Last Thursday I was standing in the trail mix section of the Whole Foods Market®.
Gratitude welled up as my mind flashed back over the last 54 years…”I’ve been shopping in natural food stores a long, long, time.”
I gathered the rest of the coming week’s groceries – fresh fruits and vegetables, lentils, unsweetened soy milk, non-fat unsweetened Greek yogurt, organic, cold pressed green vegetable drink and a whole wheat tuna wrap for a quick dinner. (The plan was to add extra salad greens, avocado and tomato to half-the-wrap I would eat that night.)
Then Food for Life® sprouted grain English muffins and no-salt, no-sugar creamy almond butter were added to the cloth shopping bags hanging on each shoulder as I wandered through the store.
Shopping with those bags is tricky with a shredded biceps tendon and torn right rotator cuff!
Fortunately a number of major grocery store chains now offer “high on the plant hog” and healthful-benefit, unprocessed foods.
Trader Joe’s® has the best lime prices for the everyday half-lime that I add to my morning glass of filtered water with exotic herbal mix and apple cider vinegar.
Grocery Outlet: Discount Groceries,® a relatively new-to-my area chain of supermarkets, features the lowest-cost frozen organic blueberries and strawberries I can find for adding to my made-to-last-for-a-few-days morning protein smoothie.
Sprouts® features excellent produce, legumes and other natural foods. Ralphs® does a good job as well.
To help prevent age-related muscle loss, called sarcopenia, my diet includes added protein in the form of frozen, grilled, chicken breast strips and fish. These foods are available for reasonable price at any of these stores. Egg whites with one whole egg also serve as an excellent protein friend.
Not for one second do I lose sight of Life’s beneficence in that I do not have to live in a grocery desert neighborhood where quality fresh fruits and vegetables and minimally processed, low sodium, high fiber, nutrient dense, frozen food is not available.
Returning to last Thursday’s trip to Whole Foods®…but now going through the check-out line…
“I’ve been shopping this way a long, long, time.” I repeat the phrase to the checker and gesture to the foods she is ringing up.
Then I tell her…”This Saturday is my Birthday. I’ll be 77.”
The conversation continues...
“The doctor praises lab results – Tells me not to come back for a couple years.
People say my skin glows.
Keeping my weight under control is not difficult.”
My Birthday Wish for everyone reading this post is that you will discover the Trail Mix life and all it represents. WF!
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
From the poem, The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost
