Grocery Shopping

I love grocery shopping. I love the grocery adds. I love coupons. I really love triple coupon week. It makes my heart race when I can get Frank's Red Hot and Kraft barbecue sauce for free. In my lessons from the program I am told that you must shop from a grocery list and to stay on the out side aisles. The center only leads to disaster.... How would you know what is on Manager's Special or markdown so you can make up your list? My fridge is full of orange tags from Kroger. I bought the 10 items to save $5 off total order (actually I bought 20 for $10 off and then went back 2 day later and bought 10 more) and with double coupons I ended up some free shells and velveta (for my daughter not me!) and a bunch of other great deals. For a family of 3 we spend less than $400 a month on groceries.

The down side to all of these great deals and triple coupons is that the pantry is full and it drives the mister quite crazy sometimes. He thinks that there will always be the good deals out there. Doesn't he understand that triple coupons comes only once every couple months and that it is reason we get the local Sunday paper in addition to the NY Times? He doesn't have the hording mentality that I have. I feel so much more secure if I know that there is plenty of food in the pantry and even better if I know I got it on sale and used coupons. I think it goes back to the hunters and gatherers. He is a hunter- he know what he is looking for and goes and gets it. Not me, I am a gatherer. I go and check it out, what looks good today? Where are the deals? What can I bring back to the cave? It gives me great pleasure to have saved $47.74 on my most recent Kroger order or almost 50% not including the Manager Special mark downs. Recently, at another store with triple coupons I saved $48.91 on a $33.50 grocery bill.

So what does this have to do with my weight loss journey? I think I have been heavy my whole life because I have been unconsciously afraid that there wouldn't be enough. That if I didn't eat it now I wouldn't have the chance. It was a habit. Stuff your face now so you aren't hungry later, and if you are you have some reserves. I have gotten away from this behavior pattern by being really aware of the quantity of food I eat. But I still love to shop and get great deals.

It is the deals that sometimes mess me up. Yesterday they had a rack of baby back ribs for $3.29, cold but already cooked so that is what we had for dinner. I couldn't resist. I thought I would just have 3 ribs, but I am flirting with the slippery slope right now so I went over and had 4 and a part of one left over from my daughter. I counted it all and am still under my calorie goal for the week. But I can't keep this up. I lost 2.2 pounds in the past week and I don't want to go backwards. I wish I knew why we all are faced with the slippery slope. Some days staying with my program is almost effortless and some days it is almost impossible.