budget eating
- Thread starter t7roberts
- Start Date
Engineer88
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 2,130
- Type of diabetes
- Type 1
- Treatment type
- Pump
- Messages
- 21,889
- Type of diabetes
- Type 2
- Treatment type
- Diet only
What sort of diet plan are you looking for?
There are quite a few to choose from, from the diet shakes, low glycaemic index, low carb, etc.
I'm a low carber, so I can give so pointers on that, if you like.
Are you single, couple or family?
And what sort of a budget shopper are you? Daily, every few days, weekly or less often?
Any diet prefs? Veggie? Big time carnivore?
And what's your favourite food shop, supermarket, village shop, individual shops?
They all make a difference...
There are quite a few to choose from, from the diet shakes, low glycaemic index, low carb, etc.
I'm a low carber, so I can give so pointers on that, if you like.
Are you single, couple or family?
And what sort of a budget shopper are you? Daily, every few days, weekly or less often?
Any diet prefs? Veggie? Big time carnivore?
And what's your favourite food shop, supermarket, village shop, individual shops?
They all make a difference...
What sort of diet plan are you looking for?
There are quite a few to choose from, from the diet shakes, low glycaemic index, low carb, etc.
I'm a low carber, so I can give so pointers on that, if you like.
Are you single, couple or family?
And what sort of a budget shopper are you? Daily, every few days, weekly or less often?
Any diet prefs? Veggie? Big time carnivore?
And what's your favourite food shop, supermarket, village shop, individual shops?
They all make a difference...
I was told by gp to go for low gi, I got a few recipe books but found the ingredients to be very expensive and recipes fanciful.
I was told porridge is good, but i'm hungry within an hour or two when eating a huge bowl for breakfast.
Unfortunately I don't have the time to enjoy cooking, work long hours and funny shifts.
I usually shop daily/weekly at T,M,A,or S as get annoyed queuing in aldi.
I was told porridge is good, but i'm hungry within an hour or two when eating a huge bowl for breakfast.
Unfortunately I don't have the time to enjoy cooking, work long hours and funny shifts.
I usually shop daily/weekly at T,M,A,or S as get annoyed queuing in aldi.
- Messages
- 21,889
- Type of diabetes
- Type 2
- Treatment type
- Diet only
do you have a blood glucose monitor?
its the best £14 I ever spent - and it helped tremendously in working out what I could eat.
basically you test your bg (blood glucose) before eating and then 2 hrs after. If a food has sent your bg too high, you reduce portion size, or stop eating that food.
Turns out that porridge sends my blood glucose sky high - and then leaves me craving more food very soon after. So that may be what is happening with you.
If you can afford to get a monitor, I think it is possibly the best investment you can make in your future health. check out the Codefree meter on Amazon and Ebay. its the cheapest one i have ever found. and the test strips (in pots of 50 for about £6) are also very reasonable.
But back to food:
Low GI works ok, provided you watch the portion sizes like a hawk. A big portion may do terrible things, while a small portion works fine.
Most of the low carb types of bread and snack are ruinously expensive. and some are only available online, which adds the postage - I would avoid them all, if you can.
Basically, the cheaper the cut of meat, the longer and slower it takes to cook. Belly pork, stewing steak, ham hocks. The advantage is that if they are slow cooked, they can make fab meals. (you can get a slow cooker for about £20). Two days ago I threw some mince, some veg and a stock cube into the slow cooker, and 10 hours later came back to a fab meal. I could have used corned beef, stewing st5eak or similar and got the same effect. you can even lob in a while chicken, with some tinned tomatoes, an onion, etc. and live on it for days.
Cheese makes a fantastic snack. The bigger the bargain block of cheddar, the better the price per 100g, so have a look for the big ones.
Are you used to filling up on bread and potatoes? cos that might be a problem. They are so cheap, and so filling.
Most of us find that as we cut down on the carbs, we need to up our fat (cheese, cooking oil, fat on meat) to compensate, but you are right, that can get expensive...
breakfast without carbs can be a challenge, but most of us go towards the greek yogurt and berries route, or the bacon and egg route.
Both of those could be pricy, but:
You can make your own yoghurt, for the price of the milk (there's a thread on here about it). I use the Easiyo gadget (£17ish) but you only need to buy one sachet to start you off, then you can just use fresh milk and a tablesppon of the old yog to make the new batch. much cheaper than buying yogurt.
