Grocery shopping list for September 2021

This post is the thirty-third in a series and the twelfth to chronicle diets. This is the final post.

9 September

On this day I grocery-shopped either side of a psychiatrist’s appointment. With the car on the way out I parked at Broadway Shopping Centre and picked up mail at my PO box then went to Coles where I bought things that wouldn’t spoil waiting for refrigeration: fruit and veges as well as low-carb bread and low-carb snacks. I also got a jar of the wonderful English mayonnaise they sell in one aisle. After I’d seen the doctor and gone to the pharmacy to buy medication I popped into Coles in Pyrmont and bought perishable items: fish and chicken wings as well as a block of Bega Tasty cheese.

I think it was at this time that I rearranged kitchen cupboards, placing tea and coffee things all on shelves in a different cupboard near to where the coffee machine sits next to the air shaft. I also putting snacks and nuts on other shelves, next to them. The decision to make this reorganisation was sparked by the fact that the cupboard next to the stove had become a mite crowded. I’d earlier taken the step of moving spices and sauces out of it and placing them in two units directly above the cooktop. These small acts of house maintenance freed up an area that I was now able to use to store more dishes, some of which had been unreachable, by placing them much closer to where they’re needed. It also allowed me to rationalise room occupied by foodstuffs I keep in reserve such as rice and jars of unopened sauerkraut, raw sugar and tins of diced tomatoes.

11 September

Here’s my weight loss chart for the beginning of the month. Can you see the sudden rise two days beforehand? That was me eating some extra tidbits the night prior when two friends stayed over at my place. It was honey chicken and some eggplant with a delicious sauce that I sampled from the plastic containers one of them’d brought out of a Chinese takeaway. I’d driven them up to Mascot in the car so they could buy their dinner. I told Omer about my plan the next morning, when he was eating breakfast: how I’d deliberately made the decision to consume a bit more than usual as I had reached a level below where I wanted to stay fixed. 

My mind and memory were competent and were solidly in control of my ageing body. This morning I was again a little under my target range so had a shred of latitude with which to have one small meal extra or to eat a larger portion at my main lunchtime meal. I’d put out a piece of smoked cod to defrost the day before and planned to eat it with pumpkin and Brussels sprouts. I also cooked some parsnip to round off the meal.

18 September

My weight loss chart on this day looked like this:

The number told me to eat more. I’d put out some thin-sliced steak the day before to defrost in the fridge, and had gotten Omer, a friend, to buy cabbage when he was down at the Botany shops picking up take-away for Ming. My daily routine was again changing by this time, with me using cups of tea – either genmaicha (a Japanese mixture of grain and leaves) or black tea with milk – to assuage hunger pangs so that I’d eat my main meal at about 11am, then have nuts at about 2pm and a further light meal at about 5pm. I’d stopped going to bed at 6pm and would stay up watching reruns until 8.30pm, then retire as usual, this new regime meaning I was now waking up at about 5am instead of two hours earlier. I’d found it antisocial to get ready for bed too early since it took me away from the lifestyles of people around me and made it difficult to socialise.

19 September

When I went shopping on this day I bought items that could be eaten for a light meal in the evening. Because of some constipation I’d decided to reduce the number of times I ate cheese, so on this trip to the IGA I bought pickled onions, jalapenos, cooked asparagus, and black olives. Over the following week I’d eat such foods with the contents of cans of tuna that had been in my cupboard – for how long is anyone’s guess, but I didn’t want to waste them – and other savoury items that could be consumed without cooking.

29 September

On this day and the next I was a bit higher than previously, with 79.9kg being the lowest mark hit around this time – or ever, for that matter – when I decided for good to quit this journal. I’d summoned the last traces of goodwill necessary to open the MS-Word file and make an entry, I’d begun to resent the effort required to capture a JPG and save it to my hard disc, I’d reached the terminus of patience and had put a foot into a future where this record would no longer exist except as a memory. Perhaps more than one person would share it, in which case I’d done my job.

