I want to let you in on a little secret:

I love thrift store shopping.

And not just to save money.

In addition to being pretty frugal on certain things, I enjoy shopping at thrift stores for more than just the savings. Don’t get me wrong – I love finding that amazing deal, but that’s not quite enough to keep me coming back to the mysterious color-coded tagging systems, “vintage” kitchy glassware, and dusty late ’80s electronics bins. And although you might question how this is connected to improving my health, I assure you there are logical reasons.

There are also a few gigantic, impossible, James-Cameron-like stretches of reason – but hear me out.

Before I get into that, let me be clear that there are a few things I don’t buy ever at thrift stores. Old non-stick cookware is out. Old electronics? Very rarely, if ever. Underwear? No way ever ever ever. And the king of things to never buy? Intimate items for your significant other, which amazingly they do sell (never never ever, gentlemen).

Reasons I love shopping at thrift stores – oh yeah and that health tie-in thing

Here’s a list of some of the reasons why I love shopping at thrift stores when you’re trying to lose weight.

- Rewarding yourself with clothes that fit – on a budget. One of many great tips I come across repeatedly (and use to my advantage) is to “reward” yourself with clothes that fit as you get in better shape. Similarly, you can set up a goal by buying something that you love but that is a little too small – Its a great motivator for me.

However, clearly this could get expensive if you’ve got a lot of weight to lose, and especially if you’re eating higher quality food that may force you to rethink your budget priorities a little. And that’s where thrift stores come in.

Case in point: The pants in the picture.

I bought these pants today knowing full well that they do not fit – YET. They are about a size too small in the waist, but the quality was too good to pass up. So, these pants become a great weight loss tool: they are an affordable source of motivation to get down another pants size.

And these pants are luscious. Yeah, I just said “luscious”.

They are pants that normally retail for easily more than I’d spend on 3 pairs of pants, but being a find at the thrift store means they’re within my inner cheapskate’s boundaries. And the best part? Today was blue tag day at the thrift store, so they were marked down by an additional 50% to $7.47 – an almost 95% discount off of retail, and never worn as far as I can tell. But they will be soon, proudly.

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Welcome to Almost Fit. My focus at Almost Fit is on improving health by doing one thing: Eating real food in moderation. No low fat this or low carb that, just real, whole foods in reasonable amounts. I have lost 26 lbs this year (so far) by eating decadent foods, having a beer or two, and occasionally exercising – though I’m always working on increasing that last bit. If this sounds interesting, have a look around and let me know what you think. Thanks.

In part one of this series (“Want to save money and eat well? Join a CSA“), I introduced one of our primary methods of saving money and eating well: Participating in a CSA. This is part 2.

One of the biggest contentions with basing your eating habits on local, organic, minimally processed food is that it is just too expensive for most families. The truth be told, I don’t discount this opinion at all – in fact, for many of us, the cost difference in a grocery store is more than we can justify. Being frugal has not only become a pastime, in this economy it is increasingly a requirement.

In our case, frugality has its perks: We are actually saving money by eating better – thanks to our local CSA.

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Over the summer, we discovered one of our best real food finds to date: we successfully joined a local CSA. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has become one of our primary resources in our real food transformation – so much so that it is hard for me to remember what it was like without it. I would guess that CSAs are not available everywhere that we’ve lived; and I am equally sure that this is the case for many Almost Fit readers. However, my one bit of advice on this subject is simple:

Find one if you can, and treat them with great respect.

In this series on CSAs on Almost Fit, I’ll describe our experience with our CSA, how it has benefited us from multiple perspectives, how to find a CSA near you, and some ideas on what to do with the produce you receive.

You may have noticed that the second half of that statement, “find one if you can, and treat them with great respect“ is kind of an odd thing to say. Beyond the obvious human decency aspect, there is a vital reason why I’ve brought it to the forefront. But you’ll have to wait to find out. 

But wait – I may be getting ahead of myself. Maybe this question should be answered first… Read the rest of this entry »

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Welcome to Almost Fit. Almost Fit focuses on improving your health by eating real food in moderation. This post is a continuation of the series of photographs of What We Eat. If you enjoy this post, please consider subscribing. Thanks.

Summer supper outside, Sunday evening

• Fusilli pasta with yellow squash, zucchini, and cipollini onions all from our CSA, swiss chard from our garden, and frozen shrimp, cooked in a good quality extra virgin olive oil (quality is key), 4-5 cloves of fresh garlic (CSA), half of a fresh-squeezed lemon, several tablespoons of homemade whole milk sour cream, tablespoon of locally made tomato and pepper chutney (farmer’s market), 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper to taste
• Sauteed carrots (from our garden) in olive oil and butter, salt and pepper to taste
• Fresh organic avocado, salt and pepper to taste

Ed. note: April would like me to clarify that we would normally have accompanied this with a fresh salad from the garden, but alas, it wasn’t meant to be this evening. We eat salad. We promise. Read the rest of this entry »

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Welcome to Almost Fit. Almost Fit focuses on improving your health by eating real food in moderation. If you enjoy this post, please consider subscribing. Thanks.

Summer supper outside, Friday evening

Photos of What We Eat #3

• Pizza number 1: Tomato, basil, and olive pizza: homemade olive oil bread dough, tomatoes from our CSA, basil from our kitchen garden, olives, and extra virgin olive oil
• Pizza number 2: Prosciutto, onions, and gruyere on a light béchamel sauce: Prosciutto with the fat trimmed, fresh lightly sauteed onions from our CSA, gruyere cheese, and a light béchamel sauce made from scratch. The one ingredient this is missing, believe it or not, is fresh pear. The light sweetness is a great balance to the saltiness of the prosciutto.

