How to eat healthy on a budget?

by Jeana

Me and my daughter Layke

I would like to lose weight but it’s hard for me to get around to eating all the time unless they are snacks. Mon-Wed I am in school and normally don’t eat all day until that evening when I get home. It's hard not to eat pasta or anything like that but we are on a strict budget.

I don't have a lot of money to spend on "healthy food" I love chicken and if I have to have a salad with out dressing then the chicken would be ok to eat with it.

I do not like fish. I hate seafood and don’t care for tofu so its hard for me to find a diet that works for me b/c they always say to eat the things that I hate and wont stick to. Any advice would be helpful.

I did cut out soda and drink water and coffee and that’s all. I can cook after Wednesdays.

I am 5'8 210 lbs my desired weight is around 160 lbs.

I work out on the Wii Fit, I run 20 minutes on that a day and strength workouts on Tuesday and Thursday.

Thank you
Jeana

Recommendations from Rumi

Jeana, you have sweet daughter, she has your beautiful eyes :-). It is very easy to by diet food when you are on a budget, because usually foods that have heavy advertising are expensive and not diet (don’t buy foods that claim they are diet, because they have marketing share in their price).

Following is a list of cheap foods that in the same time are healthy and diet.

1) Raw meat – you can boil or grill it – chicken, veal, turkey.

2) Raw vegetables – lettuce, cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers – buy them bulk and when there is sale.

3) Legumes and beans – you can cook delicious meal with them. Boil them with vegetables, add seasonings, don’t add oil and you are ready – they are easy to cook – just throw all the ingredients together and boil for 40 minutes. This types of meals are good for lunch, not for dinner because they contain carbohydrates (from the healthy type carbs, but anyway eat them in the first half of the day when the metabolism is high).

4) Diary products – don’t buy brands that claim they are healthy or diet. Look for not famous brands and buy bulk. For example buy 4 pounds package yogurt for your breakfastс and after lunch snacks. Cottage cheese is very healthy food, you can cook it in omelets. Milk is also good food – again buy bulk.

5) Eggs – this is my favorite food, because egg whites don’t contain anything that can make you gain weight. I know that eggs are famous for increasing bad cholesterol in the body, but this is not true. You can have egg meal twice a week – scrambled with cottage cheese, or omelet or boiled. 3 eggs per serving plus big fresh salad is a healthy meal and it is cheap!

6) Plain oat meal – don’t buy cereals. You can have a perfect breakfast with 300 grams of yogurt, 3 spoons of oat meal (plain, no additives), and 1 spoon of raisins.

One day example of healthy eating:

Breakfast – oat meal, yogurt and raisins (see the recipe above)

Snack – a glass of milk

Lunch – 250 grams grilled (lean) meat (chicken, veal, turkey) and salad

Snack – 2 boiled eggs

Dinner – 250 grams grilled meat with a salad

Variations:

For lunch you can have a big bowl of dense cooked lentils or pasta with chicken breasts (but try to have less pasta and more chicken in the meal).

Here is an article How to buy healthy food on a budget.

Hope this helps,
Rumi
Workout routines