Now I'm hungry.

Howdy doody!  I'm happy to report that I've made a full recovery from yesterday's salt bloat (I know you people were waiting with baited breath).  Indeed, I was well enough to go get my sweat on in another 90 minute, 90 degree yoga class.  Let me tell you, this yoga thing is growing on me.  Not unlike a tumor.  An expensive, nag-champa-scented tumor.  I posed hard and got some fantastic stretches in.  We ended with a looooong frog pose, which hurt so good.  I'm going back for some more vinyasa goodness tomorrow, hopefully with Angera in tow!

The bad news is that I suffered a painful migraine last night.  It started as soon as I got home - blind patches and all - and it was a long, slow, mean one.  My boss mentioned that migraines can be brought on by changes in the weather; perhaps it was due to my switch from the hot studio to the cold, clammy, rainy outdoors.  I don't think it was from the salt, either (and trust me, I am quick to point fingers when it comes to FOOD).  Methinks it was a good old-fashioned case of THE HORMONES!!! beating up on my head.  Believe it or not, I still have a relatively fierce headache going on.  I laid low and drank a lot of water today.  Flush out all dat ish. 

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Today I finally got my act together and posed a question to my Facebook friends that's been rolling around my (snow)pea brain for quite some time.

When shopping for food, what is most important to you?

cost - organic - taste - convenience - local - nutrition - other

In the past year, my food hierarchy has changed dramatically. Now, I'm not talking about a switch from conventional yogurt to organic, but choices more along the lines of "would I rather spend my last $8 on Camel Lights or gummy bears and taquitos?"  It wasn't pretty.  In fact, my boyfriend reflects fondly on me stumbling through 7-11 during our first date and emerging onto the sidewalk with not one, but TWO bags of Doritos because I couldn't settle on one flavor.  In my defense, they were Limited Edition.

Sweet memories.

So I got to thinking about what's important to me these days.  Since I've quit smoking and I'm not drinking too much anymore, I'm able to rationalize more luxurious purchases like a $15 jar of coconut butter.  For me, a typical grocery trip hierarchy is something like this: nutrition - taste - organic - local - cost - convenience.  My "other" or "wildcard" is length of ingredients list, as I don't really like to buy things that have a lot of (weird) ingredients.  Here's how some of my Facebookers responded (I apologize for the ugly red blocks, I was trying to be nice and protect privacy!):

Oh, the friends.  

Kirtley raised a great question, which is to wonder how our hierarchy would change under different circumstances.  Here a few examples from my recent trips to da store:

• I am quicker to buy a locally grown conventional vegetable than a nationally grown organic vegetable.
• I buy foods at Haymarket regardless of their categorization because the produce there is a great deal and will be wasted if it isn't sold.
• I am more likely to ignore cost if I am buying a specialty or gourmet item or if I make a special trip to buy it; I tend to watch cost if I am making buying a lot of different things or if I'm in a budgeting phase, of course.
• If money were no object, nutrition and taste would still be first, followed by local and then organic.
• In a perfect world, nutrition, taste, local, organic, cost and convenience would be perfectly balanced: I could buy a $1 locally- and organically-grown apple that tasted like steak, contained 30 g protein and cut itself into bite-sized pieces.  Ha!  Did I mention that the farmer would be HANDSOMELY compensated?  Yes, my $1 would divide and multiply.  To be fair, my CSA is kind of super like this.  Though not as steak-y.
• Homemade food always, always trumps everything else.  It's a rarity and a treat for me to eat something homemade, so I savor it and don't really ask questions!

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Question of the Day: What does your food hierarchy look like?  I would love to hear your thoughts!  And I know I'm not the only one who was feelin' the Black Pepper Jack Doritos.  Anyone?