SNAP Challenge | Day 4

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Day 4. Alright. So today is the first time I had to turn down food. I volunteered at the engineering career fair and when I was offered breakfast, I inconspicuously said I had already ate: I had cereal and almond milk again. It's quick and easy. I did know that I would have to turn down food during this challenge. But it has dawn upon me that I will have to do it more often than I expected; all because, I can't keep any dates straight in my head and didn't realize how many events were happening these two weeks. Eating food has become such a social event. (More about turning down food in a future post.)

Today was a very long day for me. And it's still going on with tonight probably being even longer, hopefully not an all-nighter. So it was such a relief to come home and cook. I've come to realize that cooking is such a stress-free break, kind of like cleaning. I don't feel bad at all taking time out of my super busy schedule to cook. It feels great, actually. After you eat, you feel full and content and happy and ready to do more work! Yeah! (Okay, I'm not sure about that last part about work, maybe it's true or maybe I'm just trying to keep myself optimistic for tonight.)

Anyway, for lunch, I had a very protein heavy meal: rice and soy-sauce marinated pork chop. But that protein did me well! I did not feel hungry at all until now: 7:15PM. I did have tea along the way. But I don't think that's significant.

And for dinner, I thought I balance my day out with zucchini scrambled in eggs. This is one of my go to meals. My family, or maybe just me, enjoys scrambling our vegetable melons (cucumber, zucchini, etc.) with eggs. I like it; It was good.

SNAP Challenge | Day 3

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It would be absolutely wonderful if time could slow down a bit, just a smudge. It's not like I don't want to graduate; it's just that I have so many things to do by May! Today is one of many such hectic days to come. I woke up around 9AM, and proceeded to work on some homework assignments. Then at noon, I had 5 hours of classes straight followed by trying to go work on my prints only for there to be a class in the print studio. I am just sitting down for dinner now, 6:30PM. After that is senior design project crunch time!!!! Ahhh!! Around 10PM, I'll probably head back to the print studio to do a couple of test prints. Busy, busy, busy. So where does cooking fit into all this? I just ruthlessly set aside time this morning to cook; homework had to wait!

Some quickly marinated chicken, broccoli, and pasta for lunch and dinner. I'm content. And Breakfast was cereal and almond milk. I also had a cookie and some Sunchips along the way.

SNAP Challenge | Day 2

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I'm not big on breakfast, and it's mostly because breakfast foods are not my favorite -- I do like omelets, regular toast, and french toast, but that's about it. It's also no secret that I don't like milk. However, I do realize that's probably where I'm least healthiest. Sometimes I feel like I must have a calcium deficiency, but my doctor hasn't mentioned it yet. I occasionally do try to remedy that by drinking almond milk. These two weeks are one of those occasional times.

So for breakfast I had a small mug of Califia Farms vanilla almond milk (gluten free, no soy, no GMO, and lactose free) with a chocolate chip cookie. This sounds pretty basic and maybe unhealthy except for the fact that almond milk is choke full of nutritious value. Here's a direct comparison with 2% milk and soy milk with healthier choice in color font.

Calories: almond: 50 calories, 2%: 130 calories, soy: 110 calories.
Calories from fat: almond: 35 calories, 2%: 45 calories, soy: 40.
Total fat: almond: 3-5g, 2%: 5g, soy: 4.5g.
Saturated Fat: almond: 0g, 2%: 3g, soy: 0.5g.
Trans Fat: all 0g.
Cholesterol: almond: 0mg, 2%: 20mg, soy: 0mg.
Sodium: almond: 160mg, 2%: 130mg, soy: 105mg.
Total Carbohydrate: almond: 4g, 2%: 12g, soy: 9g.
Dietary Fiber: almond: 1g, 2%: 0g, soy: 2g.
Sugars: almond: 3g, 2%: 12g, , soy: 6g.
Protein: almond: 1g, 2%: 8g, soy: 8g.

