Dieting v saving money.

BEAT_THE_DEBT

Hi is it just me or is there sometimes a conflict. I am trying to lose weight and eat accordingly to do so but sometimes the money saver in me takes over for example I have a sausage roll in the freezer that I will prob have for lunch to use up rather than buy a healthy lunch. We go to mils on a Sunday for roast as it saves us money. Anyone else find this?

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MandM90

BEAT_THE_DEBT wrote: »

Hi is it just me or is there sometimes a conflict. I am trying to lose weight and eat accordingly to do so but sometimes the money saver in me takes over for example I have a sausage roll in the freezer that I will prob have for lunch to use up rather than buy a healthy lunch. We go to mils on a Sunday for roast as it saves us money. Anyone else find this?

I used to feel like this. When we were trying to cut the grocery budget right down lots of meals were very potato/pasta heavy but a few weeks ago decided enough is enough and that the weight needed to come off.

I'm currently dieting, and doing well (if I say so myself). I find calorie counting goes well with frugality because rather than eating loads of expensive things, I simply eat less. It does require weighing things but I'm in the swing of it now and it's second nature.

Lots of my meals are based around lentils, beans, rice etc. I buy veggies that are in season and/or on offer, or frozen.

We run once or twice a week. At weekends we work on the allotment (which can be backbreaking) or use our National Trust passes to take long walks in beautiful grounds. Again, I use the free app myfitnesspal to roughly log calories. It might not be entirely accurate but it's working, and if it didn't I would adjust my intake.


Why not cut the sausage roll in half and have it over two days with salad? Or give OH the sausage roll and make yourself a cheap-as-chips lentil soup! And at the in laws, go for leaner bits of meat, avoid the spuds and stack the plate with veggies, or go for a long walk in the morning to 'compensate'?

I don't think dieting and saving need to be mutually exclusive, but it does require forethought. I plan all my meals in advance on myfitnesspal, schedule in times where we exercise, and use the plan to mealplan for the grocery shopping. OH and DD eat what I eat but OH might have some buttered bread on the side, or a pudding, or rice cakes and peanut butter, if it isn't enough for him.

Gloomendoom

There is no conflict in my eyes. If you want to lose weight, you simply eat less. Fewer sausage rolls, for example.

Eating less means you will spend less on food.

Hermia

BEAT_THE_DEBT wrote: »

Hi is it just me or is there sometimes a conflict. I am trying to lose weight and eat accordingly to do so but sometimes the money saver in me takes over for example I have a sausage roll in the freezer that I will prob have for lunch to use up rather than buy a healthy lunch. We go to mils on a Sunday for roast as it saves us money. Anyone else find this?

As others have said I don't think there is a conflict really. I am using up some frozen pizzas, but I just make sure I eat them with a big salad for dinner and not have anything more to eat that evening. If I have a Sunday roast I pile my plate with veg and have less of the more fattening items. Or I will make sure I eat lighter foods during the rest of the day.

TBH it is good to get into the habit of doing things like this. If you try to eat a perfect diet and control everything you eat you will fail. We all sometimes have to eat outside the home or find ourselves in situations with no healthy options so it is good to get used to dealing with that.

june89

I'm on Slimming World which has a massive reputation for being expensive, but I think it's down to what you choose to eat rather than the diet itself. I see so many people having a £2 pot of fruit as a snack (often one of many) every day, where that's more than I spend in a week on fruit as I stick to basic apples or whatever else is on offer. My breakfast now is about 70p (including frozen berries and a homemade latte - would be cheaper with instant coffee but can't stand the stuff) where I could easily have spent £7 on a coffee shop version previously. Have a load more examples like this, but it's pretty easy to find cheap yet still healthy food. I'm spending a lot less than when I was buying junk!

When I first started, I had quite a few bits in the freezer that weren't so diet friendly. I did as MandM suggested, used them up in small portions or gave to DH while I had something else. And if we receive anything as gifts (Easter egg for example), it will get portioned up into DH's lunchbox and used up that way.

[Deleted User]

Indeed you really don't have to buy expensive diet foods to lose weight I would rather have a decent home cooked meal with lots of fresh veg and less potatos and a smaller amount of meat than one of the boxed calorie counted meals that are on sale in the supermarkets,

'Convenience' food has a lot to answer for I think. Back in the mists of time when folk actually peeled potatoes for chips there were probably less on your plate to eat, rather than chucking a big bag of frozen chips in the deep fat fryer or into the oven as is done today.
Be fair, no one enjoys peeling spuds so less were peeled and chipped ergo less were eaten

Pile your plate up with plenty of veg and less of the fattening stuff and you don't need a dietician to know whats good for you and what isn't and you will soon gradually see the ibs drop off.

