The cost of eating well

[moons]

Yay procrastination.

I have yet to be in a position where I could, consistently, buy all of my own food. I am curious as to what it costs to keep the various machines around here running, especially with healthy alternatives often being the more expensive option.

If possible, a breakdown of what you eat by day / week and what it costs p/week would be awesome.

Sincerely,
Daydreaming about fresh fruit and veg (...and laksa)

 

[dave]

1 kg 5 star mince meat $7. Veggies (mushrooms, celery, carrots, cabbage, onion) + beef stock about 10 bucks. 17 dollars for something that gets me 7 meals, thats about 2.50 per meal. If I want some carbs to it I add a slice or two of bread, but usually I don't.

50g Protein + 500ml organic milk : 2.5 ish

Spaghetti Bol. 1kg mince $7, carrots, onion, mushrooms $8, sauces $5.50, pasta 500g $2 (400g used). That makes 8 meals at about 22.5 so about $3 per meal. Use it as my after PWO shake meal.

30g Protein + 30g dextrose: $2. PWO shake

2 pieces of fruit and 4 Omega 3 eggs: fruit $1 dollar, 2.4 eggs = 3.5ish per meal

Add in a salad or two:lettuce, carrots, cherry tomatoes (never worked the full cost but its not much)

About 15-18 dollars per day.

 

[moons]

Haha, if you get 7 meals out of 1kg of mince you are giving Jesus a run for his money mate!

Am I wrong for disliking mince in general? I don't believe it is a particularly healthy meat source, although I'm not basing this on anything in particular.

 

[dave]

Moons learn to cook... that is 140g of raw mince per meal (about 30g protein) plus the stock, vegies etc it makes up 7 500g meals. Most of my meals are around 500 calories too.

 

[Oli]

My diet was average:

Chicken breast - $9/kg
Mince - $8-9/kg
Rump steak - $8-9/kg

Weetabix - $5 for a 1.2kg box
Milk - $3.50 for 3L
Whey - $150/10kg

Hummus, tabbouleh, pita and a lot of buns and such from the bakery add up, though nowhere near as much as the meat. Its way cheaper to eat junk food.

 

[Sticky]

The cost of eating unhealthy is far more expencive in the long run champ.
In saying that, I'm only now getting to the point where I can afford to buy all organic fruit and veg, with free range meat.
I went to the organic markets yesterday for the first time, and it was great. I ended spending $55 at the markets, $30 at the local fruit and veg shop, and $25 on meat (still have lots of meat from last week). So normally around $150 will get you a healthy weeks supply of food.
On top of that though, I take a few supps (macro greens, grape seed, fish oil, vit c.....) and that stuff can add up rather quick.
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[Sticky]

Oh and for the record, that 150 doesn't include meat.

Seedy chicken breast from woolies (I used to eat 10 a week) = $8kg
free range breast from market = $32

serlion steak from butcher = $25kg
free range, grass eating serlion = $35kg

watch food matters. That will justify the extra coin.
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[Kyle Aaron]

Basa fish, 1.2kg
Mince beef, 1kg
Topside beef, 1kg
the meat and fish, along with 1kg chicken, is one month's supply for us, we don't eat a lot, it cost $20

mushrooms, 0.5kg
capsicum, 0.5kg (expensive, it's winter, they're out of season)
tomatoes, 0.5kg (as for capsicum)
carrots, 1kg
broccoli, 1kg
runner beans, 1kg
bananas, 1.5kg
apples, 1kg
pears, 1kg
mandarines, 1kg
eggplant, 2kg (not pictured)
all this was from a nearby wholesaler, and cost $24

Bread, one white for $1 and one whole grain for $1.20

It'd cost 2-3 times as much at a supermarket.

Potatoes, onions, pasta and rice we eat a lot of, but we buy those in big sacks so you don't usually see them on our weekly shopping. We also have a 30-egg tray for $6 every fortnight, or every week while I'm trying to bulk like now. Also 1kg almonds every 2 weeks.

Milk we buy the UHT when on special, we recently bought 30lt for $30. We use about 4lt a week.

And then there's tinned tomatoes, dried kidney beans, lentils, olive oil and that sort of thing. I make bread a couple of times a week, pancakes on the weekend. I grow some vegies but that our yard is only small, so we get about 2 meals' worth out of it each week. Takes it all up to average of $80 a week for two, plus we usually have people around for dinner a couple of times a week.

We don't any supplements. My protein powder is just skim milk powder, $6/kg.

Our meals are things like rice or bread with chilli (vegies, tomatoes, kidney beans), lasagna, baked fish and vegies, curries, eggplant schnitzel, beef and vegie stirfry, pretty simple stuff.

