Dieting and healthy eating on a budget
Discussion
Ok...so I don't mean to get all psychobabble on you, but as someone that was in your position I found that adjusting my attitude to food helped.
I'm a big foodie and try to turn every meal into something special.
What I was looking for was the instant hit of having something that I really wanted and tasted really nice. Be that steak and chips or, in your case, some Mr Kipling's cakes.
Instead of focussing on the short term gain i.e. the satisfaction the cakes give you, which is then followed by a longer term guilt, try and focus on the long term gain/happiness of not having the cakes will give you.
Focus on the fact that by not having the cakes, you'll get closer to your goal (You really need to set one) and how much happier that will make you feel.
All sounds very corny I know, but it worked for me and another chap that was dieting at the same time.
It's really important to have a focus though, be it to jump down in waist measurement, take part in a half marathon or whatever.
It's also important to learn a bit more about the foods. I work on avoiding stuff that has more than a 4% fat per 100 grams. That might not work for you, but for me, it means i can instantly discount fatty foods.
Planning your meals for the week also helps. If you know what your having and you have all the food you need in the house, you're far less likely to eat junk that's convenient.
For me, it's about changing your attitude and lifestyle to maintain the weight lose. Dieting is ok to give you quick gains, but you need to make small adjustments to maintain the lose and not go back to how you were.
Good luck with it all... certainly sounds like you're heading in the right direction
I'm a big foodie and try to turn every meal into something special.
What I was looking for was the instant hit of having something that I really wanted and tasted really nice. Be that steak and chips or, in your case, some Mr Kipling's cakes.
Instead of focussing on the short term gain i.e. the satisfaction the cakes give you, which is then followed by a longer term guilt, try and focus on the long term gain/happiness of not having the cakes will give you.
Focus on the fact that by not having the cakes, you'll get closer to your goal (You really need to set one) and how much happier that will make you feel.
All sounds very corny I know, but it worked for me and another chap that was dieting at the same time.
It's really important to have a focus though, be it to jump down in waist measurement, take part in a half marathon or whatever.
It's also important to learn a bit more about the foods. I work on avoiding stuff that has more than a 4% fat per 100 grams. That might not work for you, but for me, it means i can instantly discount fatty foods.
Planning your meals for the week also helps. If you know what your having and you have all the food you need in the house, you're far less likely to eat junk that's convenient.
For me, it's about changing your attitude and lifestyle to maintain the weight lose. Dieting is ok to give you quick gains, but you need to make small adjustments to maintain the lose and not go back to how you were.
Good luck with it all... certainly sounds like you're heading in the right direction
Just another point.
Set yourself a goal. A milestone. That magic figure. A point that you want to be at. A final point. Don't however set yourself interim targets as you'll only be disappointed when you don't make them, which you won't as your initial weight loss won't be realistically maintainable at that rate over a period.
Set yourself a goal. A milestone. That magic figure. A point that you want to be at. A final point. Don't however set yourself interim targets as you'll only be disappointed when you don't make them, which you won't as your initial weight loss won't be realistically maintainable at that rate over a period.
I have a goal, plan if you will - I've always been a 32 waist @ about 10 and a half stone - more recently (the past 2 years), it's been more like 11 stone which I'm pretty happy with anyway. Lately, I've crept to the wrong side of 11 and a half stone and 32 waist is getting, let's call it snug.
My aim, really, is to stay at 32 waist and get back to the other side of 11 stone - The (unopened) pack of cakes in the cupboard will probably go to work and feed that lot. I'm really starting to look at foods more carefully and actually thinking "that's not going to help me or do me any favours" - I am, of course, aware that you can't deny yourself everything so there are some dark chocolates in the cupboard (I can't eat much of that anyway) and some things I know I can work around (for example, I love burgers so instead of buying them, I'll make them myself and put only beef, onion and salt/pepper in it - did it last night, it was gooooood!).
I know what the "instant hit" is all about though as I have, historically, gone through peaks and troughs through the day as sugar highs come and go (I get pretty ratty as a result which hasn't always been pleasant for those around me) - yesterday was a good day as/and I seemed to stay on a level as I had Special K for breakfast, 2 bananas, bean/pasta salad, another banana, 4 clementines and then the burger/baked potato tea.
It's all about whether I can keep going with it though as stopping the bad food is one thing but staying off it is another....
