The last three months has been a most excellent adjustment period involving food choices. While counting calories has never struck me as something a self respecting woman would do, it definitely beats tearing my muscles to pieces while attempting to exercise. I had my doubts at first as to whether or not an awareness of calorie consumption would be enough to lose weight but it worked. I was not sure either how much I should reduce my calories so I hit on a happy medium between the severe 1200 calorie diet that doctors hand out to obese patients and the 2200 calorie diet recommended for active women. I went with as low as I was comfortable with. That meant eating 1500 calories per day as a goal.
I write this blog after having lost three pounds a week for the last three months and even the weight loss calculator can't explain how that happened. This is not a recommended rate of weight loss and I did not expect this to happen. The weight loss calculator anticipated that I would lose one pound a week as I estimated that my activity level was light to moderate. Even when I select the highest activity level available on the weight loss calculator it gives a maximum result of 2.5 pounds burned a week. I was not running. I was only walking forty minutes a few times a week and doing my Tai Chi every day. Doing Tai Chi every day for half an hour means burning 150 calories a day and a total of 4500 per month. Walking three times a week for forty minutes only meant burning 2316 calories per month. My personal exercise accounted for 227 calories burned every day. That meant 1173 calories were getting burned at work every day. It fits the bill for calories burned in the moderate category by the likes of teachers, police officers, personal trainers, mechanics and chefs. As a little piece of trivia if my job was to do tai chi for eight hours a day I would burn 1200 calories.
https://www.fitnessblender.com/blog/calories-burned-by-occupation-how-many-calories-does-my-job-burn
It all started with one piece of paper that I posted on the fridge and on that piece of paper I started to accumulate a list of all the foods I commonly ate and the calories associated with the portion I usually ate. It only took a second to scribble a word and a number down and there are plenty of sites on the internet that can help identify the calories in every food that exists. I started a notepad to keep track of what I was eating so I would know when to stop. For the longest time I believed that my goal was to eat until I could not physically hold any more food. When my metabolism was fast eating didn't present a problem but now that I am getting even closer to forty I can't count on my metabolism to burn as well as it used to.
Awareness is the key that opens the door to new possibilities. Take peanut butter for example. As kids we would slather it on the bread and whoever could swallow the most without choking was the peanut butter champion. Because it's so affordable a lot of people might feel guilty for not eating as much as they humanly can. There are one hundred and fifteen calories in one tablespoon of peanut butter. When it's written in front of you in black and white it suddenly doesn't seem so bad to just have a little bit. The same goes for a lot of things. Finding out how many calories are in a food is a way of giving yourself permission to develop a different relationship with that food. For some foods it might mean that suddenly you find yourself serving it in a tiny little bowl. In other cases it might mean that now you have no guilt whatsoever when it comes to eating a block of cream cheese because you know that block added up to eight hundred and thirty calories and it's your fun day so what the hell.
The first month in I lost twelve pounds and that trend continued despite having a couple days a week where I went thousands of calories overboard. Overall the days averaged out to about 1800 calories per day which is what I was going to go with originally. I might have saved myself some grief if I'd gone with my original instinct of how much my intake should drop. Salads were a focus for the first month as you can eat vegetables all day and not even hit 1500 calories. I was eating four cups of salad (100 calories) for breakfast many days in a row and then another four cups upon returning home. A month later I did not want to put one more vegetable in my mouth unless it was tomato, cucumber or sauerkraut. Enough is enough.
I discovered along the way that certain chocolate bars can trigger a pretty fierce binging reaction. One minute I was admiring a month of progress and the next minute I was trying to make cookies and order pizza at the same time. Nobody is perfect. My goal was not to hit a perfect 1500 calorie limit every day but most days once I saw how close I was to reaching that goal I wanted to stick with it. I was surprised how easy it was to maintain once my stomach started to shrink. I realized it was not so disappointing to come home after work and hydrate with warm water, honey, apple cider, and fresh squeezed lemon. Somewhere deep down I always knew that my body would be a lot happier if it was given proper hydration. It would have driven me over the edge to include the honey drinks in my calorie limit so I did not include the honey drinks. I read that honey helps burn fat as long as you don't take more than four tablespoons per day so I kept it off the record.
It was during this period I gave myself permission to start including really nutrient dense foods that other family members placed strategically in their diets. Prior to that I had been trying to keep my costs at an absolute minimum and I had been cheaping out on some things that I knew really helped me. Life handed me back a big surprise in the form of a nasty inflammation episode and as my budget got fired up to a whole new level I just said "screw it." It does not pay to cheap out on your health. Fighting off one cost just means the expense is going to pop up somewhere else and maybe twice as high as if you'd just gone with what you know works for you. The trip to the health food store that week meant going home with a bag full of hemp hearts, chia seeds, walnuts, sour cherry juice, Theracurmin, Nature's Aid, Kalaya, and Zheng Gu Shui.
