So for the first three years of my college life, I lived on processed packaged food. Ramen. Cereal. Pastaroni was my particular demon, I'd have seven or eight meals of just pastaroni every week, sometimes as many as ten. It was cheap; $1 per box, plus a little bit of butter and milk to make each one. Good for a budget; terrible for nutrition. Pure processed simple carbs. Not a scrap of protein or fiber to it. But I lived off of those.
That was, understandably, one of the hardest things to give up in making this lifestyle change. I still have a dozen or so boxes of that sort of thing rattling around; I keep them for emergencies (I live so hand-to-mouth it's not even funny) in case I can't afford to buy real food for a week or something at some point, but I haven't had one in months. Not since...October? November? Probably October sometime.
And this evening two things happened that reminded me of how far I've come, even if I'm not doing everything right or even a lot of things right at the moment (witness the entire bar of dark chocolate that disappeared yesterday when I was depressed).
I was on AIM with a friend of mine, discussing our grocery shopping for the week, since I'd just gotten back from Trader Joes. Big change numbah one: I used to see TJs as a "specialty" store and only went there if I wanted wine or some special kind of candy or something (cause omigod they have the BEST truffles and meringue cookies EVER); all my regular shopping was done at Safeway. Now the only things I hit Safeway for are English muffins, because they have my favorite brand, and for cereal, because I like Safeway store brand better than the TJs version, oddly enough. And in discussing what I'd gotten that evening, I mentioned that I'd bought three more bags of frozen veggies, and continued the sentence by saying "because I totally live on that stuff". That stopped me cold. That's the EXACT SAME PHRASE that I always have used to describe my pastaroni habit, cause it was true. And I realized, WOW, how much better it is to be describing my "essential"/"live off of it" food by talking about bags of frozen veggies instead of boxes of pasta and powder! That was numbah two.
And then there's numbah three. While I was putting away the baked pita chips and pretzel-crisps I'd bought at TJs, I was trying to juggle things to fit it all in the cupboard, and was getting cranky about the lack of space. Then I realized, duh, I still have probably eight boxes of "dinners" in there. Hamburger helper, pastaroni, ricearoni. So I cleared it out. I didn't get rid of it, but I stuck all those boxes in the cabinet over the washer/dryer area which I never use. Now I look in my pantry and see all these healthy foods. It's SO WEIRD to see that.
Alright, enough flaunting it. These things just kinda whacked me upside the head and I thought I'd share.
You know, if you don't want to throw that stuff away, you could donate it to a local soup kitchen. They are always happy to have free food that they can add to other foods and help the homeless.
Yeah, Jay, that's what I would do with it if I were getting rid of it. But like I said, I'm perpetually broke, and so I'm hoarding every bit of food just in case I can't buy groceries for a week or two, cause it happens every now and again.
Thanks, you guys. It totally IS incentive to keep up with the healthy stuff.
Nikaia - YES! WAY TO GO You are making some awesome changes.
I always feel self-conscious shopping because I feel like I buy so much food so often compared with some students (mostly because of my weight too), but I then I remind myself that I have to go shopping regularly because my food is fresh, not processed. I know what you mean though, it sure feels great to see a stock of healthy food after groceries
NSV, of a sort
You are making some awesome changes. 