My Most Recent Grocery Shopping

I mentioned in my political blog I had checked to see if Safeway had resurrected (from bankruptcy) Hostess Brand Twinkies; my last trip the racks had been picked clean. Yesterday I saw a couple of packages still available in a freestanding display. No, I did not buy any; I probably haven't eaten any since I was a kid. As a bachelor and graduate student/professor, I would occasionally buy those little sugar-crusted fruit turnover pies; I preferred the blueberry variety; I am my father's son. (There is an inside family anecdote behind that. In the blog, I've discussed the government's restriction on raw milk. My Dad during his teenage years used to work as time permitted on a relative's farm in Massachusetts. One day his aunt had put out a string of blueberry pies to cool; my Dad and the other guys pilfered a couple of the pies, washing it down from fresh raw milk (with cream haven risen to the top of the bottle). My grand-aunt noticed that pies were missing and rounded up the suspects. The guys, of course, played innocent. She then ordered them to stick out their tongues....)

Some recent purchases in my post-Nutrisystems phase: (SW=Safeway, SC=Sam's Club):

• nutrient-enhanced specialty eggs at half-off (SW). These boast of higher levels of Omega 3's, lutein, and Vitamin E. "Different feeds, such as flaxseed (linseed), safflower oil, perilla oils, chia, marine algae, fish, fish oil, and vegetable oil have been added to chicken feeds to increase the omega-3 fatty acid content in the egg yolk."

Sam's Club often offers good prices on specialty and multi-dozen packs of regular eggs. Recently one of my nephews and his wife moved into their first apartment, and my niece-in-law posted a picture of the top shelf of their refrigerator largely taken up by an egg pack from Sam's Club, mildly protesting that she doesn't eat that many eggs. I kidded that I was jealous (I think they had a bigger bundle than I have purchased locally). I love to make omelettes with the works, like onions, mushrooms, jalapeno peppers, ... I may throw in some broccoli or chopped leftover ham, and I top it with whatever shredded cheese I have on hand (as I write, sharp cheddar). I'll usually heat a whole grain tortilla in the microwave for about 10 seconds, layer the omelette in it and top it with whatever salsa or picante sauce I have on hand--the hotter, the better.

Sam's Club usually has large jars of jalapeno pepper slices, which I add to my omelettes and salads, for just over $3. And I'm actually one of those people whom buy those gallon jugs of hot sauce; I'll often buy picante sauce or salsa from Sam's Club but it's too mild for me; I'll sometimes stock up on hot varieties on sale at Safeway.

As for tortillas or flatbreads, one familiar brand for low-carbers is La Tortilla Factory. Safeway also has carried Flatout flatbreads, which I like. I additionally like Joseph's Middle East Bakery's Lavash breads, which include a blend of whole wheat, oat bran and flax. I have been able to order these products from vendors like Netrition. Food for Life, one of my favorite brands (see below), specializing in sprouted whole grain products, has introduced a tortilla line which intrigues me but I haven't tried yet. My local Sam's Club usually has a mix-or-match two-package bundle for under $5, including a whole-wheat variety.

My preference for a Mexican-style breakfast goes back to my undergraduate days of work/study employment. I've always had a stellar work ethic and was quickly promoted to assistant cook with the dining service contractor. I worked with a Latino cook (Rudy?), and he used to make am amazing version of huevos rancheros: he didn't fry the eggs; he scrambled them, but the (tomato-chili?) sauce was incredible, very flavorful.

The egg is probably my favorite food (roast turkey rates a close second). (I've been known to order eggs for dinner as a business road warrior, especially if I've gone without eggs for 2-3 days. ) I know the conventional dietary/fitness preference is to focus on egg whites, but yolks are spectacularly nutritious.and flavorful: it's what the chicken embryo feeds before breaking out of the shell.