Have you ever caught yourself putting down a bag of almonds or walnuts and scolding yourself with the words "that's too expensive"? As it turns out some of my most cost effective days were the ones where I ate the most walnuts. One walnut that being two halves is twenty six calories. A 400 gram bag of walnuts will cost you $15.80. A typical serving of sixteen pieces gives you 104 calories to burn as energy, costs $1.25, and it also satiates the appetite as well as delivers antioxidants, protein, and omega-3 for heart health. Even if you eat eighty pieces of walnuts that has only cost you $5.00 and the affect they have fulfilling the appetite is really extraordinary.
I've seen it so many times in my notepad that it's impossible to ignore. It goes against common sense to be on a tight budget and go out and buy sour cherry juice and walnuts and pay almost $25. However every time I flip through that notepad from the last three months I see that the $6.00 days were the days I ate what seemed like the most expensive food. The days I ate really expensive foods ended up being five dollars cheaper than every other day when I was trying to eat cheap. All that time I spent feeling guilty about buying these expensive foods was a total waste. They really do satisfy the appetite to the point where a little bit is more than enough.
Hemp hearts may seem like too big of a bill to bite off at $9.00 per bag and yet if you compare the omega-3 and omega-6 you are getting from 100 calories of hemp hearts and compare it to a can of salmon, you are getting forty times more omega-3 and omega-6 from the hemp hearts than you would from the can of salmon. At a calorie equivalent comparison hemp hearts are cheaper than salmon. They don't seem like much when you look at them but there's a lot more going on with those hemp hearts than meets the eye. Throw a tablespoon of hemp hearts on anything over the course of the day and you've got a big head start on the nutrition that your body needs for only forty two cents.
https://authoritynutrition.com/6-health-benefits-of-hemp-seeds/
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/05/19/7-walnuts-benefits.aspx
My biggest fear has been that I cannot afford to have high quality foods in my diet but I proved over the last three months that this fear is not grounded in reality. In reality I can fill my diet with every high quality food I can get my hands on and it only costs me an average of $11.50 per day. That is $345 a month for food that often gets over looked because only "rich people" can afford it. That cost of $11.50 per day included some downright expensive grocery items like goat cheese, pesto sauce, chia seeds, hemp hearts, and walnuts. This also included my faithful cup of rice every day which only costs .27 cents per cup and a cup of chickpeas which only cost .18 cents per cup.
It's funny how easy it is for me to judge myself for spending $5.00 on one meal component but the simple matter is that my body knows what it is doing. To someone standing next to me they might be horrified at the idea of spending $5.00 on 100 grams of cheese but that goat cheese might digest three times better and absorb three times quicker and satisfy my appetite to the point where I don't feel like I need to eat anything else. When someone denies themselves a food for whatever reason it's not always a good idea because a few days later the body might become so frustrated that it drags you kicking and screaming to the nearest restaurant and frantically consumes a meal that ends up costing three times what you would have spent if you just followed your original instincts.
I now include a number of foods in my diet which range from five cents to forty cents for a tiny amount but that tiny amount is packed with vitamins and minerals. A teaspoon of pesto sauce for example costs twenty cents as apposed to a cup of rice which costs twenty seven cents for the whole cup. Pesto sauce seems to be playing an important role in helping me flavor rice cakes which have replaced bread. I felt it was worth while to give up bread as gluten can be a contributor when it comes to inflammation. It just seems wrong to try and put butter on a rice cake the way you would put it on toast but pesto sauce seems to take a rice cake and turn it into something really delicious. If pesto sauce is paving the way to a gluten free diet then I am happy to include it. I can put just about anything on rice cakes that I would put on toast and if there's pesto sauce on it I find it tastes even better.
I wanted to remind anyone reading this that each day was different. Some days I would feel like I had enough to eat at 1400 calories and other days I felt like I had enough when I hit 3000. I'd be close to my goal for four days and then my appetite would rear up like a crazy animal and start using profanity to make sure I knew my job that day was to eat as much as I could. Those days of free feeding do not seem to have restricted the weight loss process in fact some people even suggest that this type of behavior stimulates the metabolism to burn with more gusto. Doubling your calorie intake once and a while does not mean you have failed. It means you just stoked the fire so now it's going to be roaring twice as hot.
The most important thing I learned is that there is no shame in becoming calorie conscious. I respect myself more for giving myself the tools to understand the consequences of my food choices. I didn't have to starve myself drinking maple syrup and lemon juice and there doesn't really need to be another transition phase now that I lost the weight that I wanted to lose. My metabolism is running like a charm and I feel better than I've ever felt in a long time. I have a lot more confidence that reaching for nutrient dense foods is going to pay off without leaving me in the poor house.
