Ang's Journal

Quantity	Item	10/1/25 Price
12 oz	Nestle Toll House Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips	$4.49
17 fl oz	Private Selection Avocado Oil	$9.99
20 oz	Seattle's Best 6th Ave Bistro Dark Roast Ground Coffee	$12.49
1 qt	Kroger 2% Reduced Fat Milk	$2.29
12 ct	Kroger Medium White Eggs	$1.99
18 ct	Vital Farms Pasture-Raised Large Eggs	$9.99
32 oz	Kroger Wild Caught Pacific Cod Fillets Frozen BIG DEAL!	$16.99
1 lb	Perdue Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts	$6.30
1 lb	Black Seedless Grapes	$4.58
1 ea	Fresh Banana	$1.24
1 pt	Fresh Blueberries	$4.69
1 lb	Fresh Strawberries	$2.99
1 ea	Medium Avocado	$1.25
	Total:	$79.28

The total cost of this grocery list increased from $78.82 on September 2nd to $79.28. This is an increase of $0.43 or 0.546%. These costs are 3.59% higher than they were on April 1st.

Quantity	Item	8/3/25 Price
12 oz	Nestle Toll House Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips	$4.49
17 fl oz	Private Selection Avocado Oil	$9.29
20 oz	Seattle's Best 6th Ave Bistro Dark Roast Ground Coffee	$9.99
1 qt	Kroger 2% Reduced Fat Milk	$2.29
12 ct	Kroger Medium White Eggs	$2.79
18 ct	Vital Farms Pasture-Raised Large Eggs	$9.99
32 oz	Kroger Wild Caught Pacific Cod Fillets Frozen BIG DEAL!	$13.99
1 lb	Perdue Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts	$9.46
1 lb	Black Seedless Grapes	$3.98
1 ea	Fresh Banana	$1.24
1 pt	Fresh Blueberries	$2.99
1 lb	Fresh Strawberries	$2.79
1 ea	Medium Avocado	$1.25
	Total:	$74.54

The total cost of this grocery list decreased from $80.34 on July 5th to $74.54. This is a decrease of $5.80 or 7.22%. These costs are 2.56% LOWER than they were on April 1st - this is the first time this price check has been lower than the April 1st starting prices.

Quantity	Item	6/2/25 Price
12 oz	Nestle Toll House Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips	$4.99
17 fl oz	Private Selection Avocado Oil	$9.29
20 oz	Seattle's Best 6th Ave Bistro Dark Roast Ground Coffee	$10.79
1 qt	Kroger 2% Reduced Fat Milk	$2.29
12 ct	Kroger Medium White Eggs	$3.09
18 ct	Vital Farms Pasture-Raised Large Eggs	$12.49
32 oz	Kroger Wild Caught Pacific Cod Fillets Frozen BIG DEAL!	$17.99
1 lb	Perdue Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts	$5.51
1 lb	Black Seedless Grapes	$5.98
1 ea	Fresh Banana	$0.25
1 pt	Fresh Blueberries	$3.99
1 lb	Fresh Strawberries	$2.79
1 ea	Medium Avocado	$0.99
	Total:	$80.44

The total cost of this grocery list decreased from $82.61 on May 2nd to $80.44. This is a decrease of $2.21 or 2.63%. These costs are 5.15% higher than they were on April 1st.

I do almost all of my grocery shopping at City Market, our local Kroger affiliate. I use their app & website to make my shopping lists. Today, I made a list of some basic foods. I saved the list & the prices.

Quantity	Item	4/1/25 Price
12 oz	Nestle Toll House Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips	$4.99
17 fl oz	Private Selection Avocado Oil	$9.29
20 oz	Seattle's Best 6th Ave Bistro Dark Roast Ground Coffee	$10.79
1 qt	Kroger 2% Reduced Fat Milk	$2.29
12 ct	Kroger Medium White Eggs	$4.59
18 ct	Vital Farms Pasture-Raised Large Eggs	$12.99
32 oz	Kroger Wild Caught Pacific Cod Fillets Frozen BIG DEAL!	$9.99
1 lb	Perdue Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts	$7.88
1 lb	Black Seedless Grapes	$4.98
1 ea	Fresh Banana	$0.23
1 pt	Fresh Blueberries	$4.99
1 lb	Fresh Strawberries	$2.50
1 ea	Medium Avocado	$0.99
	Total:	$76.50

Tomorrow (April 2nd), President Trump intends to impose a long list of new tariffs on American imports. So, in a couple of weeks I plan to check the prices on this list of grocery items again & see how they've been affected.

I invite everyone to play along with this little game!

For over a year, I've been trying to come up with a chai-like drink for my coffee replacement. My goal was to get a lower-caffeine drink that also had a keto-friendly nutrition profile: fats & protein are OK, carbs are not. This coincided with my interest in collagen as a good protein source.

