[Newsbot]

Title: Almost a quarter of Canadians report eating less than they should due to rising prices: survey
Category: Economics
Posted By: DrCaleb
Date: 2022-06-06 08:14:53
Canadian

[Strutz]

No question at all that groceries have increased in price but we haven't given up on eating though!

Our last several grocery trips picking up mostly basics is ridiculous cost-wise. We just make sure even more now to limit perishables purchases to what we realistically can fully use up and make our dinner decisions based on what we have on hand. Fortunately we are creative and like to try new ideas and don't have "fancy" tastes. I've mentioned before that we have a vacuum-sealer so we tend towards the "family packs" of meat, which tend to be cheaper, and break them down to meal portions and freeze them.

[housewife]

Strutz that’s really the only way to go. Those vacuum sealers are great! Even when we were on a crazy tight budget I always got the family packs and repackaged it. Of course it was more complicated without the vacuum sealer. I’ve been thinking about trying to freeze soup in individual portions then vacuum packing them. I think if I freeze it in Tupperware then vacuum pack the frozen bricks that would work. Easier to label and great for nights when we’re doing different things and dinner is whatever you can scrounge

[Strutz]

housewife housewife:

Strutz that’s really the only way to go. Those vacuum sealers are great! Even when we were on a crazy tight budget I always got the family packs and repackaged it. Of course it was more complicated without the vacuum sealer. I’ve been thinking about trying to freeze soup in individual portions then vacuum packing them. I think if I freeze it in Tupperware then vacuum pack the frozen bricks that would work. Easier to label and great for nights when we’re doing different things and dinner is whatever you can scrounge

The times (every couple of weeks) we cook a whole roast chicken I like to make my own chicken stock from the carcass, with all the good stuff added of course, then freeze it in large ziploc square plastic containers. I typically fill 2 (which can hold up to 6 cups) with 4 cups (or so) of stock, which becomes our soup base (just add veggies, any kind of pasta and cooked chicken if you have it), but you can buy smaller containers to do smaller batches and they preserve well. I've seen somewhere as well where you can pour it into icecube trays to make even smaller flavoured portions then I guess you could package up.

[DrCaleb]

Like me, many Canadians could stand to skip a few meals.

My doctor suggested I try an intermittent diet. Eat, within reason, for 8 hours a day. Do not eat for 16 hours. See if that reduces my diabetes symptoms. If not, try a 6/18 schedule.

It's not easy, and I haven't seen a change in weight in 3 weeks. I only manages a couple meals in that time frame, but then I haven't be strict with the schedule.

[housewife]

I forgot to eat all the time (my whole life) it’s hasn’t helped my weight one bit. Most of the time I’m just not hungry the dietitian wanted me to eat something first thing to get my system working but with my thyroid pills I have to wait an hour. By that time I’m busy and not thinking about it. So then it’s late and I wait to eat with the family.

[Tricks]

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

Like me, many Canadians could stand to skip a few meals.

My doctor suggested I try an intermittent diet. Eat, within reason, for 8 hours a day. Do not eat for 16 hours. See if that reduces my diabetes symptoms. If not, try a 6/18 schedule.

It's not easy, and I haven't seen a change in weight in 3 weeks. I only manages a couple meals in that time frame, but then I haven't be strict with the schedule.

Intermittent fasting is a great form of calorie restriction. If you can get on that schedule properly, and combine it with proper portion control it can do wonders.

[DrCaleb]

Tricks Tricks:

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

Like me, many Canadians could stand to skip a few meals.

My doctor suggested I try an intermittent diet. Eat, within reason, for 8 hours a day. Do not eat for 16 hours. See if that reduces my diabetes symptoms. If not, try a 6/18 schedule.

It's not easy, and I haven't seen a change in weight in 3 weeks. I only manages a couple meals in that time frame, but then I haven't be strict with the schedule.

Intermittent fasting is a great form of calorie restriction. If you can get on that schedule properly, and combine it with proper portion control it can do wonders.

Portion control is easy. I look at many people's meals and think that I couldn't eat that in a day! It's getting my body used to long stretches without the natural insulin response that I need more of.

[bootlegga]

I've been doing IF for about a year now, and I'm down about 20 pounds - I think I was one of the few who lost weight during the pandemic. It would have been more, but I let myself have whatever I want during my eating window, so my caloric intake didn't drop drastically really low like some people. However, it did cut out on the snacking in the evening and in between meals, which is likely why I lost weight.