Grocery shopping list for August 2021

This post is the thirty-second in a series and the eleventh to chronicle diets. 

3 August

The effort required at the beginning of last month to make the shopping list for my blog exceeded the (admittedly not always very broad) limits of my patience, particularly because of all the rigmarole involved in locating files to include along with the text, and I decided to put a stop to the practice. I wrote in my end-of-year memorial for 2021 some words outlining my reasons for quitting the exercise I’d religiously kept up since December 2018 (with only May the next year missed because I was out of the country). You can read more of my reasoning when the time comes for that post to go up on the web.

The present blogpost will chronicle, for old times’ sake, highlights in my weight maintenance though I’m not really putting my heart and soul into it anymore; habit compels me to write each morning, so what you’re reading is like the final wriggles of a fish landed on a pier, its mortality escaping in futile change and turns, the thin air failing to sustain its quest for life, although a new idea might bring me to turn the direction I navigate for a route through the contravening currents in the shoals of obloquy.

4 August

After eating something early in the morning, before dawn, at a time when I’m usually up writing, I had an urge to update the app on my mobile phone in order to record what I’d just consumed, and was forced to check myself with a reminder – “I’m not doing that anymore.” The day before I’d also checked myself when I picked up the supermarket receipt as, by this point in time, it wasn’t necessary to snap a photo of these stray pieces of paper with their faint thermal traces that show the date of purchase, the name of each item bought, and the prices paid at the checkout. In the past I would load such images with their files to the cloud so that I could open them on my PC and store them in a folder ready for when, at the beginning of the new month, I would do the painstaking work needed to get everything uploaded so that it would be available for public scrutiny.

9 August

Went for milk today at the IGA, as well as other purchases, most of which I picked up because I knew at some point that I’d run out. Milk is probably the most important single purchase I make in any month, as, without morning coffee – I couldn’t possibly operate! 

Here’s a snapshot of my progress for the part of the month. I continue to record my morning weight using the scales and the Fat Secret app – the screen grab showing how it’s evident that 82.9kg was the lowest reading I’d ever seen. Even though 85kg was my target I’m tempted to sit just a little under that level in order to allow myself to be able to enjoy the occasional indulgence.

So for example you can see a spike on 2 August, as the first of the month saw me eating with friends and consequently putting on 900g overnight. When I’m alone I can regulate my weight – for example on 8 August I had, for my main meal, a serving of about half-a-kilo of chicken wings, and lost 700g overnight. A cheap alternative, chicken wings also reliably let you drop kilos (and I adore the crispy flavoursomeness of this wholesome treat).

Overall I was resting at a point that was reasonably static even given some unnerving peaks and satisfying troughs. In fact, just by eating an extra handful of cheese and one apple more I can put on half a kilo without even looking at any other item of food, a tendency that just goes to illustrate my susceptibility to weight gain. Some people are naturally liable to putting it on, while others can add any number of casual morsels to their daily intake without negative repercussions. I had a comment from a friend with whom, a generation ago, I worked at an automation company in Tokyo, who commented on a Facebook post that he’d never had occasion to even think about limiting carbohydrate intake and, despite that fact, had with age grown no bigger at his middle. Tim’s thoughts were a tonic for me, showing me how obesity isn’t necessarily universal though, as Dr Nanda, my general practitioner, noted when he spoke with me on more than one occasion, people who make up the population are heavier than they ought to be, and he blames Coca Cola for this trend. Like an old-time Presbyterian elder considered by coevals as one of the elect Tim is to be fair one of a lucky but small number.

13 August

Went to Woolies in Wolli Creek to do some shopping for a friend and at the same time picked up low-carb snacks and nuts. They have a good selection of nuts at this branch, including Brazil nuts and pecans – both of which I bought in separate packets.