What is going to happen next is that I have to re-establish a diet at 3000 calories. I know now that I burn about fifteen hundred calories at work every day in addition to the food it takes to maintain my body mass. That means my next challenge is figuring out how I'm going to adjust my diet so I can handle that intake. I will be interested to find out how eager my body is bite off another 1500 every day and what foods can I select to satisfy that amount that do not mean a collapse of budget. I am eager to share the next leg of the journey and relate any findings I have for staying on budget at that calorie intake level while keeping gluten somewhat at bay.
Day Eight of Project Munch- Phase 2
I've been eating three thousand calories a day for the last eight days. Starting back into the dairy products has me feeling slightly crappy but for now I'm turning a blind eye to the casein, growth hormones, and antibiotics in dairy products. I'm sure those things might have something to do with the distant headache and fatigue. It may have just been a virus. I'd like to eat and be happy and not worry about these things. The cow went through enough without us ending it all by eating the dairy products with stress and worry. Why not just be thankful for what the cow gave though cows don't wake up and say "wow I wish someone would artificially inseminate me and then pump me full of hormones and load me on a circus ride with a big suction machine attached to my tits." Thank you cow.
While it has only been eight days I can tell you my daily costs are running a little high at $14.20 per day. The beer was sort of a novelty but it has a way of driving costs up at $2 a can. I guess it was unfair to say this doesn't count as a transition because it's more than a little unusual to pound back four Cliff bars a day each with 30 grams of cream cheese. Those four bars get me half way to my daily goal. The immediate effect is rampant laughter and a lot of smiling. Even if my blood sugar spikes it can always crash into another Cliff bar to recover so the overall result is pretty even with only the occasional fit of leaping around like a crazed maniac. I think if I am eating too much the sugar high response will probably work most of it off. A benefit I hope to continue to enjoy is that by the time I get home from work I don't have to worry about eating before bed so my chances of sleeping are much higher.
Project Munch will continue to explore ways to achieve a 3000 calorie diet within a budget of $350/month with an eye towards reducing genetically engineered foods which have been sprayed with glyphosate. Recent proof indicates that glyphosate mimics an amino acid glycine and then becomes incorporated into our RNA as faulty proteins. I have eliminated corn from my diet over the last two years, recently wheat, and now the tough one is coming, soy. Cows may be eating feed that has been sprayed with glyphosate and then it's incorporated into the cow milk so no doubt dairy isn't long on my table. If it can be done I will do it. I will find a way to eat three thousand calories a day in a way that is pleasant, enjoyable, afforable and doesn't result in my body building faulty proteins and elastins.
https://www.youtube.com/watchglycineandRNA
http://fairtrade.ca
http://www.bcfarmfresh.com/farm-products/eggs/
The following are examples of how you can eat starting with the cheapest and progressing to more expensive. They are tailored for someone who eats eggs, fish, dairy and nuts for protein.
Day Fourteen of Project Munch
There was a surprising discovery made the other day regarding choice of coffee brands. I always try to buy Fair Trade coffee and I figured that it was a no brainer that it's more economical to buy the whole bean coffee than it is to buy an expensive little bag of ground Mayan Mountain coffee. I tracked my usage of the two and did not find what I expected. The 454 gram bag of whole bean Fair Treasure lasted for sixteen days meaning the daily cost was $0.93. The 225 gram bag of ground Mayan Mountain lasted for twelve days meaning that the daily cost was $0.64. I typically put two heaping tablespoons in my french press which saved a lot over dumping a whole bunch in the coffee filter and pouring boiling water through it. The Fair Treasure coffee just wasn't strong enough so I kept adding another tablespoon. The conclusion is that Mayan Mountain coffee not only tastes the best but it pays for itself because it makes a really strong cup of coffee.
What would a sample shopping list look like for a whole month if you want to ensure that each day you supply yourself with three thousand calories? I found that out. This is the quick and dirty shopping list that includes dairy and a bit of soy in the Cliff bars. Next month will investigate how the budget looks making homemade energy bars.
3 bags of Mayan Mountain coffee= $23.10
3 237ml creamo= $4.20
65% of a jug of maple syrup= $13.00
Note: there are brands that are cheaper than $20 per liter for maple syrup but are they watered down? Are they as sweet? I still have to look into this.
Calories provided from a month of coffee three cups a day: 2250 calories mostly come from maple syrup.
