Low Carb Budget

akindrat18 said:

As for drinks I don't know what to buy the sparkling drinks that I have seen all contain either sucralose or aspartame and even though I drink water all the time I still need to have a fizzy drink.

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If it's just the fizz you need, have you tried plain soda water with a dash of lemon or lime?

Rather than cereal for breakfast (I find both milk and any cereal spike my BG), I have double cream with a handful of either mixed nuts or almonds. I sometimes add broken bits of 85% or higher chocolate. Cream is expensive, but I find a need a much smaller bowl to fill me up.

Good luck!
Kate

Hi Akindrat18

Your shopping list is looking better ... not sure what to advise on the fizzy drink stuff but I would have thought the diet drinks would be ok? I imagine your gym program would involve a mix of cadio and weight training ... both of which are good for reducing blood glucose and increasing metabolism. I think I read somewhere that weight training is actually of more benefit for diabetes but a mix of the 2 is best so you cover all bases so to speak. I used to be a personal trainer (many years ago) and imagine your trainer will be able to give you some reasonable dietary advice, given they usually recommend low carb diets these days. Also they will tell you how soon before and after your workout you should eat. They might recommend a low carb protein drink, just as long as you don't get sucked into those awful high sugar energy drinks that for some reason people think they need at the gym!

Wow you are really doing well with this altering of the shopping list. I must confess I drink fizzy water. Morrisons do a value bottle and Im sure the other supermarkets wil to. I keep a bottle in the fridge so I get the fizz without the sugar.

I have sparkling water now. When I started to change over from fizzy drinks I flavoured it with a small amount of squash or fruit juice which gradually lessened until I learnt to drink the sparkling water on its own. I fully understand how difficult it is to give up fizzy drinks....it took me a few years to master this one. Just keep trying, you'll get there in the end

I'm so with the others on switching to fizzy water. I've always loved it, but Zand's idea of training yourself into liking it with a splash of something else is great. I sometimes put PLJ lemon juice in it, but I like sour tastes.

Good on you for switching stuff on your shopping list, As to the gym - well, I'm limited in what I can do as I have a knee problem, but I do the treadmill and the sitting cycle and weights (OK, I'm also a lot older than you!), but I don't feel the need to eat anything special before or after a session. I do drink loads of water. Watch out for afterwards when you might get to thinking you've 'earnt' a reward. That is a slippery slope towards the cake shop - or maybe that's just me and my lack of willpower. Now if I want a treat I go for bacon and eggs or a mushroom omelette.

RosieLKH said:

I'm so with the others on switching to fizzy water. I've always loved it, but Zand's idea of training yourself into liking it with a splash of something else is great. I sometimes put PLJ lemon juice in it, but I like sour tastes.

Good on you for switching stuff on your shopping list, As to the gym - well, I'm limited in what I can do as I have a knee problem, but I do the treadmill and the sitting cycle and weights (OK, I'm also a lot older than you!), but I don't feel the need to eat anything special before or after a session. I do drink loads of water. Watch out for afterwards when you might get to thinking you've 'earnt' a reward. That is a slippery slope towards the cake shop - or maybe that's just me and my lack of willpower. Now if I want a treat I go for bacon and eggs or a mushroom omelette.

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I think lemon is a great way of teaching your body ... your taste buds ... to leave the sweet behind.
I don't understand ... I neeeeeed fizzy drinks. I have to have fizzy drinks.
Why ... what's that all about?

I was a bit horrified by your first effort .
Getting rid of the pies and nuts (with all their added extras) was a big improvement.
By adding the veggies and strawberries you have changed your vit C content from only 13.8% of your daily needs to 180% ! That's so much better.
You have more than doubled the fibre from a measly (and probably constipating) 5.5g to 12g a day ( but UK recommendation is higher at 18g and other countries have higher levels)

The foods that come to mind for fibre are beans and lentils. These are cheap but of course higher in carbohydrate, nevertheless some people who eat low carb meals mention eating them . (you don't actually need big portions and as they are high in protein can replace meat in some meals)
More veg is also possible also the iceberg lettuce you include could be swapped, it has almost no fibre and compared with other leafy veg very little else)

At the moment (without the chocolate because I forgot it and assuming only the recommended 30g portion of the bran flakes) you seem to have a diet of about 13% carb, 26% protein and 61% fat with about 1550 calories (assuming you divide the total by 7)

As phoenix says, beans are high in fibre and are a good food for diabetics - some would disagree given their higher carb content but they are a low gi carb that shouldn't spike your BG (beware the canned in tomato sauce variety though). You might find this article interesting on the '2nd meal effect' of beans:

http://nutritionfacts.org/video/beans-and-the-second-meal-effect/

Wow.. I love your info Phoenix!!

RosieLKH said:

I'm so with the others on switching to fizzy water. I've always loved it, but Zand's idea of training yourself into liking it with a splash of something else is great. I sometimes put PLJ lemon juice in it, but I like sour tastes.

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My preference would be a nice dry Entre Deux Mers. I like sour tastes too

I am no expert but what we are doing is a lower carb, higher fat diet rather than absolute low carb and high fat.

So our shopping each week consists more of less of the same things (we shop in Aldi and Lidl with the odd bit in sainsburys)

bag of beef mince or lamb mince
frozen spinach, frozen broccoli, frozen cauli, frozen carrot and swede mash
chopped toms
olives, plain and salted nuts
tomatoes, beetroot, sweetcorn, butter beans, plain haricot beans, lettuce,cue, mushrooms, peppers,celerycarrots,aubergine,courgette
feta cheese, strong cheddar
fizzy water
lemons and limes (slice a lime, put the slices in the glass, squeeze the rest of the lime into the glass, pour over the sparking water)
chicken breasts,
bags of lentils
fish fillets, prawns, smoked fish
houmous, olive oil
very high cocoa chocolate
strawberries, melon, peaches, apples, bananas, pineapple, tangerines.
eggs, milk, frankfurters, cream

this list is give or take what we already have in the house and what we fancy at the time, we dont buy all of this every single week

The reason we cant go low carb is because I eat between 7-10 full portions of fruit and veg per day. I will often have some sort of ragu with mince for breakfast, and salad for tea. We eat a lot of nuts. My OH is the one who is T2 diabetic and he doesnt eat too much fruit, not as much as me. However we are very partial to strawberries and cream. We eat a lot of curries and are really into tarka dal at the moment, hence the lentils. My OH also eats bags of ready cooked puy lentils.

Obviously if you are really sticking rigidly to low carb a lot of our shopping wouldnt be ok for you.