Fighting "sticker shock"

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-27-2004
Fighting "sticker shock"
8
Sat, 07-17-2004 - 7:41pm

I find myself periodically gritting my teeth at the cost of some of the foods I'm buying for this program.

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-17-2004
Sat, 07-17-2004 - 11:24pm
Hi, this is the first time for me to post anything on a board like this. I hope I'm doing this right.

I find it strange that it is cheaper to eat junk food instead of healthy foods. My husband and I went out for dinner last night, both plates cost the same but his chicken fried steak was about 3 times the size of my grilled chicken breast.

Any suggestions on how to eat healthy without giving up taste or spending a fortune?

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-06-2000
Sun, 07-18-2004 - 8:54am
There is very little doubt that eating out is a killer, both on the weight front and wallet. I know a lot of restaurants are offering healthier choices, but there was a 60-minutes type article a few years ago that showed that the low numbers claimed on calories, fat, etc. were exaggerated, they were higher than printed when lab tested, and often there was a considerable difference. I think too, if you do manage to stick with something that's "not as bad", you're still tempted by the breads and side dishes and eating all that you bought (ie portions out of whack), even if you manage to hold off on desserts.

Over on the Finances board we occasionally talk about eating out - when people cut back on eating out, their grocery budget goes up. Overall, though, the grocery budget doesn't go up as much as the dining out budget comes down. Even though I'm not buying specialized foods like you and some others are, I've noticed that a box of cookies is cheaper than the fruits I'm buying! What's the deal with that?! I don't even want to talk about the price of tomatoes. So I guess we have to look at the "other benefit" - healthier eating.

It's really for both of those reasons that we don't eat out much beyond our once a week take-out (most often a sub sandwich). We regard dining out as a treat rather than a regular event.












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C

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-27-2001
Sun, 07-18-2004 - 9:18am

I think that you have to look at the 'other benefits' of healthy eating.

Nancy

"Make Choices that bring you joy"  cl-Patty


 


iVillage Member
Registered: 01-06-2000
Sun, 07-18-2004 - 9:21am
Welcome Bettyboop! Read your message, so you must be doing something right, here :^). Glad to have you join us.

My thought is that restaurants take advantage of the price point of healthier eating. I've yet to find a place where the grilled chicken is the same price as fried chicken. With fried chicken they can mass cook 'em in a deep fryer, whereas with grilled they have to handle each piece - but that's no different than handling burgers, so I don't get the price difference.

What I've done is replace "regular" ingredients with "lite" ingredients in all of our foods. There's very little, if any, price difference. According to a chef I once heard in a cooking demo, it's the fat in foods that adds to the flavor; I believe him because most fat-free foods have little or no flavor. But the lite versions aren't devoid of the things that give you the flavor. I've cooked for friends before, the husband who insists that he'll never eat "lite fare" because it's tasteless, and then after he raved about one of my dinners, I informed him that the recipe used all lite ingredients. He was pleasantly surprised. It's a gradual thing, though. It's not like cutting out full-bodied sour cream will make you shed an extra pound per week: it's cutting out the full-bodied sour cream, mayo, milk, etc., using cooking spray rather than vegetable oil for cooking, baking instead of frying meats, steaming veggies rather than smothering them in a casserole. It might be only 50 or 100 calories not eaten per day, but it eventually adds up. There are a number of Light Cooking cookbooks around, my favorite being the one that uses name brands called "Low Fat, Low Calorie, Low Cholesterol Light Cooking" ISBN 0-7853-1534-9 which I've been using for about 8 or 9 years. Even though it came out before the current low-carb craze, there are plenty of dishes in there that are low carb as well. It's still available from Amazon - click here to check it out. Note that 6 out of 6 reveiewers gave the book a solid five stars - if I were to review it, I'd give it the same.

One more note, the grocery store I use is an industry leader in offering store brands which are less expensive than name brands, but the quality is still there. It's not guaranteed that store brands are as good, but I'm not afraid to experiment. Between that and watching sales circulars, I keep my grocery budget under control... even with healthier eating.

Hope you stick around! This is a great board for support AND friendship!












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href="http://messageboards.ivillage.com/iv-ppplaynov98n">November 1998 Playgroup and href="http://pages.ivillage.com/nov98_whoswho/">Website
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My greatest fear is
that there is no PMS and this is my personality!

C

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-27-2001
Sun, 07-18-2004 - 9:30am

Welcome to the board.

Nancy

"Make Choices that bring you joy"  cl-Patty


 


iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sun, 07-18-2004 - 9:53am
Welcome, Betty! We hope you will post with us more. Yes, eating fresh and lean is expensive - I guess fatty oils fast food places use to cook all of those foods is inexpensive.

The only way I save money on food is to buy it at grocery store and eat leftovers. Eating out is way too expensive for me to do everyday, but I splurge about once a week.

Katherine (Kat)
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sun, 07-18-2004 - 9:57am
Yes, your reasoning is correct on how you at least have leftovers of your healthy food from the grocers in contrast to one meal at a fast food joint. You are doing so well with that WW plan - keep it up!
Katherine (Kat)
Avatar for shescomeundone2002
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-02-2003
Sun, 07-18-2004 - 10:36am
When you look at the cost of junk food and processed food eating healthy is a bargain! I skipped on the Ranier cherries teh other day because they were six bucks a pound, but I used to spend six bucks on two little crappy frozen dinners.....thinking that all that sodium and low fat chemical food was going to make me skinny...HA!

You are worth it, every cent.

Jazzdiva