Food shopping on a budget while trying to diet

NattyVee wrote: »

If you aren't convinced, read this: http://jingtea.com/tea-knowledge/tea-and-health which runs down the health benefits of tea. Everything that mentions green tea applies to white tea too, it's just there's been less research on white tea at this point. However, research done has shown that white tea so far has all the benefits of green and more, as the young buds are more full of nutrients.

It prevents everything from cancer to heart problems to tooth decay and to an extent, obesity too. Within 3 days of drinking 4 cups a day my skin cleared up, and is no longer spotty and tight. Also, I lost a lot of bulge around my waist pretty much the next day. I guess I was retaining water there, that or it improved my digestion so that I wasn't bloated.

You need to be very careful when analysing these studies. Any that are published in lesser journals are there for a reason - either the research has been carried out/ funded by a company who also happens to sell the product, or the sample group was very small, or there wasn't a placebo control, or it was in vitro not in vivo, or leaps of faith were made in the conclusions drawn.

Anything that had an overnight effect other that simply altering your hydration levels would be so powerful that it would have to be a prescription only medication. Nothing prevents cancer or heart disease, a food supplement can only support the immune system or supply the nutrients that help your system run optimally.

In most cases people who are switched on enough to take food supplements are concerned about their health in other ways - therein lies the rub as how do you separate the effect of regular exercise, from organic foods from not smoking? Answer: you can't without a massive study that runs for decades such as the ones undertaken on nursing students.

Mermaid wrote: »

Fire Fox: please do you have any advice for dieting while breast feeding? Baby is on solids and I feed her about 4 - 5 times a day. I've not been calorie counting, just upping intake of fruit/veg, and replacing lunch time sandwiches with Ryvitas and home made veg soup. I've been assuming that as long as I'm not hungry, then I've probably got it about right. Have been loosing a bit of weight, 1 or 2 pounds per week doing this. Anything else I should consider?

Are you exercising too? The combination is recommended for breast feeding mums. You need to think about getting plenty of vitamins (fruit and veg, up to nine portions a day), minerals (wholegrains, nuts/ seeds, beans/ lentils and at least two portions of dairy products every day), protein and essential fats. You aren't mentioning any sources of the last two - these are key for healthy fat loss and for your baby's development.

Add in oily fish, omega-enriched eggs, LesKol cheese, lean meat. You should be having some protein at every meal, for example eggs and beans or cottage cheese with pineapple on wholegrain toast for breakfast. Salmon pate (cheap tinned fish mixed with low fat soft cheese) on Ryvita for lunch or a generous sprinkle of grated LesKol cheese on your soup.

What sort of back problems do you have? Muscular from pregnancy/ c-section or structural/ postural issue, or an old slipped disc? Have you been assessed by a physiotherapist? Have you ever asked your GP to refer you to your local exercise referral scheme? PM me if you want.

LesKol is in all the supermarkets, with the 'healthy' cheese: it's suitable for vegetarians too. I very much doubt you need a vitamin or mineral supplement if you are having plenty of fruit and vegetables/ pulses/ wholegrains/ dairy produce.

Ok, so I promised an update, and here it is.

I've maintained the same weight for the past 2 weeks, which for everyone's information, is about a BMI of 23.5-24, so it's healthy, but at the top end, and I'd like to get to about 22 or so. I thought I'd be disappointed, but for the first time in my life, I actually don't care.

I was putting my trainers on a week ago, and noticed a bulge in my calves. I almost freaked out, but then I touched them and realised it was muscle! I had a similar thing happen when I started running a few months ago, but then lost interest, and my shiny running shoes went into the cupboard, and it all went to pot.

Today, I was passing a full length mirror, and was absolutely amazed at how my thighs looked. There's a line going from my knee to my hip which wasn't there before. I prodded it, and it's the outline of a new muscle, that was before buried under the fat.

After further inspection, I also noticed my waist is firmer at the sides, although there isn't a noticable shrinkage yet. Then again, I've been wearing work clothes so maybe when I try on one of my tighter skirts, it won't pinch so much. Giving it another week before I try though. However, glad to know that it's not ALL flab anymore.

Just for reference, I've been doing EA Active workouts each day, and just this week started adding Tae-bo sessions to the mix. The Tae-bo is really active and gets my pulse nice and high, and the EA active has me doing lunges and squats for muscle-building and toning. I've been pretty religious with my exercise, and in return have been a little bit easy-going with the food. I had a couple of splurges, a Chinese that did a lot of damage early on, and a pizza yesterday. However, I had the pizza on the condition that I did an hour's exercise, and managed to not weigh anymore the next day!

Now I'm trying to improve my diet. Going for Boots meal deals while I'm at work (Chicken and blue cheese salad - 168kcal, strawberries and creme fraiche - 68kcal and smoothie -130kcal), which means a naughty dinner isn't the end of the world, although I try to avoid stodgy carbs wherever possible.

I've accepted that bread can't be a daily part of my diet, and as long as you're creative, it's not that bad. And I love bread.

I'm moving soon, so trying to clear out my cupboard. There's loads of Miso in there, so I'm assuming a decent weight loss once I move onto those, although they never turn me on when thinking about having them for dinner!