The SNAP Challenge: 2 Weeks In

I started off the month of February feeling really good about all the food I'd purchased, but about 4 days into the SNAP challenge I noticed that I was getting dark circles under my eyes, which I thought was probably caused by an iron deficiency.  The Mayo Clinic website doesn't mention specific nutrient deficiencies that would cause dark circles, but I decided to monitor my vitamin and mineral intake just to see how I was doing.

Four days into the challenge I realized that although I wasn't hungry, I wasn't consuming enough calories to maintain my weight.  That was fine with me since I wanted to lose the weight I gained doing my January challenge, but I knew my diet wasn't sustainable.  My diet at the time showed me:

• I was at 143% of the daily recommended intake for protein, but within the normal range for carbs and fats.  
• I was at 120% of daily recommended intake for cholesterol.  It was all the eggs I was eating ...  
• I was doing OK with my iron intake thanks to all the beans and oatmeal pancakes I was eating.  
• I needed to boost my levels of the following:
• Vitamin D
• Vitamin E
• Omega 3 Fatty Acids
• Omega 6 Fatty Acids

A weekend of eating

I hosted a baby shower this weekend, so for food purposes pretended I was a guest at the shower.  I ate pizza and beet salad, which I was very excited about. After the shower, I went to a potluck at my cousin's house and ate more.  We had an Italian feast with lasagna, linguine and MORE SALAD.  I can't say enough about how great it was to eat salad twice in one day!  I'm definitely going to have to see if I can make more salads in the next couple of weeks. 

I brought dessert to the potluck (pictured above, with some of the groceries I have left).  The cake was really good even without frosting.  I did add vanilla and dried orange rind to the batter, and would make it again with different things added!

2 Weeks In

Now that I'm 2 weeks into the challenge, my nutritional profile hasn't changed as much as I had hoped it would.  I've brought my Vitamin D levels up, but my Vitamin E intake is still really low.  Same with Omega 3s and Omega 6s, respectively. 

I still have quite a bit of food in the freezer, so will get through the rest of this week without having to shop, unless I'm desperate for fresh vegetables.  Not having them is really hurting my nutritional profile and I'm pretty disappointed about that--especially since roasted vegetables are a staple of my normal diet.

The next 2 weeks should be interesting!

The SNAP Challenge ... Is a Challenge!

My latest tally shows that I have $70 left for the month.  I happened to walk through Safeway today and see Tillamook jack cheese on sale for $5.99, so had to buy it.  That's 2 pounds of cheese that will hopefully last me through the end of the month and beyond.  I'll have to freeze at least half of it since I'm sure if I don't some of it will get moldy by the time I get around to needing it.

Oatmeal Pancakes

Thus far, I've eaten almost a full pound of black beans, a couple of pieces of toast, loads of oatmeal pancakes, a teeny bit of chicken, and the first of my stuffed peppers.  I made enchiladas tonight so will be enjoying those for a few days.

I admittedly have not eaten ANY of the veggies I purchased yet.  The kale, broccoli and spinach are all still living in my freezer.  Since they're not sitting in my fridge, they're not top-of-mind.  This will have to change, and I think it will because I'll have to get into the freezer to access all the food I'm having to freeze so it doesn't go bad!

"Dinner" Out

On Saturday, I joined some friends at one of my favorite restaurants in Ballard, Bastille.  The restaurant serves amazing food and as I watched my friends eat and drink I decided I may have to visit Bastille for a Croque-Madame soon after this challenge is over.  Luckily I wasn't hungry since I'd scarfed down 2 oatmeal pancakes on the way to the restaurant, but I was completely dehydrated since I'd barely had anything to drink all day, so I consumed about 3 liters of water for "dinner".  Overall, it was a good experience and a good test of my willpower so I'm glad I did it.

Meat

My biggest adventure was, as predicted, cooking my chicken.  Although I didn't cut it up before cooking--which I think would have been worse--I did get pretty grossed-out by having to pull out the kidneys, liver and heart??? I'm really not sure what that last organ was.

On the up side, the chicken tastes delicious, and I've only used about 1/4 of it so far in enchiladas.  Plus, I got about 4 cups of stock after boiling down the carcass.  That gives me a ton to work with in the next couple of weeks.  Maybe I'll make a casserole with chicken and some of those veggies. 

My nutritional profile isn't looking very good since I'm only 4 days in and one of those days I only ate a banana, 4 pancakes (2 meals of 2 pancakes each), a cup of coffee, about 2 oz. of chicken and a carrot.  I'm hoping to improve it over the rest of this week and throughout the end of the month.  The chicken will help.

Not So Vital Statistics

My weight hasn't varied yet, and I'm not surprised.  I did go on my first "training" run for the 5K I'm doing at the beginning of March, so definitely burned some calories this weekend in addition to my normal workout(s).  The running will continue intermittently along with the SNAP challenge.



 

This is going to be harder than I thought ...

Discussing the SNAP challenge with people has elicited interesting responses.  One person asked if I thought what I was dong was arrogant, so I want to clarify something:  I'm participating in this challenge because I think it will help me better understand how difficult it is to eat a healthy diet on a next-to-nothing budget.  SNAP is officially the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.  The government recognizes that most people who receive benefits (in Washington they're known as "Basic Food Benefits", not SNAP) are using the funds they receive to supplement other food sources--not to provide all the nutrition in their diet; however, I want to see if living on a budget of $145 (I used this benefits calculator to determine what my budget would be) is do-able in Seattle.   