15 August

I’d needed to order more medicated shampoo, so had earlier on called the pharmacy I use in Pyrmont and made a mental note to pick up the new bottle at the same time I went to meet with my psychiatrist. But due to the new lockdown regime I decided to do my psychiatrist’s appointment via Skype. I also placed an order on Sunday night at the Woolworths website (see below) where they actually have a low-carb bread option in the database, adding a number of other things to my shopping basket to fill up the order so that it would be worthwhile (the delivery charge is $15). 

16 August

My weight chart as it stood this morning:

If you spend a moment looking at this image you can see a low point of 82.9kg that fell a week prior and, on subsequent days, eating a bit too much – without being egregiously silly – I disappointingly gained weight. Minor lapses, I assure you! Nothing as dramatic as, say, a trip to a Thai restaurant for a plate of pad see ew (which I love but which my diet proscribes) though it was possibly due to the fact that I’d stopped charting consumption on the FatSecret app, or maybe because I’d stopped using the kitchen scales (on the 15th I put them away with the teapot and the toaster). Whatever the cause of the increase, a week of concerted effort was required to get me back to my “new normal”.

17 August

Just before midday an email had arrived from Woolworths notifying me that the swedes I’d ordered weren’t in stock. As a result of this discrepancy as well as a few others, the final charge would be revised downwards, the email saying “The pending charge on your credit card used for payment will be reduced by $6.10 prior to payment finalisation”. 

At 1.40pm the delivery happened, a young woman leaving the three bags next to the front door and skedaddling quick. She’d arrived in a regular, dark blue hatchback, unlike in the old days back at Pyrmont when a uniformed driver would come in a badged two-tonne truck. Shortly after this occurred I went to IGA with my houseguest to buy more food (including a swede) and especially to get kitchen paper towels, which were in short supply and which I’d forgotten to order on the weekend at the website.

18 August

I’d seen a charge on my credit card and thought that, because of this fact, I’d expect a refund, and when nothing came through, hoping for clarification, this morning I got onto the website and started a chat with someone at Woolies. I gave my order number and was told that a downwards revision had already been applied to the charge, so I signed off and went back to my usual browsing and my social graph. 

22 August

Drove to Pyrmont to pick up the medicated shampoo as my panic attacks had, with the use of antidepressants, fallen away. While out that way I stopped at Coles in Broadway Shopping Centre to buy some food, including chicken wings, meat, and low-carb snacks. The purchase total was about $143. I also bought a loaf of low-carb bread while I was in the store as most retailers don’t stock it, for example Woolies in Wolli Creek (which is closer to my home).

23 August

My house guest bought milk on this day as the 1-litre bottle I’d bought a few days earlier had almost run out. I messaged him to get some while he was getting his Covid inoculation. On this day my weight chart looked like this:

29 August

Went to buy milk from a bread shop as I had houseguests. My weight loss chart looked like this:

Grocery shopping list for July 2021

This post is the thirty-first in a series and the tenth to chronicle diets. 

1 June

Morning weigh-in had me at 86.2kg. Later, I checked my bank balance and saw the Campos refund had gone through. It was almost as much as a full bag of coffee costs, almost $30 – so worth my spending time and effort to make a short telephone call. I had had several emails from Australia Post about my PO box – presumably including the coffee – so resolved to visit the place when I went out on morning errands. While at Broadway Shopping Centre I stopped by at Coles and bought (see receipt below) tuna steaks, ling fillets, barramundi fillets, mullet fillets, low-carb bread, milk, strawberries, red Leicester cheese, brie, and marinaded goats’ cheese.

4 July

Morning weigh-in had me at 85.7kg. Later, went to IGA and bought (see receipt below) chicken wings, a pear, kiwi fruit, tomatoes, mushrooms, gouda, Bega Tasty cheese, and low-carb snacks.

My calorie count for the week just past was:

My activity chart was:

My macronutrient chart was:

6 July

Morning weigh-in had me at 85.1kg. Later, went to IGA and bought (see receipt below) Jatz crackers, zucchini, cucumbers, milk, and hummus.