My aim, really, is to stay at 32 waist and get back to the other side of 11 stone - The (unopened) pack of cakes in the cupboard will probably go to work and feed that lot. I'm really starting to look at foods more carefully and actually thinking "that's not going to help me or do me any favours" - I am, of course, aware that you can't deny yourself everything so there are some dark chocolates in the cupboard (I can't eat much of that anyway) and some things I know I can work around (for example, I love burgers so instead of buying them, I'll make them myself and put only beef, onion and salt/pepper in it - did it last night, it was gooooood!).
I know what the "instant hit" is all about though as I have, historically, gone through peaks and troughs through the day as sugar highs come and go (I get pretty ratty as a result which hasn't always been pleasant for those around me) - yesterday was a good day as/and I seemed to stay on a level as I had Special K for breakfast, 2 bananas, bean/pasta salad, another banana, 4 clementines and then the burger/baked potato tea.
It's all about whether I can keep going with it though as stopping the bad food is one thing but staying off it is another....
Ignore all the hype and rubbish out there about fat being no good for you. Skimmed milk has more calcium than full milk so you can end up overdosing on calcium! What you need is a 'balanced' diet.
Dieting does not work. It's big business. If it did work you wouldn't have a new diet book pushed in front of you every five minutes. If eating low fat foods and low fat diets work why are so many obese today?
Don't even go near a fast or junk food outlet.
Good food does not have to be expensive, in fact it is the opposite, the junk is the expensive food. As for Coke don't even go near the stuff! I actually had a mouthful last week, god how anyone can drink that is beyond me. I really wish I could hand you a bottle of Coke from the 60s so you could really 'taste the difference'! - Go round the supermarket when they have the reductions and offers. Surprising what 'real' food you can find.
As for cereals, Bran is rubbish ...literally. Did you know it Bran was once a waste by-product of the milling process?... then someone discovered they could make a mint out of it. It is shameful when celebrities like the cycling champ promote crap like this. Do you 'really think he has a bowl of it daily?' Bran is okay in moderation, like everything, if it is recommended. As a daily thing you would have to be mad to eat it.
As for running and jogging... DON'T! Unless you are used to it. Walk! Far more healthier. Do 3 miles a day and then see how much better you feel.
What do I know?
Well, I eat exactly what I feel like, I don't jog, I do the walking, I have full milk daily, full breakfast, lots of fruit veg and the arghhh fatty meat, red meat, chicken whatever. I have never ever gone near a fast food or McLibels or Burger bar (home cooked 'real' burgers from real 100% beef is a different matter).
At 17 I was 6ft and weighed 11st 2. In a couple of months I will be 60 (bus pass time not that I need it, anyway, the b
ds in power have changed the rules so I don't get one now!). My statistics now. Still 6ft, and... 11 stone!!
What else? I published a top selling diet book (oh I know I said they don't work, but this was diet with a difference (now out of print so I'm not promoting it), the author of who was lambasted by health people and so-called anti anything-'fat', agenda-seeking nutritionists. This was 16 years ago and 1 in 10 Brits were then obese enough to be considered to have a health problem.
What is that figure now?
1 in 3 or perhaps even near to 1 in 2? The 'low' fat thing doesn't work!
The author was grabbed from me by the biggest publisher in the world and has done several more books.
In my opinion the thing that changed our 'look' was the McLibels and so on. Just as an example take a look on YouTube at any video of pop or rock groups in the 60s/70s. We were all like bean poles. We had fatty breakfasts of bacon, sausages, eggs, we had dripping on toast, gold top full cream milk, I could go on.
Then the disaster started.
The first McDonalds opened near the end of 1974. Of course there was no impact then, a few of them made no difference. But look at the Yanks who had loads of them and all the other burger chains in the 80s. Obesity was rearing its head.
By the year 2000 in the UK McDonalds alone had opened its 1000th store!
Again, that's without mentioning all the other fast food outlets.
And they ALL promote/sell that large brown sugary drink too. Don't give me the crap about sugar free varieties, look at what goes in it's place!
Coincidence?
Dieting does not work. It's big business. If it did work you wouldn't have a new diet book pushed in front of you every five minutes. If eating low fat foods and low fat diets work why are so many obese today?
Don't even go near a fast or junk food outlet.