Vitamin A: almond: 15%, 2%: 10%, soy: 10%.
Calcium: almond: 45%, 2%: 30%, soy: 45%.
Vitamin D: almond: 35%, 2%: 25%, soy: 30%.
Riboflavin: almond: 35%, 2%: no mention, soy: 30%.
Magnesium: almond: 6%, 2%: no mention, soy: 15%.
Vitamin C: almond: 0%, 2%: 4%, soy: 15%.
Iron: almond: 4%, 2%: 0%, soy: 8%.
Vitamin E: almond: 60%, 2%: no mention, , soy: no mention.
Vitamin B12: almond: 60%, 2%: no mention, soy: 50%.
Zinc: almond: 10%, 2%: no mention, soy: no mention.
Copper: almond: 4%, 2%: no mention, soy: no mention.

Yes, you read that correctly. Almond milk has more Calcium and Vitamin D than 2% milk! It's the perfect substitute for some like me who doesn't like cow milk at all.

Other healthy attributes of almond milk: no saturated or trans fat -- only healthy fats, half the calories of 2% milk, no cholesterol, dietary fiber, small amounts of carbohydrates, antioxidants (specifically Vitamin E), and other minerals. 2% milk won in the sodium, protein, and vitamin C category. However, none of those categories are concerns for me. I generally use little to no salt in my meals; I get enough protein and Vitamin C from other sources. So yay for almond milk.

For lunch, I finished the fried rice from yesterday. I realize I didn't list the ingredients of yesterday's fried rice, so I'll do that now: rice, carrots, chicken, eggs, scallions, soy sauce, vegetable oil, sesame seed oil, and thyme.

For dinner, I had a lightly breaded flounder fillet with a sprinkle of black pepper served with rice, carrots, mother-made fish sauce, and raspberry lemonade. Yum!!

Budget Grocery Shopping Challenge!!!

So last month I read about the Snap Challenge. Basically, it's an awareness challenge where a bunch of BU medical students decided to try the $30/week food ration that people on food stamps are on. My immediate thought was that if I was confined to $30/week, I'd probably be healthier -- I'd cook more and buy less random junk food snacks. So I decided I would take up the challenge. There are certain political views on this challenge but that's not my focus. I'm not trying to take a stance on whether $30/week is enough for food or not. I know for a fact that $30/week is adequate for me, but I don't know you or anybody else. My focus is on my personal well-being and on trying to get into a good habit of cooking daily and being budget conscious. And plus, challenges are always fun! :D  (But you are welcome to comment on those kinds of things or anything, I love discussions!)

Some provisions (From BU SNAP Challenge):
1. Only eat food bought on the average SNAP budget: $30/week (any grocery store).

Okay, so I'm modifying the challenge a bit. I'm still sticking to the $30/week budget. But since I don't particularly feel like eating the same meats throughout the week, I've extended the challenge to $60/two-weeks. Since it's more realistic; I'm not going to eat a dozen eggs in one week.

2. Spices and condiments that you already own are allowed to be used.
3. Please refrain from accessing free food. (This makes little sense to me but ok.)
4. Please only buy foods allowed on SNAP - http://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/eligible-food-items
5. Keep a food journal and/or post thoughts, pictures, videos, etc on blog site.
6. Try to eat a nutritious and healthy diet according to http://www.choosemyplate.gov/dietary-guidelines.html (Uhh, I didn't read through the site . . . yeah.)

So I wanted to start this challenge last month but I had all this food that I had no idea what price I  had paid for them. So I waited until I depleted my food supply, until today. Today, I went shopping and bought more food than I had ever bought at once in my life. I know, kind of crazy. *shrugs* I've only lived on my own and had to buy my own groceries in Boston and in Boston, the markets are so close to where I live; there's no point in stockpiling food when it takes 15-30min to go buy more food.

Without further adieu, what I bought!!

So for veggies, we have:
A bunch of carrots, a cucumber, a zucchini, a red bell pepper, scallions, a red onion, and a crown of broccoli.

For proteins, we have:
8 chicken breast tenderloins, 5 thin-sliced center-cut pork chops, 6 sirloin tip steaks, a flounder fillet, a package of tofu, and a dozen of eggs (all natural, vegetarian-diet hens).

Fruits:
A pomegranate, a lime, two kiwis, and two clementines (not pictured).

Beverages:
Almond milk (vanilla flavored), raspberry lemonade, and tea.

