High quality diet on a budget

[ivankiss]

So I'm looking forward to cleaning my diet a bit, but also upping my overall calorie intake. I'd say I'm still not eating enough as of now. I've been struggling with this for a while.

I know there are plenty of highly educated people when it comes to nutrition here, so I'd appreciate any advice. I wanna do this right and give my body the best I can at the moment.

I live in Europe. High quality food ain't that cheap. If I was to aim for the best; it would easily cost me twice as much or more. I'm looking forward to spending max 250€ on food per month. That should be more than enough. If I manage to do it for even less that food be awesome (pun intended).

In the past; I'd eat out or order in pretty regularly. And I also ate at work (restaurant). So I rarely cooked at home. But I do like cooking. I'd say I have some nice cooking skills. Anyhow... My point is; I was spending more money unnecessarily + I wasn't eating the healthiest food. On top of it all; I'd often skip meals or go without any food the whole day.

I move quite a lot at my job and I also intend starting a gym routine any day now. Looking forward to working out 5x a week (60-90min).

So yeah. I guess I'll need to eat quite a lot if I aim to gain weight. I'm 183cm, 70kg btw. I'm not a picky eater. I eat pretty much everything. But I'd like to keep things clean and simple. 

So far my ideal meal-plan for a day looks like this:

Breakfast: oatmeal/muesli (rice or coconut milk) + a spoon of peanut butter and honey + 2dcl green smoothie (some minutes later)

Snack; some fruit 

Lunch: Meat (chicken or turkey... occasionally some high quality red meat) + side-dish (potatoes, pasta, rice etc) + a nice, big bowl of mixed salad

Snack: peanut butter + jelly toasts (or something along those lines) + protein shake

Dinner: Fish, maybe some eggs, fine mozzarella, veggies... occasionally soup 

(Every once in a while I'd still like to eat out or order in some higher quality food. Just for the sake of the experience... Say once or twice a month)

What do you think? Am I missing anything essential? Can this be considered a healthy, clean and rich diet?

I know food prices vary from country to country, but hopefully you understand where I'm going with this. Looking to eat quality, quite a lot and for a mid-range price-tag. Is it doable?

Thanks!

 

 

Edited May 8, 2021 by ivankiss

[Michael569]

@ivankiss I think you got some nice balance in there. Some good proteins, carbs, fat, good amount of veggies and fruits. Pound per pound, things like legumes (beans, lentils, chickpeas) are the cheapest and most nutrient-dense food on the planet. I'm in UK and here there are these bulk companies where you can order like 5 kilos of red lentils for 8 pounds. I'd look up companies like that and order nuts, seeds, beans and lentils in bulk.

Then add these to meals. If they are raw, soak them for 12-24 hours and then cook until soft. Legumes are a brilliant source of protein fibre and carbs and you can literally eat them indefinitely without a worry of getting fat. 

Then maybe get like 2-3 kilos of walnuts and 2 kilos of almonds. I'd also look into buying some nice long grain high-fibre rice in bulk. Here I buy these 4 kilo bags. Just make sure to soak the rice as well (arsenic). 

I also buy my spices, tofu, teas, pasta and wholegrains this way. So you pay like 150-200 euros once, but you get a huge box and then you have the staple of your carbs and protein for 2 months. All you have to keep buying are fruits and veggies. 

Also if you can spare the money ,pressure cooker, I found, is the most effective way to make amazingly delicious meals that are super cheap, healthy and that provide you enough food for up to 10 portions. You can't get it cheaper than that. And you also save time and energy because these things are ridiculously energy efficient. I got one from Tefal

Hope that helps. Happy to share more if you're interested

[Opo]

27 minutes ago, Michael569 said:

@ivankiss 

Then add these to meals. If they are raw, soak them for 12-24 hours and then cook until soft. 

Omg your a life saver. Never thought to cook it. 

I've had problems with soaking flaxseeds because when they are wet I have to use a different blender and it doesn't work that well. 

Now when they are soft it should work great. 

[Lyubov]

 interesting information that is related to the thread

[Preety_India]

@ivankiss @Michael569 @Opo @Lyubov

Thank you all of you. Good info 

 

[Leo Gura]

The only way to eat cheap is basically a lot of empty carbs/sugar.

Veggies, fruits, meats, good oils are all expensive.

[Windappreciator]

@Leo Gura you forgot oats and buckwheat mister.

and beans and peas of course

and redbeetroot

Edited May 8, 2021 by Windappreciator

[Roy]

10 hours ago, Michael569 said:

Pound per pound, things like legumes (beans, lentils, chickpeas) are the cheapest and most nutrient-dense food on the planet.

^ This. I'm vegetarian and when I go shopping I literally buy all of these by boxes of 12. They are filling, healthy, and can be eaten in so many different ways so if you do it right it's hard to get sick of them.

Some other notes @ivankiss

- Simplify your liquid intake. Drinks can get expensive and most aren't nutritious. Infinite water comes with your rent, so most of your hydration should come from water (that's gone through a filter). Regular milk, almond milk, soy milk, most of these are really expensive and don't really offer a lot of nutrition that would be better gotten from actual food. If you have anything besides water I'd recommend just pure orange juice or apple juice.

-  Look for vegetables on sale. You can get really good stuff for cheap. People have ridiculous standards for vegetables. They get slightly brown and massive amounts get thrown out or put in bargain bins. However unless you actually see mold or intense rotting on them they are fine to eat 99% of the time. Decondition yourself from the high standards of Western culture and you'll have a lot more options.