Good food does not have to be expensive, in fact it is the opposite, the junk is the expensive food. As for Coke don't even go near the stuff! I actually had a mouthful last week, god how anyone can drink that is beyond me. I really wish I could hand you a bottle of Coke from the 60s so you could really 'taste the difference'! - Go round the supermarket when they have the reductions and offers. Surprising what 'real' food you can find.
As for cereals, Bran is rubbish ...literally. Did you know it Bran was once a waste by-product of the milling process?... then someone discovered they could make a mint out of it. It is shameful when celebrities like the cycling champ promote crap like this. Do you 'really think he has a bowl of it daily?' Bran is okay in moderation, like everything, if it is recommended. As a daily thing you would have to be mad to eat it.
As for running and jogging... DON'T! Unless you are used to it. Walk! Far more healthier. Do 3 miles a day and then see how much better you feel.
What do I know?
Well, I eat exactly what I feel like, I don't jog, I do the walking, I have full milk daily, full breakfast, lots of fruit veg and the arghhh fatty meat, red meat, chicken whatever. I have never ever gone near a fast food or McLibels or Burger bar (home cooked 'real' burgers from real 100% beef is a different matter).
At 17 I was 6ft and weighed 11st 2. In a couple of months I will be 60 (bus pass time not that I need it, anyway, the b
ds in power have changed the rules so I don't get one now!). My statistics now. Still 6ft, and... 11 stone!!What else? I published a top selling diet book (oh I know I said they don't work, but this was diet with a difference (now out of print so I'm not promoting it), the author of who was lambasted by health people and so-called anti anything-'fat', agenda-seeking nutritionists. This was 16 years ago and 1 in 10 Brits were then obese enough to be considered to have a health problem.
What is that figure now?
1 in 3 or perhaps even near to 1 in 2? The 'low' fat thing doesn't work!
The author was grabbed from me by the biggest publisher in the world and has done several more books.
In my opinion the thing that changed our 'look' was the McLibels and so on. Just as an example take a look on YouTube at any video of pop or rock groups in the 60s/70s. We were all like bean poles. We had fatty breakfasts of bacon, sausages, eggs, we had dripping on toast, gold top full cream milk, I could go on.
Then the disaster started.
The first McDonalds opened near the end of 1974. Of course there was no impact then, a few of them made no difference. But look at the Yanks who had loads of them and all the other burger chains in the 80s. Obesity was rearing its head.
By the year 2000 in the UK McDonalds alone had opened its 1000th store!
Again, that's without mentioning all the other fast food outlets.
And they ALL promote/sell that large brown sugary drink too. Don't give me the crap about sugar free varieties, look at what goes in it's place!
Coincidence?
Thanks for all that - I'm not "dieting" as I've never been convinced by those either, I just need to be more healthy and, ultimately, cut out my "Greggs dependency"! I like good, proper, food and I've been trying to make sure I eat just that - there was a time when there was absolutely no veg in our fridge after the weekly shop which was, frankly, ridiculous.
I used to weigh 11 and a half stone, but that was when I weight trained properly and it was more muscle - but that was a long time and no kids ago...
I will, however, admit that I do go to McDonalds on occasion but never really feel satisfied properly - full, yes, but not really satisified.
My cereal choice is, these days, porridge, muesli, special K or, if I don't have time for breakfast at home, toast/marmite at work. As for Bran - my Mum swears by it, but her diet is apalling as she "exists" on that cabbage soup diet st and lots of bran nonsense - she's stick thin but unhealthy looking at times.
Lunch, that I've just finished, was the bean/pasta salad with some chicken that I roasted last night (for wraps and the stir fry later) - I've found that going to the supermarket at the right time will net some pretty good bargains such as a chicken that can be roasted for wraps, salads, etc. [However, I am tempted to have more of it as that one bowl just wasn't enough - Argh! Banana it is then...]
I've chosen running as my excercise as it's something that's easy and cheap enough to do - plus it's something that I can fit around work and home life - I bought some proper Asics running trainers last year which have eased the load on my knees massively. I might try to get my daughter in to her bike seat later and have a ride about, now I think about it - but I'm not convinved she'll go for it
I used to weigh 11 and a half stone, but that was when I weight trained properly and it was more muscle - but that was a long time and no kids ago...
I will, however, admit that I do go to McDonalds on occasion but never really feel satisfied properly - full, yes, but not really satisified.
