Healthy Eating on a budget

As a student, it is kind of hard to be healthy. All these “healthy recipes” involve fruit/veg that either a) I haven’t heard of b) I can’t afford or c) both! So instead of picking up a bag of apples, it’s sometimes more convenient and cheap to pick up a bag of crisps, amiright? Yes. This year I’ve been desperately trying to break out of this “yo-yo dieting” mindset and step into a new era of my life which is devoid of dieting and looks at healthy eating as a way of life. Surprise surprise I have already mucked up.

Avocado or Avocadon’t?

I started off last week buying and trying Avocado’s for the first time. They are only 40p in Tesco so it didn’t break the bank. After all the hype I thought they were going to not only be heavenly but totally reform my old eating habits. Well, talk about disappointment. With a texture a little like mango accompanied by a much less exotic taste it was all a bit weird. However, having already made 2 pieces of toast lathered with the stuff I loaded it with salt and pepper before soldiering on through.

I’m not saying I will never eat it again because the truth is, I probably will. There’s a myriad of health benefits if that’s the only reason you’re eating them. However, there was a lot of hype about it and I don’t know if it’s all one big conspiracy, are people pretending to like it just because everybody else does and it’s “cool”? They must be. I might have it with salad some time but there you have it, my honest opinion on Avocado’s.

Uni Lunches

On the bright side, to start saving money I’ve been taking lunch and sometimes dinner to Uni. Here’s some of the lunches I take for inspiration:

• I make a rice/pasta salad and put it in a sealed container overnight, by the morning it’s cold and ready to go. Always tasty. Feta cheese is a good healthy, affordable addition to this.
• A plain roll with a filling! Or you could spice it up with a wrap (oooh)
• Soup is a good one if you have a flask
• Houmous with some chopped up carrots, cucumber, celery etc. Simple and healthy
• Oat biscuits with various toppings (like an adult version of the dairylea boxes, yaas

Snacks

• Belvita biscuits are good as a side if you have a sweet tooth and want to avoid chocolate
• Dark Chocolate is surprisingly pretty good for you
• Fruit
• Healthy versions of crisps, multigrain etc.
• Air popped popcorn
• Smoothies
• Greek natural Yogurt is fairly cheap and filling! I get ‘Fage’ a really lovely thick 0% fat one. With all those live probiotics this really is very good for you.(it also tastes nice sprinkled with cinnamon)

 

 

 

 

But…at the end of the day you might feel like chocolate/sweets/crisps and if you do, have some and don’t beat yourself up about it. It’s not the end of the world.( You might even feel like eating an Avocado and that’s okay too. Nobody’s perfect.)

All the best!

Thanks for reading,

Abbie

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