One sidenote: these pizzas look bigger in the photo than they actually are. Each was about 10-12 inches or so, which is about the size of a personal pizza at a lot of restaurants (not that I’ve actually eaten any of those. Heavens no.). Read the rest of this entry »

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Summer supper outside, Wednesday evening

• Grilled fresh local Oregon Albacore tuna
• Cucumber in a yogurt and dill sauce (the cucumber is from our garden, the dill from a local farmer (via our CSA), and the yogurt is Nancy’s – another Oregon local product)
• Roasted beets and Fingerling potatoes (both from our local CSA)
• Blueberry and blue cheese salad with a light vinaigrette (all local produce)

Introducing a New Series: Photos of What We Eat

I’ve had several inquiries from readers on what exactly we eat at home, so rather than launching into some long diatribe on the subject, I thought I’d just show you.

This is the first entry in this series on Almost Fit which is tentatively named, “Photos of What We Eat.” (The title’s a bit long, but it’s the best I have at the moment). Today’s photo is locally caught Oregon Albacore tuna, served with a variety of locally grown vegetables that came either from our garden or from this week’s CSA box. And while I am certain you are going to get tired of me saying this, it was truly delicious.

By way of disclosure, in this series I will say that not every meal is going to be perfect – I’m erring on the side of candor, even if it means the photo is little more than a fabulously lit box of macaroni. While we strive to eat seasonally and locally as much as we can, we do buy products that fall outside the bounds of those guidelines. We still buy things like coffee and balsamic vinegar, and if I want an orange in January, well, I buy that orange in January.

We make responsible choices, but we are also realistic: with two young children, sometimes convenience is the order of the day. It is increasingly rare, but on occasion we have been known to feed the kids a bowl of goldfish crackers and a “natural” fruit roll up.

Ah, to be well rounded.

Hope you enjoy the photos. Comments and questions are welcome.

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This article is the third part in a series on buying chicken. Part 1 is How to buy chicken without getting punched, and the second discusses how to save money on chicken at the grocery store. In this part, I’ll describe how to interpret the dizzying array of labels that are used on packaged chicken, and give you my purchasing priorities based on what I’ve learned so far. If you would like to learn more, please consider subscribing to Almost Fit. Thanks.

As I’ve made clear in the previous articles in this series, we have opted to seek out locally farmed, pasture-raised chicken. It means a little more trouble for us in terms of turning the chicken into a meal, but we’ve decided it’s worth the extra effort. But it raises the questions: Why buy pasture-raised chicken? Why go to the trouble?

It’s more than just nutrition

In our family, cost, health, and the social implications are all part of our buying decision. In particular, I think it’s important to consider into whose pockets we as a family are pouring our money. I would much rather benefit a local, sustainable farmer supporting a family and a sense of community than a large, faceless corporation who will go to any length to acquire my money.

Certainly some corporations benefit the big picture and do good things – they provide jobs for an awful lot of families for example, and often provide products at an affordable price. But for the most part, the goal of a corporation is to increase profits by squashing competition, lowering costs by any means they can get away with, and convincing consumers that they are selling a product that the human race simply cannot live without.

I don’t buy it. Read the rest of this entry »

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This is part 2 in a series on buying and preparing chicken. Here is a link to Part 1, How to buy chicken without getting punched. Or, you can skip ahead to part 3 which is Demystifying chicken labels: From Organic to All Natural. If you enjoy these articles, please consider subscribing to Almost Fit. It is free, as always. Thanks.

As I mentioned in part 1 of this series, we have taken our next step in seeking out real food: we are eliminating the purchase of meat and poultry from grocery stores by going directly to the farmer.

Of course, not everyone has access to local farm-raised chicken, so in this article I’ll describe how to save money at the grocery store when you’re trying to make better choices. This piece of the series evolved from a reader’s comment from the last post where the question of cost was raised. I think it’s important because it’s a common feeling among those of use trying to make “better” decisions on what we eat, that we’re going to have to get a second mortgage to be able to afford good food. Read the rest of this entry »

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This entry is part 1 in the series, “How to buy chicken without getting punched.” (This part is supposed to be funny.) If you enjoy this article, please consider sharing it via your favorite social media, like StumbleUpon. Thanks.

A few months ago, I went to the local higher-priced grocery store to pick up some chicken. This particular trip to the store however, I got more than I expected: the chicken came free with a side order of attitude and the ever popular “shoulda’-said” chaser.

Here’s the scene: a local favorite shi shi fru fru store in Southeast Portland. The fluorescent light flickers slightly above a stainless, freshly hosed down meat slicer. The smell of fresh salmon and dill permeates the air like the aroma of a wet dog, only fishier and more dill-like. The butcher stands behind the counter, seemingly annoyed by my perplexed-but-friendly stare into the 8-foot glass case, his fingers twitching in preparation for the imminent smoke break or opportunity to slash something, I can’t be sure. (I swear there is a light saber somewhere in this story.) Read the rest of this entry »

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As is our habit, we stopped by the Oregon City Farmer’s Market on Saturday to pick up much of our week’s produce. The Oregon City Farmer’s Market is smaller than many other markets, but we are slowly getting to know the vendors and have found that the size of the market makes it a little easier to recognize familiar faces.

We definitely believe that getting to know where your food comes from, how it’s grown, and supporting the local economy by purchasing from local farmers is a critical value for our family. By both word and example, we hope that these concepts are passed along to our kids who go with us week after week and observe our pleasant conversations with local farmers and vendors.

And nothing is more satisfying than freshly picked berries in berry season here, as our kids know well.

Without further adieu, here are a few photos of this weekend’s spread. And believe me, the food tastes as good as it looks. Read the rest of this entry »

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