4 bags rice cakes=$10.80 (2240 calories)
7 jars pesto sauce= $49 (6195 calories)
6 dozen free range eggs= $27 (4884 calories)
half cup nuts per day for thirty days= $42 (13 140 calories)
Note: If you shop around you can find a kg of nuts for $22. Careful that you keep an eye on the nutrition label because some are way cheaper but there are way less calories. The competition may offer a better price but you are getting less the calories so it actually works out to being 0.20 more per caloric serving.
Four Cliff bar per day for thirty days= $120 (30 000 calories)
120 grams of cream cheese per day for thirty days= 4 blocks= $12 (3320 calories)
Half a bag of India's Own rice= $8.10 (9780 calories)(Non GMO)
Note: The terminology of the "Non GMO" label is in question. The term "modified" is far too general and lacks any specific mention as to whether or not the food was actually genetically modified in a lab or simply the product of the farmer's selection of a particular yield year after year resulting in emphasis of a new characteristic in the organism.
Olive oil one tsp per day for thirty days= $1.50 (1200 calories)
Ume plum vinegar one tsp per day for thirty days= $4.80 (60 calories)
Bragg seasoning one tsp per day for thirty days= $2.10 (0 calories)
Fifteen cans tuna= $15 (3600 calories)
one cup chickpeas every day for thirty days= $5.40 (8070 calories)
Six containers Balkan yogurt= $21 (6000 calories)
That concludes a month at 90 739 calories costing $358 which averages $89.50 dollars per week. Add a really good supplement and that will add $30 per month. Add the best anti inflammatory you can find in a health food store and that adds $48. New total $436.
Day 20 of Project Munch Phase Two
Project Munch has continued undeterred in the quest to eat three thousand calories per day. There was some amusement to be found in slapping cream cheese all over things that were probably never meant to be eaten with cream cheese although I don't regret trying out the Cliff bars with cream cheese. That was really good. I think it is safe to say at this point that three thousand calories is about one thousand calories too high. In fact the weight gain is so consistent week by week that it would be cruel for me to continue at this rate. I was hoping my metabolism might come to the rescue like it used to but it just can't leap over tall buildings anymore. It can't even leap over a block of cream cheese in a single bound without falling on its face. It has been twenty days and I hereby abandon phase two of Project Munch.
I would have gained two to three pounds per week if I continued to eat three thousand calories a day. In only twenty days I achieved an excess of twenty one thousand calories. How do I know? One pound of fat is said to be equal to 3500 calories. Six pounds gained means I ate an excess of 21 000 calories. Spread out over twenty days means each day I ate an excess of 1050 calories. Over those twenty days I ate an average of 2893 calories. Now I know that to maintain my body mass without adding to it I have to eat 1823 calories every day. There is only one problem. Project Munch has already discovered that if I eat 1800 calories a day I am going to lose three pounds a week. Something just doesn't add up here.
The human metabolism can be a very temperamental beast. Just when you think you've got it figured out it goes and does something like this. I hope my metabolism is happy. It's gone and thrown me for a loop. For now it doesn't matter because I can afford to start losing the weight again. My math skills are obviously no match for my metabolism but sometimes nothing beats a good guess. If eating 1800 calories a day means losing three pounds a week and eating 2800 calories a day means gaining two pounds a week then my maintenance diet would be exactly in the middle of those two examples. Once I am done burning off the results of this experiment I will settle into a 2300 calorie diet. My guess is that I will neither gain weight or lose weight on a 2300 calorie diet which means that is the desired maintenance level.
https://www.youtube.com/watchmetabolism
Phase three will be looking at how to maximize nutrition on as tight a budget as possible. I am not a fan of bland food although some might beg to differ. I can eat plain chickpeas if I have to but the important thing is not to lean too heavily on a food just because it's cheap. Over time you will hate that food and it will go from being a useful tool to a rejected crutch. That's why I go along with paying a high price to add a pleasant taste to things I eat every day. You don't ever want to be caught hating your food. Life is too short and family ties are too precarious to risk killing someone over who gets the last piece of pizza.
If anything it's a relief to not have to eat so much dairy every day to hit the high calories in a short time. If my focus can be 1843 calories a day I think it will be easy to construct a monthly diet that is mostly based on plant material. A day in phase three will look something like this:
breakfast
two cups fair trade coffee with 1/2 tbsp Creamo and maple syrup in each (75 calories)($1.25)
23 pieces of organic walnuts (300 calories)($1.84)
2 free ranged eggs (148 calories)($0.80)
2 organic brown rice cakes (120 calories)($0.40)
2 tsp pesto sauce (50 calories)($0.40)
lunch
One cup curried chickpeas (275 calories)($0.37)
1/2 cup pumpkin (50 calories) ($0.40)
One cup brown rice (368 calories)($0.48 which includes 1 tsp Bragg seasoning 1 tsp olive oil and 1 tsp ume plum vinegar.)(Upgrade to Lunberg organic brown rice and pay $0.50 per cup of cooked rice instead of $0.27 per cup of cooked rice.)
diner
One potato (254 calories)($0.30 per potato)(go organic and pay $1.00 per potato)
One organic yam (118 calories)($0.60)
2 tsp butter (80 calories) ($0.20)
Total calories: 1838
Estimated daily cost $7.04
Estimated monthly cost $211.20
Buy organic potatoes and Lundberg organic brown rice and pay only $0.93 more per day. The cost of going almost completely organic means $7.97 per day or $239.10 per month.
