Beware the Super Spike

After hitting a diet low on Jan. 28 with hopes of a monster whoosh ahead, I instead ran into the dreaded super spike, probably the most demoralizing phenomenon but not unprecedented. I seem to recall I gained 10 pounds on a spike over the last year-plus and to lose it all took literally weeks. This was different than my 2 10-day plane trips where I put on 10-15 pounds during periods of mostly eating out--but took it off within 4 days or so. The super spike pounds are like losing the same weight all over again. In this case, I put on 9.6 pounds over 6 days, about half in the first 2-day burst, with literally no change in diet. At first I thought this was a routine bounce back of 3-4 lbs.--and thought it would come off over the rest of the week--only this time, the surge continued daily over the next 4 weigh-ins for the balance of the spike. I weighed-in one day after hitting the peak and then avoided weighing in the next 4 days. So this morning I'm down 4 pounds from the peak (over 9 days), but still 5 pounds over my yearly low.

I rarely go to Sam's Club two weekends in a row, but I was curious about Kerrygold, Irish butter made from the milk of pastured/grass-fed cows. I had specifically looked for it in the frozen foods/butter section last time and couldn't find it, but when I checked the producer's website, it had included Sam's Club in Arizona. I found the one-pound tubs--in the specialty cheese aisle where I had found some grass-fed dairy products. I also saw a couple of Kerrygold cheese products for sale; these didn't make claims of grass-fed dairy (although the butter did); it didn't make sense to me they would be using conventional milk products to make cheese vs. butter. (In fact, their websites make explicit reference to grass-fed butter and cheese products, although their blurbs on individual cheese products do not necessarily discuss that fact.) It has been quite a while since I've bought butter (if you don't count the occasional meal out where I break my low-carb rules to enjoy a warm roll with the single-serve packets of butter), so I can't really tell you how different it tastes from conventional butter, but it tastes wonderful. I fried a couple of eggs in it the other day,

Of course, you don't get the selection in a Sam's Club that you will find in a Walmart supermarket, although there are some Sam's Club offerings I haven't seen to date in a Walmart, e.g., ground lamb, milk products, etc. As I've mentioned in past posts, it does seem like Sam's Club is making a conscious effort to appeal to healthy-oriented consumers: organic produce and canned products, oils, breads, etc. The list apparently includes the fad of free-range chicken; I haven't seen them offer whole chickens of that type, but, for example, they offer a multi-unit box of free range chicken broth, and they offer free-range chicken sausages (including cheese). It's difficult to simplify, but it seems when it comes to free-range or grass-fed products, you're looking at a price-point of about $6/lb. If you're on a strict budget, it's hard to justify the cost differential, but it's very competitive if you compare the cost of eating out. The issue I have with more conventional meat (besides the taste difference) is the unhealthy disproportionate balance of Omega-6 to Omega-3 fats; grass-fed beef products have a more optimal roughly 2:1 ratio.

I recently got my third monthly shipment from ButcherBox (please note that I do not have any sort of an incentive or investment with the vendors I discuss, including Walmart: I've spent my own money, just like everyone else does.) ButcherBox is a monthly premium meats service, including beef, chicken, pork or mixed shipments. I'm in the grass-fed beef program. For a flat fee of about $130/month (including shipping), you get 7-10 lbs. of assorted cuts; in the case of my program, there's a regular shipment of 2 one-lb. ground beef bricks, and then a varying mix of premium cuts, including various steaks, roasts, ribs, etc. This week I put a 2-lb. chuck roast in my crockpot before going to work. In a sense, it's funny; I own lots of cookbooks, but in practice I often prepare my meals and eat very simply. Maybe I'll sprinkle some sea salt, and that's about it. When I got home, the roast smelled and tasted wonderful, very tender.

I had ordered as an add-on to my last order a whole chicken, thinking it would be an Emmer & Co. heritage chicken, which had been included as a promotion with my first ButcherBox shipment. Now, of course, roasted chicken is always wonderful, but the heritage chicken was like eating "real" chicken for the very first time--no hype. It was like the chicken I always wanted but never knew existed. It can be very pricey; you can order directly from Emmer at roughly $30 per 3.25 lb. bird (not including shipping, which they'll waive for certain price minimums). That's tough to justify when you can buy a rotisserie chicken at Walmart or Sam's Club for $5/chicken. In any event, I found out that I could order a whole bird as an add-on for my monthly ButcherBox shipment, with no extra charge for shipping. I was somewhat disappointed it wasn't a heritage chicken (I should have asked, but I did specifically mention the Emmer bird when asking about an add-on option); it was organic and bigger than an Emmer bird (and the taste was very good--but not quite as good as my Emmer bird had been). I had made an assumption they were using the same supplier, which wasn't the case.