Berries can be pricy too - but Tescos do frozen ones at much less than the fresh price, and you can defrost what you need, and leave the rest in the freezer, as fresh as a daisy.
Bacon is available from butchers and most supermarkets in big bags of trimmings - soooo much cheaper than buying back rashers! you can cook a batch, keep it in the fridge, and then micro it when needed (a lot of cafes do that when they serve fry ups)
Eggs... well, there's a price you can't get below, but scrambled egg in the micro is probably quicker than porridge...
My partner does shifts.
A typical packed meal for him would be
- left overs from last night, ready to microwave
- cheese and sliced tomatoes
- cold chicken, mayo and a dab of mango chutney
- peanuts as a snack
- a pot of home made yog
Goodness, this has turned into an essay!
I will shut up now.
But please ask any questions you like, we are all happy to help.
its the best £14 I ever spent - and it helped tremendously in working out what I could eat.
basically you test your bg (blood glucose) before eating and then 2 hrs after. If a food has sent your bg too high, you reduce portion size, or stop eating that food.
Turns out that porridge sends my blood glucose sky high - and then leaves me craving more food very soon after. So that may be what is happening with you.
If you can afford to get a monitor, I think it is possibly the best investment you can make in your future health. check out the Codefree meter on Amazon and Ebay. its the cheapest one i have ever found. and the test strips (in pots of 50 for about £6) are also very reasonable.
But back to food:
Low GI works ok, provided you watch the portion sizes like a hawk. A big portion may do terrible things, while a small portion works fine.
Most of the low carb types of bread and snack are ruinously expensive. and some are only available online, which adds the postage - I would avoid them all, if you can.
Basically, the cheaper the cut of meat, the longer and slower it takes to cook. Belly pork, stewing steak, ham hocks. The advantage is that if they are slow cooked, they can make fab meals. (you can get a slow cooker for about £20). Two days ago I threw some mince, some veg and a stock cube into the slow cooker, and 10 hours later came back to a fab meal. I could have used corned beef, stewing st5eak or similar and got the same effect. you can even lob in a while chicken, with some tinned tomatoes, an onion, etc. and live on it for days.
Cheese makes a fantastic snack. The bigger the bargain block of cheddar, the better the price per 100g, so have a look for the big ones.
Are you used to filling up on bread and potatoes? cos that might be a problem. They are so cheap, and so filling.
Most of us find that as we cut down on the carbs, we need to up our fat (cheese, cooking oil, fat on meat) to compensate, but you are right, that can get expensive...
breakfast without carbs can be a challenge, but most of us go towards the greek yogurt and berries route, or the bacon and egg route.
Both of those could be pricy, but:
You can make your own yoghurt, for the price of the milk (there's a thread on here about it). I use the Easiyo gadget (£17ish) but you only need to buy one sachet to start you off, then you can just use fresh milk and a tablesppon of the old yog to make the new batch. much cheaper than buying yogurt.
Berries can be pricy too - but Tescos do frozen ones at much less than the fresh price, and you can defrost what you need, and leave the rest in the freezer, as fresh as a daisy.
Bacon is available from butchers and most supermarkets in big bags of trimmings - soooo much cheaper than buying back rashers! you can cook a batch, keep it in the fridge, and then micro it when needed (a lot of cafes do that when they serve fry ups)
Eggs... well, there's a price you can't get below, but scrambled egg in the micro is probably quicker than porridge...
My partner does shifts.
A typical packed meal for him would be
- left overs from last night, ready to microwave
- cheese and sliced tomatoes
- cold chicken, mayo and a dab of mango chutney
- peanuts as a snack
- a pot of home made yog
Goodness, this has turned into an essay!
I will shut up now.
But please ask any questions you like, we are all happy to help.
- Messages
- 21,889
- Type of diabetes
- Type 2
- Treatment type
- Diet only
sorry - just realised that I havent explained a very important thing - don't worry to much about the weight loss, especially to start with.
When you switch to a diet that controls your carbs, you will automatically be switching to a diet that that reduces your waistline. A lot of us don't have to think about low calorie and stuff, we just have to reduce our carbs to levels that don't send the bg too high.
Thats why the blood glucose meter is so important.
It works that way for nearly all of us - and those that still have a problem usually find that they just need to reduce their calories a bit, and the weight comes off then.
Check out the links in my signature for more info.