Stay tuned and Project Munch will bring you the actual monthly cost of eating this type of diet.
http://butterbeliever.com/brown-rice-vs-white-rice-which-is-healthy/
At first I was really pissed off when someone suggested brown rice might be causing more harm than good in the body. Then I read this link. Going forward with white rice. All that work to switch to brown rice was useless.
https://www.youtube.com/watchsleeper
https://www.youtube.com/watchmcdonalds
Day 14 of Project Munch Phase Three
Not everyone would be interested in the first week I spent dumping curried chickpeas into the blender. I was
in limbo between a temporary cap and a permanent crown so chewing was rather perilous. The idea of blending curried chickpeas into a thick soup and adding pumpkin was the result of this dental blip but it turned out to be something I would definitely recommend. The scale has indicated that I have burned 500 calories a day for the last fourteen days. My lowest intake was 1187 calories and my highest intake was 3311. Some days only a fool would stand in the way of feeding themselves. Work demands it. On average I hit 2072 per day which was around 400 calories short of my estimated maintenance diet of 2400. For once this actually matches what the scale tells me. The scale tells me that everyday my body burned 500 calories of its stored fat because I was under consuming. That means finally there is only one hundred calories per day that cannot be explained.
On average I spent $9.36 which would equate to $280 per month. This is a little on the high side. Home economics calls for a trial run of homemade energy gels.
http://www.worldlifestyle.com/food/how-make-fruit-endurance-gel-blocks
This recipe looked far more appetizing than the ones where you boil chia seeds and orange juice concentrate. Really the voice of common sense says "isn't this just an elaborate way of making jello?" Yes voice of common sense actually it is a really elaborate way of making jello only you leave it sitting out instead of putting it in the fridge. The appeal is you get to select the source of sugar and fruit. If I was going to carry on with the determination to eat organic then I would buy organic cane sugar to go with the organic fruit juice. I like the fact that it calls for liquid pectin because that is a lot more appetizing than the idea of eating ground up pigs feet. You just don't know where their feet have been. The energy gels I just made are in the process of hardening or at least I hope they are. By tomorrow evening I should have an idea if the recipe was fool proof or if I ended up making the world's sweetest lemonade.
If this recipe actually works then it will result in a substantial savings. The total cost of making it with 90% organic ingredients is $5.57 as apposed to a package of shot bloks which cost $3 a package. This recipe results in a drop of 70 calories per serving but a savings of 80%. Still you can eat twice as much of it and still pay half the cost so it is worth the time. If you eat twice as much then you would get 276 calories for a 120 gram serving and pay only $1.22 which saves a lot of money in the long run. When you are done cut the gel into nine pieces down the width and each one is 138 calories and costs you $0.61.
It's sort of refreshing to approach a new week and be able to tell that I have more than enough calories in the cupboard already to get me through it. I'm really going to enjoy scalloped potatoes and home made energy gels. When I get around to it I'm really going to enjoy kicking brown rice off the shopping list. I will admit it was annoying to switch to in the first place because it doesn't digest nearly as easily as white rice. This coming week Project Munch celebrates proper weight maintenance, the ability to identify the caloric requirements for the coming week, organic food, and creative usage of food on hand.
As a side note if you ever hear someone tell you that curcumin is the best thing to prevent inflammation in the body go for it. Go get it. It seems to be keeping me well as a side benefit. No flus for this girl.
A Day Without Phase
Today's date is October 24, 2016. For the last two weeks Project Munch has managed to stay vigilant of food choices and costs. Food was eaten, weight was lost, weight was gained, and money was spent. Any questions? The overall daily goal was to hit as close to eighteen hundred calories as possible, increase the percentage of organic food, and keep striving for a daily food cost of eight dollars per day. I anticipated that my week of vacation would mean celebrating people and food simultaneously which usually seems to be the case. If I had been paying for the celebration it would have meant a rise in daily food cost from $8 to $24. I wanted to keep the information relevant to a person buying for themselves so I added it up as such for future reference.
