Okay, I’ll admit it.  I have not been doing so well healthy-eating-wise since the flood.  I have really let it all go to hell.  It started as stress eating, then depression eating, then oh-God-I’m-fat-again eating, and now, look!  It’s the holidays again!  Hello, 89 different casseroles, all with the two-butter-stick minimum, of course!

So, yesterday was grocery day again.  With all of the holiday and furlough days, I am getting paid even less than normal, so money is especially tight this Christmas!  So I hunted for hours looking for enough coupons and ad matches to get us plenty of food for the month–and healthy food, at that.

We stopped into Wal-Mart, which I hate, to ad match some $1.50 Kashi cereal (and I had $1.50 coupons! FREE!) and $1.44 Eight O’Clock coffee, and I was going to ad match some Breyer’s yogurt that Bi-Lo had had on sale for $0.50 apiece.  I don’t know why, but we always buy yogurt, and I have every intention of taking it to work with me and eating it in place of more fattening snacks.  I might eat one or two, and then I forget about it.

Well, Wal-Mart had even less of a selection of Breyer’s than Bi-Lo did, but I spotted some nonfat Stonyfield Farms Oikos Greek yogurt.  All the health magazines of which I’m a subscriber swear by this stuff.  They say how it’s a great alternative to mayo, is great in cereal, etc.  I could never find any in the area, so a couple of months ago I did buy some Great Value brand nonfat plain yogurt and some powdered dip mixes and salad dressing packets and tried it.  It was a nice way for me to be able to eat “creamy” dressings and dips that I generally have to miss out on, since The Boyfriend is allergic to mayo (or, so he claims). 

So, this time I see that they are carrying the actual thing, and my heart almost stops at the price!  $4 for 4 4oz cups!  That is cuckoo-bananas to me. Nonetheless, I wanted to see what the big fuss was about it, so I got a pack of it.  I opened one of the 4oz cups tonight, determined to make tuna salad for tomorrow’s lunch.  Tuna salad!  I haven’t gotten to eat it (without sneaking, anyway) in almost five years!  It might not be a big deal to some of you, but try depriving yourself of something for a long period of time.  Even if you don’t really like it. If you know you can’t have it, you start to really want it.  As in, to the point of you will start acting like a crackhead on a street corner to get it.  So, the yogurt was a good bit thicker than the regular yogurt, and its smell and taste was a lot like sour cream.  It’s also much lower in carbs and much higher in protein.  I think if anything, it will be a really great healthy veggie and pita chip dip option.  I added apples and celery and all the good stuff you generally add to tuna salad, and I am actually excited about my whole wheat tuna sandwich lunch tomorrow.  Even if the girls at work DO end up getting Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches and 2 lb cheeseburgers.  Lunch at the office has been my downfall.  It’s better to bring your own lunch because it’s healthier and it’s cheaper, but then you don’t want to get left out.  And then you can’t fit in your chair anymore.

So, I guess my verdict will have to be delivered after lunch tomorrow.  But I am excited at the possibilities.  I can eat ranch dressing again?  I can mix it with all this Kashi cereal I bought?  And all the Indian and Mediterranean dishes–I’m getting hungry just talking about it.  See, this is where I have a hard time losing weight!  I just love food so much.  Healthy food, foreign food, Southern fried food, it’s all an adventure for my mouth in the same way that my varying taste in music is an adventure for my ears, and both are necessary since I rarely ever get to have any actual physical adventures.  But my fantasy world and poetic waxing are best left to another blog.  I think I’d better hit the Wii Biggest Loser for thinking about eating this late.

By the way: I did find coupons on Stonyfield’s website! It won’t be an impulse buy next time.

Something to leave you with as I have been contemplating this for awhile:  Splenda:  Friend or Foe?  It has no calories, so how bad can it be for you?  But then again, I don’t really eat anymore now than I did when I was ridiculously thin.  Splenda wasn’t even on the market then.  So, has introducing it into my diet messed up my metabolism?  Please, share your thoughts on this!

Other Gems from Jeb

• Seventeen Pounds Down, Thirty-Two to Go (1)
• What to Eat at the Holiday Cookout (0)
• Seven Day Soup Diet (2)
• Healthy Breakfast Options (1)
• Dead Prez: “Be Healthy” (0)