Got myself into bother need help getting out of it.

clutterydrawer

How essential is the meat?

If the need for protein is related to the amont of exercise you do, you could probably cut down - I cycle 23 miles per day and am a landscaper so spend 8 hours a day felling trees/digging etc but don't eat any meat except occasional fish....could you maybe substitute with other protein sources.

annie123

I once worked with a semi pro weight lifter for a few months, he was a fish eating veggie like me and used to eat lots of soya mince and many different types of pulses, its amazing how many different things you can do with them, he also had eggs. I think he had cheese too but had to be a certain type if I remember correctly.
he didn't take a lunch hour/tea breaks but would take four 20 min breaks throughout the day to eat.

It was him that got me interested in cooking again as he always had interesting things to eat.

hth

leiela

Great idea's guy's tbh i do eat alot of tofu, soya beans lentils etc, hubby however won't touch them, won't touch fish, he's very much a meat head haha.

Im gonig to look at trying to mix more of my foods though adding lentils and dried beans etc to pad them out since they have some protien i can take the carbs at the moment, stuck with the stupid hubby though.. low carb... none fish, none bean eat pain in my rear end.

i might be abit naughtie and slightly lower the protien where eating tbh right now where eating more than i think we in reality need, loweirng it a few grams per meal won't make a huge difference to our diets but might make a big difference in our monthly shopping bill.

Im doing well trawling though my cubords im not getting to hung up on every little thing in them jut getting a good handle on it writing down anything i might be able to use in a meal and BOY there is alot of food in my house!!!

Much of it's good stuff i can use, there are a few bit's and leftovers that have been sitting there a while, ie pre-starting with my personal trainer who now pretty much dictates what i can and can't eat. things like pasta in sauce!!! i havn't been allowed to eat that in 12 months eek ...

dunno quite what to do with the stuff were not allowed to eat?? seems somehow wrong to push all the bad junkie foods on the kids while we eat healthy food don't you think ??

sb44

Try searching on www.yell.com for a slaughterhouse in your area. I did this and found a few of them that sell to the public. I don't know if you are allowed to eat lamb on your diet but I bought half a lamb for £40. They also had a 'factory' shop next door where you could get lots of cheap poultry and meat.

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

leiela wrote: »

my husband needs 2 full breasts)

quote]

:eek:

elliep_2

In terms of pushing the 'junk' fod onto your kids then it depends on what it is. If it's genuine junk then you'll have to decide what you feel about feeding it to them /giving /throwing it away. If it's stuff that you'd be happy to eat for yourself again if it wasn't for your training then I see nothing wrong with giving it to your children.

leiela

elliep wrote: »

In terms of pushing the 'junk' food onto your kids then it depends on what it is. If it's genuine junk then you'll have to decide what you feel about feeding it to them /giving /throwing it away. If it's stuff that you'd be happy to eat for yourself again if it wasn't for your training then I see nothing wrong with giving it to your children.

Mostly it's stuff that where no longer allowed since we pushed our training up a gear as a family i always tried to keep the food on the healthier side of things, however like many families i also occasionally relied on "Junkier Convienence foods" when money or time was short .. sausages, burgers, sauces in jars

Tbh alot of my problem atm is that an awful lot of the foods in my cuboards is perfectly normal food that normal people eat. I've got 4 boxes of normal breakfast cereal sitting there that neither me of my husband as allowed anymore hardly "junk" food by classic standards. but i still feel bad pushing food i can't eat onto the kids.

I was planning my meals out for the rest of the week, and having gone though my cuboards/freezer i noticed that there where some chicken nuggets and frozen chips, my instant thought was ooh ill do the kids chicken nuggets, chips and beans on friday for tea, but then i felt guilty because i was doing me and my husband Chicken and Vegatable stir fry to use up the leftovers of the Veg i have, and the nutritional quality hardly compares.

Stupid thing is if i was doing them chicken nuggets and chips for a treat i wouldn't feel guilty, but because i don't think the odd junkier meal will really do them any harm on a scale of things

I want to feed my family healthy good food, but at the same time im well aware mine and my husbands diet is abnormaly strict and i don't want my kids to feel deprived because mum doens't let them eat them the foods normal kids eat.... how cruel would that be?? So i've always bought the kids their favorite foods for treats occasionally because i don't want the kids to feel deprived.

I had this great plan, get rid of everything before buying more food, but the fact is i have alot of food "junkier" or "processed" foods right now me and my husband cant eat, and feeding it all to the kids would take weeks and weeks to get rid of it (for example i have 10 jars of sauce for chinese) and somehow that just seems wrong when me and my husband would be eating higher quality food and im perfectly cabable of making sauce that is good and healthy from scratch we'd all enjoy.

I dunno maybe it's a mental thing, i don't mind the kids having junk food occasionally as a treat, but feeding it them continuously just for the stake of using it up seems like bad parenting, even though i KNOW NORMAL people eat this stuff all the time, im talking about jars of sweet and sour here not feeding them sweets or chocolate day and night.

I dunno i guess i've just learn't alot about my body in the last 12 months, and i question feeding my kids things i wouldn't concider good enough for my body.

kessik

I don't think your children will look back when they're older and berate you for giving them convenience food whilst you and OH ate fresh food. You are being too hard on yourself!! If you were not on a strict food plan you would be happy to eat the jarred sauces and so on, so you are not feeding them poison. My children are older teenagers now and for years I worked full time, OH was away in the military and I was too whacked when I got home at night to cook anything very splendid. As a result they ate a lot of packet, tinned and frozen stuff. A couple of years ago I started with Slimming World and now cook everything from scratch. Thing is, my kids say to me 'we hate this food, why can't we have what we used to have?'. Note they don't say 'mmmm.....we love this fresh food, Mum!'. Children are (mainly) not discerning in their food likes and dislikes and tbh I think taking a lot of time and effort over cooking fresh food from scratch is often wasted on them. I don't look back and think I was a bad and reckless parent and neither are you.

mummysaver

I'd look at it as you and your husband are both on fairly extreme diets by everyday standards, and what is suitable for you two is not necessarily suitable for your children. Yes it may take time to get through the "normal" food if you are just giving it to them, but think of it as saving money on your normal shopping bill!

Now I know that this is a very OS thing, but I don't know how it would work for you and your protein requirements, but how about bulking out your mince, even if only a tiny bit, with lentils? They have lots of protein and vanish in the sauce!

Auntie_Noo

I can't really help a whole heap, but one thing that struck me in your last post..... you say you have 10 jars of sauces for chinese.......... if your children like it, then why not make say Saturday night "quick food night" and use a jar a week. You've got 3 months worth nearly, they will get a treat, you'll get an easy cooking night, you may also get some for the freezer, and you'll have used up your sauces in time. I bet they have a pretty extensive date on them, so need to be used too quickly? One quick meal a week isn't going to hurt them, and it's better than an actual take-away (and cheaper) As for meat, I guess buying whole carcasses wouldn't help as you need the leaner cuts??? but I agree that a slaughterhouse, or farmer will often give you a much better price for a whole animal. You could also try catering suppliers, but I don't know what their minimum buy would be. You could also find a local Sunday Market as quite a few now how butchers vans. You buy in bulk, say £20 of chicken breast, but it's a lot cheaper and better quality than the supermarket. Not sure where you live but there's definitely a van at Ford Market in Sussex, and I think at Blackbushe? So I assume there are quite a few around?