Eat Cheap and Healthy

It’s not so much a tip, but I never really managed any prolonged weight loss until I changed my relationship with food.

Food was a friend to celebrate with, something to console myself with, food was their when I was lonely or bored. Now I eat when I’m hungry and I stop when I’m full. If I’m sad I give myself a treat because I’m sad but I don’t eat a liter of ice cream. When something great happens I break out the champagne – but all of my eating is done thoughtfully.

Honestly I do not know exactly how I got here (therapy, diet programs, food tracking) but if you can start eating mindfully it changes the game. Good luck.

lisaatsea

I’ve lost 25 lbs just by walking for an hour every day and by tracking my food

Junkyard_Santa

Tracking your food can go a long way. It gives you a sense of what portions work for you, and teaches you to get creative on either eating more or less calories depending on your eating habits. Intermittent fasting has helped a lot of people as well, you can find more info at r/intermittentfasting

IntermittentSidekick

Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! Cut out soda and/or alcohol are usually the easiest fixes

cyclequeen35

Tracking really is the best.

MyFitnessPal is an excellent free app.

k1p1coder

I don’t have any precise recipe ideas but I have cerbral palsy and have some trouble lifting and balancing with heavy things. One thing I’ve found pretty helpful is having a cart that is exactly counter height. That way I can cook with a heavy pot on the stove, then slide it on the cart as easily take it to the sink to strain or whatever, and also take things to the table without much lifting.

thavelick

What about going breakfasty? Make omelettes, scrambled eggs, pancakes, french toast, egg sandwiches? Cheap and pretty easy to make. Even do good old classic eggs, bacon, and toast.

Buy some pizza sauce and whatever topping you like, and use either an English muffin or half of a bagel to make miniature pizzas that you can pop in the toaster oven to bake for a few minutes. If you really wanted to go flavorful, get a box of texas toast to use as the crust.

If you use the Crock-Pot, you can make a roast, and reuse the leftovers for BBQ sandwiches (or pulled pork if it’s a pork roast), beef and noodle soup, taco filler, etc. Basically make more meals out of it.

A very simple meal is buy some tortillas and shredded cheese. Can either microwave or heat in a skillet as a cheese quesadilla. Feel adventurous? Add some cooked chicken, leftover roast, onion, peppers, whatever! Could also make sandwich wraps or pinwheels out of the tortillas.

theladycrimson

After I had my stroke I ate nothing but progresso soup for like 3 months. They have every flavor soup you can imagine the calories are pretty reasonable and I would eat the whole can as a meal even though half my face is partially paralyzed around the mouth I just didn’t eat a lot in public. to dress it up you can add like a few slices of cheese to nibble on or crackers or a couple of vegetables or for some of their like Mexican flavor soups you can add a tortilla. If you get bored of their flavors I would switch over to the Campbell’s condensed flavors. They’re lower in calories because it’s a smaller can and they’re condensed and all you really add water but they are also a little bit more affordable so not all bad. Good luck!

yourgirl_friyay

If you have trouble with knife work, there are adaptive kitchen tools, such as rocker knives or one-handed cutting boards that help with grip or arm strength.

Maybe bean salad is an option? You can use canned beans so you don’t have to lift a heavy pot.

How about baked potatoes, or sweet potatoes? Things like canned chili as a topping to make it a complete meal.

Sardines or tuna on crackers or toast. Avocado toast. Nibble-style meals, with things like fruit, cheese, and pre-sliced meats. Yogurt. Oatmeal.

ladylurkedalot

An electric steamer with plastic trays is light and easy to clean up. They can do rice, vegetables, and meat. Steaming thinly sliced chicken strips or fish fillets is also healthy. I used to eat a lot of steamed broccoli, chicken and rice with a bit of salad dressing.

I also recommend a sandwich press, or a panini press. You can cook thin cuts of meat on these and you don’t have to lift or move them to clean, just wash with a soapy sponge and then wipe it down. You can also make delicious toasty wraps, sandwiches, quesadillas, pancakes.. My most-cooked meal on these is a simple egg and toast, with optional fried tomato with basil.

voxinaudita

Every night I brush my teeth early then I won’t eat anything

Conniecook627

Your gut bacteria craves what it’s able to digest. Right now your gut bacteria craves sugar because that’s what it’s used to.

