Challenge Day 3 - Feb 12th

Off to work after eating a very regular breakfast of 2 eggs, toast and peanut butter. Taking lentil soup for lunch and will eat it if I find time. I need to stop at a store for a few more items today.

Today's task:

“Your dietitian said your iron is low. Figure out how to increase it”

Low iron. What foods could I afford? Or do I need to buy a supplement. We, as healthcare providers, often ask our clients to make a change that could put a financial strain on their budget. The request is very vague and I will need to check for foods that are high in iron that I can afford to eat, taste good and provide sufficient iron.

So it looks like some of the food I have purchased has iron.. eggs, lentils. Although meat has a good source of iron, I may be limited in purchasing it due to cost; but I like sardines, salmon and tuna which could be in my basket and supply more iron. For the vegetarian, spinach and nuts (which I eat almost daily and have not purchased this week) could be alternatives.

Sometimes, clients don't want/like/desire to eat the food high in iron. So perhaps, I could get a bottle of iron from the pharmacy. The cost is approximately $6-10 for 100 tablets. It comes in various dosage forms with different amounts of elemental iron. We often want clients to take with orange juice (or other acidic food) which I do not plan to purchase as one of my food choices. Also, if iron deficiency requires me to take a supplement, a physician or NP could provide a prescription it at no cost to me.

I thought I would pick up some more food today after work. I ended up a one store for work related task and decided I was not going to get to the grocery store for fresh produce. Although I was able to get more carbohydrate (pasta) and protein ( canned tuna), I was not able to find affordable vegetables or fruit (canned or frozen). It is too cold outside to walk to another store and the groceries I already am carrying, arequite heavy. I will just have to eat the same fruit and vegetables for another day. One nice thing about frozen fruit is you can eat it more slowly from frozen and enjoy it as a nice snack before bed.

It is so cold outside tonight. How can anyone live overnight outside in this weather? Thanks for the shelters in Kenora but that is not the ideal. Lots of places are open during the day but not at night. I need to go home and pull out blankets, coats and other winter items that are not being used. I saw a post on Facebook that one organization needed towels so I will bring a few of those too.


Sleeping tonight in a warm bed and thankful for heat. Not hungry but starting to dislike the lack of choices to eat.