Project Munch has totally pigged out. The overall pigging out definitely has this project a little more plump than usual. On the vacation menu was a lot of Indian food, alcohol, and deserts. Nobody loses weight on vacation unless it started with a hostage situation. Two pounds isn't all that much. Traveling is the most expensive way to gain weight. Two pounds of person over eight days added for a stunning figure of $186. What boggles my mind once again is that my average food consumption over vacation added up to just under my maintenance intake. Probably a lot of that comes from the guess work involved with exactly how much one has eaten. How many plates was that again? How big were those baklava? I'm pretty sure it was just one scoop of ice cream although it was a big scoop. It was an average sized beer but how many ml it was I'm not sure.
How much has a maintenance day changed from the original forecast? The following is one effortless day that hit the caloric target and an all time low food budget. Then I've shown a day that went way off the caloric target but only wandered a couple dollars off the daily budget.
Example One
On budget, on target.
Breakfast
1 cup walnuts 520 calories $1.60
1/2 c raisins 144 calories $0.28
2 cups coffee each with 1/2 tbsp maple syrup and 1/2 tbsp creamo 75 calories $1.25
Lunch and Diner
3 cups tuna casserole 1176 calories $0.99
This tuna casserole was made using everything the recipe called for except instead of mushroom soup I whisked 1 cup milk with 2 tbsp flour and 1 cup shredded cheese to make my own creamy sauce. I wanted to avoid the mushroom soup because it was loaded with corn based ingredients. I used organic mushrooms so at least I made use of one organic ingredient. A portion of tuna casserole is extremely affordable. One of my biggest priorities as a consumer is to avoid corn, soy, and canola oil which I can still do with a modified recipe.
Total calories: 1915
Total cost: $4.10
A response to a day of eating like this may vary. Your stomach might complain a little but if you are already in the dieting zone it's easy to take a little hunger in stride and work with it. How easy is it really to maintain a day like this? I honestly try to keep every meal as affordable as possible but the truth is we are surrounded by restaurants that make it easy to eat out. Sometimes nothing warms up the insides like a well prepared bowl of ramen. When time is in short supply, the budget has been exhausted, and the stomach is empty there's really no immediate consequence that can offset the enjoyment of eating out on credit.
Example Two
Going off budget, appetite on a full blown rampage. All you can pig out at home.
2 cups coffee each prepared with the 1/2 tbsp maple syrup and 1/2 tbsp creamo 75 calories $1.25
2 1/2 portion tuna casserole 980 calories $0.66
2 cup walnuts 1040 calories $3.20
1/2 cup raisins 114 calories $0.28
2 eggs 148 calories $1.60
25 potato chips 270 calories $0.10
2 tbsp cacao mixed with 2 tbsp maple syrup 2 tbsp hemp seeds 256 calories $1.78
1 3cm chunk of cheese 528 calories $1.50
Total calories: 3211
Total cost of rampage: $10.37
In total it's not so bad as far as rampages go. The food was healthy and would contribute more to nutrition than to disease.
I've noticed that my biggest weaknesses lately are Panda licorice and organic chocolate bars. After a long day of work try telling your body that it can't indulge itself in sweets. $8 later the metabolism is singing the praises of panda bears. Last time I eyeballed my daily expenses I noticed I was leaning pretty heavily on the Cliff shot bloks. As promised I went ahead and tried to make the homemade energy gels.
The first time I thought my mistake was adding the lemon juice. Everyone knows you don't add citrus to jello or it won't set. I tried it again without any lemon juice using white grape as my fruit juice. Two days later I was stuck heating it up as a drink. When there was two milliliters left in the pan it finally set. What this tells me I am not really sure. It may be telling me to use a pan that's so large that the mixture spreads out to a very thin layer. Someone who is really experienced with making candy could probably fix it by monitoring the temperature. Where is my candy thermometer when I need it? Maybe boil it longer to achieve a higher temperature before trying to cool the mixture.
An update on the energy gel recipe. This time I boiled the shit out of it on high for five minutes and only reached 215 degrees F on the candy thermometer but the mixture set about ten minutes after it hit the cool glass pan. For anyone who couldn't find it on the website I listed previously here it is again taken from:
Homemade Energy Gels
1 cup organic cane sugar
1 cup 100% grape juice
1 three ounce pouch of liquid pectin
1/4 cup honey
1/4 tsp salt
In a medium saucepan whisk all the above ingredients together. Bring to a boil on the highest heat. Boil the crap out of it for five minutes. It will froth and look like it's half way to boiling over but that's normal. If it really bothers you use a pan with really tall sides. Pour it into a greased 9 x 13" pan. It should solidify within minutes.
Note: Now I'm thinking maybe the gel might be able to set in a deeper pan as long as the recipe is boiled vigorously on high for five minutes.
Cost of ingredients for this recipe: $18.10. I put in $0.50 for salt. Go to the bulk section if you don't have any on hand. Who doesn't have salt on hand?