• Romaine Hearts / Baby Spinach / Most Fresh Veggies (SC). I occasionally find a good price on kale at Safeway, but you can't beat a pound or more of salad for $3-5. As for veggies, I'm partial to packages of brussels sprouts and broccoli. I usually grab a package of mushrooms, a cucumber bundle, and tray of roma tomatoes.
• Sardines (SW). Perfect snack that hits the spot. Occasionally Safeway has these on sale for as low as $1 a tin; I especially like the hot sauce or mustard varieties. I used to order from Blue Galleon directly until they reorganized. I think one can order them from Vitacost and other vendors. Sam's Club has a good price on canned Alaskan salmon, and I have a couple of frozen salmon packages in my freezer. I have also liked Wild Planet brand tuna and other products.
• Grass-Fed Ground Beef $1/lb off (SW). I didn't even know Safeway carried grass-fed meat products until recently. I know a brother-in-law's father raised a few head on his Texas ranch; I remember visiting them when my sister was first married and she cooked a roast from "Blue Eyes". There's definitely a taste difference from conventionally finished beef, but the Omega-3 proportion is more balanced and healthier. I still have some reservations about processed meats (see my earlier post on the Harvard meat study).
• Ezekiel Sprouted Grain Breads (SW). In the past Safeway carried maybe a half dozen to a dozen loaves in its frozen foods section; then it seemed to disappear. I recently went to Food for Life's website, and they weren't listing Safeway as one of the local vendors. Then over the weekend I found a  few loaves in a different aisle in the frozen /refrigerated section. (One of my pet peeves is stores constantly reorganizing their sections in idiosyncratic ways.) I bought 3 loaves; it may sound unusual for a lower-carber to talk so much about tortillas and bread when I have maybe one serving a day at most; it's because the good stuff is so hard to find.
• Organ Meats (SW). I'll often find packages of chicken giblets and hearts for under $2 a package. I'll often purchase chicken or beef/calf livers.
• Pork Cuts (SW). I can often find pork shoulders or cuts at around $2/lb.
• Chicken Breasts. Usually I can find a good buy on boneless/skinless chicken breasts at about $2/lb either place; the sizes tend to be larger at Sam's Club.
• Almond Milk (SW). It's excellent as a coffee "creamer" or a base for nutrition mixes. The unsweetened variety is roughly 30 calories a serving. I know Atkins had a thing about soy milk, but I have a thyroid issue and try to avoid soy products. Almonds are a superfood familiar to any low-carber.
• Fresh Berries (SC). For an occasional treat, I like to indulge in a serving of fresh strawberries or blueberries, which have a moderate amount of carbs. In the summer one can buy a couple of pounds of berries at a good price. Off-season, Sam's Club offers good prices on large sacks of these and/or a medley of  frozen berries.
• Flavored Green Tea (SW) I also sometimes purchase flavored regular or decaf. Sam's Club often related bundles of 20-bag boxes. I drink a lot of iced tea sweetened with stevia  (which I purchase in multi-pound units from vendors like iHerb). I'll often mix 6 tea bags (regular, def, green), one of which is flavored, to make 2 quarts. 
• Nutrition Products (SC). I picked up 3 BPA-free nutrition blender bottles with whisk balls for about $20. Sam's Club offers reasonable prices on EAS and other brand whey protein packages.

This is a good summary of recent purchases. I have no financial relationship from any specified vendor, and this post is not ended to be an endorsement of Safeway or Sam's Club; they just happen to be the markets I mostly frequently do personal purchases. The reader may find better prices or alternatives elsewhere, but hopefully this discussion of my experience and products has been useful or at least interesting.

Intelligent Carb Consumption: Some Initial Thoughts

Let me note here, if it's not clearly stated elsewhere,  that my essays are not based on original nutrition research but reflect a number of secondary references. My research background can be relevant in evaluating nutrition study design.

I always knew that athletes and bodybuilders took nutrition to a different level. In my political blog I've occasionally mentioned an odd fellow Oracle Apps DBA I met on a gig in the late 1990's at a specialty box manufacturer (e.g., boxes used for CD or DVD collections) in the west Chicago suburbs. I was actually in decent physical shape but I seemed to have a resistance level at about 220 lbs. I knew he was a fairly serious gym rat, but I don't know if he was an amateur bodybuilder. He gave me a couple of EAS powder packets and even offered me $50 to throw out everything in my refrigerator. He didn't go too much into his diet, except he mentioned dipping bread into virgin olive oil. (I didn't take him up on his offer.)

