Breakfast: Bacon and scrambled eggs (with lots of lard!) No thawed steaks in the fridge, argh! Have now ensured the situation will not occur again pre-Thailand, by buying up a store's-worth of lamb forequarter chops!
Lunch: I had assumed I would be skipping lunch, despite my light breakfast, but then at the staff function the catering team got their act together and served up a GIANT antipasto platter!! Meat!! Sure makes a HUGE change from the usual sandwiches and sausage rolls. So I nabbed a piece of ham and a piece of pressed poultry (of some description) and washed it down with some soda water (one solitary bottle on a table straining to hold up a bottle-o's entire stock of wine, plus litres or sickly soft drinks). My belly has obviously forgotten how to deal with carbonation, so that was a bit achy for a bit while I sat through farewell speeches.
Then it was off to a local shopping centre to do some last-minute swimsuit hunting before we jet overseas, but no luck. So I went and bought what I always buy - meat! Oh, and some new plates, to mix it up a bit. Aren't they pretty?
Ooooh, rack of lamb! Yes, I set them up like that just for the photo, though my hunger meant, as usual, I didn't take the time to give the shot its due care. It had been 12 hours since breakfast, c'mon!
Dinner: rack of lamb, and porterhouse steak! Served with butter on its own little mini-version of the new plates, aww! I'll snap a pic of the adorable set-up next time - as I say, I was too damn hungry!
Ok, just one more day to live through, and then it's hello hammock! Well, hello suitcase first, whilst I try on my summer wardrobe to see if I have anything that will stay up...
I cut out grains, sugar and starches at the beginning of 2009. I have been keeping a journal as I have progressively shed my bulges and my processed foods. I am aiming to live a clean, primal lifestyle, and I wish to share my eating habits with those who wish to clean up their lifestyle and live happily and healthfully. As the cliche states - if I can do it, so can everybody else.
4 comments:
Looks good! :)
I was just wondering, when you're eating meat-only does your grocery bill go up or stay pretty much the same?
In the past, I used to live on $30 a week of groceries, plus a few dinners out. Then I moved in with my boy, and his standard of eating was higher than mine - brands, desserts, etc. So while we split out grocery bill 66/33, I was spending more on groceries. We would go out quite often, and I was learning to cook so we would buy lots of fancy ingredients. Not sure exactly how much I was spending in those days, but I was buying conventionally farmed meat, eggs, dairy, fruit and veg.
When I switched to Primal, I noticed a drop in my grocery expense initially, since I needed fewer products/ingredients, so I could eliminate lots of additional items and buy key items in bulk. As I shifted to organic products, the costs did rise. I was eating at restaurants increasingly rarely, so that saved me a lot of money, and my big expense - going out for lunch every work day - disappeared since the cafe didn't serve anything edible anymore!
Finally, while the average cost of my home-cooked meals will be higher than your average now that I only eat organic meat and a few eggs, I don't have any need to go out to eat, I don't eat lunch, and I have done a lot of research into getting the cheapest organic meats I can find. I'd say my average meal is $5-$10, so I could potentially eat $20 worth of food per day, maximum. But I'd expect most days would be $10 max. So, AU$70 per week?
At any rate, my savings have certainly increased through my lifestyle change overall - no alcohol, less dining out, etc.
You have inspired me to whip up a spreadsheet to see how much I'm 'spending' per meal, per day, per week, to see how elitist organic meat-only truly is. I wonder what the average SAD weekly expense is for most people...
oh super! I can't wait to see your data. :)
Since switching to primal, our grocery costs have stayed about the same... and when we make the organic switch I anticipate it will go up a bit.
I was just wondering about the cost of meat-only versus all-inclusive-Primal. $300/month/person seems reasonable... our current grocery budget is $400/month for both of us, and it gets tight at times. We'll need some wiggle room for organics, definitely.
I'll start paying attention to food expenses once we get back from Thailand. As long as I can get an itemised receipt from Organic Direct when they deliver my steaks in a month's time, I should be able to work meal costs out easily.
Looking at it logically though, I don't actually serve myself more meat when its alone vs. with veggies etc. Steaks are steaks, fish fillets are fish fillets, and when I use meat in recipes, it's rarely less than I would eat by itself now, especially since packaging tends to influence servings sizes (i.e. 500g packages of mince are going to be divided evenly between the two of us, whether or not it's eaten alone or turned into primal lasagne, etc). So if anything, including veg/nuts/dairy etc would cost more, because it would be additional food, not replacement food. Then you have the perishability factor of fresh veg... Interesting!
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