7 July

Morning weigh-in had me at 84.7kg. Later went to IGA and bought (see receipt below) a T-bone steak, cos lettuce, broccoli, zucchini, tomatoes, rice, a packet of Kingston biscuits (a friend was staying over – I wasn’t breaking my diet!), a capsicum, toilet paper, taramosalata, shallots, and low-carb snacks.

8 July

Morning weigh-in had me at 84.5kg. Later, my houseguest went to IGA and bought a kiwi fruit, oranges, potatoes, mushrooms, milk, lemon friands sluice, fefferoni, and lamb cutlets. I also went to IGA and bought (see receipt below) bread, sauerkraut, T-bone steak, chillies, gouda, Jarlsberg, and macadamia nuts apples. Later went to Woolies and bought marinaded goat’s cheese, cheddar cheese and Brazil nuts.

12 July

Morning weigh-in had me at 84.4kg. My past week’s intake was, as follows:

My activity chart looked like this:

My macronutrient chart looked like this:

Later, went to Coles and bought (see receipt below) barramundi fillets, salmon fillets, a snapper fillet, chicken wings, an avocado, apples, brie, and mayonnaise.

14 July

Morning weigh-in had me at 84.2kg. Later, went to IGA and bought (see receipt below) milk, eggs, sliced pastrami, sliced chicken breast, pears, a capsicum, taramosalata, rump steak, Monte Carlo biscuits, and low-carb snacks.

16 July

Morning weigh-in had me at 84.4kg. Later, went to Coles and bought (see receipt below) sliced pastrami, ham, bacon, cold turkey breast, broccolini, cauliflower, pecans, Brazil nuts, an avocado, low-carb snacks, canola oil, hot English mustard, and sandwich bags.

19 July

Morning weigh-in had me at 84.3kg. My week’s calorie intake looked like this:

My activity chart was:

And my macronutrient chart was:

20 July

Morning weigh-in had me at 83.7kg. Later went to buy petrol and picked up some water in bottles for the car.

21 July

Went to Woolworths in Pyrmont and bought (see receipt below) hummus, plums, oranges, kiwi fruit, broccolini, Brussel sprouts, onions (red and brown), zucchini, maasdam cheese, d’Affinois cheese, and a block of Bega Tasty cheese.

24 July

Morning weigh-in had me at 84.1kg. Later, went to Woolies and bought (see receipt below) dumplings (some with pork and some without), meatballs, broccoli, a capsicum, an onion, milk, beef meatballs, apples, and an avocado.

25 July

Morning weigh-in had me at 84.7kg. Later, went to Coles and bought (see receipt below) barramundi fillets, smoked salmon fillets, tuna steaks, Scotch fillet steak, lamb chops, eggs, walnuts, mushrooms, mouthwash, and washing up liquid.

In the evening my neighbour waved to me as I was driving into the garage and I popped out to see what was happening. She’d received produce from Woolies and was giving it away so I scored apples, potatoes, pumpkin, capsicum, cabbage, shallots, and broccolini.

My week’s calorie count looked like this:

The activity chart was:

And the macronutrient chart was:

27 July

Morning weigh-in had me at 84kg. Later was at Woolies and bought bread for my house guest.

28 July

Morning weigh-in had me at 83.7kg. Later, went to Coles and bought (see receipt below) bread, mayonnaise, comte cheese, brie, red Leicester cheese, taramosalata, low carb snacks, and toilet paper. Today a friend gave me a packet of 10 face masks because I’d been unable to find them on the shelves at Coles; a staffer said they were available at the service counter but there the sales clerk was busy with other customers so I didn’t wait to ask about the item before proceeding to the checkout.

Grocery shopping list for June 2021

This post is the thirtieth in a series and the ninth to chronicle diets. 

