We’re currently in the longest recession that the West has seen in recent history. We are seeing record levels of unemployment and more and more men are finding themselves out of work and for the first time, some families have found women being thrown into the role of breadwinner.

Our economy is messed up and I am angry about it because my family and I have been affected by it. I was unemployed half of last year as was my father, and now my lovely boyfriend is in the same situation I was in six months ago. I certainly have my opinions about the incompetent Gordon Brown. However, this is a weight loss blog and not a place for me to air my political views in more detail!

Take this blog post with a pinch of salt. There are men who can cook and some can cook better than a lot of women! But, I would hate to offend anybody! However generally, women tend to do the cooking and delegate other household chores. If your experiences are different, please do contact Jonathan at Personal Stories, as he would love to hear about how couples are coping with handing over traditional chores. If roles are reversed and you’re a woman having to cook meals for the first time, this can apply to you too!

Role reversal can cause problems if you are trying to lose weight and follow a strict diet. If your man’s cooking leaves much to be desired, there are ways to avoid becoming acquainted with the toilet on a face to face level. My father lived alone for years before meeting my mum but stick him in the kitchen today and he is lost and you’re likely to get a cheese sandwich made with half a block of cheese!

So here are a few pointers on how you can guide your partner to getting involved with your diet.

1. 

   Can your partner help you stick to your diet plan?

   Insist on cooking when you get home. It is exhausting and you have to wait longer to eat but you can make a huge batch of say, Chili or bolognaise, shepherds pie etc from scratch and freeze it so all he needs to do is pop it in the microwave later on in the week. He can help and get to find his way around the kitchen before flying solo.

2. Let him make a few mistakes and have a couple of cheap microwave meals (see tip 1) on standby so that when he realises that improvisation doesn’t work unless you’re a top chef, the revelation doesn’t force you into a starvation diet.
3. Leave lists – lots and lots!
4. Plan ahead together. I have to plan meals a week in advance so I don’t end up eating rubbish food out of convenience. Let him see how much work goes into planning a healthy diet and ask him to rise to the challenge.
5. Buy your main groceries online. There are usually companies who deliver locally grown, seasonable vegetables to your door for a pretty good price. One of the companies local to me charges £7.90 for a 3kg box of seasonal veggies inc delivery.

This isn’t an exhaustive list of suggestions but if your domestic roles have reversed and you are trying to stick to a healthy weight loss plan then something has to give. If your partner is supportive then he or she should be keen to do whatever it takes to help you get slim and get healthy.

AMELIA

When I first went to uni, I stocked up on microwave meals on a 4 for £5 deal because I convinced myself that it would be the cheapest way to eat. As I adjusted to feeding myself and realising how much food really costs, I began to realise how I could eat the best I can with value for money for just myself or a group of people.

It’s all very well saying that paying out for takeaway food is cheaper than paying for ingredients for a lot of people, but perhaps unless you’re buying sturgeon caviar and fillet steak for a thirty person dinner party. I always find it hard to believe someone who has been out of their parents home for longer than six months who say that eating healthily is expensive.

Our main source of carbohydrates: rice, pasta, potatoes can all be purchased for more than four portions for under a pound. One of my favourite lunch time meals is jacket potato with fillings like cheese/beans/coleslaw/tuna, these are again cheap and simple nutrition as long as you go easy on the size of your portions as it’s still calories and cheese isn’t fantastic for you in large portions.

Pasta and sauce, pasta and pesto, spaghetti bolognaise, add in with tomato sauces and vegetables and a little bit of meat and you’re away.

You'll see the savings you make very quickly

Rice will cover chilli con carne, home made curries made with tomatoes, not cream and there is no end to the amount of healthy meals that you can make.

Then you’ve got the foods that are so simple, you wonder how you didn’t think of it sooner… omelettes, meat and veg, sausage and mash and stews.

There is also soup! I hate ready made soups, but I love my own. Alright, there is the initial expense of the food processor, but you’ll earn that back quick enough. My favourite and cheapest is tinned tomatoes whizzed in with some chilli, maybe you’d like to add some pulses, a little spaghetti… other ones I really like is beetroot and potato, bacon and lentil on a tomato base, winter vegetable. Summer soups would also include gazpacho or a really tasty cucumber. Not only does it fill you up, but it all goes a long way, freezes easily and is so cheap to make on a budget.

Meat is expensive, but there are still ways around it. Still choose lean cuts and don’t cook with the skin. Cheaper cuts of meat such as neck of lamb, beef shin or pork hock. My mum made a curry with neck of lamb and the meat didn’t even cost £3. I can vouch it was still just as tasty. Mince is also cheap, but buy the lean stuff and you’re laughing.

It’s not just what you buy, but when you buy food as well. Food that’s in season is always going to be cheaper because they don’t have to import it from other countries and we have it in abundance. Root vegetables are winter vegetables, so your parsnips, pumpkins, squash, etc will generally be cheaper at your local supermarket or farm shop.

Also if you go at the end of the day, supermarkets reduce their food to sometimes pennies. If you eat this food immediately or freeze it, you’re not going to worry about it going off. I would also recommend portioning your food before freezing it, wrapping chicken breasts individually, slicing bread, this saves stabbing at your food to defrost it.

All of these things are so simple to cook, they don’t take long when you consider how long you wait for a pizza delivery on a Saturday and you can control exactly what goes into your food and not feel obliged to eat huge portions, no point in making all this cheap food to then go and eat more than you need!