I think when I last blogged here, I had had some weird flu or something that pretty much knocked me out for a few days. I was wondering if I had been infected with COVID-19 (mostly because of saturation coverage, but the symptoms didn't fit, and for the most part, other than say brief grocery runs, occasional haircuts or medical appointments, I really haven't been exposed to other people since for the last 10 months I've mostly worked from home.) There were a few weeks I worked a day on site, but the nearest colleague worked diagonally from me several feet away. Over the years other than the occasional cold and of course my obesity, I've enjoyed fairly good health; I've held jobs where I've never used my health insurance.
I just reread my last post, and I think I ended up dropping another 3 pounds or so, so nearly a dozen pounds in less than a week. Now I've had some whooshes over the years up to that range over a few days, but that was usually after a water gain spike and never where I went through a period of being nauseated by the very thought of food. So I knew the loss wasn't sustainable and I was probably dehydrated a bit, and I expected to quickly regain some or most of that back as I regained my appetite (which took a couple of weeks). But little did I realize since then I would regain a swing of nearly 40 pounds! I remember putting on 20 pounds during 3 months in Brazil in 1995 (I ate well and wasn't working out at the gym). I'm not sure exactly what happened here; since then I've dropped about 8 of those pounds back, but I'm still about 20 pounds over where I was back around early September. There are some indulgences I've enjoyed: occasional dollar burritos, potato salad, canned soup and pasta, and/or jalapeno flavored kettle potato chips from Walmart but really I wasn't binge eating and for the most my diet followed the same regimen over the last few years.
I have to own up to my responsibility and it starts by phasing out my indulgences. But part of the story, i suspect, was a recent change in prescriptions a few months back. I know one of my sisters got diagnosed as bipolar maybe about 20 years back, and the prescriptions that worked for her condition had an unexpected side effect of a significant weight gain. My sister never had a weight problem through the first several years of her marriage and 3 kids. So I Googled my newer generic prescription, and sure enough one of the side effects include an unexpected weight gain. This doesn't mean it applies in my case, and it's not clear what are the specifics, e.g., water retention, salt metabolism, an adverse effect on metabolism. I have a follow-up with my doctor in just over 3 months or so to discuss it with her. I know I wanted a cheaper alternative to branded prescriptions that can retail up to or over $800/month, and insurance wouldn't kick in until I hit something like $6000 in deductibles. That's literally more than my car payment.
It's just frustrating going back to a point where I was a couple of years back. It came back stealthily; i hadn't weighed myself since my doctor's visit in January. At first I wondered if my scale had broken. But that would have been a state of denial. I have to take it one day at a time.
I've probably mentioned Lidl in passing in past posts. It's a German-owned chain from the early 1970's, likely a top competitor to the Aldi/Trader Joe chains in the US. There are some nuances among the chains. For example, Aldi's requires a quarter to retrieve a shopping cart, but you get it back when you return the cart. You don't have plastic bags like at Walmart for your produce at Lidl but much of it is bagged or packaged; you probably don't need a bag for bananas, but occasionally you have to gather, say, multiple mangoes. Occasionally Lidl will provide shipping boxes for customer reuse. I don't think Aldi or Lidl offers free grocery bags (paper or bag) although you can buy them for a nominal charge at Lidl (like up to 20 cents). I don't think Trader Joe charges for double paper bags. I'll normally bring a couple of garbage bags I bought at Sam's Club and/or recycle some bags from Walmart for produce. At Lidl and Aldi, you're expected to bag yourself. I haven't been to Trader Joe or Aldi in a while, but Lidl has the self-checkout kiosks I adore. The only issue I have is getting a clerk's attention with some weird issue, like pints of blueberries weren't scanning and for God knows what reason, mangoes triggered a reading of grapes.
Trader Joe has a dizzying array of, e.g., nut varieties and nut butters, and lots of premium private label specialty foods, a particular emphasis on healthier foods, with a limited selection of branded items, like Food for Life's sprouted grain Ezekiel bread at a very competitive price (like about $4.50/loaf last time I shopped there). Lidl offers typically its private labels and occasional name brands like Coke (but it stocks just a few shelves of soda, not a whole aisle, like at Walmart). But I'm impressed by the brands it carries, like Wild Planet tuna and Banza chickpea pasta. I've bought Wild Planet directly in the past (I don't think they do that anymore). Sam's Club used to carry chickpea pasta, and I think Men's Health or a similar portal introduced me to Banza.
It's difficult to summarize why I like Lidl so much but a few examples:
- the selection, prices, and frequent specials on grass-fed/finished meats. For example, they recently had ground lamb for about $4.50/lb. Saturday, they had ground beef at $3/lb. Their shelves are the best stocked and varied I've seen locally. You'll find round steak, sirloin steak, chuck roast, ribeye steak, and strip steak. The steaks are often in 8-ounce packages, and they'll often chop $2-3 /each of a limited quantity purchase. They recently did a BOGO on sirloin which amounted to about $3/steak. One of these packages makes 2 dinners.
- as a low-carber, I don't ear a lot of bread, but the best deal at Walmart for a store-brand whole wheat is like $1.50, if in stock/usually isn't and the cheapest name brand is like $1+ more. So Lidl sells its loaves for maybe $1,05 and it's got a premium country version (reminds me of Arnold's) at about $1.25. A package of whole wheat English muffins at $1.49,
- once they had a sale on small lobster tails for like $2/pack of 3. I love these things; I still have a pack or 2 in my freezer. They sometimes put bags of scallops on sale at a good price.
- brick-oven marguerita pizza. Yeah, I know: not a diet food. I can't remember how I got turned onto this meatless variety; maybe Lean Cuisine back in the day, but I haven't seen it in ages. They had a 3-pack on special for like $3.50. Recipes vary; to some people these may be little more than glorified cheese pizzas, but the crust is thin and crisy and the topping tasty
