Picking a diet

[Tingy]

There are so many out there these days, from paleo to raw i'm going crazy! How can I pick something that works? I'm a 27 year old full time working single mom on a tight, and i mean tight budget. I am a picky eater who doesnt enjoy sauces, spices, too rich food, too sweet, too salty. It has to be quick and easy. Any ideas?

[Renh0lder]

Well the very generic advice is this:

Diets dont work. Its about a full life style change. If you diet, once you eat normal again you gain it all back (in theory unless you learn to eat healthy in the process). What people suggest is this:

Eat whole foods
stay away from processed foods as much as possible
water water water water and more water-dont drink your calories
Fruits,veggies,nuts,seeds,avocado and lean meats (if you choose to eat meat) seems to be what everyone lives by...Unless they are on a paleo grain hating kick.

Figure out your BMR and TDEE so you know how many calories you can eat a day to lose.

[Erasmos]

I carb cycle. It's basically a low carb diet. If you're looking to lose weight, especially fat, it works. You do not have to go hungry and it can be cheap.

An introductory to it would be to eat high protein and vegetables at every meal, with 1 cup of grains or low glycemic starches a day. Lean protein is always good.

Mind your body and when you're full, save the rest for later. The point is to keep down insulin spikes, which tells your body to store fat, so whole grains and low glycemic starches and fruit that are grown would be best. I'd avoid bread period and stick with brown rice, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, lentils and beans. In raw form, they are very cheap. I would avoid canned anything since they tend to hide sugar and other ingredients at every turn.

I'm speaking from experience when I say counting calories and exercising has a limit of any success at all. I exercised and I became toned beneath all the fat, but I did not lose weight because I did not change my diet. I changed my diet and restricted calories. I lost weight, I was hungry, I hit a plateau and then I started gaining it back. This was more than once, and each time I restricted food intake and dealt with hunger I would always reach a breaking limit and I couldn't do it anymore.

So far with the low carb I'm able to do it pretty easily, because when my body says I'm hungry, I eat protein and veggies. I do have cheat days and times where I crave processed everything! >_< I am not perfect and I've fallen off the wagon, ha, but I know I can stick with it overall.

[Tingy]

I think i'm looking for a kind of structure in my life. With everything going on right now in my life I think that I just want a diet i can control. I think if I can just control what I put in my body it's one step closer to getting over all control of my life.

[XenoReiji]

Just pick one at random and see how it works as long as you stick to it.

Sounds like Paleo would be great for you since you are not a friend of processed foods.

[Tingy]

I attempted paleo and my stomach started rejecting food it was bizarre because I figured it would be perfect... le sigh

[Latopazora]

Eggs and chicken are pretty cheap protein and easy to cook up. Eggs moreso than chicken. Buy common fruit that you know you would enjoy, and buy frozen veggies, that way they last. Can you eat grains? Trying buying whole eat or whole grain bread. Though, if you want something that'll last, potato breads lasts a long time. If you can eat peanut butter, that's a good cheap protein as well.
Sounds like what you're looking for is to eat healthy on a budget. Just think simple, and stick to basics. Something I like to fix up for myself is to use the sandwich rounds with cream cheese and cucumber or roma tomato. But I don't know how you feel about cream cheese, but I love it.

[ExtraordinaryAlchemy]

try looking up the genotype diet, it'll give you one of six lifestlye plans and suggested exercises based on your body type, and the science behind it.