Hi kjbuchanan89
It’s really interesting that you raise this now.
I have to budget really carefully.
I’ve put all of the both the Diet and Recipe books into and Excel file as I needed to know exactly what each week food I needs … & importantly vs what I have in my cupboards and what I can substitute initially … until my ‘bad foods’ are gone.
I can’t afford to throw away much.
I ‘started’ this diet about 2 months ago now and the 1st 2wks were to ‘start clearing fridge and freezer of the worst foods and those that’d go off first.
Then I’ve been looking to (in my case give to friends or lodgers) the rice and pasta, (unfortunately I’d just bought large bulk products), but even if one gave to the family perhaps, one could eat extra veg to help ….?
So at the moment I’ve lost over a stone even just on the ‘principals’ of the diet & substuiting more salads with the recommended proteins. I use Lidl 170g packets of salmon for all the salmon. Buy chicken thighs as theo=ir the best value for money from Farmfoods, etc…
I’d bought a load of fruit which I rapidly learned to feeze and take out 1 apple which I then use 2 days in a row for the apple/goji berries (still on the 1st packet that I bought about 2.5mths ago!) and almond butter.
I DO find the diet desperately (& sadly) isn’t very ‘few items friendly’!
For example Wk1=146 items Wk2=164items Wk3=178 Wk4 = 151
Many items for eaxmple (yes I do have a wk by wk and a full all 4wks list of all the food used!!) :
(I have selected different Quick Lunches and different recipies from the Selection Menu’s)
Wk 1 = 2 tbsp of Greek yoghurt
That means that you are going to waste the rest of it because the rest of the tub isn’t used!
Wk 1 = 25g of Feta Cheese
again the rest what goes to waste too ??
So I’ve been thinking that I’d need to have a Feta cheese week. Or a Cheddar cheese week.
I’ve found Mature Cathedral Cheese little ‘Squares’ and have been using those in my lunchtime salads.
Wk 1 = 30g of Goats Cheese!
Wk 1 = matchbox size Cheddar cheese
Wk 1 = 1.5 tins of chickpeas
Wk 1 = 1/2 avocado
This may help show how wasteful this diet can be.
I’ve had a brekky/lunch to help rearrange the diet foods to suit the food so there isn’t any wastage. But it’s going ‘off diet’ and probably why I’m no longer losing weight!
It clearly needs a very delicate plan to get this diet to work better.
I have found by entering it all into an Excel file it is infinitely easier to find recipes and to get a full list of food depending what I want to eat.
I’ve tried the red pepper hummous which was delicious but today it was just ‘turning’ so used it again – although I’d already put the Feta on my plate, so just ‘had extra’.
And I think (in my less experienced initial start on this eating path) that this diet cannot be ‘followed’ by those like me who simply cannot afford half the ingredients or can afford to waste so much food!
And from that perspective I find it gut-wrenchingly ‘bad’.
However having had a few week using the principals and lost a stone I have been thrilled. It clearly has the tools about right to really enable one to finally take better control of our eating habits and change them for the better.
I’m loking to simplify it down and source cheaper stocks as the year goes on.
I see this as a life time change of eating. I have to change since I’ve been comfort eating my way to higher and higher cholesterol figures. And I’ve been getting fatter and even more miserable.
I made a choice I either finally took control and did something or gave up and accepted the ‘fat’ and enjoyed the comfort foods ignoring the fatter bulges.
Happily I decided (as I’d had some success on the 5:2) that I’d prefer to try.
I love that it is scientifically backed with facts, to me that means a lot. But it does work.
BUT … I’ve lost next to nothing the last month, when I think I’m closer to the diet and the more simple salads before.
I’ve now bought the lintels and ordered the quinoa online.
I also dislike garlic so just ignore using it. Just add other herbs. Some things I still don’t have but just use what I do have. Nearly everything seems ‘more expensive’. But I believe that it will balance out a bit.
I’ve tried Kale but boiled it seems hard and not nice, but slightly cooked in oil it was far better.
But how bad it is to do that I’ve no idea, but it can’t be good.
And that leads me to another point. It’s hard to figure out some of the ‘little’ cooking ‘things’ that you ‘just don’t know’. Like fennel tonight – even on th epackage it doesn’t say how to chop it… so I trimmed the ends and chopped up the half including the leafy bit ! Maybe that’s OK or not. But it seemed ok. Then I found that I had no vegetable stock so I had to use a tiny bit of gravy as that was all that I had.
And I think it’s these ‘thing’s’ that add up psychologically, as you start to think ‘what’s the point’ I can’t even manage to find the simplist of ‘ingredients’.
However I’ve overcomet this by thinking – I’ll just cut it out. That way I’m eating less and so ought to lose more weight. My shape has been improving but I have seemingly hit a wall. I still need to lose 2 stone.
But I like the food as overall it’s only tweaking my ‘normal food’. But it’s the getting off the sugar that I must do and I hope so much that when I get the Dr to do another cholesterl check that it might be coming down!
Yeesh this is an essay! So sorry.