£7 challenge - day one

Today was the first day of the £7 challenge, living for a week with a £7 budget for all food and drink. To find out more and read why we're doing this read this post.

So today I had porridge with water and two cups of coffee for breakfast. A normal breakfast would be something like 2 weetabix with milk, home made yogurt, an apple and a banana, and maybe a kiwi fruit. Again there would have been two cups of coffee - but not instant!

Sunday lunch consisted of a red lentil curry. The recipe for two is:

30ml olive oil (a lot more than we'd normally use)
1/2 onion
2 cloves garlic
15g curry powder
1 carrot
166g lentils
1 stock cube
8g tomato puree

This is not a lot different from what we might normally eat although it would probably have contained a whole onion as well as courgettes, mushrooms, tinned tomatoes and a couple of peppers; there would probably have been a nan bread on the side, and there would have been a dessert of some form or other.

Before church this evening I had a piece of toast with 15g peanut butter, and a cup of coffee, and then our evening meal consisted of 2 pieces of toast and peanut butter and a whole banana. We were only going to have half a banana each, but they are already starting to go black, so we splurged and had a whole banana each.

Already it is obvious that we are going to need more milk (£1 of our remaining £2.50). Once the bananas are gone we will try to get some apples. And then spend the rest on whatever vegetables we can get cheaply.

Although lunch tasted fantastic, I could have done with seconds, and that nan bread as well as dessert. It's only 10.30pm and I am hungry - no weetabix before bed tonight. We have food to eat, but not enough, and not enough fruit and vegetables.

In terms of nutritional value I worked it all out earlier. The approximate totals for the whole day are given below with the figures in brackets being the daily recommended amount per day.

Calories...................1450 kCal.......(2500).......58% of RDA
Protein....................49g.............(55)...........89% of RDA
Carbohydrates.............172g...........(300).........57% of RDA
Fat.........................66g............(95)...........69% of RDA
Fibre......................24g.............(25)...........96% of RDA

In terms of weight loss potential for the week - looking likely. If you're familiar with the weight watchers points system today's total comes in at 35 points (even with the 15g of olive oil) - but this is still in the weight loss region. Tomorrow will see a little variety in that we are alternating the lentil curry with rice and beans - and as we have 1.5kg of rice larger portions will be available. But tomorrow I have a 7 mile run scheduled! I have a half marathon in two week's time and training and the lack of calories and carbs doesn't look a good combination.

Check back tomorrow to see how we're getting on.