I still enjoy sausages I just eat two or one instead of three and cook in a frypan with a smear of olive oil. I too would cut a sausage roll down the middle in half and pile up on the salad stuff and maybe have the other half the next day with some soup for lunch.I make a mean spicy carrot and coriander soup that costs buttons from a kilo of carrots and some coriander spice from my spice rack, a good dollop of lazy garlic and anything else that looks past its best from the bottom of my freezer, cheap as chips and twice as healthy for you

JackieO xx

Hermia

june89 wrote: »

I'm on Slimming World which has a massive reputation for being expensive, but I think it's down to what you choose to eat rather than the diet itself. I see so many people having a £2 pot of fruit as a snack (often one of many) every day, where that's more than I spend in a week on fruit as I stick to basic apples or whatever else is on offer. My breakfast now is about 70p (including frozen berries and a homemade latte - would be cheaper with instant coffee but can't stand the stuff) where I could easily have spent £7 on a coffee shop version previously. Have a load more examples like this, but it's pretty easy to find cheap yet still healthy food. I'm spending a lot less than when I was buying junk!

I joined a local veg box scheme and it has saved me so much money. It seemed expensive at first because I am paying for the box in one go and not buying bits through the week. But I get so many meals from the veg. I do like to buy good quality meat, but I am learning to cook dishes that use a small amount of meat and then lots of veg or pulses etc. It does take a while to learn to be healthy and frugal and I think I did spend more the first few weeks. You soon learn though.

mothernerd

I suffer from depression and always found the being broke/ depressed / trying to lose weight difficult. My niece and her partner are out at exercise classes every night and at weekends and looking good on it but when I see the prices - £5 a session and sometimes two a night and more at weekends. My exercise consists mainly of solitary walks - used to be because I walked faster than the average person, since my hip replacement 15 months ago it's because I am still trying to build up my speed and distance (just started to try 1 hour a day and include a steep bridge). My normal daily walk (for fun) used to last 3 hours and I walked everywhere the rest of the time.

I probably eat healthier than the nieces - most of their exercise is to accommodate their lager intake and multiple cocktails and huge meals when on holiday. I don't drink or smoke but have a sweet tooth. If I can cut out the sweets/ cakes/ biscuits I should lose weight (have done it before but now starting again).

When I was diagnosed as diabetic I cut everything bad out and followed a strict diet (that Sunday lunch would be only occasional new potatoes or baked potato with skins on, no gravy, half the plate veg) and lost lots but with all the inactivity before and after my op (and people keep buying me chocolate) I have put it back on.

I don't like SW as the diet clashes with my diabetic one. I don't like the heavy reliance on artificial sweeteners as they are contra indicated long term and they also ruin your palate and don't allow you to fully appreciate the natural sweetness of things like fruit. Several things I eat as healthy have more 'syns' than worthless options (I eat oatcakes, a ritz cracker is just sugar and salt but guess which is more syns) and don't get me started on bread (I have wholemeal seeded as these are necessary but limited components of my diet).

Each of us has different lifestyles and different problems (even those in debt have a great variation in income). I admit to eating my son's takeaway leftovers rather than throwing them away, I don't buy them for myself. Sometimes it's hard to juggle everything (esp money/diet/ depression). I am struggling a little at the moment having tried hard to cut out all the sugar and my body is still adjusting. I feel very tired this week but hope in a week or two this will change.

However we can all make excuses. I have lost this weight before and I will do so again, however long it takes.

kboss2010

june89 wrote: »

My breakfast now is about 70p (including frozen berries and a homemade latte - would be cheaper with instant coffee but can't stand the stuff)

B&M do 250g vacuum packs of ground coffee for 79p. I thought it would be crap but decided to try it and it's not much different from the £1.70 Aldi one.

whiteguineapig

mother nerd if you are trying to cut out saccharin from hot drinks, i have been using brown sugar with stevia , i found it in tesco with the regular sugars (its a bag with brown sugar and stevia mixed in)
i had previously tried stevia but it wasn't "sweet enough"
i have now managed to train myself to like this, i was determined to give up saccharins, when i added up how many a day i had i shuddered

Hermia

mothernerd wrote: »

I don't like SW as the diet clashes with my diabetic one. I don't like the heavy reliance on artificial sweeteners as they are contra indicated long term and they also ruin your palate and don't allow you to fully appreciate the natural sweetness of things like fruit. Several things I eat as healthy have more 'syns' than worthless options (I eat oatcakes, a ritz cracker is just sugar and salt but guess which is more syns) and don't get me started on bread (I have wholemeal seeded as these are necessary but limited components of my diet).

SW didn't work for me for that reason. The local leader was very fond of processed foods and making desserts that contained lots of sweeteners and weird artificial ingredients. I am trying to eat all natural ingredients even if I just eat a small amount (e.g. small amounts of real dairy products, not low-fat stuff that is full of rubbish). I also clashed with the leader over wholegrain stuff. I eat several portions of wholegrain (bread, brown rice, high-fibre cereal) a day to keep, errr, everything moving (TMI!) and I was told I had to count most of it as syns. This made no sense as my doctor was encouraging me to eat that stuff and I was being told it was regarded as a treat even though it was all low-cal and healthy!