Cliff and I were only inside the Penny's store for fifteen minutes; that's how we shop, especially now that we're on the envelope plan. We picked up the things we were after and exited the building. On the way to the car, I said to Cliff, "Since Sam's Club is right across the street, I'm almost out of those hot almonds; let's run in there and get some."
"Oh, now I see the real reason for this trip,"
"No," I protested, "You had to have some underwear, and so did I."
But see, I have a new addiction.
I had already been buying the salted ones, and the chocolate ones too. But on a recent trip I saw this new-to-me flavor and bought a jar; I was instantly hooked. I usually have 1/4 cup of almonds every evening, but that has increased to 1/2 cup since I found these babies. As if I was in need of another high-calorie snack! I was trying to google information about these almonds and found them on Amazon.com for $45 for two jars; the two jars cost me $18.00. Whoever is selling them on Amazon probably picks them up at Sam's Club and makes a killing!
The only other thing I bought at Sam's was a couple of boxes of these; Cliff calls them "little candy bars", but they're only 130 calores apiece, and make for a quick dessert for him when I don't have anything else on hand.
Speaking of calories: Cliff had his regular visit with our family doctor yesterday. We had both been seeing the nurse-practitioners for the past couple of years, ever since our beloved Dr. Deblase left the practice because of cancer (and later died). I love the nurse-practitioners, but every once in awhile I feel Cliff needs to see a doctor, what with his heart issues and the various medications he takes. So I called a few weeks ago and made an appointment with Doctor. G, who is always in high demand. As usual, I went in the exam room with Cliff, with a list of things we needed to talk about.
Doctor G amazes me with his memory; I have not been to see him in five years, and he asked how my knees were doing!
He listened to our concerns and asked lots of questions, and then he got down to business. A couple of times in the past year, Cliff's sugars have been borderline high. He says Cliff absolutely has to take off the twenty-five pounds he's put on in the past four years. That, he said, will solve the blood sugar problem.
"As we get older, our pancreas starts to wear out," he told us. "The more weight you carry, the harder your pancreas has to work, but if it's slowing down because of age, it can't handle the extra work."
Sigh.
He said, "I'm telling you this in front of your wife because she is the one who puts the food on the table."
Flashback to Sunday's fried catfish, and the apple cobbler for dessert.
So yes, Cliff and I have to get down to business. I know it's OK to break the rules and have fried fish or a piece of pie once in awhile, but we need to do it less frequently.
We went to Sam's Club today for the specific purpose of getting almonds; for years I've bought a great big bag of them there for around $10. When I'm eating right, it really helps me out to have whole, unsalted almonds around. Believe it or not, I can nibble on a quarter-cup of almonds for over a half-hour.
Today, all they had in the big bags were sliced almonds. This happens a lot at Sam's Club: a product I absolutely love and have purchased for years is suddenly gone.
On the way in, I had noticed some big plastic jars of almonds, so I went to check those out. OK, the almonds are salted, but they'll be fine for munching, I thought. And then I caught sight of something I had never heard of before: Chocolate almonds.
And what's more, the sign beside them said they had the same number of calories as regular almonds. I checked the label.
OK, I'm always ready to try a new product. I got one jar of regular, salted almonds, and one of the chocolate ones. Back in the car, I opened the jar of chocolate almonds, tasted one, and fell instantly, insanely in love. I gave Cliff one, and he, too, was smitten.
I'm not so sure I'll be able to hold my consumption to nibbling a quarter-cup a day, but I'll give it my best effort.
