Okay, sometimes I gotta fess up to my own personal eating behavior patterns that are polar opposite to what I recommend to my patients. Today’s admission is to highlight a point about long-term weight control, here goes: Several days ago I only had 20 minutes to eat lunch before a meeting. I went across the street from my office to the Burger King in the shopping center. I ordered a crispy chicken sandwich with bacon and cheese, a small order of fries and I had a Diet Coke as part of their “meal deal”. I believe that entire cost was $9.58.
Later that night my wife and I made dinner at home. We cooked up some really nice filet steaks, salads and some side vegetables. The steaks were purchased from Wegmans. The steaks alone cost $45 (for 2) and if we added up the costs of the other components of the dinner, this probably came out to about $30 a piece.
The contrast: The Burger King meal provided many more calories than the home made steak dinner at 1/3 the cost. The BK meal filled me up more than the dinner meal and certainly did provide protein (chicken and bacon), some vegetables (lettuce and tomato on the sandwhich), carbs (fries and bread), dairy (cheese) and fat (fried chicken/fries/bacon).
There is no doubt that when money expenditure must be carefully watched, it becomes more difficult to provide the foods best suited for weight control. Feeding a family of 4 a dinner of a large amount of pasta, meat sauce and garlic bread is lots less expensive than preparing s salmon/vegetable dinner.
There are many proteins that do not cost much as opposed to going to some Guchi food store like Wegmans and dropping big bucks on steaks and crab legs. For example, eggs remain a great choice for breakfast and the price consistently stays at less than 20 cents an egg. Chicken breasts are also a fairly low priced, great protein option. Low fat chopped meat is not expensive either.
Creatively, we all can still follow the SP Plan while remaining very vigilant on our budgets. We do not need to buy prime steaks, lobster and King Crab legs…cans of tuna, a great meatloaf and a wonderfully prepared chicken or fish dinner will not break the bank.
And by the way, please do as Posner sayeth, not whateth Posner doeth (threw some Shakespeare speak in to divert your attention from my poor eating behavior!)