With this article I want to give you an insight on what I normally eat, to show that the “diet” does not have to be either boring or expensive as most people think. I try to eat healthy but of course there is a room for some “bad” food like fast food and sweets. Although there is a reason why I wrote “bad” with quotation marks as there is no such thing as “good” and “bad” food. Of course, you can choose more healthy options but that not always means that you consume “good” food. All the foods can be good and bad depending on how we look at them. For example, a lot of people think if they eat healthy foods and a lot of vegetables then they can eat as much as they like. Not true, as overeating will contribute to a weight gain. Now opposite, people don’t eat fast food because they are afraid it will make them fat. But the truth is that it is the amount of food that we consume will be the factor responsible for the weight change.
I like to use 80/20 rule when it comes to my diet which means I eat 80% of healthy food and 20% is something I love, like chocolate and doughnuts. No one is perfect and my fridge is good example that you can eat bit of both worlds and still feel good, be happy and don’t need to sacrifice your favourite food in order to feel and look how you want.
But let me go back to few years ago Me and my then girlfriend moved out to live on our own, we thought that it is easier and cheaper to buy ready meals that you can prepare in less than an hour and don’t spend fortune on them. We also ate in town quite often as we couldn’t be bothered to “cook” at home.
As you can imagine this type of “diet” consisted of highly refined foods. We would consume large amounts of frozen food (which isn’t bad always, but depending on the quantity), ready meals, sweets, fast foods etc…
So, what we finally understood that this type of eating was not only very unhealthy, but it was also expensive. One day we decided to cook more and start choosing more healthy food in the shops.
What we then realised, is that this type of diet is not only healthier, but it actually works out a lot cheaper compared to our previous eating habits. Instead of buying full shopping trolley of ready meals, boxes, frozen stuff and only some fruits and veggies, we swapped it for ¾ of shopping trolley filled with a lot of healthier options. A lot more fruits and veggies, more pastas and rice, meat (usually chicken and turkey, beef for me and pork from time to time), and fish etc. We were really surprised to find out that we not only saving money but cooking actually became enjoyable for us and we could spend some time together preparing the meals which was a bonus.
What we also learned through the years is that we need to pre plan our coming week, what we are going to eat and make a list of the ingredients we need so we can avoid buying too many things that we don’t need and spending extra money for no reason. I know it might sound boring to pre plan the week, but it surely works out better in the long run. You can have different meals every week or the same, every day something different or cook for two days. When you cook for yourself the possibilities are endless. And of course, we are not always following the plan for what we supposed to eat, because at the time of planning our brains might want something different compared to the time, we actually cooking but that’s ok. You can always swap some meals during the week if you want, just make sure you swap it for something similarly good and healthy. Do not go for the fast food just because at the time you don’t want something you have planned for dinner and don’t have to many other ingredients to prepare different food. What I suggest is that you either go to shop to buy some extra ingredients for another meal or just have fun and play in the kitchen with the things you have. There is always eggs or toasts waiting for you to do the fridge clean ?
So, let’s finally see the answer to the question in the subject of this post. What can you find in my fridge? I want to show you that contradictory to common belief healthy eating does not have to be boring or expensive.
From the bottom:
Vegetables – different mix every time depending on the meals plan for the week. Veggies are very important for our health as they consist of many micronutrients, so we try to have very colourful plates to make sure we are delivering everything that our bodies need.
Almond milk or any other plant based – we don’t drink normal milk anymore as it turns out too much dairy was not good for us, and we cut down on milk so we can still enjoy other dairy products such as cheese and yoghurts.
Juice – every now and then we buy something like this just for our taste buds or to make some nice non-alcoholic drinks.
Sauces – we try to do sauces ourselves but sometimes we like ready made for quick food, like homemade burgers with low fat mince and our own made baps etc.
Fruits – strawberries and lemon in the fridge, but we also have plenty other fruits outside on the shelf. We like to eat very colourful, so we always have at least 3 different types of fruits every week and vegetables even more.
Meat – of course it would not be my fridge if there wouldn’t be some meat. I’m a meat eater all the way. This time you can find some chicken breast, turkey breast and burger meat for home made burgers. There is also some ham, Parma ham (my favourite) and salami which we also buy from time to time for our taste buds. And also, bacon have a sweet spot every now and then in the fridge. We don’t buy to many processed hams and bacon to often as they are not good for our health in the long term, but we humans need some variety in our lives.
Eggs – those should be in everyone’s that train fridge at all times. They are great source of protein and full branch of amino acids. They also have many micronutrients needed by our bodies.
Fish – also fish is important ingredient with our meals. Here in the fridge is only smoked mackerel but, in the freezer, we also have got some prawns and bass fillets. There are also some herring fillets that we eat from time to time. We try to eat fish at least once per week.
Dairy products – yoghurts, I mainly eat Skyr’s, cottage cheese and some spreadable for bread from time to time. Cheese. We both love cheese (although I used to hate it back in the day), but we try to cut down on it a bit, so we only eat it few times a week.
Spreadable – although in this picture we have Flora, we usually don’t buy it. It has too many bad fats (mainly palm oil) and whenever it is available, we normally use different one that contains butter from milk and only rapeseed oil.
As I mentioned before, we like to eat something different and “bad” from time to time, so there is also a room for garlic bread and some toffee dessert hidden at the back ?
So hopefully this will convince you, dear reader, that you can eat healthy, don’t spend a fortune on the food (we normally spend on average £50-70 for 2ppl, but I eat a lot!) and enjoy it. Use your imagination to try different tastes, don’t always follow the recipes strictly (unless you need to count the macros in the smallest detail) and have fun in the kitchen.
If you managed to read this post, I want to thank you for your time and attention, and I hope that you will go away with something to think about.
All the best!
Michal