Day 307 Aug.20 2011

Well well well, I'm not the only one in this state that is obsessed with natural food.  We spent the day in Baton Rouge with the intention of shopping at Whole Foods Market and then rewarding Caitlin (and us) to an afternoon at a water park.  The goal was to get to Whole Foods around noon.  Well, that's hard to do when the conversation in the car with your passenger is so rousing that you don't realize you're lost until you start to see signs for a city that is in the opposite direction of where you're headed...So far Erin and I don't have a great track record for making it out of the city using the back roads...

Anyway, we made it, Bug was a peach the whole ride down.  We had lunch at Qudoba.  Delicious.  Then across the parking lot to Whole Foods.  Now,  I've never seen the inside of one of these stores.  I had this image of walking into something similar to a Sams Club but only containing organic food.  I. was. right.  I have NEVER been more excited about a grocery store.  I thought Horrocks in Lansing was great...holy crap.  This was incredible!!!  Anything and everything I could have ever imagined in either an organic or gluten-free form.  We spent almost an hour just walking the aisles.  The peanut butter section, was just that-a section, not a shelf.  It had all kinds, cashew butter, dark chocolate almond butter, maple butter, apple butter....drool.  I still stayed away from a lot of the boxed stuff, and there were a good amount of things that I saw that I'm coming back from before Chad comes home; Gluten free tortilla chips, "make your own 6-pack beer",  cereal, oatmeal.  And I'm aware just because it's gluten-free doesn't make it 100% paleo, but I'm not going for 100% anymore.  I'm not going to make my husband (whom just spent a year sacrificing everything) not eat tortilla chips and salsa.  I'll just give him chips that won't punch as many, or ridiculously large holes in  his intestines :).

Oh, and the meat section!!!!!!!!!!!!  I did a happy dance.  Caitlin thought it was amusing and kept wiggling in my arms to get me to do it again.  I did.  The guy behind the fish counter smiled.  Anyway, the fish counter-holy mackerel!  LITERALLY!!  It was crisp and clean, and everything was so clearly labeled, where it was from, if it was farmed or wild caught, where it was farmed, how much per pound was clear as well.  The beef and poultry counter was even better.  They had a "stage" listing.  Stage 1: no hormone, no pesticides used, Stage 4: Pasture raised, Stage 5: was the highest (I don't remember what it was but they didn't have any stage 5 meat).  Stage 2 and 3 were obviously somewhere in between 1 and 4.  But it was clear where the meat came from, and again, clearly labeled with everything.  I got a whole, free-range, hormone free, pasture grazed chicken for 3.49.  That's the best deal I've ever seen!!!  The commissary sells whole chickens from Tyson (pumped full of horrible things) for 2.14.  They even had GRASS-FED meat!!  Yea, it was pricier.  But it wasn't outrageous.  I was able to get just a pound so I can try it instead of buying it online and having it shipped to me and needing to spending a minimum with shipping costs and then hating the taste (I'm told there is a very different taste).

Sigh...the whole event was just absolutely invigorating.  Oh, and the staff...everyone smiled at me, the behind the counter guys were friendly and cheerful.  This is going to sound silly, but I really felt like I walked into a community.  I have something huge in common with all of these people and it was incredibly comforting.  I guess I can see why people who are religious, enjoy attending church... :)