Total cost of a single recipe: $4.84
Total caloric content of a single recipe: 1091
Divide into nine pieces and each piece costs $0.53 and gives you 121 calories. Take two slices to get the same calories as a Cliff Shot Blok would give you. A Cliff Shot Blok costs $3 in the store and gives you 200 calories. Make them at home and save a couple bucks. By the time you finish this pan it's time to pat yourself on the back because you just saved eight dollars. Just think how many Shot Bloks you could buy with all that money you saved!
Let your imagination run wild with the possibilities. Make purple and blue. Roll them together and tie a ribbon around them. Make an edible bowl and place your gel art into the edible bowl. Wrap it in clear floral paper. I would say these make great gifts. They don't have to be refrigerated to hold their shape.
This is my favorite recipe for edible ice cream bowls. It's been tested by moi and it turned out very well. To upgrade the recipe a little just use organic sugar and flour.
The one thing Project Munch is getting very good at is expediting a day's basic food requirements in a record period of time. If someone was timing me in and out of the house in twenty minutes I could go in, make coffee and gather together an exact amount of food for the day and be done with anything food related except for the eating part. Perhaps I sound like someone who doesn't enjoy food very much. Lately it has been more something to get packed in the lunch bag with the hopes of avoiding any further food costs for the day. All that expensive eating over my vacation hasn't detracted from my love of pesto sauce and I am still a firm believer that curcumin is keeping me well. I navigated through some very busy air ports, used public washrooms and sat for hours on end surrounded by people traveling from all over the place. I did not get sick this time. I have been reading that curcumin can supercharge the immune system. I didn't know that curcumin was also good at preventing cancer.
http://www.drfranklipman.com/7-ways-to-supercharge-your-immune-system/
http://www.lifeextension.com/newsletter/2012/5/curcumin-helps-improve-immune-function/page-01
There's always one more way to use flat bread. Where's the beer?
Gina's Freestyle Licorice
1/2 cup unsulphured molasses
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water steeped in fennel seeds for twenty minutes. (drain and discard fennel seeds.)
pinch salt
1/4 cup butter
1/2 c white organic flour shaken in a jar with 1 cup water.
Total calories of entire recipe: 1964 calories
Make 21 balls each ball is 93 calories.
The instructions are to bring all these ingredients to a boil and let it heat up to the target of 245 degrees F. Eventually I turned to high heat but even after five minutes it couldn't rise over 215 F. Whatever. If I kept it going it would boil off and there would be nothing left. How do people hit those high temperatures? Maybe on a gas stove. While it was heating I put 1/2 cup white organic flour and 1 cup cold water in a jar and shook it until it was smooth. I poured the water flour mixture into the boiling sugar and stirred like crazy keeping it high because it thickened so fast. After a few minutes it was too thick to stir anymore so I had to take it off the heat. Spread it out in a greased lasagna pan and throw it in the fridge. How did it turn out? It tastes good. The texture is kind of rubbery but as far as licorice goes that's a good thing. I think it would taste better with a tsp of anise extract.
Update From Candy Land
1500 Calories for $6.26
$0.65 three cups of coffee with 1/2 tbsp maple syrup (0.15) and 1/2 tbsp Creamo (0.10) in each cup.
$0.18 one cup of cooked oats with a tbsp maple syrup (0.30) and 1 tbsp cacao powder (0.17) 1 tbsp hemp hearts (0.42) 1 tbsp chia seeds (0.34)
$0.27 one cup of cooked rice with 1 tsp olive oil (0.05) 1/2 tsp Umeboshi plum vinegar (0.08) 1 tsp Bragg (0.08)
$0.18 one cup of chickpeas mixed with pesto sauce (0.60) and a cup of cucumber (0.40)
$1.20 two rice cakes and two free ranged eggs with pesto sauce (1 tsp=0.20)
$0.40 rice cake with 1 tsp pesto sauce for a snack (0.20)
Comments: I wouldn't suggest trying to stick with this every day of the month. People need variety. The harder you try to stick with this the more likely you are to go crazy and either go on an eating spree or a drinking spree or both.
1251 Calories for $7.00
One walnut half= 13 calories ($0.08)
$1.70 twenty one walnut pieces. (273 calories)
$1.71 one cup of cherry juice (120 calories)
$1.30 two pieces of toast, two eggs, two tsp butter (388 calories)
$1.60 three pieces toast with two tbsp cacao powder mixed with two tbsp maple syrup (440 calories)
$0.80 three cups coffee with 1/2 tbsp Creamo only. (30 calories)
1655 Calories for $12
$1.34 two pieces toast, 2 tsp butter, and two eggs.
