New Me

It's a good thing I don't like shopping. I would hate to imagine the destruction I could cause to our bank account if I did! We went clothes shopping for me yesterday. Got a two pairs of pants and two knit tops at Ann Taylor. The pants were buy one get one 50% off, so the total damage was about $178. Not too bad, I suppose. AT Loft was a lost cause. AT's quality isn't great, but Loft looks like Wal-Mart compared to AT. I like Loft, but $88 for a pair of unlined pants? The good news was that I dropped a size in Ann Taylor. They must have made their vanity sizing even more vain. I've noticed I lost a few pounds, but I don't think it's been a full size. Maybe I have lost weight.

Bloomingdale's turned out to be a treasure trove. As much as I love the clothes at Bloomingdale's, I try to avoid it because the prices are so high. Yes, people in my income bracket do, and probably SHOULD, shop there, but I am cheap. I can afford it but don't want to. As a fat girl, it's important to buy nice clothes that drape well with quality workmanship. Anyway, I thought I should clean up my work image a bit after wearing cotton skirts and sandals all summer. Bloomingdale's had a pre-sale of sorts. I still don't quite understand what went on except that I walked out with $390+ worth of clothes for about $250. Black Calvin Klein sheath dress; Anne Klein skirt; AK dress shirt; and Jones New York sweaters. QE picked out everything except the dress. All of my selections were busts. :) There was this gorgeous (in my opinion--QE hated it) Ralph Lauren sweater for $150. As a knitter, I can appreciate the intricate design despite it being cotton. I just couldn't bring myself to spend $150 on it though. I will keep an eye out for it and pounce if/when it drops to about $75.

Being (or is it going?) vegetarian has been ok so far. It's made me very conscious and aware of what I put into my body. Honestly, the thought of eating meat kind of grosses me out now. It's like I'm afraid of eating meat again knowing it's a dead animal's flesh. Irrational and weird. I still miss steak at Chipotle, but it's more for the texture I think. Eating meat makes life so much easier though. Having to find good, wholesome vegetarian food is difficult. Eating out means ordering the same stuff sans meat or settling for some half-ass vegetarian fare as if I am a second-class citizen. I think I am eating less processed food though, so that's good. I'm not vegan, so eggs are still in my diet. For kicks, I compared Polyface's pastured eggs with Trader Joe's cage free eggs. Polyface's eggs definitely taste better, although I think TJ's is a step up from non-cage free eggs (cage free and non are both considered conventional eggs).

I finished Marion Nestle's book, What to Eat. She makes some very good points about the US food industry. Companies constantly try to "improve" and add (perceived) value to foods so they can charge more and encourage us to eat more. (There are about 3900 calories available daily for every person; and yet most of us shouldn't consume more than 2000 calories per day.) Case in point: EggBeaters and other egg products. Most are just egg whites with some emulsifier (and water!!!) so they cook up like regular scrambled eggs. I caught on to this scam years ago and have been buying whole eggs and tossing yolks. A dozen of conventional eggs is about $1; a carton of EggBeaters is about $3(?).