Dreams of Food, and of Fair Pricing

Well, hi!

Being here in prison has done things to my body weight. Here, I tend to wobble between 250 and 260 lbs, which if we follow the horribly inept and inaccurate BMI for a descriptor of weight, I would be categorized as Morbidly Obese. I have gained some weight here at this facility, but as of a month ago, I started losing weight again.

Weight loss trigger?

I recently spent months trying to get the facility to comply on my meals as a pescatarian, and eventually signed up for the Religious Dietary Plan, or RDP, just to guarantee I would not be handed food I cannot eat at meal times.

Before this change, I was being offered up to 10 slices of white bread per day (2 each at breakfast and lunch, up to 6 at dinner when they deigned to send my alternate tray correctly), along with all the beans, rice, potatoes, and noodles I can stomach. In addition, I would end up with peanut butter in incredible quantities.
I liked the peanut butter, but was being beaned to death with no alternate to living in Beantopia.

Since my right to have meals that adhere to my sincerely held religious beliefs weren't being respected, I signed up for the Religious Dietary Plan, where there is nothing served in the bags that I do not eat. Namely, I get:

• Beans, Improved Quality
• Fish, in Foil Packs
• Peanut Butter for breakfast
• Less Bread
• No Potatoes
• No Pasta
• No Rice

Wait, aren't you...

Diabetic? You bet I am!
You would be mistaken to think that Florida gives a rat arse over feeding diabetics correctly. All the carbs I was being fed was on what they call the 2600 Calorie tray, which they assign to diabetics by default!

Chew on this: My first encounter with Medical at the reception center? It was said to me that I better just leave the bread, rice, noodles, and potatoes on the tray if I care about my health.
I was still eating a little meat then; when your tray is 70% bread/rice/noodles/potatoes in any combination, and you're not even getting full portions of anything else, you have no choice but to eat the carbs.
And I STILL had dangerous glucose lows at that time!

Presenting to Medical for an AM finger stick check, returning a glucose level of 50-59 mg/dL day after day should have raised alarms.

But nah. This prison [sic].

Homf, Nomf?

To wit, I have made a couple of posts in the past, lamenting our food choices in commissary: everything we get is laden with preservatives, and is effectively junk food at best. Being pescatarian means none of the hot food options, save for microwave popcorn, are valid choices for me.

Being on the Religious Diet Plan further limits me to food items marked Kosher.

A fellow inmate detailed a bit of his time in a federal prison, and said to me that in their commissary, fresh food items were available for purchase, including things like tomatoes, onions, etc. He remarked that the thought process was that the kitchen inmates would steal these, so why not turn a profit off selling them the things they were wanting instead?

Indeed, why not? If I could legit buy onions, tomatoes, spinach, etc., instead of $2.80 sleeves of saltines, $1.87 peanut butter wafers, and other crap, I absolutely would!

I admit, my diet wasn't the best on the streets, but it was largely because I bought a lot of grocery store fried chicken. I also bought a LOT of fresh produce: Carrots, beets, broccoli, spinach, squash, collard greens, Asian pears, apples, blackcurrants, and so on.

Did I buy a lot of junk food? Yes, before I sought counseling for my depression. Less while being counseled. Sophie, wonderful person she is, helped me redirect my depression diet, helped me to frame it differently:

Am I eating because I am depressed?

Yes.

What am I eating?

In 2019: A box of Oatmeal Creme Pies. Maybe Two. And some other snack cakes. Shut up, don't judge me, innit.
In 2021: A pound of carrot sticks with blue cheese.

Is the present food a safer choice as a diabetic?

Yes. Significant reduction of processed sugars.

Here, I don't have that fallback -- no convenient carrots to chew on as I grind through the depression days.

Why should we care?

Because as we sit in this warehouse, wasting years, we should be learning about better food choices, so we are eating smarter upon our eventual release.

I wager that if you wandered over to YouTube right now and did a search for American prison food, you would find videos of people mixing and mashing up the junk we get that passes for food into a loaf they call a brick.

. o (Please don't be sick.)

These are what we learn are food groups behind the bars, even as I miss making my own black bean veggie burgers from scratch.

A wrap

That would be delicious!
... Oh, you mean the end? Gotcha.

I wrap up with "At least we are getting calories...?" I know there are people who aren't. :/

People. Please insist on better treatment for prison residents, on teaching a lesson on how to be better people behind the wires.

To those of you in positions of hiring power for your companies, please consider that person with a felony on their records. They've already done their time; don't perpetuate their sentence past the bars. Give them a chance to shine. Also, they get a $5,000 federal bond; you can get details by calling +1 (877) US2-JOBS / +1 (877) 882-5627.

Take care, folks. :)