Where to Shop in Park Slope For a High Protein/Low Carb Diet

Olive Bar at Key Foods on 5th Avenue

About a month ago, I decided to lose some weight and shape up, in part by drastically changing my diet because the incremental tweaking wasn’t working. And no, I was not going the Hollywood route with a no-food starvation or cocaine type of diet. Nor was I going to drink liquid kelp for 6 months.  I chose to eliminate as much sugars and carbs as possible, which is fucking a mighty pain if you’re like me and:

1. Eat things like cereal, pancakes, waffles, McMuffins, leftover pizza and bagels for breakfast.
2. Enjoy anything encased in buns, wraps, tortillas, puff pastry or on/under/within pasta.
3. Love side dishes like mashed potatoes, fries, rice, noodles, tater chips, tortilla chips, or anything breaded, battered and crusted. 

In other words, stuff that tastes good.

That said, under many of these "high protein/low carb" plans, you instead munch away on pure proteins, veggies and selected dairy -- also stuff that tastes good (but not as good as the aforementioned carbs). The trick to succeeding is being able to battle the cravings. But where to shop and eat in the Slope to maintain this kind of diet?

With a little planning, it’s easy to maintain the diet.  Here’s where I’ve been getting my goods:

For land animal protein, if I’m in the S.E. Slope or Windsor Terrace area, the folks at United Meat Market are friendly and happy to serve up personalized cuts and also offer ready-to-cook sausages and other entrees. Village Voice even voted them "Best Grass-Fed Steaks" in 2009. Also, on the opposite end of PPW, there are some great vendors at the Saturday Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket. It's a great place to find beef, pork, lamb, goat, duck, sausages and seafood. 5^th Avenue's M&S has been in the nabe for years,  while newbie Fleisher’s is popular with the uber-prime crowd.  

Speaking of seafood, there are two top shops on 7^th Ave where you can select from a huge variety of fish, shrimp, scallops and other ocean fare (plus sushi and sashimi to go): Park Slope Seafood and Ocean Fish.

To be honest, none of our larger grocers have stood out (to me) in terms of protein selection or other grub befitting these diets.   Though I do give some props to Union Market and Associated Market for some simple side dishes like a curry-dusted cauliflower, or a bacon-sprinkled green bean side dish, they tend to lack good flavor.

Lastly, you're a big snacker like me, you'll appreciate my new favorite snack: olive bars, of which the Key Foods on 5^th seems to have the best.