My cereal choice is, these days, porridge, muesli, special K or, if I don't have time for breakfast at home, toast/marmite at work. As for Bran - my Mum swears by it, but her diet is apalling as she "exists" on that cabbage soup diet s
t and lots of bran nonsense - she's stick thin but unhealthy looking at times.Lunch, that I've just finished, was the bean/pasta salad with some chicken that I roasted last night (for wraps and the stir fry later) - I've found that going to the supermarket at the right time will net some pretty good bargains such as a chicken that can be roasted for wraps, salads, etc. [However, I am tempted to have more of it as that one bowl just wasn't enough - Argh! Banana it is then...]
I've chosen running as my excercise as it's something that's easy and cheap enough to do - plus it's something that I can fit around work and home life - I bought some proper Asics running trainers last year which have eased the load on my knees massively. I might try to get my daughter in to her bike seat later and have a ride about, now I think about it - but I'm not convinved she'll go for it
Some good reading on here, ive always been of the thinking eating crap is cheaper, seems not to be true!
Infact the poster a few posts up is actually the only person so far to convince me mcdonalds needs to go completely by comparing life to the 60's when everyone did eat "bad" foods, I've always known it's bad for me but never really seen it as one of the major problems in my diet.
trying not to thread hijack but related: Im on the road most of the day and as such live off services sandwiches which are hideous, can anyone reccommend any CHEAP things to make at home that arn't too complicated?
Infact the poster a few posts up is actually the only person so far to convince me mcdonalds needs to go completely by comparing life to the 60's when everyone did eat "bad" foods, I've always known it's bad for me but never really seen it as one of the major problems in my diet.
trying not to thread hijack but related: Im on the road most of the day and as such live off services sandwiches which are hideous, can anyone reccommend any CHEAP things to make at home that arn't too complicated?
chris123321 said:
Some good reading on here, ive always been of the thinking eating crap is cheaper, seems not to be true!
Infact the poster a few posts up is actually the only person so far to convince me mcdonalds needs to go completely by comparing life to the 60's when everyone did eat "bad" foods, I've always known it's bad for me but never really seen it as one of the major problems in my diet.
trying not to thread hijack but related: Im on the road most of the day and as such live off services sandwiches which are hideous, can anyone reccommend any CHEAP things to make at home that arn't too complicated?
pitta bread - 12 for 70p in sainsburys and you can bung absolutely anything in them from salads to mince etc etcInfact the poster a few posts up is actually the only person so far to convince me mcdonalds needs to go completely by comparing life to the 60's when everyone did eat "bad" foods, I've always known it's bad for me but never really seen it as one of the major problems in my diet.
trying not to thread hijack but related: Im on the road most of the day and as such live off services sandwiches which are hideous, can anyone reccommend any CHEAP things to make at home that arn't too complicated?
chris123321 said:
Some good reading on here, ive always been of the thinking eating crap is cheaper, seems not to be true!
Infact the poster a few posts up is actually the only person so far to convince me mcdonalds needs to go completely by comparing life to the 60's when everyone did eat "bad" foods, I've always known it's bad for me but never really seen it as one of the major problems in my diet.
trying not to thread hijack but related: Im on the road most of the day and as such live off services sandwiches which are hideous, can anyone reccommend any CHEAP things to make at home that arn't too complicated?
Pitta bread is an excellent option. I also buy wraps, they are even less hassle as you just slap on mustard, bung in some ham and lettuce etc.Infact the poster a few posts up is actually the only person so far to convince me mcdonalds needs to go completely by comparing life to the 60's when everyone did eat "bad" foods, I've always known it's bad for me but never really seen it as one of the major problems in my diet.
trying not to thread hijack but related: Im on the road most of the day and as such live off services sandwiches which are hideous, can anyone reccommend any CHEAP things to make at home that arn't too complicated?
Just be careful on the size of 3 bean salad, beans and pulses actually contain a lot of carbs - around 1/4, if your not doing the exercise to burn the carbs off they'll get stored as fat.
A few months ago I was eating lots of beans, pasta, tuna etc trying to bulk out whilst weight training, I really didnt check how many calories and carbs I was actually consuming and put on a bit of unwanted fat.
A few months ago I was eating lots of beans, pasta, tuna etc trying to bulk out whilst weight training, I really didnt check how many calories and carbs I was actually consuming and put on a bit of unwanted fat.
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