I went grocery shopping today in-person for the first time since last Summer. I've been ordering my groceries online since i wasn't healthy enough to go in-person during my 11-month illness. I can go in-person now that i'm not buying cases of pop and pay flat in-store prices. I have an excellent shopping cart. My whole order came to only $55CDN. I'm used to paying two or three times that price!

Whew -- it was hard. More while i tried to shop in the discount department store, where everything is unfamiliar and the store layout doesn't make sense to me and the staff don't know where anything is either and lots of items are just plain not on the shelves and it's a mess and the shabbiest people.

I quickly abandoned that store and darted back to my proper grocery store, where i have shopped for 24 years and everything is familiar and the store layout makes sense to me and the shelves are well-stocked and it's clean and tidy and the people look healthy and the staff are competent. I had much better success there. I'll go there from now on and if i pay a few percent more, whatever, it's worth it to keep my psyche intact.

I'm having more trouble keeping my sodium number down than my calories. I made a zero-sodium dinner of salad, beans and rice. It LOOKED really good. The colors really popped. But it did not taste very good. And then i felt so gipped i got an individual serving 28g bag of cheesies and a pop.

But my doctor says not to let perfection be the enemy of good, in dieting (lifestyle change). So i will keep in mind that this is still an 80% reduction in pop on a daily basis since prior to my health scare two weeks ago and a 60% reduction in salty snacks.

I have to have some patience and tolerance for skill-building. I can think of a few things that would have improved the meal, like red wine vinegar on the salad, and salt-free seasoning on everything, for example.

Thanks, Mountaindewed, for the reference to 'poodle science.' That's why it's so useful to have some young people here on the forum, to bring forward the new ideas. I watched the video and it made a lot of sense. For me, tho, i have not been healthy at this size, so i will continue to struggle with that. But i agree that a variety of shapes and sizes can be healthy.

And i ate dinner at the table!