How To Lose Weight & Save Money Simultaneously - Near Year New You Budget Diet Plan
We've all seen those diet plans in the magazines which look amazing and we all agree "I'd eat that" but they always seem a little bit too unrealistic. I mean who is actually getting up to cook scrambled eggs on rye bread every morning if they have to be at work for 9am? Anyone? Also magicking a turkey breast out of the air for an Asian stir fried lunch is difficult when your office only has a microwave. I want you to know I am a real person who doesn't eat like this all the time and a lot of the time recently I have been eating super simple meals of meat and veg, to save money primarily but this has resulted in weight loss of over half a stone.
The two key things you need to do, without fail?
No 1. Prepping.
Yes it's time consuming but if you do it all at the same time, it's done and you get healthy food all the time, you know will be delicious because you made it and seasoned it and added that extra chilli you like and you're then not reliant on a meal deal - which are always rubbish. Click here for my take on the best meal deals out there.
So what essentials do you need?
I just paid off a £2000 over draft in four months (thank you) due to my amazing brother who sat me down and had a strict word about my spending. I looked to where I spend most of my money and yes a lot goes on buying varied food to create new innovative recipes for RR, eating out, drinking and I don't know what else. Upon adopting this strict budget, my meals got a little samey but then when you are cool with how good for you this list of ingredients are, you're more than happy to have them again and again. It's still varied!
Budget Shopping List
Here's what I mostly ate when living on a budget over the last few months.
Breakfast
Avocados - my weekly indulgence - I buy around 6 a week at £1 each. Way more filling than you think. I have this around 9am and then have my lunch at 11.45am.
Almond Milk (unsweetened) £1.79 - to go in coffees. I have at least two each morning. Coffee revs up your metabolism and dampens your appetite.
I used to think an early lunch was annoying, as it meant a longer afternoon but if you start everything earlier you can eat everything earlier and then enjoy a long period without food (say 7pm - 9am the next day) and enjoy the rewards of intermittent fasting too. Click here for more info on intermittent fasting.
Lunches
Salad items - Cucumber 49p, bag of carrots 49p, peppers 99p for three, cherry tomatoes 99p, cooked beetroot 59p, celery 89p.
Bag or two of spinach/watercress/rocket £1.50
These are all cheap as chips - I don't always get them all but carrots, peppers and greens are always in there.
Eggs £3 for 12
A whole chicken £6 - roast this on Sunday and you'll get a load of meat off it to each throughout the week.
Dinners
Sweet Potatoes
Packet of smoked mackerel £2.50
Broccoli 49p
Red onions 99p
Turkey breasts £3
Pork chops £4
Salmon fillets £3
So lunches are either a boiled egg salad or a chicken/turkey salad and dinners are some sort of meat (I unashamedly buy reduced meat whenever I see it and freeze it. This prevents food waste as the supermarkets would only throw it away and the sell by dates are all bollocks. This is a real money saver as meat is so expensive! Look for those orange stickers!
Eggs are amazing. Little bundles of tasty portable greatness. I don't care what anyone says about cholestrol - I agree with Tim Noakes. High fat, whole foods sugar & wheat free and it's so delicious! Let butter set you free!
Here are a few pics of some lunches/dinners which I've made over the last few weeks and month which have contributed to weight loss and saving money without compromising on taste. Yes, most of the lunches are egg salad or chicken salad with raw veg and I've recently introduced dressings instead of humous, to mix things up. You may not think it's that varied but it suits me and I'm a (seemingly) pretentious food blogger! If it's not broken don't fix it! Where you see the meals on a plate, that is plated up at work - all you need is to cook the eggs or meat at home the night before and take it to work. Then keep salad bits at work to make it there and then.
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| Prepping two days lunches |
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| This salmon was already cooked by the co-op in one of their new little protein pots. Reduced! |
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| lunch, lunch and a hungover breakfast of more eggs! |
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| That's mozarella, not eggs for a change! |
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| Brekkie |
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| Dinner |
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| Lunch - chicken in yoghurt & mint with veg |
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| Dinner (was feeling super frugal) |
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| Click here for the recipe |
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| Pork chop and garlic butter sauteed broccoli |
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| Salmon, sweet potato and courgette dinner |
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| Salmon dinner and stir fry pack |
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| Another basic dinner! |
You may be wondering about snacks? That brings me to my next KEY rule which is:
No 2. Cut out SUGAR.
Check labels. Be strict. It's NOT worth it. At the moment my teeth hurt every time I eat sugar which I am using as a reminder at the moment (until I see the dentist) that it hurts you. It hurts you inside and it really screws with your blood sugar. Since I've been prepping and eating like this, I've not been hungry between meals. Genuinely not hungry. Thirsty, sure, peckish yes but no cravings like before to go and snack on the biscuits in the office and I can honestly say that when I look at the confectionary section in the shop, it all looks unnappealing. I think I've weened myself off completely! It IS addictive and the more you eat the more you want and then you can't imagine life without it. It's all about slowly getting rid of it completely and then reaping the rewards. Your body can function so much better when it's not processing sugar and thinking about the next hit. Guess where sugar is where you wouldn't think? Milk. Yep, lactose = sugar. In fact anything ending in 'ose' is sugar. If you skip meals and just drink loads of tea with milk or coffee with milk you're really not doing yourself any favours. Get that weird stuff out of your diet. It's another animal's mum's breast milk. You wouldn't drink dog's milk, would you?
So I hope you've had a nice insight into some of my #offtheblog meals which have helped me lose weight and become more organised in general. Hopefully it will give you a little inspiration to adopt some of these practises in the new year, or before - why wait?
Drop me an email if you want any more help, advice or tips on losing weight as I'm happy to help, or leave me a comment below as well as hitting me up on social media!
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