 

[Sticky]

$6 for 30 eggs, bargin!
Pity they wouldn't be great eggs though.

I pay $6 for 12 eggs. But at least 30% of those are double yolkers lol.
And the taste........ You can't compare
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[Oli]

The cost of eating unhealthy is far more expencive in the long run champ.
In saying that, I'm only now getting to the point where I can afford to buy all organic fruit and veg, with free range meat.

are you eating 1kg of meat a day? do you work a manual labour job?

also eating unhealthy isnt expensive at all - in that 1/10 000 chance I get sick my treatment will be covered by the taxpayer.

 

[Sticky]

I ment expencive to your health, and the quality of the treatment (of the symptoms) is debateable.

No im not eating a kg of meat, why would you ask that?

But yes, Im a chippie, and do 60+ hours a week, on top of training a few blokes at home. All 4 of my meals and juices get prepared the night before, although the missus does help out ALOT, which makes my life alot easier.

 

[Oli]

I ment expencive to your health, and the quality of the treatment (of the symptoms) is debateable.

No im not eating a kg of meat, why would you ask that?

But yes, Im a chippie, and do 60+ hours a week, on top of training a few blokes at home. All 4 of my meals and juices get prepared the night before, although the missus does help out ALOT, which makes my life alot easier.

A lot of serious lifters eat about a kg of meat a day. Just an example of it being expensive.

I'm a bit suprised you can eat healthy and work a trade. Along with uni I do shift work and most of the guys eat like crap there. How many calories are you eating?

 

[moons]

I'm a bit suprised you can eat healthy and work a trade. Along with uni I do shift work and most of the guys eat like crap there. How many calories are you eating?

What?

Eating healthy is easy (albeit too expensive for me right now). Food prep doesn't take very long.

I've done things the healthy way with uni + fulltime work / 12 hour shifts.

A little effort / planning goes a long way.

 

[Sticky]

To tell you the truth, I have no idea anymore how many cals. It used to be 4000-4500, but now I've run into health problems and building a 90kg body is on the back burner.
I used to eat a kg of meat, but after the research ive been doing, this will not happen anymore. Personal choice.

My new diet will contain alot of nuts and seeds, 2 serves of meat, and at least 60% of raw colourful veggies per day, along with my supps. I now drink no milk (was on GOMAD, its its ****ing hard to stop cold turkey), but I still consume a little through cooking (mash, ect).

I used to be alot like you Oli, 3 or 4 pies a day, or $20 at the smoko truck on wing dings and shit, but no more. Like me, maybe once you get serioulsy crook, you MAY change the way you look at food. But thats up to you.

Im already feeling better, and its only been a few days. I cant see myself going back to the shit I used to eat anymore.
It will be interesting to see if I can still make good gain in strength. Id like 125-180-235 by years end. Im going to hit the squat up today, see if I can get 150+
Only time will tell I supose.

 

[Oli]

Chris,

Have you seen Dave Tate's diet? the guy ate between 10K-15K of calories a day. Yeah he was on roids, but I'd expect a similar calorie intake for any athlete working a manual labour job.

It would be almost impossible to get that from lean meals of chicken and broccoli. It is way cheaper and way more efficient (albeit unhealthy) to get that from a bodybuilder style diet.

Here's a quick story. There was a time at the Old Westside gym where I couldn't gain weight to save my ****ing life.
There was this dude who trained there who could just put on weight like ****ing magic. He'd go from 198 to 308 and then to 275 and back down to 198. And he was never fat. It was amazing.
I finally asked him one day how he did it.
"You mean I never told you the secret to gaining weight? Come outside and I'll fill you in."
Now remember, we're at Westside Barbell. And this guy wants to go outside to talk so no one else can hear. Think about that for a minute. What the hell is he going to tell me? This must be some serious shit if we have to go outside, I thought.
So we get outside and he starts talking.
"For breakfast you need to eat four of those breakfast sandwiches from McDonalds. I don't care which ones you get, but make sure to get four. Order four hash browns, too. Now grab two packs of mayonnaise and put them on the hash browns and then slip them into the sandwiches. Squish that shit down and eat. That's your breakfast."
At this point I'm thinking this guy is nuts. But he's completely serious.
"For lunch you're gonna eat Chinese food. Now I don't want you eating that crappy stuff. You wanna get the stuff with MSG. None of that non-MSG bullshit. I don't care what you eat but you have to sit down and eat for at least 45 minutes straight. You can't let go of the fork. Eat until your eyes swell up and become slits and you start to look like the woman behind the counter."
"For dinner you're gonna order an extra-large pizza with everything on it. Literally everything. If you don't like sardines, don't put 'em on, but anything else that you like you have to load it on there. After you pay the delivery guy, I want you to take the pie to your coffee table, open that ****er up, and grab a bottle of oil. It can be olive oil, canola oil, whatever. Anything but motor oil. And I want you to pour that shit over the pie until half of the bottle is gone. Just soak the shit out of it."
"Now before you lay into it, I want you to sit on your couch and just stare at that ****er. I want you to understand that that pizza right there is keeping you from your goals."
This guy is in a zen-like state when he's talking about this.
"Now you're on the clock," he continues. "After 20 minutes your brain is going to tell you you're full. Don't listen to that shit. You have to try and eat as much of the pizza as you can before that 20-minute mark. Double up pieces if you have to. I'm telling you now, you're going to get three or four pieces in and you're gonna want to quit. You ****ing can't quit. You have to sit on that couch until every piece is done.
And if you can't finish it, don't you ever come back to me and tell me you can't gain weight. 'Cause I'm gonna tell you that you don't give a **** about getting bigger and you don't care how much you lift!"
Did I do it? Hell yeah. Started the next day and did it for two months. Went from 260 pounds to 297 pounds. And I didn't get much fatter. One of the hardest things I've ever done in my life, though.