4 June

Morning weigh-in had me at 87kg. Later, a friend gave me some nashi pears.

6 June

Morning weigh-in had me at 86.7kg. Later, the same friend gave me apples and kiwifruit.

My calorie count for the week just past being, as follows:

My activity chart was:

And the macronutrient intake was:

This week I ate an average of 44.8g of carbs per day.

7 June

Morning weigh-in had me at 86.3kg. Later, went to IGA and bought (see receipt below) milk, Bega Tasty cheese, tomatoes, mushrooms, a lettuce, and low-carb snacks.

9 June

Morning weigh-in had me at 86.5kg. Later, went to Coles and bought (see receipt below) low-carb snacks, low-carb bread, hummus, chicken wings, a blue grenadier fillet, ling fillets, salmon fillets, barramundi fillets, some gouda made from goats’ milk, and some red cheddar cheese.

13 June

Morning weigh-in had me at 86.2kg. Later, went to Campsie and bought avocados, nectarines, a capsicum, and a banana chilli. Also popped in at Woolies and bought soap, sandwich bags, and baking paper. Receipts below.

My week’s calorie count was, as follows:

The activity chart went like this:

And the macronutrient chart was like this:

This week I ate an average of 42.6g of carbs per day.

16 June

Morning weigh-in had me at 86.3kg. Later, went to IGA and bought milk.

18 June

Morning weigh-in had me at 85.9kg. Later, went to Coles and bought (see receipt below) salmon fillets, barramundi fillets, chicken wings, hummus, and low-carb snacks.

22 June

Morning weigh-in had me at 86.2kg. Calorie intake for the week ended was:

My activity was:

And my macronutrient chart looked like this:

The previous week I consumed an average of 52.4g of carbs per day.

Later, went to IGA and bought (see receipt below) milk, Jarlsberg cheese, gouda, Bega Tasty cheese, sliced pastrami, sliced silverside, chicken wings, and almonds.

26 June

Morning weigh-in had me at 85.8kg. Later (due to lockdown) went to IGA and bought almonds, Bega cheese, and apples. Also stocked up on loo paper. See receipt below. A woman passing me on the footpath as I walked up a street near my home looked at my packages and said, “Sorted?” I used a rising intonation in my voice to reply to her, expressing a world-weariness in the single word I deployed: “Yep!” A friend had a day or so before thanked me for buying for her a big pack of loo paper as, she told me, her supermarket had run out. She included a photo of the empty shelves with her message. My innate conservatism comes in handy at times like this. Before going down to the shops I’d lingered, on tenterhooks, on the couch watching the government press conference and asking myself if I should go. Finally, not able to withstand the urge to get up and move, I walked to Botany Road and made purchases.

27 June

Morning weigh-in had me at 85.9kg. Later, went to IGA and bought (see receipt below) hummus, eggs, pickled chillies, olives, a jar of cooked asparagus, sliced ham, sliced pastrami, and low-carb snacks.

My calorie intake for the week just past was:

My activity chart looked like this:

And the macronutrient chart was:

In the week just past I ate an average of 65g of carbs per day – well over my target!

28 June

Morning weigh-in had me at 86kg. Later went to Campsie and at a butcher’s bought (see receipt below) sirloin steak, chicken wings, and pork chops. At a different shop bought a large fillet of orange roughy (which, cut up and bagged, made portions for three meals).

29 June

Morning weigh-in had me at 86.6kg – a shocking increase! Later, I saw a promotional email from Campos Coffee in my inbox offering 20 percent discount on all coffee so went to their website and indicated that I wanted my usual three bags, as I was anyway planning to buy coffee in the near future, but when I put in the code that the email contained it didn’t register with the interface, so I paid my usual amount (see image below).

I phoned the company at about 8.30am and talked for about five minutes with a staffer, who said that the matter would be addressed, and at 11.49am an email arrived from them telling me that a partial refund would be made in two or three business days.