[sarahinparis]

Originally Posted by Easily Amused

Sarah, you got me at Macadamias. Love them so much!!! You said big bag. Where can I get one of those without having to sell a vital organ? I'm not thinking about the fat fast right now while things are still slowly moving, but I sure would like to have some for my birthday...or are they just cheap in Paris? I'm not going there.

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living...gs_current.jsp
NOTHING is cheap in Paris, alas...

But I never have understood the argument about cost of items (in particular on a fat fast when you're eating next to nothing) but even in general low carb living - I mean a bag of macadamias which would be what four or so one-ounce servings, so 4 snacks, is not so expensive, and when I ate carbs I would stop for a snack of this or that all the time - low carb is so much cheaper I find, I guess because I'm never buying snack junk, and it eat at home most of the time. More money for butter!

[sarahinparis]

Sue, I love the "colorholic" there are so many bad things to be addicted to, and you must add vibrancy and life to any event!

Easily amused : ahh, big bags of nuts are simply out of the question for me. They are far too calorically dense to just open up a bag. While I do think a portion can be satisfying, I never think that as I'm eating them, only a good half hour later do I realize that they've taken the edge off my hunger - if I were to eat them openly, to "satisfaction" I would probably consume 4-6 "portions" at once. Which is far too many carbs and calories.

So the first thing I do with nuts is package them into one-ounce servings. Because I have little kids I have lots of snack containers now, but in my before-kids days I just used small ziplocks. I keep a portion in my purse most of the time to have a low-carb snack with me while out and about, because that's a danger zone. Macadamia are more expensive than most other nuts here too (although pecans are through the roof, but luckily they're not so low in carbs so I'm not tempted to buy them).

I guess if you think of the price of nuts compared to other foods they're expensive, but if you think of the price of one "snack" they're pretty reasonable. If I'm out without nuts I'll go into a grocery store and buy a pack of ham or something and that's more expensive than a portion of nuts (even if they are organic macadamias!).

For a fat fast one 6oz bag is more than a day's food, Sue -- but cream cheese is much cheaper. When I was eating dairy cream cheese was my main thing to eat on fat fasts, by the way (I don't mind it in a bowl with a spoon - but that's part of why I've weighed over 220 pounds most of my adult life!)