I eat what's on sale!

I’m pretty used to tracking my food intake, and have been doing so for a couple years to count calories. Ah, the toils of a guilty fat kid.

Everything without a listed brand is Roundy’s brand...I shop at Rainbow because it’s the closest supermarket and I don’t have a lot of time on my hands. Almost everything on this list was what was on sale at Rainbow in the last two weeks. I could tell you before this that my diet is largely structured by what’s cheapest, and this is caused by a lot of quite common factors: My parents aren’t paying for a cent of my college; I don’t get much financial aid; I can’t work too much on top of class, volunteering, interning, etc.

In addition to listed foods and drinks, I drink 6 or so glasses of water a day and take a multivitamin and fish oil supplement.

Thursday 04 March

8:15am - home

· big bowl (~2 servings) Honey Bunches of Oats

· 3/4 cup of 1% milk

I’m not big on waking up extra-early, so in the morning I’m usually pressed for time. I eat a lot of cereal, toast, and other quick and quiet fixes.

12:45pm - Nicholson Hall 145

· Crunchy granola bar

On Tuesday/Thursday I have class from 9:45-2pm. If I waited to eat until I got home around 2:30, I would be pretty grumpy. Hence, breakfast and a snack.

2:30pm - home

· 1 can Campbell’s vegetarian vegetable soup

· 5 Our Family saltines

Soup and crackers were about all I had left to eat (I went to the store directly after this). Incidentally, both foods were given to me by my dad, who tries to help by emptying out the extra or unwanted things from our family’s pantry whenever I go home. Because of this, I have upwards of six cans of green beans at all times. (It’s lovely, though.)

5:45pm - Minneapolis American Indian Center

· Half a bacon/lettuce/mayo sandwich on wheat bread

· 1 apple

· Small glass of raspberry lemonade

I volunteer at an after school program on Thursday nights, and the above foods were the meal that night.

9pm - home

· Smoothie: 1 Chiquita banana, 5 frozen strawberries, approx. 1/2 cup orange juice, 1/2 cup 1% milk

· State Fair corndog

Especially when fresh produce is out of season, my fruit intake is a daily smoothie. Frozen fruit is cheap and works best for this. I bought the corndogs this week because they were on sale at Rainbow and I wanted to show them to some British friends who wanted to understand what, exactly, corndogs are. I ate one at 9 because I was hungry.

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Friday 05 March

7am - home

· bowl of Reese’s Puffs

· 1/2 cup 1% milk

11am - Walter Library B04

· Ham and swiss Lunchable

· 1 can Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper

That was a work “snack.” Lunchables were on sale at Rainbow for 99 cents apiece, and who doesn’t like Lunchables? I buy Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper for a lot of reasons other than the fact I enjoy how it tastes—the name is hilariously long, and the can design is interesting. …Is that normal behavior?

12:30pm - home

· Pressed sandwich:

o 2 slices Country Hearth 12-grain bread

o Fresh Express spinach

o 2 pieces Oscar Mayer turkey

o 2 slices pepperjack cheese

o Miracle Whip Lite

· 1 glass Diet Coke

I have a short window of time between getting done working at Walter Library (12pm) and going to my internship in Northeast Minneapolis (1pm). Depending on how quickly the bus trip from Coffman to Dinkytown goes, I usually get stuck with a Lean Pocket. Today I had a few extra minutes, so I made and warmed up a sandwich.

6pm - home

· Plate full of tortilla chips

· Shredded cheddar cheese

I was feeling lazy and had a hair appointment at 7. Had to get something done quickly.

9pm - home

· Smoothie (same ingredients as above, but frozen peaches instead of strawberries)

· Mini carrots

· Athenos roasted red pepper hummus

Snacking, snacking.

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Saturday 06 March

10am - home

· Scrambled Eggs

o 2 large eggs

o Some small amount of 1% milk

o 3 slices bacon, cut up

o Fresh Express spinach

o Cheddar cheese

· Smoothie (same as above, strawberry variety)

Weekend mornings mean me not being pressed for time and not eating cereal. What usually results is something unhealthy made in a frying pan. Like this.

12pm - home

· Quite a few grapes, though not the whole bag or anything

I was hungry for some variety of juicy fruit. And, luckily, grapes were on sale at Rainbow last week. Whee!

2pm - friend, Al's, house

· Keefer Court Bakery

o 2 pork rolls

o 1 pineapple bun

· 1 can Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper

A friend who lives off-campus on the west bank wanted to meet for cheap lunch, and I suggested this standby, discovered long ago in my Middlebrook days. (If you’ve never been to Keefer Court and you’re ever on the west bank, go and get a boxful of goodies for $5-$10. Seriously.)

5pm - Al's house

· 1 mug homemade mocha

Friend and I were still sitting around talking…she wanted to make coffee. So.

8pm - home

· State Fair corndog

British friends were awake (at 2am) and on Skype. They wanted to see a corndog.