Cut out sweets for a month, your gut bacteria will change and stop telling you to eat sweets

rook218

Freeze some grapes. They’re like little frozen fruity ice pop bites and they’re pretty yummy. After about 5 frozen grapes I’m over it. Don’t know if you have a freezer at work tho. More of an at home snack for me when I get cravings

gapingsloth024

Keep a bar of Ghirardelli 60% (or higher) cacoa on hand and nibble a square when you get a chocolate craving. Less sugar, less calories, and good for you too!

ccbaker23

Drink a glass of water every time you get a craving. Most of the time you’re “hungry,” you’re actually thirsty.

baileygirl300

pizza and a hot dog from the food court

edit: now that’s a comment

RegularInternetUser

Beans! And a beef roast, and some chicken thighs.

doxiepowder

Rice

Greymattergone

Better than bullion chicken and beef for broths. It’s sooooo good and my instant pot secret ingredient

mjs128

Harvest Snaps.

Nothing to do with the insta pot, I’m just addicted to the green crispy tubes of crack.

CharmingAttack

Not even interested in the recipe but so glad I read til the end. It was the smile I needed to start my day, thanks man.

LissaLeilua

“White bread is spicy to me” LMAO, I know someone just like this! Well done!

BitcoinsRLit

I like it. For those interested in making it vegan, use coconut cream. It’ll have a faint coconutty flavour, but it will be the right texture.

Broke student edition – get a can of coconut milk and put it upside down in the fridge. Open it right-side up with a can opener and carefully skim off the thickened cream.

Valoius

10/10 will read again.

This sounds like an awesome recipe snd I plan to try it (fancy version since I’m an adult with lots of kitchen toys). Although I might cook the meat in the Dutch oven on the stove first, remove it, and then follow the recipe with the onion/garlic cooking to get all of those flavor bits in the pan. May or may not work in my favor.

Dirtsniffer

kore wa shiren da

LungVika

Congratulations! I’m going to add that to next years garden plan.
Zucchini is very similar. My grandma always says never grow zucchini unless you have lots of friends to share.

LeapingTapir

Don’t forget to roast up some seeds too. High in protein and super tasty. But yeah, everything in the cucurbitacae family is pretty high yield low maintainence. Squash is like my favorite fruit

NoSpaceForGoodName

For where I live herbs, lettuces, Swiss chard, bok choy and spinach all grow really well. Sadly, the squash vine boarers like my neighborhood so no squashes for me. Also forgot to mention garlic, potatoes and onions all do well for me.

dwintaylor

I grew up on a farm with my grandparents. We had about 3 acres of hand cultivated garden on a 25 acre farm in East Texas. I hoed many a row in my childhood! As crops were harvested during the summer, they were replaced with watermelons, cantaloupe and sweet potatoes. Melons were easy and produced tons. Just drop seeds in mounds, water if needed, mostly ignore and wait. We ate melons everyday in summer and still had lots to give away or trade. Sweet potatoes were more intensive to start, but easy maintain, harvest and store through winter. We would start potato slips in raised beds of sand in late spring, and grandpa babied them, they were his favorite. Then we’d transplant to the garden as other plants were harvested. From there they were easy to maintain, just vines going crazy all summer until we dug them up. At the end of the season, we’d use the tractor to till in any leftover plant material as supplemental fertilizer for the next season.

michaelyup

That’s awesome! Butternut is easily my favorite squash, and only partly because it’s so low effort. True story: last year a volunteer butternut crew from our compost heap. I did literally nothing to tend it (other than tell the kid who mows my lawn not to mow over it once it sprawled on to the grass) and it gave me 12 beautiful squash at the summer’s end!

…tiny warning, though: my good friend was gifted with a massive butternut harvest a couple years ago, and managed to put herself in the hospital. Apparently if you eat nothing but butternut squash for weeks at a time it messes with your electrolyte balance and you end up with potassium poisoning 🙁

deafeninghedgehog

How much sugar is typically in spice cake mix?

imagirlbtdubs

My mom use to make these when I was little for the holidays. Love them!!