I started with Primal Kitchen's Chai Tea Collagen Keto Latte, a powder meant to be dissolved in hot water. This had a mild chai flavor & a dissatisfying mouth feel, but it was the nutrition base I wanted: 5 g of protein per mug (all from collagen), 2 g of fat, 1.5 g of carbs, 37.5 mg caffeine. I made this with heavy cream for a while, which contributed more fat & improved the mouth feel, but didn't really help with the blah flavor.

I then tried Nutpods French Vanilla Creamer. This boosted the flavor a bit with a little bit of fat & no carbs. I also tried Califia Farms Vanilla Oat Creamer but it was a large increase in carbs for no benefit.

But now, I've hit upon the magic mix. 1 scoop of Primal Kitchen chai collagen, 1/4 cup Bhakti Unsweetened Chai Concentrate, 1/4 cup Picnik Unsweetened Keto Creamer, all vigorously mixed into about 8-10 fl. oz. of boiling water. The Picnik creamer contains MCT oil, which I find sharpens my thought processes noticeably. The chai concentrate adds a strong ginger smell & taste. The result is a beverage with a strong chai flavor, a creamy mouth feel, & a good nutritional profile:

• 101 kcal
  
• 6.5 g fat
  
• 7 g protein
  
• 2 g of carbs
  
• 37.5 mg caffeine

This comes at a price, of course - none of these nutritional supplements or keto-friendly foods are ever cheap:

• Primal Kitchen chai collagen (a subscription delivered monthly): $71.98/month
  
• Bhakti chai concentrate (from City Market): $8.99/week
  
• Picnik keto creamer (from Natural Grocers): $4.75/week

This works out to about $2.27 per cup or about $4.54 a day. I drink 2 mugs of this almost every morning & hold off on breakfast until around noon. On fast days, I'll drink two cups of this & possibly a cup or two of bone broth in 24-30 hours.

Sleep: Went to bed early thanks to jet lag. 9:30 PM – 4:50 AM. 7 hours 20 minutes. I stayed in bed until about 6:20 AM, but never really fell back asleep.

Program: Kneeling prayer this morning, meditation after the team meeting. I used SH to measure “stress” immediately after meditating, & my pulse was 60 BPM & blood oxygenation was 96%. My blood oxygenation is usually lower than that & my pulse higher, so…. Hey! Meditation helps with stress! #WhoKnew

I need to contact Pastor R* to see if he knows anyone at HFASS who might be willing to sponsor me. I think I need a new approach.

Work: I got to work early – about 7:45 AM. I got a decent amount of stuff done.

Food: I got some quick kitchen tasks done this morning (unloaded dishwasher, started another batch of bone broth). I had early coffee w/cream, then ate standard breakfast (casserole, keto biscuit) around 11 AM. A handful of cashews around 2:00 PM. Then M* came over for dinner, & I made keto fish sticks & tartar sauce. They were SO GOOD. Between the two of us, we ate 1+ lb. of fish, then split a bowl of salad. I am going to make more fish sticks later this week to use up the rest of the tartar sauce.

Exercise: OK, the plan was do the pre-hab & Day 1 of the new yoga routine this morning. But when I woke up, my arms were still so darn sore that it just didn’t seem like a good idea. So instead, I packed a simple workout bag & brought it to the office. I walked/jogged on the office treadmill for 20 minutes, making it 1.43 miles. Baby steps. 1,764 steps / 39 minutes active, not counting the treadmill time. That will improve when the doggos are here.

Mood: I had a headache again today – third day out of the past four. It’s wearying. But M* & I had a good evening hanging out – talking, sharing photos, laughing.

Grats: 1. Headache cleared off in the afternoon. It might be a hydration issue plus Shark Week. 2. Delicious dinner with a friend. The most basic of pleasures. 3. I managed to overcome a reason to NOT work out & still get in a little bit of exercise. That’s five days in a row now.

Program: I prayed this morning. I went to the Attitude Adjustment meeting this morning. I also talked to D* after the meeting – I think I’m going to back up in my step work & stop trying to force my amends. We’re going to meet after Thanksgiving. I set an alarm to meditate this afternoon, but I was chatting with A* when it went off & ignored it. I renewed my habit of calling D* in the evening - & got her voice mail, which is the irritant that made me stop doing it.

Mood: My mood has been all right today. I’m relieved that the dogs are with Shay & Laurel for a few days. I’m pleased that I cleaned my apartment & got a ton of laundry done.

Exercise: I didn’t exercise today.

Sleep: Last night’s sleep was poor. I ate a lot of processed carbs yesterday & paid for it with searing indigestion.

Food: Mixed. I ate my standard breakfast (coffee w/cream, Southern keto casserole, cheesy biscuit), plus a Siggi’s cherry yogurt. Then I ate leftover pizza for lunch & skipped dinner. I’m making Texas red chili in the InstaPot right now, to enter in the office chili cook-off tomorrow.

Grats: 1. I finally migrated my journal from LiveJournal to Dreamwidth. I’ve wanted to do that for years. I have a lot of work ahead of me, deleting all the LJ entries & re-coding all the imported entries with tags. But I will feel better not having my data sitting on SixApart’s servers. 2. My chili came out very well. If people like Texas red as a style, I could win tomorrow.