Shopping

Once we had an idea of idea of what to shop for, based on the pay-plan items, we went shopping. We started at Costco. After all, if we were really going to save money on the experiment, we needed to buy in bulk. We took our list of the nutritional break-down for the pay-plan snacks, and started comparing.
We started in the health food bar area. And moved on to the pre-packaged 100 calorie snacks. The health food/energy bars we found were all over 200 calories each, and unless we planned to break them in half every time we ate one, we were going to have to find something else.
The 100 calorie snack aisle was full of possibilities. Honestly, the world is full of diet food. Every food manufacturer has their hand in making something that will help us lose weight. The stores, the television, the magazines and the newspapers are saturated with weight loss ideas. So why not take advantage of it? For the plan that we devised, those little 100 calorie snacks were perfect.
We found granola bars, Mini-Clif bars, little cookies and crackers. We chose items that were low in sugar, not too high in carbs, and had the most fiber. The fat content wasn't a big concern, although it is a big component of gaining weight. But on this plan, where we were basically going to start by cutting calories, the fat was a non-issue. More importantly, we wanted to stop putting the sugar and carbs in our bodies.
What we didn't find to fill the pantry at Costco, we found at Target, in smaller boxes. We also found the Mini-Clif bars, which turned out to be our favorites, on sale at Walmart.
We stocked up on apples, and cheese sticks, and bought Eggbeaters. I really love the egg beaters! For a good sized portion, it had less than 100 calories, and we found they were a quick breakfast in the microwave.
We got home, unloaded and organized our pantry, putting all the "diet" snacks in one basket. We made it easy for us to follow the plan, by having a specific place in the pantry for our allowed snacks. I was feeling really good about this!