I also gained back some weight over the winter because of less activity (colder weather) and holiday treats.

I'm doing 16:8 fasting (16 hours fasting and 8 hours eating), which isn't too hard, but I started off with 14:10 to ease into it. 14:10 is pretty easy, because if you finish supper about 7 pm or so, you only need to wait until 9 am to eat. My eating window is typically from about noon to 8 pm, although some days I finish eating earlier. I've heard of people like Terry Crews doing his eating window even later, like 2 pm to 10 pm.

Some days it can be hard to get to the 16 hour window before I start eating, and I miss snacking while watching TV or movie in the evening, but it's healthier, so I keep on doing it. Once every three weeks, I also give myself a cheat day and let myself eat whenever and whatever I want.

If you really want to lose a lot of weight, you can combine it with Keto or Paleo, and you can lose serious amounts of weight in six months, half a year. The intermittent fasting subreddit has tons of images and stories of people losing 50, 100 pounds in a year or less.

However, I'm on the slow and steady plan to avoid any yo-yo weight gains and try to make it more of a lifestyle change than a diet.

If you find it hard tracking times, there are lots of different apps to track your times, just limit what data they can see about you. Some apps also track activity/steps, water intake, meals, etc. I know you don't like most apps due to their intrusive nature and data capture, but an IF app can really help you to stay on track, as well as motivate you if you're having a tough time.

[herbie]

I miss the company and commentary eating together. Yumming and yukking to each others cooking.... and I still throw away too much. I found my apettite halved as a senior and halved again as a single guy.
I buy 1L of milk and 1/3 goes bad and gets tossed. A box of cereal lasts months.... everything in the store looks so damn big now, one mushroom would make a meal.
Everyone says do one big shop every 2 weeks, then WTF would I DO for the other 13 days?
Lots of things I pass up because they're too expensive, but I can't buy ONE serving either and I'm still using up stuff in the freezer 4 months later.

[raydan]

When I'm a bit overweight, I eat 2 toasts in the morning instead of 4 or half the cereal I usual eat. I lose about 4 pounds a month doing this.

[herbie]

Speaking of the freezer, the wifey left me with like 3 gigatons of perogies in there. I'm not an enthusiast (call them artery plugs) but I figured I should try using up some.
Used up the 3 leftover Italian sausage from spaghetti a few days ago and Holey Smokes what an improvement on dinner. I could taste something!

Thawing out the Mennonite sausage a couple at a time to feed to the dog...

[DrCaleb]

bootlegga bootlegga:

If you really want to lose a lot of weight, you can combine it with Keto or Paleo, and you can lose serious amounts of weight in six months, half a year. The intermittent fasting subreddit has tons of images and stories of people losing 50, 100 pounds in a year or less.

However, I'm on the slow and steady plan to avoid any yo-yo weight gains and try to make it more of a lifestyle change than a diet.

I have been doing some serious reading and watching on reversing type II diabetes, and they majority opinion is that we don't need carbs to function, and that the modern diet is too heavy with industrialized carbs. When I'm hungry, my problem is that I make poor dietary choices.

I like my scones with tea, I like soft white bread in sandwiches. That is something I'm going to have to view as a treat rather than a food group. And the only times I've lost weight in the last 10 years of trying has been when I was in the hospital for 5 days and they didn't feed me, and last summer when I got pneumonia and was severely dehydrated. Otherwise, I've been rock steady.

bootlegga bootlegga:

If you find it hard tracking times, there are lots of different apps to track your times, just limit what data they can see about you. Some apps also track activity/steps, water intake, meals, etc. I know you don't like most apps due to their intrusive nature and data capture, but an IF app can really help you to stay on track, as well as motivate you if you're having a tough time.

Motivation is easy for me, once I get into the habit. It's the few weeks that I need to form the habit that are the problem. Not serious enough for an app, but thanks.

[DrCaleb]

herbie herbie:

Speaking of the freezer, the wifey left me with like 3 gigatons of perogies in there. I'm not an enthusiast (call them artery plugs) but I figured I should try using up some.

My favourite thing - make them and serve with blueberry yogourt instead of sour cream. Makes them more into a desert, like Plum Pyrogies.

[herbie]

A nearby diner serves perogies filled w rhubarb. My B-I-L was born in Poland and loves home made blueberry filled perogies for dessert.

We used to make our own, and once the kids and I perverted them into lamb filled potstickers w tsatziki....