MDgirlinPDX

Everyone asking for macros I just added up Duncan Hines spice mix box and a can of Libbys and divided it by 24 as OP said and got this for each muffin:

Calories = 78
Fat = 2
Carbs = 16 (half is sugar)
Protein = 1

bamfzula

I find that a little egg, or at least egg whites, helps the consistency by a significant amount. Also you can just use a yellow cake mix with a bit of pumpkin spice if that’s more convenient. But overall yes it’s quite good and low in fat.

Amarsir

>healthy

damaged_unicycles

As a person from San Antonio, TX , it blows me away that most of the rest of the country knows nothing about breakfast tacos. They are amazing, and come with all kinds of good stuff inside. Bacon and egg is a staple. But also bean and cheese, potato and egg, chorizo and egg, bean and bacon, carne guisada, and any number of other combinations. A taco doesn’t always mean a crispy shell with ground beef in there! Breakfast tacos are just about the best thing ever.

mousersix

is “greasy spoon” a slang in America?

treben42

Wow 3 bucks for 10 eggs, I just got 18 for $1.09 and a $.40 cent coupon to drop it to $.69.

Sriracha-Enema

/r/EatCheapAndUnhealthy

goAMGgo

Y’all need to try this with green Chile sauce in it. Completes the dish!

fulklelechin

Beans and cornbread, man.

Juice-Campbell

If you’re trying to lose weight, I recommend making a stir fry with cauliflower rice for a meal when you’re super hungry. I buy it frozen and it’s pretty cheap. As someone who’s been losing weight for about 6 months this is one of my go tos when I’m really hungry. I start by cooking the cauliflower rice in a pan (you can eat like 4 servings of the plain stuff for 80 calories) with whatever veggies, I usually use a shit ton of broccoli and some onion. I’ll cook 4 oz of ground turkey, you can find super lean stuff for 120 cals or 160 cals for the less lean. I combine it all once everything’s cooked with a little soy sauce, siracha, salt and pepper, and then add in an egg. You can add whatever seasonings you want and switch up the veggies so it’s a good basic meal and can make a big ass bowl of food for 400 cals or under!

guilloutinegirl

Are you’re like me and your satiety response has been destroyed by years of overeating? If so, fasting for 24-48 hours helps me get that back.

TundraTofu

Protein & fiber make me feel full. Any meal with 20-25% of its calories from protein, or 30+ grams of protein, plus 7-8 grams of fiber, is in the ballpark for me.

I use MyFitnessPal to log my food, and I have found that watching my macros (protein, carbs, fat, plus fiber), as well as calories eaten vs. burned thus far in the day, really helps me understand what my body is craving and why,

justasque

i’m seconding beans, that will definitely fill you up. combine with rice or quinoa for basically a full meal

phile-

> “Sorry, English is not my first language”

*Proceeds to write perfect English*

You could go for heartier salads like potato salads or bean salads. I often make a potato beetroot salad with horseradish.

Assuming you have a kettle to make your noodles with you could also go for oatmeal.

And sandwiches are always an option.

MarijnBerg

Thermos with soup, stew, pasta, chilli, etc?

freakibgout1010

Adult lunchables! Crackers, Cheese, salami/pepperoni/dry sausage cuts, nuts, fruits/berries, carrots, cherry tomatoes and whatever you like along those lines, really.

Unnormally2

Some heartier but cold options: Potato salad with dill pickles and meatballs; Wraps/Pita Bread/Sandwiches; a hearty quiche (salmon/spinach or classic quiche lorraine) with a salad.

If you can boil water: there are several processed meals with need hot water only, some organic ones (usually pasta with sauce, mashed potatoes or couscous-based) are not too bad; instant couscous with some dried mushrooms/frozen peas/veggies in small dices and spices/curry paste; mashed potatoes (look for no additives) with cheese and a sausage slices, add roasted onions after it is done.

Look up ‘kettle cooking’ online.

AB-1987

Look for lunchboxes with built in heater on Amazon (I have one). I meal prep and freeze my food in a glass container. The lunchbox is insulated and keeps the food frozen until I plug in the heater. Glass container stays in the bag while it is heating. You just have to remember to plug it in 30 minutes before your lunch break.

Edit: I just checked and the brand I have is called Hot Logic. Used it for over a year and it’s still going!

ohhellopia