Grocery shopping list for May 2021

 This post is the twenty-ninth in a series and the eighth to chronicle diets. From this month I was again living alone.

1 May 

Morning weigh-in had me at 89.3kg. Later, went to Thirroul Fruit Barn and bought (see receipt below) apples, pears, avocados, and sundried tomatoes.

2 May

Morning weigh-in had me at 89.9kg. Later, went to the Fish Market and bought snapper fillets, salmon, and swordfish steaks. Also bought comte cheese and blue cheese. See receipts below.

My calorie count for the week was:

My activity was:

My macronutrient totals were:

This week I ate an average of 51.6g of carbs a day.

4 May

Morning weigh-in had me at 89.6kg. Later, went to buy petrol on Cleveland Street and also picked up milk and – to keep in the car – bottled water.

6 May 

Morning weigh-in had me at 89kg. Later, went to Coles and bought (see receipt below) filet steak, lamb chops, pastrami, bacon, sliced ham, turkey breast, mushrooms, plums, nashi, rocket, an avocado, taramosalata, and low-carb snacks.

8 May

Morning weigh-in had me at 89.2kg. Later, was in a Chinese supermarket in Wolli Creek so while there I bought something I’d needed: eggs.

10 May 

Morning weigh-in had me at 89.3kg. My weekly calorie count was:

My activity chart was:

My macronutrient chart was:

This week I ate an average of 62.1g of carbs daily.

Later, I went to Broadway Coles and bought (see receipt below) milk, apples, low-carb bread, red Leicester cheese, walnuts, and mayonnaise.

14 May

Morning weigh-in had me at 88.3kg. Later, went to Woolies in Pyrmont and bought (see receipt below) a Nile perch fillet, d’Affinois cheese, marinaded goat’s cheese, tarmosalata, bacon, low-car snacks, kiwifruit, pears, an avocado, and strawberries.

16 May 

Morning weigh-in had me at 88.8kg. Later, went to IGA and bought (see receipt below) milk, Jarlsberg cheese, apples, kiwifruit, a capsicum, a lettuce, and Roma tomatoes.

This week’s calorie count was, as follows:

The activity chart was:

And the macronutrient chart was:

The week past I ate an average of 59.1g of carbs – again a bit high, but still I lost weight.

21 May

Morning weigh-in had me at 88.3kg. Later, went to IGA and bought (see receipt below) milk, Bega Tasty cheese, Jarlsberg cheese, sliced chicken, sliced ham, plums, apples, a lettuce, almonds, and low-carb snacks.

22 May 

Morning weigh-in had me at 88.4kg. Later, caught the bus to Redfern and walked to Newtown to Campos’ store and bought coffee. Then at the bulk foods store on King Street picked up Brazil nuts and macadamia nuts.

23 May

Morning weigh-in had me at 88.5kg. Later, caught the bus to the Fish Market and bought (see receipt below) Tunnel and Mons comte cheese, Jersey gouda, salmon fillets, ling fillets, orange roughy fillets, and swordfish steaks.

The week’s calorie count was, as follows:

The activity chart was:

The macronutrient chart was:

This week I ate an average of 52g of carbs per day.

24 May

Went to the IGA in the morning and bought (see receipt below) eggs, a capsicum, tomatoes, black olives, cooked asparagus, artichoke hearts, almonds and mushrooms

25 May

Morning weigh-in had me at 88.1kg. Later, went to Chemist Warehouse and bought mouthwash. Popped in also at IGA and bought soap and taramosalata. Receipts below.

26 May

Went to Coles in Broadway SC and bought low-carb bread. Also got medicated shampoo from pharmacy in Pyrmont I used to go to (and still use).

27 May

Morning weigh-in had me at 88kg. At 7.04am, I received an SMS from Australia Post about a delivery from a place called “The Hamper” and immediately replied to the effect that it wasn’t my package. The message didn’t go through so I thought for a while then understood in a flash – which was sudden yet natural, as though I’d know it all along – that the estate agents had organised a gift. I SMS’d Mark Petersen of Sotheby’s and asked him and he confirmed that, yes, it had been their idea. 

The original SMS said the parcel would come on this day and at 7.45am the doorbell rang and I opened the gate for the postie (see van in photo below).

The box contained garlic salt flakes, olive oil, red wine, almonds, quince paste, crackers, capsicum tapenade, and sundried tomatoes. All of them looked very expensive but most of them I wouldn’t be able to eat due to my diet. I should’ve recommended, when he’d on an earlier occasion mentioned the idea of a gift, that Mark should buy a box of cheese instead of expensive crackers and confectionery!

It was nice a gift but I gave most of the hamper to friends, this series of events underlining for me how poorly we understand food if the obvious candidate was ignored in favour of others less suitable for a person with my physical needs. I reflected upon this with a kind of wry calm – how many people eat the wrong foods and pass over others that are just as nutritious and tasty but that contain far less of the things they should avoid? – but anyway thanked Mark for his thoughtful gesture. 

In the evening, when I dropped the treats off at my friend’s house in Wolli Creek, I happened to be in Woolies and while there took the opportunity to buy laundry liquid and Brazil nuts. The latter item had been very hard to find; the former was bulky and my car was parked nearby.

30 May 

Morning weigh-in had me at 87.6kg. Later, went to IGA and bought (see receipt below) low-carb snacks, pears, a tomato, apples, milk, and gouda cheese.

My weekly calorie count looked like this:

My activity chart:

My macronutrient chart:

This week I ate an average of 54.7g of carbs per day.

31 May

Morning weigh-in had me at 87.2kg. Later, went to Harris Farm Markets in Kings Cross and bought (see receipt below) tomatoes, apples, strawberries, mushrooms, an avocado, brie, provolone, marinaded goat’s cheese, and chicken wings.