$0.27 one cup rice with 1 tsp olive oil (0.05) Umeboshi plum vinegar (0.08) Bragg seasoning (0.07)
w/two tbsp hemp seeds (0.86)
$5.00 whole package goat cheese (100g) on four rice cakes (0.80) with four tsp pesto sauce (0.80)
$2.55 Thirty two walnuts
3000 Calories for $17.28
Highlighting cream cheese and walnuts:
2 packages cream cheese (1660 calories $6.00) mixed with 4 tbsp maple syrup (208 calories $1.20) and 4 tbsp cacao (80 calories $0.68)
Eighty walnuts (520 calories $6.40)
Six rice cakes (240 calories $1.20)
Three whole eggs ( 222 calories $1.20)
Three tsp pesto sauce (75 calories $ 0.60)
3000 Calories for $22.63
Ordering pizza
Call Dominoes Pizza and order:
1 large Deluxe thin crust pizza with extra cheese.
Comes with pepperoni, sausage, green pepper, mushrooms, onions.
Add: bacon, beef, ham, black olives, tomatoes.
3000 Calories for $9.80
Highlighting rice, chickpeas and goat cheese.
4 cups rice (1304 calories $1.08)
4 cups chickpeas (1076 calories for $0.72)
5 tbsp Pesto sauce for flavoring (375 calories for $3.00)
1 package goat cheese 100 grams (267 calories for $5.00)
3000 calories for $13.22
Highlighting yogurt, cream cheese, eggs
1 cup rice (326 for $0.27) jazz it up with 1 tsp Bragg (0 calories for 0.07) 1/2 tsp Ume plum vinegar (1 calorie for $0.08) 1 tsp olive oil (40 calories for $0.05)
One 750g container of Balkan style yogurt (600 calories $3.50)
12 free range eggs ( 888 calories for $4.70)
1 package cream cheese (830 calories for $3.00)
8 rice cakes (320 calories for $1.60)
3000 calories for $7.85
Highlighting peanut butter, cream cheese, and honey.
10 tbsp Adams peanut butter (1000 calories for $1.60)
1.5 cup raw oats (495 calories for $0.55)
1 package cream cheese (830 calories for $3.00)
10 tbsp honey (640 calories for $1.40)
3 tbsp hemp hearts (168 calories for $1.30)
Comments: How about take a bowl, throw in cream cheese, honey, cacao, hemp hearts, oats and call it energy bars. Done.
4161 calories for $3.00
Three packages of Kraft Diner (1387 calories at $1.00 each)
3000 Calories for $2.25
Highlighting rice and chickpeas.
5 cups rice (1630 calories for $1.35)
5 cups chickpeas (1345 calories for $0.90)
1 tsp pesto sauce ( 25 calories for $0.20)
Comments: Count the minutes before you hit the ceiling if you want to eat this way every day.
Here's a brief comparison of dollars to calories:
goat cheese= $1.92 per 100 calories.
Stingers= $1.80 per 100 calories
beer=$1.40 per 100 calories
sardines=$1.33 per 100 calories
Probar= $0.84-$1.00 per 100 calories
Mezzetta Pesto= $0.80 per 100 calories
Eden Barley Malt= $0.77 per 100 calories
hemp hearts=$0.76 per 100 calories
crazy deluxe pizza=$0.75 per 100 calories
Okanagan Energy bars= $0.68 per 100 calories ($10.97 per box of 8)
8 walnuts= $0.64 per 100 calories
Haagen Daz vanilla icecream= $0.60 per 100 calories
Balkan style yogurt= $0.60 per 100 calories
free range eggs= $0.54 per 100 calories
ground beef= $0.44 per 100 calories (when at $5.00 per pound.)
cream cheese 33% mf = $0.36 per 100 calories
chicken= $0.36 per 100 calories (when at $4.00/lb)
Maple Leaf bacon= $0.36 per 100 calories ( when at $7.49 per 375 gram package.)
Armstrong Cheese= $0.28 per 100 calories( when at $15.00 for 1350 grams.)
Ruffles plain potato chips= $0.27 per 100 calories (when at $3.50 for 254 gram bag.)
Elias honey= $0.22 per 100 calories
Coconut milk= $0.20 per 100 calories (when on for $11 for 12 cans)
Adams peanut butter= $0.16 per 100 calories
oats= $0.11 per 100 calories
Farmer's Market Red potatoes= $0.10 per 100 calories (when on at $4.47 for ten pounds.)
rice= $0.08 per 100 calories
plain chickpeas = $0.07 per 100 calories (amazing)
Kraft Diner= $0.07 per 100 calories (not so amazing)
white sugar= $0.04 per 100 calories (not really that amazing)
http://www.livingin-canada.com/food-prices-canada.html