When you switch to a diet that controls your carbs, you will automatically be switching to a diet that that reduces your waistline. A lot of us don't have to think about low calorie and stuff, we just have to reduce our carbs to levels that don't send the bg too high.
Thats why the blood glucose meter is so important.
It works that way for nearly all of us - and those that still have a problem usually find that they just need to reduce their calories a bit, and the weight comes off then.
Check out the links in my signature for more info.
czj
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 139
- Type of diabetes
- Type 1
- Treatment type
- Insulin
These might not appeal, as I am T1 and not LCHF, but I have been thinking about cheap healthy eating as we have a Foodbank opening in our area tomorrow.
Things you just shove in a pot - lentils, boil for 20 mins, put something in to flavour then at the start - any sort of sauce you have left over in the fridge. Chop up any left over veg (half a carrot, some mushrooms, pepper, frozen corn, frozen peas...) Put the hard veg like carrots in the pot near the beginning and softer veg in near the end. This is nicest with some grated cheese on the top. (you can also put in a some pasta as then at least you are not eating a full plate of pasta.
You can do a similar thing with barley, which I think is lower GI than white rice.
We have a recipe for a chick pea curry which my husband makes so it must be easy. That takes 20 mins too. If that might suit you I'll add it later
Things you just shove in a pot - lentils, boil for 20 mins, put something in to flavour then at the start - any sort of sauce you have left over in the fridge. Chop up any left over veg (half a carrot, some mushrooms, pepper, frozen corn, frozen peas...) Put the hard veg like carrots in the pot near the beginning and softer veg in near the end. This is nicest with some grated cheese on the top. (you can also put in a some pasta as then at least you are not eating a full plate of pasta.
You can do a similar thing with barley, which I think is lower GI than white rice.
We have a recipe for a chick pea curry which my husband makes so it must be easy. That takes 20 mins too. If that might suit you I'll add it later
douglas99
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 4,572
- Type of diabetes
- I reversed my Type 2
- Treatment type
- Other
My diet worked, I lost 4 1/2 stone, and got my BS back into a normal range.
The other good point is it is definitely on a budget.
It was low GI (still is actually) but basically I cut down the calories to 800 to 1200 a day.
So less food basically.
Downside, as you say
'but i'm hungry within an hour or two when eating a huge bowl for breakfast.'
I can't deny I was hungry to start with, then again, I was also very overweight, as I had got used to overeating. (a lot of overeating)
There is no easy way to lose weight without restricting food intake, no matter what diet you choose.
But you will change your eating habits, and you will get used to less food.
Drink water, before eating, and after eating,
czj
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 139
- Type of diabetes
- Type 1
- Treatment type
- Insulin
Since you don't have much time, how about baked bean hot pot - takes 15 mins and needs a tin of baked beans and whatever else you have about (perhaps sausage / bacon).
If you are using "proper" sausages put them in a bowl and pour boiling water over. Leave 5 mins and pour off the water (to get rid of some of the fat). If they are "hot-dog" sausage, just chop them up to add later.
meanwhile chop the bacon, getting rid of any big bits of fat
fry the bacon with a chopped half onion for a couple of minutes. Garlic too if you like it.
Add the tin of beans
Add some flavourings (could be fresh chilli - you could fry that too - or Worcester / barbeque sauce , or sweet chilli sauce)
Cook for about 10 mins, adding veg as you go along.
You could add peppers and mushroom, but anything that cooks quickly would work fine.
I wouldn't eat this too often, due to the processed meat. Probably any other type of tinned meat would be fine.
If you are using "proper" sausages put them in a bowl and pour boiling water over. Leave 5 mins and pour off the water (to get rid of some of the fat). If they are "hot-dog" sausage, just chop them up to add later.
meanwhile chop the bacon, getting rid of any big bits of fat
fry the bacon with a chopped half onion for a couple of minutes. Garlic too if you like it.
Add the tin of beans
Add some flavourings (could be fresh chilli - you could fry that too - or Worcester / barbeque sauce , or sweet chilli sauce)
Cook for about 10 mins, adding veg as you go along.
You could add peppers and mushroom, but anything that cooks quickly would work fine.
I wouldn't eat this too often, due to the processed meat. Probably any other type of tinned meat would be fine.
thanks for the replies. Looking like a little less in the tummy and few less carbs is the way forward. Old remedies the best