Wednesday was the only day I could go grocery shopping before starting the SNAP challenge, so I went ahead and shopped a couple of days early.  After 3 hours of shopping at 3 different stores, what did I buy?

Food from my first SNAP challenge shopping trip!

• 1 Whole, antibiotic-free, range-free chicken.  It cost $.40 more per pound at the Ballard Market than a whole chicken at Grocery Outlet, but I'm really happy with the purchase.  For $7.44 I plan to get enough chicken to at least make enchiladas and soup.  I'll think of other things, too.  (Note:  The last time I cut up a chicken I think I was in about 5th grade.  I was so grossed-out by the experience that I haven't really cooked with a whole chicken since.  We'll see how this really goes ...)
• Stuff for enchiladas:  
• Enchilada sauce (I bought it at Trader Joe's, but I think I could've found it cheaper elsewhere)
• Jack cheese (Same thing here--I think it would've been cheaper at Grocery Outlet, but I'd already left there)
• Diced tomatoes
• Black beans (I may throw these on the side, but will likely put them in the enchiladas or just eat them with other meals)
• Cream of chicken soup (They didn't have low-sodium at Grocery Outlet, but it was cheap!)
• Pasilla peppers--I'll probably use these to make stuffed peppers, but may change my mind.
• Bread
• Frozen veggies
• Spinach
• Kale
• Broccoli
• Butternut squash
• 10 fuji apples
• Buttermilk
• Bananas

How much did it cost?

So far, the SNAP challenge has cost me $33.15, although as of now I'm planning to use an additional $24.78 of food I already have at the house (eggs, flour, sugar, oats, creamer, butter, peanut butter, spaghetti squash, etc.), so I'm taking the cost of those groceries out of my total budget of $145.00 for the month.  That means I have about $87 left for the month of February and the month hasn't even started yet!

A couple of notes about this challenge:

1. I'm hosting a baby shower next Saturday and am not counting the cost of that food toward this challenge since the shower was planned months ago.  I still haven't figured out whether I'm going to eat anything at the shower or bring leftovers home.  I think that' cheating, but we'll see how things go.
2. I'm attending a potluck at my cousin's house just after the baby shower and plan to bring a food item that fits within my budget. 

January challenge wrap-up

I'm wrapping up my January challenges tomorrow and am VERY thankful to have a sense of accomplishment!  I have thus far successfully eaten 100 calories every morning within 30 minutes of waking up--even while camping in the snow--and finished my quilt square for Charlie's quilt.  I do need my mom's help on the quilt square, but it's as complete as I can get it. 

My research for the SNAP challenge continued throughout the month and I was honestly appalled by how much money I regularly spend on food, both at the grocery store and at restaurants. 

Upsides to this month's challenges: 

• I was able to complete them all.
• I learned that I'm able to sit and concentrate on something I've always found boring (embroidery) for longer than 10 minutes.
• I now have a better understanding for where my disposable income is going and know I can do a better job of saving.

Downsides/Lessons Learned to this month's challenges: 

• I gained almost 10 pounds doing something that was supposedly supposed to get my metabolism started earlier in the day.  Hopefully that can be reversed quickly in February! 
• I was frustrated a lot during the making of the quilt square.  If I had thought things through more thoroughly when planning out my embroidery project, I would have been able to complete it much sooner and with much less frustration.
• I am ashamed by how much money I currently spend on food.

Up next month:  The SNAP Challenge, going alcohol-free and training for a 5K.

January Challenge Update

So far my January challenges are shaping up pretty well ... but I'm not.  I'm convinced this 100-calorie challenge is unhealthy for me.  Rather than kick-starting my metabolism, maybe this challenge kicked it to the curb.  That's to be determined.

This weekend could be my best effort to keep with this challenge since I'm going snow-camping Saturday and am convinced I'll wake up freezing multiple times during the night.  If you don't sleep, how do you know when to eat???

As for the other challenges, I started on my quilt square in December and had to start a new one in January after some of the thread I used tore up the fabric.  I think I've sorted my problems out and am getting ready to make some headway over the upcoming 3-day weekend.  I've been saving my receipts and am already dreading going through them to see what groceries I bought in December and January since a lot of what I've bought these last couple of months has been for various social activities and won't apply to February, when I don't have a social life because I can't afford one!

Stay tuned!

New Year, New Challenge(s)

Happy New Year! 

I've decided to make 2013 a year of monthly challenges and am kicking things off with more than one in January.  For now, I've come up with 3:

1. To eat 100 calories within 30 minutes of waking up every morning--to get my metabolism started.
2. To finish the quilt square I'm making for Andy and Janie's baby's quilt.
3. To save all my food receipts so I can get a good idea of what I actually spend on food every month.  This sets me up for my February challenge:  To live on a food stamp budget.  I'll have about $140 for groceries in the month of February, so I need to start making preparations now!  That includes budgeting and blogging more so I'm ready to document what I think will be my biggest challenge of the year.

Here goes ... stay tuned!