He we go!

Some Qualifiers

I'm attempting this challenge for two reasons. One, because Becky Reichart, our Development Director here at Food Outreach is smarter than me and essentially got me to paint myself into a corner by convincing me to invite Registered Dietitians I know to participate. To clarify: there is no way I couldn't participate after that. Second, I learn best by doing and this experience is going to make me a much better educator/RD, relative to the population I have the privilege to serve.

I am competitive to a fault, so I hear "challenge" and the internal flames ignite and the gears start turning and I'm looking for any advantage I can to secure victory. However, what I'm going to have to remind myself of during this "challenge" is there are no winners. This is not a game and even if I was able to complete the challenge with minimal discomfort and 100% of my RDAs , this is not something to brag about. Big deal if I can do it for a whopping, whole week. I'm a professional when it comes to nutrition, I have my own, reliable, transportation, and access to online sources that make the process much easier. I don't have any chronic diseases which leave me exhausted. I'm not trying to budget and plan after enduring chemotherapy or taking HAART that gives me chronic diarrhea. Most importantly, it's only a week. There IS an end in sight for me. I am by no means under any illusions that I'm "living the life" for a week.

Shopping Experience

I chose to do my shopping at Wal-Mart Supercenter. I live very close to one and that's where I usually shop. It took me an hour and seven minutes from the time I left the car to the time I got back in. This was sad, considering I'm a pro and had a pretty good idea of what I wanted going in. During my shopping I had a few surprises, some pleasant and some not so much..

The Good
Mustard greens are chee-eep and with 52.5% of your calcium per can, they are a nice alternative to those expensive dairy selections that remain oh-so-elusive in many of our clients' carts.

Canned beans, while not as affordable as bagged beans are still a steal and a great stop-gap for those unable to afford meat. I was willing to spend the extra on canned vs. bagged because of the huge difference in prep-time.

While I knew lentils were a nutritional powerhouse and I have liked the lentil soup I've tried in the past, I didn't know they were so easy to prepare. I lumped them in with the same category as beans but was rather giddy when I read the back and found I could make them in 15-20 min!

Light yogurt was probably the biggest shocker of the night for me. It was only 40 cents/container. It was only 1 cent higher/oz than the bulk yogurt and the bulk was not available in light. I might just hit my calcium goals yet!

Eggs: I found 12 for 96 cents and was all over that!

The Bad

I lived off of tuna and rice in undergrad during the times when my mealplan was off (Christmas and summer break). I was very disappointed to see that tuna in water had jumped up to 83 cents/can! And to be clear: that is for the cheapest one! In college it was 47-50 cents/can most weeks! Becky found some for 53 cents/can in oil but the 83 cents was the cheapest of any kind at Wal-Mart and I'd have to say I felt a little let down.

I've read a couple of people's entries on here and after talking to some folks, the bags of chicken where I shopped were clearly not the best price in town. I was actually going to try and work in a bag but 6.98 or roughly 25% of my budget, just wasn't feasible.

I forgot my calculator and my phone just irritates me in calculator-mode so I used the scanner on the pole. I made a couple of trips back and forth to the scanner and got some funny looks from folks, probably due to me scanning my entire cart.

The Ugly

Condiment prices are just freakin' reee-diculous! I was looking for hot sauce, mayo, and relish, and possibly some seasonings for the pasta and bean dish I'm going to make. I left with relish which I thought wasn't bad for a buck. I'm going to swipe the rest from a gas station hot dog bar. I drive 100 miles a day so they get plenty of business out of me, so I'm entitled..ooohhhh there's a charged word!

Canned chicken was almost as high as the bagged chicken once you did the math......what!!!!

I'm somewhat lactose intolerant and without getting into a semantics showdown with those clinical nutrition wizards out there; the bottom line is I can't drink milk. Soy milk was sky high, even with house brands and even if I could drink milk, the powdered skim milk, which is the canned answer many RD's spit out to address the high cost of dairy, only came in some bulk container, so large that it was something like 10 bucks or 30% of my budget.

Day One

Breakfast was easy because I always eat oatmeal so there was no change there. Lunch was a challenge, not from a hunger perspective but my 2 PB&J's and yogurt didn't really compare to some of my non-participating co-worker's dishes. Dinner will a bear because I'm going to have to actually make it and I can tell you after an hour's commute, cooking from scratch is not very high on my list of priorities. I AM Mr. Microwave! The plan is to make my pasta and bean dish tonight or the tuna salad. Either way, I'm going to knock out my meals for dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow, all in one shot.

In closing, If you're not participating, you need to be!!!!!!!!!!!!

Josh