I haven’t updated you on the riveting tale of how fat I am since June 2015. I wonder why… Yeah, I fell off the waggon. Again. Why does food taste so good, damnit!? But anyway, I decided to turn over a new leaf. About forty-five minutes ago.

I have two big problems in my life.

1. Being fat, which is largely down to lazy eating habits and not enough gym.
2. Spending too much money on food, which is largely down to lazy eating habits (such as takeaways and snacks).

So for the sake of both my physical and fiscal health, I need to get a grip. So tomorrow is the first day of a new diet. I’m going to see if it fixes both problems.

NEW DAILY DIET (THIS WEEK)

Breakfast: porridge (water-based), 1 x banana chopped up, bran flakes
Mid-morning snack: apple
Lunch: sprigs of broccoli, sweet potato, chicken
Mid-afternoon snack: apple
Dinner: salmon, avocado on Ryvita, 1/3 of a four egg omelette.
Other snack/extra: 1oz of nuts: 1/2oz walnuts and 1/2oz almonds

NEW DAILY DIET: PREPARATION

Lunch: 1/3 of one head of broccoli, 1 sweet potato, 110g/4oz chicken fried with a little olive oil and water and cajun seasoning powder
Dinner: 110g/4oz/1 fillet salmon fried with a little olive oil and smoked paprika powder, chilli powder, cumin seeds, salt.

Notice that most is raw, and nothing takes more than about ten minutes to cook and prepare (8-10 minutes salmon, 10 minutes chicken). Very simple and easy to make, very small amounts of time required.

NEW DAILY DIET: LOGIC

I’ve done a fair bit of research. Your body needs a fair number of things to function healthily in all respects, be it enough energy, burning fat efficiently, strong and healthy hair, and so on.

The bare essentials of what I’ve learnt are summed up in the following list. You need to get a certain amount of each “nutrient”. Hence my diet for the week (above).

Zinc and Selenium: wholegrains, egg, beef
Protein: (eat a variety of proteins) salmon fillet, omelette, roast chicken, soy protein
Complex carbs: brown rice, wholegrain bread, wholegrain cereal for snacks
Iron: (very important) red meat, fish, spinach, broccoli, kale, salad greens, lentils, chicken
Omega 3 fatty acids: fatty fish, e.g., salmon x 2 / week
Vitamin D: 600 IU max daily; egg yolk x 1 = 7%IU max daily/40g
Misc: lean red meat x 2 / week
Vitamin C rich food: (consume with proteins, e.g., orange plus lentils) avocado, blueberry, guava, orange, strawberry, sweet potato, papaya, kiwi, broccoli, blackcurrant
Vitamin A: (do not go beyond 5000IU daily as can cause hair loss) carrot, pumpkin, sweet potato
Vitamin E: nuts (especially almonds and walnuts)

Other principles:

• Chilli speeds up the metabolism
• You need to fill full / not hungry andenergised at all times, whilst not over-eating or having an unbalanced diet
• Drink about 4-5 pints of water a day; more if you work out or drink tea / coffee.

I won’t bore you with the fat, calories, salt etc. This post is going to be long enough as it is!

NEW DAILY DIET: COST

All very well trying to eat well, but what of my second big problem: spending too much money including on food? Well, I just bought the following.

• £1.49 1 x 1kg box Tesco Bran Flakes
• £4.60 1 x 4 salmon fillets 460g [1lb]
• £3.00 320g [11.5oz] turkey diced breast
• £1.25 1 x bag 10 x sweet potatoes 1kg [2.2lb]
• £1.75 1 x 6 bag of British Cox apples
• £3.50 1 x 250g [9oz] walnut halves
• £3.40 1 x 250g [9oz] almonds
• £0.49 1 x 335g [12oz] head of broccoli
• £1.75 1 x 12 pack free range eggs
• £1.75 1 x 4 pack avocadoes
• £0.99 1 x pack Ryvita wholegrain crispbread, around 24 bread per pack
• £0.86 6 x loose bananas, 31p/1lb (68p/kg)

Other ingredients, price and quantity presently unknown (basically, because such small amounts of each are used and I bought these ingredients previously):

• olive oil
• smoked paprika powder
• chilli powder
• cumin seeds
• cajun seasoning powder
• salt
• porridge (bought previously: don’t remember cost!)
• cling film to keep things fresh

Total: £24.82

Bear in mind that many of these items will need to be bought again in a few days time (e.g. salmon fillets). Whilst others won’t need to be bought again for quite a while (e.g. bran flakes). Therefore, it’s hard to figure out, at this point, the real cost of this diet.

ESTIMATE OF REAL COST DAILY

• 1/2oz of each type of nut = 9 days’ worth of nuts = £0.77/day
• £0.15 per banana
• 32 servings bran per box = 32 days’ worth of bran = £0.05/day
• £0.29/apple, 2 x apples/day = £0.58/day
• 1/3 head broccoli = £0.16/day
• £0.13/sweet potato
• 4oz turkey = £1.00
• 1 fillet salmon = £1.15
• 1 avocado = £0.44
• 4 Ryvita = £0.17
• 1/3 of 4 egg omelette = £0.20/one third of omelette
• Porridge: unknown cost

Total: £5/day (£4.80, but with porridge, let’s round it up) = £150/month, £35/week

This seems a tad high to me: I’d be looking for around £20-25/week. But not too bad.

NEXT STEP…

I’ll let you know after seven days (i) how I feel, (ii) how much I spent in reality (e.g. after buying more salmon, if I give in to temptation, and so on).

© 2015 Bryan A. J. Parry