I remember in my battles against the Atkins diet fundamentalists back around 2003-2004, I never really liked what I considered over-simplistic daily carb gram caps which were the same held regardless of activity levels. I knew that diets often resulted in an undesirable loss of muscle, a lot of an initial 6 pound or so weight loss was mostly water and I believe related to a drop in glycogen stores. One can conceptualize glycogen (in liver and muscles) as stores of working quick-energy supply. Starches, like the white foods (potatoes, rice, bread), contain glucose, which in conjunction with insulin feeds muscle glycogen, while the fructose in fruit is metabolized by the fiber. Why is glycogen important? Among other things, lack of an energy store affects our energy levels to exercise and can also result in the loss of muscle (which may be used to replenish glycogen). Insulin is also a fat storage mechanism.

At the current time I'm still doing my background research on the topic, and I'm sure that bodybuilders would find my discussion inadequate. The nature and extent of carb consumption should vary on activity level, but some carbs, say complex carbs like whole grains, may be consumed at an interval long enough to ensure that the carbs are metabolized, available for use during a subsequent workout. Then a second feeding occurs after the workout when the glycogen levels are depleted. So we can think of glycogen levels as sort of a thermostat; we never want to overflow glycogen, with excess carbs metabolized as fat, and we never want our glycogen to deplete to the point we lose muscle. [One source suggest excess carbs are converted into palmitic acid which suppresses our sensitivity to the hunger hormone leptin, i.e., we may overeat because we feel satiated later.]

Glycogen levels are naturally lower in the morning when we wake up, and insulin sensitivity is higher in the morning and after workouts. Insulin sensitivity is critical to efficient delivery of glucose to cells. Growth hormones, which naturally decline with age, are also useful in muscle growth and sugar and fat metabolism. Growth hormone generation can be stimulated through anaerobic (strength-training) exercise and can be inhibited by high levels of insulin. Insulin production is stimulated by the consumption of faster-digested, higher-glycemic foods (like the white foods and fruit juices). The above source suggests post-workout some glycogen can be replenished without insulin.

[I think this discussion is somewhat nuanced in the case of people with insulin resistance (metabolic syndrome, predisposition to or diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, etc ) Insulin resistance can be highest in the morning. This has obvious implications for the timing and types of any carb consumption and exercise.]

Here are some practical suggestions:

• Work some strength training into your exercise routine. One heuristic is to consume up to a quarter of your daily carbs in your post-workout. The timing of your exercise routine can also be important; for example, if your insulin sensitivity (vs. resistance)  is higher in the morning, you may want to do strength training then.
• Don't eat carbs solo, particularly at the end of the day. In your meal/snack with carbs, include protein.
• Generally choose "good", complex, slower-digesting carbs to smooth out insulin levels. There is one general exception for fitness experts: post-anaerobic workouts, faster-acting carbs, like a plain baked potato, will replenish muscle glycogen faster (when speed is of the essence).

Back on the Lower-Carb Trail

I think at my highest weight I hit somewhere in the 340-plus lb. range around 2003, which would be heavy if I was a foot taller instead of roughly average height. I wasn't always that heavy. When I was a Navy ensign shortly after earning my first Master's I probably was in the 170-190 lb. range, and within a year of leaving the Navy (I was an instructor which is sedentary work) I got down to the low 160's, probably my lowest since I dieted at OLL, losing 70-odd pounds. During my decade in academia starting as a full-time doctoral student in Houston, I probably hit the 220-lb. or so range, although that is somewhat deceptive because I bulked up weight training and I was regularly jogging. After I left academia (job recession) and resumed my IT professional career in the Chicago area, I probably cycled between 220-270 lbs.; I had joined a Bally's affiliate in the southwest suburbs and was fanatically working out nightly, alternating aerobic and anaerobic training (I was so fanatic my car skidded on black ice blanketed by unplowed snow, causing about $2K in damage and use of my car for a few weeks--but I still got my workout in); I had replaced jogging with cycling and stepper machines. I developed a painful heel spur, and my doctor at the time was clueless. I hypothesized that my workouts had stressed my foot and cut my workouts to every other day; the pain soon went away, no thanks to my doctor.