Snacks:
A bag of chocolate chip cookies, Foot by the Foot (removed), and a bag of sun chips (Garden Salsa).

Grains and wheats:
Rice, half a box of cereal, and elbow pasta.

How did I calculate the budget. Well, I bought most items from Shaws (mostly the proteins) and Whole Foods (mostly the produce). Shaws came out to $38.94. And Whole Foods came out to $14.45. I then added $5 for rice, cereal, pasta, and tea. That's because those items are things I buy in bulk and I'm not going to finish a box of any of it. I usually get a 25lbs of Jasmine white rice for about $22. And it lasts my roommate and I a semester; so I figured factoring a dollar or so for it would be fair. And the same idea applies to pasta, cereal, and tea. And then I had two clementines and a pomegranate lying around, so I added $3 for those items. I get to a final total of $61.39. But I'm going to deduct something.

As you probably noticed, I just kind of bought food items I liked. I didn't plan on buying anything. I just went to the markets and shopped. I think I overdid the proteins because there is a lot of it. Oops. The problem is that all the meat packages comes in such large quantities and I wanted a variety. But the good thing is that I like lean meats so all of it is fairly lean. I probably won't finish all the protein items in two weeks. I also wished I bought more veggies. I should have decided to buy more veggies instead of the cookies. Bleh. I don't even know why I bought cookies. Because I don't normally buy cookies. But I guess I was afraid that I might need a sweet snack or something. Oh well. On the other hand, I didn't need to buy the foot by the foot either. I think I will just not eat the Foot by the Foot, which was $2.99. That brings me down to $58.40 and will give me wiggle room to buy one or two more veggies next week if I need to, like more broccoli. Awesome!

Yay! I'm excited about this challenge! I think the hardest part of this challenge is really just to eat every meal; I sometimes have the tendency to skip meals . . . But on a positive note, I will try to blog daily about the challenge, which means I'll be on a daily blogging schedule for at least two weeks. Ahh! If I can stick to that, I'll have 15 posts by the end of February which will be half of the total posts count I had last year! D: Let the fun begin!

So for Day 1: I made chicken fried rice. There's enough of it for three meals so that's that. See you tomorrow when I decide on what to eat next. =]

Being Honest With Yourself

I read a blog post a while ago about the "preemptive put-down" by my writing Professor, Author Theodora Goss. Here it is: Value Yourself -- It's a good read and I agree with much of what she said.

Recently though, I've been thinking about how much the "preemptive put-down" is ingrained in our society. I've come to realize that I am expected to preemptively put-down myself; bragging is highly frown upon in our society. And I will admit that when I am having a conversation with someone I don't particularly know, and sometimes with people I do know well, I cave into the routine of using the preemptive put-down. It's so much easier to say things people expect you to say.

Now, I don't preemptively put-down myself often. Because I am consciously aware that it's not an attractive thing to do. And I also try my best not to fish for compliments. However, sometimes I am sincerely honest about the fact that I'm not good at something or that I don't think my idea is any good. But our society at times can't seem to accept that fact: that you will admit and be comfortable with your mediocrity; that your acceptance of your mediocrity is not a lack self-esteem.

We are so used to people using preemptive put-downs that we assume their honest remarks are put-downs. And then we are taught that as good natured human beings, we should offer up encouraging, sometimes untrue, comments in response to any comment that slightly hints at being a put-down. And I'm part of that society; I usually assume people are being super modest, of course unless when they obviously are not, but I do also try to be honest. What I'm trying to say is there are so many complex, ever-changing, unwritten rules our society follows (which is why creating an AI to dynamically interact with a human is so difficult; there's no algorithm), that what's being said to you might be partially filtered, and that it can be difficult to tell when the conversation you're having is honest or not, especially when it pertains to you. So it's up to you to be honest with yourself.

And that's what I'm trying to do right now: trying to be honest with myself by not bragging or selling myself short. I'm trying to figure out where I stand and where I want to be. Although I do enjoy embracing the uncertainty of my future. I am perfectly comfortable with the fact that I do have skills and that I am not great at anything. Because I am 21 and I am young. I have so much of my life left and I have so much to learn, which I look forward to very much.