usually don’t eat those things. I’m really not a big starch girl. I see it is easy to be gluten-free and not healthy. Many of the foods were just empty calories. I plan to do gluten-free the healthy way. I usually eat egg white omelette with veggies for breakfast. I throw in a whole wheat tortilla and turkey or chicken sausage. I switched to a brown rice tortilla. Kind of crumbly but not bad. I did brown and wild rice for lunch and dinner. This is one of my usual choices so not really a big deal. I like my frozen meals for lunch.That eliminated my Kashi frozen meals. I guess I will have to make lunch which I was planning to do anyway. I didn’t realize the dairy was such a big thing either .I accidentally bought spinach feta sausage. Oh well. I will pay closer attention next time. So far so good.  One lesson learned already. Read labels! Gluten free does not always mean healthy.

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Dairy & Gluten Free

I’m thinking of trying dairy and gluten-free. Since I’ve been back from my vacation I have this gas bloating feeling. These symptoms are not new. I just thought it was milk. I know I’m lactose intolerant so I usually try to avoid cheese except feta and I stick to Greek yogurt but not very strict about it. The diet plans I’ve read made me think more about the gluten thing. I have joint pain (but only in weight-bearing areas knees, hips , ankles) gas , bloating, and fatigue. These are all vague symptoms which can be caused by many things. I think the dairy , gluten-free challenge might be worth a try. If it doesn’t help I’ll gradually add back. I don’t believe in restricting food groups. A good challenge should last two weeks. This doesn’t mean I’m going to buy gluten-free stuff. There are lots of gluten-free food that’s healthy. Fruits,veggies, quinoa, brown rice.  I already eat these things so not a problem. I’ve got some planning to do so I won’t start until next week. Anybody on dairy or gluten-free diet.?

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Grocery Shopping Is So Much Easier When Your Eating Clean!

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I am trying to go to the less processed side when it comes to food.  Clean eating is my new goal. I go to the grocery store more often but I spend much less time in the store.  I go more because I need my fresh fruits and veggies. if I had more time I could live like the French and go to market daily. It is advised to shop the perimeter  of the store and I really do. I even skip whole aisles. I don’t do chips. I no longer spend time reading labels trying to guess the best chip. I don’t need them and if I do I can make them fresh.  Baked sweet potato chips are awesome. I spend little time in the canned food aisle .I buy canned organic tomatoes by the bulk. I stick to fresh or frozen veggies and beans. The frozen aisle is down to veggies and a few select organic bistro meals. Cookie ,soda, bakery  and juice aisles Not ever! I love my new habits. It makes me feel so much better. What is you favorite grocery aisle?

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Bmr? I’m puzzled

Ok I get that I need to know my bmr to figure out how many calories I need. Lots of web sites have Bmr calculators. My problem is figuring out my activity level. I know I’m not sedentary but am I active or light active. I’m on my feet daily but sit at my desk at times. I don’t want to add my exercise calories I want to do that separate. On myfittnesspal.com it gives examples of a nurse or mailman. If I was a nurse it would be 1550 or something like that, a mailman 1700 something. I’m a doctor. I think I move more that my nurse because I work in an office. I have patients scheduled all the time. If I was hospital then no I don’t move that much. I get 1800 cals with fat2fitradio bmr calculator. How do I know what is right? Help? I wish I had one if those body buggs or fit bitsthings but I wouldn’t use it all the time. I would just want to borrow one. I could do trial & error. I guess that’s what I’m doing now. I was at lower setting and scale slowed. I then increased calories and weight went down again. Now stuck but I admit I haven’t been eating my calories. It’s all so confusing! Help! What ever happened to eat less exercise more. No one ever tells you about the fine line of eating to little or too much. If anyone has good ideas let me know 😉