Low Carb, Low Budget

meoklmrk91

So I have never been on a diet before have hovered around 12-13 Stone for years and never really bothered me, but have been eating terribly for the last year, did my leaving and started college, which means I'm on the road for two hours a day and am wreaked by the time I get home so have been filling up on crappy foods. This is more of a Lifestyle change than a diet as I want to be healthier all round.

The largest problem I can see is that I have a very low food budget for the week, I just can't afford to buy expensive stuff. €30 a week would be my max and that includes lunches. I am giving up fizzy drinks and sticking to water, have already started this. So what are the staples I should be buying each week, I honestly have very little ideas on how to start this. Plus lunches, I usually have a sandwich or a roll, can I use pitta bread or wraps instead?

Finally I am terrible when it comes to fruit and veg, anyone have any tricks for sneaking them in as if they are just sitting on the plate then I will be tempted to either smother in gravy or just avoid, I hate veg. I was thinking of maybe making smoothies, berries with a dash of grapefruit or grape juice and sticking some greens such as spinach in there to disguise the taste.

Breakfast:
All Bran or Porridge and a smoothie for the road to college.

Lunch:
Brown pitta bread, filled with salad, maybe some humus and a lunch meat.

Dinner:
Haven't a clue, I generally skip dinner and have a second lunch.

Snacks: Fruit, not sure what else, Snack a Jacks maybe? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Snack---Jacks-Sweet-Chilli-Cakes/dp/B003Y7R464/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1325379530&sr=8-5

Exercise: 45 mins walking the dog.

Magenta

OK, your title says Low Carb but from the goods you have listed it seems you intend on eating almost nothing but carbs. Where are you planning on getting your protein? How much lunch meat are we talking?

metamorphosis

All bran, porridge, smoothies, pittas, fruit and snack a jacks are all comprised mostly of carbohydrate. Do you just want to eat better food or do low carb? Read the stickies here for a start to get a good basic knowledge of food and their groups. If you mare looking to eat better food in general rather than low carb or even low carb id ditch the all bran, snack a jacks and pitta - processed and not nutritious (yes, even all bran - it's like a brillo pad to the stomach - get your fiber from fruit and veg etc rather than bran)

But, again, start with the stickied threads at the top of this forum, then come back and ask questions when things are a little clearer

Bottle_of_Smoke

With low carb you wouldn't eat bread/cereal/potatoes

Just replace these things with salad/veg. you can add olive oil/butter etc for taste and to fill you up.

meoklmrk91

Bottle_of_Smoke wrote: »

With low carb you wouldn't eat bread/cereal/potatoes

Just replace these things with salad/veg. you can add olive oil/butter etc for taste and to fill you up.

Fair enough, having done a bit more research I must sound like a right eejit altogether. Low carb, and all I was planning on eating was carbs. Some success that would have been.

Upon reevaluation I have decided that low carb is not for me, it would be gone out the window by the second day if I even made it that far. Thanks anyway guys, but I am still researching and trying to find something that suits me do I know that I have a good chance of sticking with it. No point in settings myself up for certain failure.

Laneyh

Hi,

If you're going to look at any specific diet maybe low GI would be good for you
If you're going to be out of the house for a good portion of the day and where you fall down is in snacking
then switching to slow release foods might help.

If you're not going to follow a specific diet I would say just try and substitute what you eat now for healthier alternatives
and definitely don't skip dinner.You could try having more frequent smaller meals if big dinners are not your thing.
Try to ensure that you have some lean protein at every meal. Eggs are a cheap and versatile source of protein. Tinned tuna would be pretty cheap too
Lidl have reasonably cheap organic eggs as well as things like cottage cheese and wholewheat pasta
A baked sweet potato with cottage cheese would be a very healthy lunch, if you're in college with no access to a microwave or similar
then try using bagels, pitta breads or wraps for your sandwiches rather than ordinary bread.
Again lidl have good multiseed breads,rye breads and the stuff I mentioned above.
Aldi also have similar stock plus they have cheap packets of milled linseed , things like trail mix for snacking
they also do a super 6 promotion where they have 6 different fruit / vegetables on offer every week
these cost 49c each so pretty cheap -- I guess some people may query the quality of same but unless you can afford to buy all organic
I don't reckon there's too much difference between Lidl / Aldi stuff and anywhere else. It often comes from the same source but is just
packaged differently. With that in mind I wouldn't worry about getting branded cereal either just check the sugar & salt content on the own brand equivalents
To get your fruit intake try putting it in with the porridge or cereal. Porridge soaked overnight in fruit juice and then with yoghurt is pretty nice too ( can't vouch for whether that's healthy or not though)
I'd say there are plenty of threads already with recipe ideas .. hope this helps.

syklops

If your on a low budget(30 euro a week), I would try to use your budget wisely with good food and take it from there, don't limit your spending power too much by picking a specific diet.

For example, beans on toast is a nutritious evening snack and costs next to nothing, but not allowed as a Paleo or low carb snack.

Cutting out all fizzy drinks would be a start. For example a bottle of coke per day is about 1 euro, so over the course of a week thats 5 euros saved.

In my opinion the thing to do is plan on a Sunday what to have for dinner/lunch every day, write down the ingredients you will need and go do your shop.

As for things to eat that contain lots of veg, stir fries are a big winner in our house. Chicken and 1 onion, 1 red pepper, 1 chili pepper, some baby sweetcorm, spring onion, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, 1 carrot, all chopped fine and stir fried in a bit of oil, add some soy sauce will give a very fast satisfying meal which is hiding 8 different veg, and as I said in our house the plates always get cleaned when that is done. Add noodles to fill it out a bit or leave it with out for a low carb version.