Lots to say in so little space!
January 10, 2005 
5:44 am
So today I talked with J about my new grocery plan. Here's the deal: he doesn't eat much, I don't eat much, so why are we spending so much damn money on groceries?
J was largely vegetarian for several years. He's eaten much more meat since he's met me, but only because I feed it to him, not through any desire of his own. I don't even really like to eat meat, but I know the protein is good for me and is necessary for building healthy and strong muscles. We're limiting our meats to white chicken meat, fish, and beef. Beef will probably really be a couple times a month, though, as I only get cravings for it when I'm lacking in iron. The majority of our foods will be those lean proteins, some carbs in the form of pasta or rice, and veggies. Lots of veggies.
On this new budget, I can have as much salad as I want. For the longest while, because of the way I've been cooking, salad veggies have been kind of a luxury. Not so anymore! I'm overjoyed by this as I have really missed my salads. The only "dressing" I use is a tablespoon of olive oil and a sprinkle or two of ground sumac (a nutty red spice), and I tend to eat a lot of "junk" salads... two or three kinds of lettuce, beans, lots of roughage.
J has gotten into the whole idea and has suggested that we buy two dozen eggs each trip to the store: one dozen to cook with and one dozen to hardboil and keep in the fridge for lunches, snacks, etc. I think this is a wonderful idea and I'm going to start on it immediately. Also I want to buy an egg cooker, so that I can have my plain softboiled eggs with dry toast of a morning. I've missed that since my old egg cooker died.
We've decided on pretzels as our salty snack of choice, and once we move into a bigger place (should be next month), I think I'm going to buy an air popper for popcorn, too. Right now we have a stove top popper, which is nice, but it does use sunflower oil. I know that's better for you than most other oils, but I'd prefer the zero-cal air popped if at all possible.
Oh. And I am NOT doing Weight Watchers. It's a lot of money, and J agreed to pay a little more in rent (thereby scoring us a nicer, MUCH bigger apartment) if I agreed to wait a year or so. He has complete confidence that I can make it just through controlling my portions and going to Curves... as he said, I did it once before, so I can do it again!
At first I was tempted to say no, to do WW and just live in an older complex, but we went to a nice area of town that I'm very comfortable in and looked at places and, well, I couldn't help it. We just put in our lease application yesterday and we have our fingers crossed. There's a 2BR/2BA, 1200 sq ft, 3rd story apartment that we have our eyes on. The complex allows decorations and improvements, which means we can install ceiling fans and paint the walls! How cool is that?
It will be such a relief to have room and amenities (there's a private gym, two pools, a car care center, and a grill/picnic area) and clean air to breathe. We walked around the new complex, then drove home to our current place, and the difference was staggering. It's only 12 miles, but the stench of car exhaust and smog and diesel fuel is just so intense in Midtown that it makes me gag.
Anyway, all this is I guess to say that I'm back on track and very happy about it. :) I'm also back on my lovely, lovely night schedule, and although I'm pretty tired right now (we woke up at 9am yesterday, it's now 6am today, and we're at work till 9am, which will make a full 24 hours), I'm glad to be here. It's so lovely and quiet and calm-- which means lots of time to UPDATE!
One last thing! I asked J if we could fly my mom up once we're moved and settled into our new place, and he said YES! So I think that's what we're going to do-- fly her up, have her stay for a week or so, and then drive back down to FL together. I'm excited and so is she. I just feel so blessed sometimes.