I started consulting around 1997 and had adopted a road warrior lifestyle. Maintaining a diet-exercise regimen was difficult, although many hotels now seem to offer exercise facilities. A temp gig I took in Santa Clara become an unsought full-time job offer (after 3 months, I was told not to fly back the next week unless I took their job offer, and I didn't have a backup gig lined up in Chicago). This became notable because Bally's at the time didn't have an affiliate in the San Jose area (the nearest one was in the San Francisco area), and I didn't want to buy a second membership. Plus, I quickly became disenchanted with my new job, putting in over 70 hours a week. I eventually moved back to the northwest suburbs of Chicago to service a local government client in the Milwaukee suburbs just before 9/11. It is around that time I discovered, to my shock, that my weight had climbed to the 330-lb. level. I knew I had put on some weight because I had to buy bigger clothes; it wasn't so much my eating patterns had changed but probably a combination of slowing metabolism and irregular exercise. I think Bally's didn't have a conveniently located  center where I lived, but a one-way commute of an hour was more the rule than the exception over the next 3 years.

I finally got the message that I had to do something about my weight when, in the midst of a horrible Chicago job market, I went on a job interview, ironically, in the Baltimore area, for a local energy company. Usually IT gigs are business casual, so I hadn't worn my favorite business suit in some time and noticed that it was feeling a bit snug. For whatever reason, I didn't get the job, but I dedicated myself to doing something about my weight.

On a previous gig in 2002 I had met an eccentric DBA whom was commuting from Florida for a local Chicago government project. (I won't go into the specifics of his eccentricity here; he was the most incompetent DBA I've ever met but the project manager was gullible and had chosen him without having me screen him.) In any event, he had told me that he had a weight problem like mine, but the Atkins diet had worked for him. He was over 6 feet tall and not thin, but active enough to scuba dive in Florida as a favorite pastime.

I found it worked like a charm--I was seeming losing about 3 lbs. a week, almost effortlessly, probably losing over 90 lbs. by the time of a family function in 2004. (By that time I had a new government contractor gig just inside the north Beltway and had moved to a Maryland suburb north of the Beltway.) A Bally's club was maybe a 20-minute drive away, and I resumed regular workouts, although my commutes usually chewed up an hour each way; I found myself at the club at 6 AM when it opened or skipping dinner and heading for a night workout before the club closed at 10 PM.

Long story short, I began tapering off my visits to Bally's, and Bally's sold the club a few years back. The new management didn't honor the Bally's membership. I don't think I ever regained all the weight I took off over 2003-2004; but I came close; I was diagnosed with a thyroid deficiency.in 2009. I went a while without seeing my doctor (and prescription refills), which didn't help my weight problem.

I have lost a good 15 pounds since resuming my doctor's visits, and my last regular visit he put me back on a lower-carb regimen (capped, I think, at about 50 g. of carbs daily), and I'm phasing my way back into a regular fitness regimen, starting with regular walks. I had to recently discontinue my Nutrisystem deliveries because of too many carbs despite being in a "good carb" program. I'm also doing more background research into cyclical dieting which bodybuilders use to get into contest shape.

It's a little frustrating I haven't been able to replicate my earlier low-carb diet success; why did I go off in 2004? I had gone off around the time of the family function; the holidays were soon thereafter. When I restarted I seemed to be plateauing--and let's face it: a low-carb regimen is fairly boring. I never went back to the "white foods"--sugar, refined flour, potatoes, rice--but transitioned to more complex carbs, like 100% whole wheat bread, beans, etc. But hopefully this discussion provides a better understanding of the problems fat people go through; dieting can be a vicious circle because the body triggers a metabolism-slowing response to fewer calories; I've not frequented all-you-care-to-eat restaurants, I don't buy sugary desserts of any type, munchies (chips, crackers, etc.) I eat less than most people I know.

I will make periodic updates as circumstances warrant, in addition to other layman notes on nutrition and exercise topics.