Edited May 8, 2021 by Roy

[Preety_India]

3 minutes ago, Roy said:

^ This. I'm vegetarian and when I go shopping I literally buy all of these by boxes of 12. They are filling, healthy, and can be eaten in so many different ways so if you do it right it's hard to get sick of them.

What do you make out of them?

I find them boring. 

 

[Roy]

5 minutes ago, Preety_India said:

What do you make out of them?

I find them boring. 

I add them to curries, stir fry, salads, soups, sometimes by themselves as a side dish.

[Preety_India]

2 minutes ago, Roy said:

I add them to curries, stir fry, salads, soups, sometimes by themselves as a side dish.

Awesome. I'll try that 

[Hello from Russia]

eggs, lentis, beans. peas are super good for cost-efficiency ratio. Eggs especially

Edited May 8, 2021 by Hello from Russia

[Hap E-Boi]

Quote

If you have anything besides water I'd recommend just pure orange juice or apple juice.

Those are junk foods as well, best just drink water... perhaps some herbal tea would be better, or green tea if you don't mind the bit of caffein?

Also, regarding working out in the gym to get muscular, it can get quite expensive as well as you need to eat way more which puts your health under strain as well on the long term.

When it comes to weight I'm just making sure my BMI is slightly above 18.5

All the MSG, sugars, additives, unhealthy fats and for some people histamines will cause a lot of inflammation which can manifest itself as brain fog, allergies, exhaustion, headaches, hair loss, etc.

Also I noticed if I eat extremely clean, which I do, I don't get a bad body smell, even if I wash myself, including my hair with nothing but water.
Sorry if too much info, but eating this clean causes my semen to taste very neutral as well.

Edited May 8, 2021 by Hap E-Boi

[Leo Gura]

3 hours ago, Windappreciator said:

you forgot oats and buckwheat mister.

Empty carbs.

[Windappreciator]

@Leo Gura learn to eat.

[StarStruck]

Price of healthy food depends on your location.

For example if you live in middle of nowhere in Russia, eating healthy will be costly. Fruits and vegs are expensive: it doesn't grow there. Where I live eating healthy is cheaper than eating unhealthy. If you can change locations.

As for healthy diet, my diet always revolves around greens. It is a simple diet and I like it.

Edited May 8, 2021 by StarStruck

[ivankiss]

Wonderful! Thanks everyone! 

@Michael569 Lots of juicy info. Stuff that definitely wouldn't cross my mind. There's a big chance I'll PM you, once I start planning everything ? Thank you!

4 hours ago, Roy said:

 Simplify your liquid intake. Drinks can get expensive and most aren't nutritious.

Definitely. I used to drink lots of sugary stuff throughout the day. That alone would easily cost me 30-50€ a month. So yeah, that's a no go. I cut off coffee completely a while ago... But I do need milk for breakfast and my protein shake. It's not too expensive. I can get a 12pack of rice milk for a good price. I also kinda have a thing for milk ? 

3 hours ago, Hap E-Boi said:

When it comes to weight I'm just making sure my BMI is slightly above 18.5

Dunno. That seems too light to me. My BMI is 20.9 now. And I still feel like a stronger wind could blow me away ? 

Building muscle is not that hard for me. I've done it in the past. But I was stuffing my face with food like a pig. I remember feeling sick often. This time I do not intend on going for such a dirty bulk. I'd rather gain mass slowly and eat clean and healthy.

@Leo Gura Perhaps a bit off-topic and silly question... But what do you think... will eating twice as much as I do now and gaining significant mass affect (lower) my consciousness (baseline) ? I hear stories.

@StarStruck I live in Slovenia atm. Life is pretty affordable. And my income is quite strong. I could be easily spending more on food, but I aim to invest that money into smarter things. Hence the budget. 

I do also plan on moving. Feeling a pull towards Thailand... No rush tho ? Got some stuff to do here first.

Edited May 8, 2021 by ivankiss

[Michael569]

18 hours ago, Opo said:

Omg your a life saver. Never thought to cook it.

did you eat your legumes raw?  nom nom 

8 hours ago, Roy said:

I add them to curries, stir fry, salads, soups, sometimes by themselves as a side dish

You can literally make this a staple of your diet. 9/10 of my meals are based on legume/vegetable/spice basis + some tofu. Legumes are the most complete food on the planet, in fact I'd go as far as to call them superfoods. 

5 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Empty carbs.

Hmm, not for oats and buckwheat, if you look into their micronutrient value and compare them to other empty carbs (w.g. white pasta, white bread), wholegrains are actually pretty good. Much better than rice, potatoes or bakery products. A cup of buckwheat will give you your day's need of B-vitamins, magnesium and copper 

[StarStruck]

Buckwheat is my favorite carb. I try to eat it once a week. 

[Hap E-Boi]

Quote

And my income is quite strong. I could be easily spending more on food, but I aim to invest that money into smarter things. Hence the budget. 

If one spends more on food (if it's a balanced whole food diet), one will probably spend way less on doctors and meds. At least this is the case for me.
One will likely also have to spend way less on personal hygiene and will need less sleep without getting tired, in my case this can be almost half the time if I eat very clean.

For example, free glutamate, which can be found in MSG, wheat, dairy (especially Parmesan cheese) and processed protein can wreak havoc in ones mind and body.

Nonetheless with my diet I'm right at the average cost in my country (Belgium).

What I say here is just based on my own experiences, one should figure out what works for them on their own and I hope you find something that works for you.