Staying Healthy: Eating & Exercise (10/17 – 10/23)

Is it costing us more to eat vegetarian or vegan? That’s a question we asked ourselves last week as the amount we spend on groceries really hasn’t gone done much since we stopped buying and eating meat.

The picture above is $252.27 worth of food from last week’s Big Shop at Costco. Everything in the cart is edible except for a Harry’s razor and blades set that we bought for Brett’s travel stash (it was on sale this month). We also purchased one item for the girls’ Christmas presents, but otherwise everything is for us and should last a while. The box of spanakopita in the lower right corner contains enough for eight meals; the box of organic falafel patties has enough for five meals. There are six meals in the box of frozen lasagna seen on the left side, and eight in a box of vegetable egg rolls we bought. A box of organic tofu buried somewhere in there contains four packs that will provide protein for four meals for less than $10. The big box of petite cream puffs will give us 12 desserts. The produce we bought – mixed colored peppers, green peppers, tomatoes; cucumbers, avocados, apples, bananas, and bag of frozen blueberries – will last for a couple of weeks and will be used in several dishes. There’s a pack of mini naan breads for our weekly pizzas, and two loaves of Dave’s 21-grain bread for sandwiches. We picked up snacks and treats as well for the next few weeks: trail mix, whole-grain fig bars, and a once a year splurge of Cretor’s Chicago Mix popcorn (cheddar cheese and caramel corn – so good!). $250 got us a lot of good, healthy food that’s going to last us for a while. We spent an additional $50 at Walmart, which included items like tissues, antacid, bubble wrap, and other non-food items.

We had planned to buy a piece of fish so we could have grilled fish tacos this week, but prices were through the roof so we said no thanks to that. Remembering what Costco-sized packages of meat used to cost, if we had bought the amount of meat needed to prepare as many meals as we otherwise bought we figured we would have added at least an additional 25% to our total if not more. So, what we buy costs less overall but by spending the same we’re getting more. I sometimes wish we weren’t so dependent on Costco, but it remains the best bang for our bucks when buying food on Kaua’i.

The only change we made to last week’s planned dinners was to substitute spanakopita and falafel for the fish tacos we originally had planned. We added Brie to our cheese board last week, but cut back on the amount of other cheeses so we didn’t overindulge (too much). It was all very, very good and we ate well while still keeping our calories under control.

Sunday: Risotto with peas and rosemary

Monday: Mini pizzas with red pepper and onion

Tuesday: Vegan sloppy joes; grape tomatoes

Wednesday: Pasta with marinara and meatless meatballs; roasted peppers

Thursday: Spanakopita; falafel patties; cucumber and tomato salad

Friday: Cheese board (Manchego, Irish cheddar; Brie) with guacamole, pickled beets, gherkins, apple, dried apricots, and crackers.

Saturday: Vegetable egg rolls; vegetable fried rice

We were hoping to find another apple pie at Costco to enjoy again for dessert, but once again none were available. We looked at the big custard pies that were in the cooler, but weren’t able to check the calories, etc. so instead bought a six-pack of tiramisu cups and the big box of mini cream puffs, both of which had calorie levels per serving that fit our calorie restrictions and will be a nice change for a while.

We have some new dishes to try next week: Amy’s vegetable lasagna and tikka masala made with tofu. Otherwise everything is something we’ve enjoyed before and that we’ve been looking forward to having again:

• Vegetarian lasagna

• Chick’n patty sandwiches

• Tofu tikka masala

• Tofu & pepper stir fry

• Mini pizzas

• Cheese board

• Chick’n nuggets and onion rings

With last week’s (mostly) good weather we took lots of good walks including three perimeter walks at the golf course (we took a day off on Friday), a two-mile hike on the Waiokapua trail at Barking Sands, and our Big Shop walkathon. We didn’t push ourselves to hunt for golf balls this past week either, but still managed to find 87 of them! We have competition these days from other ball hunters, and with fewer golfers we had thought things would slow down, especially since we’re not actively hunting like we did earlier, but there were just lots of lost balls all over the course. We’re going to go back to our old walking route through the woods beginning in November though, and stay off of the golf course completely which will quickly bring finding golf balls to a halt.

Scenes along the Waiokapua Trail (clockwise from upper left): the beginning of the trail; ocean views; 2-inch thorns on a dead kiawe bush (pronounced key-ah-vay); 3-inch thorns forming on a young kiawe (yikes!); and parasitic orange dodder/hellweed covering (and killing) a plant on the side of the trail. We saw several plants covered with it, sad because once it gains a foothold it’s almost impossible to remove.

There was a nice breeze when we hiked the Waiokapua on Tuesday, so in spite of the sun I felt fairly comfortable the entire time we walked. I wore a hat to keep my face shaded, and kept myself well-hydrated but I somehow still ended up with symptoms of heat exhaustion (dizziness, nausea, weakness) by the time we finished and set up our chairs on the beach. I realized later I had forgotten to bring and wear a damp tenugui (Japanese hand towel) around my neck. I don’t know if overheating and the excessive perspiration I experience when I sometimes walk are symptoms of aging or if something else is going on, but that damp towel helps keep my body temperature regulated for some reason. I always wear one when we walk at the park, and always carry another dry one to wipe the perspiration off my face, but I forgot to do it when we were packing up for the beach. It was a good lesson though and how quickly I can became overheated, and something I need to remember when we’re out walking overseas, especially when it’s hot. After a short while in my beach chair under the umbrella and with a cool drink I was back to normal in short order, but it was a bit scary that I became overheated on a flat 2.25-mile hike even with sufficient hydration.