Hollow eyes

Low Sodium Update

• Three week daily average calories: 2201
• Three week daily average sodium: 1907
• Three week daily average fiber: 32

My weight has stabilized at 203lbs. When I first went low sodium I lost 6lbs rapidly and then slowly went back up as I normalized. Those first few weeks were actually very odd. My daily weight would fluctuate wildly 3-5lbs. Now it’s very stable.

I’m not losing weight yet, however, because I’ve found sugar as a good replacement for salt. Well, I’ve found sugar is a “good” replacement. It satisfies my craving.

I find that if I eat sufficient fiber in a day I feel very happy with around 1800 calories. But if I don’t get in those oats and fresh fruit, I can get up well over 2500 calories in a day. And on those days my daily calorie intake is higher than I need.

The problem I have found these last few weeks is that I have to eat about 4-5 pieces of fresh fruit a day to keep my fiber levels above 35g. On a typical day I’ll eat a banana (4g), two lil cuties (2g), and a pear (6g) or an apple (5g). But getting fresh fruit right now is a slight problem because people are freaking out.

I was getting low on fresh fruit and needed borax, peppercorns, bay leaves, and a few other small supplies. So Avie and I went to WinCo yesterday and it was surreal.

There were almost no fresh vegetables or fruit left. Almost every single fruit section was picked clean. No potatoes, onions, tomatoes, lettuce, apples, beets, leeks, peppers, green onions, oranges, garlic, bananas, berries of any sort, or cabbage. There were just some chayote and three boxes of pears.

Pears? Does everyone hate pears? Am I the only pear lover? I never knew. I love pears. I eat them all the time. I think the logic is that pears are a lot like avocados – they have about a 17 minute window where they are delicious. One minute early and they are just watery and tasteless, one minute late and it’s like eating sand with bits of sand in it.

But here’s a trick – right when they start to get ripe, put them in the fridge! They keep a lot longer!

Mirth about pears aside, there is a very real and unshakeable sense that things in society aren’t right. I’m old enough to remember some food rationing. When I was a child, my father was stationed in Germany and we had rations for meat. That was to prevent soldiers from buying meat at the commissary and selling it on the black market for huge profits. Whiskey and cigarettes were also rationed, for the same reason.

But I also remember the OPEC oil embargo in the early 70s. You could only buy gas on days that matched the last number of your license plate. Even days for even number plates, odd days for odd number plates.

There were huge lines, cars parked for blocks, waiting to get gas.

We aren’t that far removed from food rationing here. The first step is to assure people that the supply chain is fine – to see if they will self-regulate. I saw several of those messages on my NextDoor app and on Facebook. The next step will be rationing. If people can’t control themselves, the government will step in and control us. Imagine, toilet paper rations.

But worse than the spectre of rations (because that’s not that big of a deal) is the look on the faces of the people who are still working at these chain stores. I saw hollow eyes. The eyes of staff who don’t want to be there. Staff who clearly feel compelled to be at work and who begrudging had to push people’s carts back into the store. People who are overworked, underpaid, and pissed off that they have to be subjected to thousands of panicky shoppers.

These are people without health care, or with very little health care. These are people living paycheck to paycheck. These are people who cannot take a day or two off and pretend to be sick because they have very little sick leave or can’t afford to take a $100 cut in their monthly take-home. Much less a $500 cut in order to take a week off.

Meanwhile, an entirely different group of people gets to “telework”. I got a message from one of my hourly employees asking if they could telework – they were honest, saying they are afraid they are going to get this virus. I had to say that I don’t have any telework for them yet. But meanwhile, I get to telework. In fact, I’m strongly encouraged to telework.

I am in the privileged class that get to sit at home and watch Season Two of Altered Carbon and share videos on Twitter of them baking bread! Oh, and did I mention that my group of people get to come on in to the store to gawk at the people working there, marvel at the empty shelves, guffaw at the silliness of the whole thing?

I passed a worker who was fuming. She was restocking shelves while wearing a back brace. Every few seconds a customer would ask her where something was, interrupting her workflow. She would have to take them there and then go back to stocking, only to be interrupted again. “It’s not the fucking apocalypse.” She muttered as Avie and I grabbed some soy milk. I wanted to say “I know, I’m sorry you have to be here.” But what would happen if they didn’t go to work? What if everyone did just stay home?

I bought my pears, I got my peppercorns, and eggs, and a few other things. I used the self-checkout station because I didn’t want to look at the people working there. The parking lot was littered with rubber gloves, trash, all blowing in the wind. Starlings landed on the car in front of us. Avie told me she loves the Starlings. “They’re so cute and look how they fluff themselves up!” she said as one ruffled its feathers.

We went home and made pickled beets, and one of the best Pinto bean recipes I’ve ever made. Then Avie and I ate a steak. I had already promised her our once-a-week meat meal this week would be steak. And I found tri-tip on sale for $5.99 a pound. I cut off two small steaks and portioned the rest for the freezer.

There is a fundamental disconnect between huge groups of people in this country. On second thought, there’s a fundamental disconnect between people in the world. I get my groceries because of that woman restocking the shelves but “the supply chain is strong” because people in Mexico are still making our fruits and veggies. Or because people in Brazil are still making our soymilk.

And the irony of Coronavirus is that it traveled to various countries because we are all so interconnected. It both exposes this new, immediate, physical connection of almost all of humanity and the very deep, painful, disconnect we have with each other and the way that we treat each other. Our chasm of inequality.

Some people have to go to work, they have to be exposed to this virus, so that other people can blog about it in the comfort of their homes. Some people have cadillac health care, some people get paid vacation and sick leave, some people can afford to fly off to get away from all of this, or self-isolate and make cute vines with their partners. And of all the unsustainable practices we humans do, I think this one might be the least sustainable.

Low sodium discoveries: pickled beets are low in sodium. I’ve not had a pickle in weeks. Also tri-tip is a low sodium slice of beef. It can be sliced and cooked like steak, btw. It’s absolutely delicious. One of the most flavorful cuts of beef. Look for good marbling.

Qq