 

[moons]

I'm not unfamiliar with manual labour, and you are not Dave Tate (or any other 300 pound powerlifter who works a physical job). When he was eating like shit he was also, coincidentally, in terrible health.

You don't have to eat like crap to get your calories in, it is for the most part a conscious decision. Like I said, some simple prep work goes a long way.

 

[dave]

Tate had a goal which he sacrificed his health for, he knew what he was doing and did it anyway. If you do not have a problem with that Oli then go for it, it is your decision and no one can tell you not to. And yeah I agree 10-15k calories on chicken and broccoli is definitely not going to happen.

Personally if I was looking at being an elite 140kg powerlifter I may have gone the same route (not as insane as that but with some of it added in) and sacrificed some health for the performance but I am not so I try and eat healthier.

You can eat healthy and still eat enough cals for the average person to gain weight. Sticky (as the name implies) probably still needed more calories due to his metabolism and energy expenditure but he choose health (also very important for him at the moment). That is what is important to him so he went that route.

 

[Sticky]

Thank you dave, Summed it up nice.
Im now lucky to weigh 81 soaking wet now, thats 5kg less thank about 4 weeks ago. But, I still lifted 220kg @ 81, so I am still getting stronger.

Ill squat in 1 hour, and see how thats going.

Atm, health beats size AND strength.....

 

[Oli]

Tate had a goal which he sacrificed his health for, he knew what he was doing and did it anyway. If you do not have a problem with that Oli then go for it, it is your decision and no one can tell you not to.

Personally if I was looking at being an elite 140kg powerlifter I may have gone the same route (not as insane as that but with some of it added in) and sacrificed some health for the performance but I am not so I try and eat healthier.

You can eat healthy and still eat enough cals for the average person to gain weight. Sticky (as the name implies) probably still needed more calories due to his metabolism and energy expenditure but he choose health (also very important for him at the moment). That is what is important to him so he went that route.

I agree with this, but with health there isnt a 100% organic 'I wear vibram 5 fingers' vs shuddering at the thought of vegetables dichotomy.

I'd call jim wendler's diet a good one, despite the fact it includes nachos and coffee (noobs would have a field day with it).

I see nothing wrong with junk food as long as its intake is controlled, especially in situations where calorie expenditure is high.

Sticky: Personally I think its great that you're eating healthy, even if you're is missing out on mcdonalds, grilled cheese sandwiches and nachos. I was merely interested in how you were getting around that calorie expenditure.

 

[dave]

Did someone say GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICHES?????????

Hey I have been losing fat, staying at the same body weight (100kg) and getting stronger while still having a couple of kebabs a week (all lamb only onion and bbq sauces mmmmmm), had 2 grilled cheese sandwiches last night. It is not perfect but other than that I try and eat healthier (should still increase my veggie intake as I 'forget' my salads a lot). I was 110-120kg and unhealthy before that so its not like I have a superb metabolism, I just cut out the really bad shit like sugar (I ate WAY to much of it), high saturated fatty foods (often) and high carb meals (ate too often). I may have a crappier meal 3-4 times a week but that is all now. I think that is a good compromise compared to my earlier eating that made me fat and very unhealthy.

Oh and this:

but with health there isnt a 100% organic 'I wear vibram 5 fingers' vs shuddering at the thought of vegetables dichotomy

I agree, you have to find a middle ground but then again people like to be one extreme or the other (though they usually find they fall off it a lot easier with this thought). If sticky can afford organic veggies then thats great go for it, but just because I can not and eat normal veggies it does not mean I am still not healthy it just means he is getting a better intake than me. I am sure he still will have the odd crap meal in there too, at least I hope so.