Weight loss and healthy eating for a debt free life

redofromstart

Great idea @CRANKY40. The key message for me has always been half by volume of everything you eat should be vegetables. I mostly dislike vegetables but I can see that it works. 

Anyway, I would like to join you. Just not tonight - I did the 10k steps but was joyfully seduced by wine and carbohydrates - although not pasta which I can't abide. I have had a banana, blueberries, salad and squashed grapes so not a terrible day overall. 

redofromstart

So suggestions for cheap Fruit and Veg? I've bought the Easter veg for pennies and vaguely intend to make soup. The MrT onions are a real bargain and will survive well in a dark cupboard in an old pillow case. I bought cabbage and carrots to use with the onions for HM coleslaw - I use cheap mayo and dilute with natural yoghurt for a dressing to keep it lo cal/lo fat. Very filling for pennies. 

beanielou

@CRANKY40.  THanks for this lovely shiny new thread.

beanielou

Oh & I maybe do max 2000 steps on a good day.  You can still loose weight without any exercise. 

CRANKY40

beanielou said:

Oh & I maybe do max 2000 steps on a good day.  You can still loose weight without any exercise. 

You surely can. My doctor said that what you eat is more important than exercise. I used to be a runner and running never made me thin, it just made me hungry. I was fitter without a doubt but I had 10 000 steps done by 9:30am most days and I didn't lose weight. 

beanielou

@CRANKY40. Just realised we have lost a similar amount. I need to try really hard to keep it off & to loose a wee bit more. 

strandedinaber

Following - thank you for posting this @CRANKY40! I need to lose at least 2 stone, and have really been struggling to do so. I'm not as active as I should be or need to be, so I'd like to walk more, but I know that weight is generally lost in the kitchen. Snacking is my downfall!

Tonight's meal was not as thrifty as I would have liked it to have been. The price of salmon has gone up since I last bought it: £5.50 for two fillets, significantly smaller than the last ones. That said, it was responsibly sourced (at least as far as is possible) so I'm willing to pay the price for that, I just need to keep an eye out for yellow sticker options. Roasted with a v small amount of spread and dill, and ate with roasted veg and wholegrain rice from the bulk buy store (so was comparatively cheap). I also roasted up another batch of veg for some lunches over the weekend so I don't have to run the oven as much.

KajiKita

I would like to join as well. Thanks to @redofromstart for the link 😊

I think I am something of an emotional eater - savoury things and carbs being my absolute downfall. I like the idea of ‘not starting yet’ as that gives us all time to prep and thing of subs for things that we are currently eating. (Love Redo’s idea of making up coleslaw with half yoghurt in the mayo - awesome 👏). 

My biggest danger points seem to be an after work snack - it used to be biscuits but managed to switch to a constrained piece of cheese with tomatoes or some such, but has since expanded again ….
I also have a bad habit of wanting to have a cup of tea ‘with something’ - that has to stop as well. 

I struggle with exercise. Not because I can’t but I just don’t seem to have any energy and the idea of doing exercise on top of a full day at work, a longish, unpleasant commute, cooking food for both of us and then prepping all my food for the following day and then fitting in a shower - it’s just a ‘no, you’re kidding’ from something in me. It’s not my body though - she’d love more exercise …. 🤷‍♀️

With all this, am I in the right place? It’s not really ££ linked, though I could probably save some grocery spend … 🤔

KK

CRANKY40

@strandedinaber I'm good at snacking too, I could pass an exam on it. I'm not great with salmon, I'm still haunted by the Sunday salad evening meal of my childhood - tinned salmon with a lettuce leaf, half a tomato, quarter of a boiled egg and maybe a sliced radish. 

Hello @KajiKita, I do the drink with a snack thing too. If I'm being drink conscious it's easier to top up liquid consumption with a drink if you've had a snack to make you thirsty first. I have several bad habits to unlearn....
This doesn't have to be ££ linked. I'm doing it from an overbuying perspective so it will save me money and also save on food waste. 

Try walking on the spot if you think you'd like a bit more exercise. I do it because my step count can vary from day to day but I can always top it up at the end of the day by putting music in youtube and walking on the spot. It's good for days when I'm tired and sore because I can stop for breaks when I need to. 

CCW007

I'd love to join please. I overstock food, for some reason I seem to really worry about running out of food.

I regularly fail at meal planning so end up with food waste which is bad both for the environment and the budget. Added to that I volunteer with Olio and end up trying to use up things I wouldn't necessarily buy and which are not the healthiest.

I've just had a new kitchen including larder cupboard and it's really brought home how much food I hoard so my plan is to try and come up with ideas for using up what I will eat, get rid of what I won't and then only replace with what I actually want. I'm never going to be one of those people with only one tin of tomatoes or beans in the cupboard but I'd like not to have 10 tins of black beans which I don't have any recipes to use them up!

In the process I'm hoping to getting back to eating more healthily as I need to lose 3 to 4 stone and also to reduce my food costs.

ETA we bought a year's gym membership so no excuses not to exercise other than time as KajiKita says.