Layout:
Home > Thoughts on dieting and the grocery budget

Thoughts on dieting and the grocery budget

July 18th, 2024 at 07:02 pm

 

In the last 6 weeks or so I have been trying to lose some weight after noticing I was up 5-6 lbs this year to a new high. Although health comes first either way, I was interested to see how this would impact my grocery budget. I’m already vegetarian and only drink water/coffee/tea at home, so to lose weight sustainably my plan is to limit portions of more calorie dense foods like pasta and lean heavily on unlimited low-calorie vegetables.

 

I have been buying slightly more raw and frozen vegetables. Examples of vegetables include frozen broccoli, cabbage, in season tomatoes, carrots, and salad. I have also been eating more watermelon since it is in season- this is a much better deal when I buy whole watermelons and cut them up myself. These are relatively low cost and a lot of wonderful things are in season right now, so I have not really noticed a significant bump in my grocery budget.

 

 Other changes include being more aggressive about packing low calorie foods for work to avoid buying snacks there, drinking lots of water, more brothy soups to fill me up, switching to a lower sugar, lower calorie oat-based coffee creamer, and avoiding buying things like ice cream. Low calorie work snacks are things like green olives (bought in bulk from Costco), cut up fruit, and cut up vegetables.

 

I have added in some foods I don’t usually buy, including Special K cereal and milk, which help fill me up without piling on the calories. Eggs are always a major protein source for me and have stayed about the same.

 

One thing I have noticed is that a lot of the food I already have is not compatible with my calorie goals right now (flavored rice mixes, curry mixes that use coconut milk, refried beans, frozen naan, canned soup, etc), so in that way I am buying more foods weekly instead of using my pantry store. I plan to slowly add my usual favorites back into my diet once I hit my goal and don’t need to maintain such a large calorie deficit, so these things will get used eventually).

 

Overall I find that my diet has kept my food budget the same or slightly lower.  I don’t care to eat out much anyway bc I enjoy custom homemade foods, but it’s down to only social occasions during the diet phase bc even the healthiest thing on a menu is a calorie bomb compared to what I could make.

 

So far I’m down 4-5 lbs and already feeling better physically. I will note that this is just what works for my lifestyle and not advice. I am not following a specific commercial diet plan and do not have a lot of other dietary restrictions or health problems- I don’t need to be low carb, low salt, paleo, low FOODMAP, etc etc. I get a fair amount of aerobic exercise but don’t need excessive amounts of protein like people who are aggressively weight lifting. I am sure certain specific diets would be much more expensive if they required buying special meal replacement shakes/bars or were heavy in meat or specific expensive foods like avocado.

 

Is anyone else trying to lose some weight through diet changes? How has it impacted your budget?

3 Responses to “Thoughts on dieting and the grocery budget”

  1. PatientSaver Says:
    1721344740

    Welll.....For about 5 years in the recent past, I was doing a single 24-hour fast one day each week. It worked wonderfully to lose some extra pounds, although that wasn't the reason I was doing it.

    Then I was reading that fasting may not be the best thing for a particular health issue I have, so I stopped doing it, and I am up about 3 lbs from where I want to be. I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but weight gain for me is sneaky. Don't pay attention to it and before you know it, your excess pounds creep up even more. I weigh myself every day and try to be cognizant of where I stand, but without the fasting, it seems a lot harder to control my weight.

    You are totally right about the dense caloric nature of pasta though. I used to love eating huge portions of it and it definitely put on the weight when I wasn't using cronometer.com to track calories and everything else.

  2. LivingAlmostLarge Says:
    1721764767

    That's amazing you are able to lose weight so quickly. I am on a perpetual diet.

  3. rob62521 Says:
    1722111309

    Good job on eating healthy and also losing some weight!

Leave a Reply

(Note: If you were logged in, we could automatically fill in these fields for you.)
*
Will not be published.
   

* Please spell out the number 4.  [ Why? ]

vB Code: You can use these tags: [b] [i] [u] [url] [email]