Going solo in a full house, few questions page

[a-carnal-existence]

Hello all, I'm Joe. I am currently trying to get into the primal lifestyle, but am facing multiple issues in diet and health. Me, my fiance, her brother, and our son live in a house next door to her parents, other brother, and sister. We do all shopping and meals together, and as I'm the only one trying to go primal, the food isn't generally geared towards that. Her family is really big on quick fix snack foods, basically anything packaged and microwavable. I'd be lying if I said I didnt fancy these foods myself, but I'm trying to avoid them. When I do stop at a produce junction and pick up fruits and veggies, they tend to go quick as everyone else jumps on them as well. Any suggestions?

Work posses another problem as far as food goes. I'm a manager at a restaurant called Cosi's, anyone familiar with it? Our flatbread is constantly baked throughout the day and smells so dang good ha, temptation and a half, oddly enough I seem to have an easier time avoiding grains there than at home. We have salads, so thats a great option, a bunch of fruits nuts and veggies to add to them, but I worry about the chicken and steak. Our chicken comes pre chopped in a 5lb bag, its already seasoned and god only knows what else has been put into it. It's delicious, though I wonder how healthy it could actually be, same with the steak. Should I avoid these at work and just stick with the produce? The other day at work I took all the toppings from a greek salad, tomato's, cucumbers, onions, olives, and did away with the feta, but mixed those things with chicken, heated them up and threw them over spinach leaves, then added some mushrooms I sauteed, it was delicious. Now I'm debating if I should have left out the chicken. Again, Any suggestions?

As for the health aspect, I'm addicted to tobacco, smoking, chewing, and need to quit. I started chewing sugar free gum as a substitute, though I doubt gum could be considered primal in any sense, and although it's sugar free, its probably loaded with a ton of artificial sweeteners. Is this really a good alternative to smoking, or should I avoid the gum and try to find something else. Also I've been chewing the sugar free gums (specifically the "Extra Dessert Delights") as an alternative to eating a bunch of other sweets. Is this a bad idea?

So to recap, things that I could possibly do about eating at home, my food is free at work so I do a lot of my eating there, would love to know opinions on the chicken issue, and sugar free gums-decent enough stepping stone to ditching the other things or should it be avoided all together?

Thank you all for your time. I apologize for the lengthy post, but I have a lot on my mind and I type fast.

-Joseph

[sbhikes]

I'd avoid the pre-flavored restaurant meat if I were you. It's probably got soybean oil and several varieties of MSG in it. The salad greens probably are coated in chemicals to make it stay fresh-looking longer, too. You are faced with a lot of decisions regarding how much you want to compromise. The less you compromise the faster you will see real changes. I'm not talking about weight necessarily but in restoring a feeling of incredible health and vitality. Good luck.

[a-carnal-existence]

Something else i forgot to mention, I've been using this sauce/salsa from "Pace". It says its all natural and gluten free, and the ingredient list reads as follows: Crushed tomatoes (water, crushed tomato concentrate), water, fresh jalapeno peppers, fresh onions, distilled vinegar, dehydrated onions, salt, dehydrated garlic, natural flavoring. Looked fairly simple enough to me, not sure why they dont list what those natural flavorings are exactly. Curious about this stuff too though as Ive been eating a bunch of it, specifically over my eggs. I just made a batch of scrambled eggs with mushrooms and poured some of this stuff on it. Any ideas?

[PrimalMama]

erm... so let me get this straight... you're the MANAGER and you don't know what's in the chicken? *smh*
sbhikes is right - you should probably avoid it (though it's better than eating the Cosi BREAD!)... when I look on the Cosi website, all the salads that have chicken on them list "soy" and "wheat" as allergens in the salad (though that could easily be because of the dressing and crutons... I'd guess if you look at the bag o' chicken, it probably has ingredients or at the very least, allergy info, and these wouldn't be bad things to know as the manager of the place..)

As for the home situation... just keep buying veggies, meat, fruit, etc. Overbuy them (get 2x or 4x what you want for YOU) if people keep eating them, they might actually end up eating healthier because of it! You might find the packaged frankenfoods stay in the freezer longer because the REAL food's being eaten instead (and hell, it's not like they'll go bad!), and you might have to go shopping more often, but... oh well!
Eating REAL FOOD that spoils has to be done more often than buying boxes and packages - and it's worth it!

I'd cut out the Pace if you can - "natural flavoring" can mean all KINDS of things... and it's really easy to chop up some tomatoes, onions, garlic, peppers, etc (run through the blender for a smooth consistency) to make a fresh salsa. I believe Pace is cooked? (you might want to google salsa recipes)

hope that's at least a little bit helpful

[a-carnal-existence]

Yes thank you, that is helpful. As for being the manager and not knowing the ingredients, They call us managers, but we are more like just "shift managers" where the guy above me is the "general manager".

I have a book I reference for any of the customers that has all allergen information and nutritional info for the various salads, soups and sandwich's, but the individual ingredients aren't listed. We actually had to call up the manufacturer of the chicken the other day because someone was severely allergic to anything with onions or garlic and we couldnt find the info on the bag. Sure enough the chicken had both onion and garlic powder in it so she couldnt eat it. I'm currently trying to get out of the food industry, I don't feel right selling people sandwich's for $8, especially now that I'm starting to notice more and more how unhealthy they really are. As of right now though, its a job till i can find something else.

Next question I have. I take a one a day multi vitamin, should i continue taking these or are they undesirable?

[PrimalPumpkin]

Natural Flavoring=MSG

MSG=Nuro-toxin

[PrimalPumpkin]

Oops I can't spell

[jpatti]

Something else i forgot to mention, I've been using this sauce/salsa from "Pace". It says its all natural and gluten free, and the ingredient list reads as follows: Crushed tomatoes (water, crushed tomato concentrate), water, fresh jalapeno peppers, fresh onions, distilled vinegar, dehydrated onions, salt, dehydrated garlic, natural flavoring. Looked fairly simple enough to me, not sure why they dont list what those natural flavorings are exactly. Curious about this stuff too though as Ive been eating a bunch of it, specifically over my eggs. I just made a batch of scrambled eggs with mushrooms and poured some of this stuff on it. Any ideas?

GAPS for T2 diabetes: pico de gallo & guacamole