It’s also a waste of time. I do like going out with my friends, family, and wife to a restaurant here and there though. I just can’t picture buying lunch daily like many Americans do. I estimate I eat out lunch once or twice a month during the work weeks.
I have some girlfriends that go out to eat maybe 5 out of the 7 days. They go for lunch during work, or happy hour, out to dinner on Fridays, brunch on Saturdays or Sundays… it is fucking crazy.
An old fling of mine that I never got fully over invited me recently to brunch so of course I went. We split the bill and I still ended up paying $50. FOR eggs and some other stupid shit that came with it and a drink.
2 half pound pieces of grass fed filet mignon: $18
Green beans: round up to $2
Riced cauliflower with tomatoes and herbs (80 calories, low fat, low carb): $3
$23 healthy meal with high quality steak.
If you’re talking just healthy and not gourmet, chicken or ground turkey with brown rice and mixed veggies can be done for 5 bucks a meal, easy. It is such a cop-out to complain that eating healthy costs too much. You can get jacked off of canned tuna/salmon/chicken, broccoli/mixed greens, and a giant bag of white rice, for a few bucks a meal. Are you man enough to do it? Or is the matriarchy holding you down?
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Interesting that it’s the females engaging in this foolhardy behavior, since it wouldn’t seem on the surface to be gendered behavior.
At my previous workplace a small percentage of my coworkers went out for deli stuff or McD’s, but most either brought Lean Cuisine-type stuff or food from home. Generally speaking these choices corresponded to body type.
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We have chickens and eat the eggs. Honestly unless you’re going to raise 50+ of them and sell the excess eggs, just pay the $4/dozen for free range farmer’s eggs. You’ll come out ahead and won’t be exposed to literal shit. Haha. They do eat all the ticks in the yard which is nice. They’re loving the cicadas.
I grew up working on farms. Even if you had the land hunting is way, way cheaper per lb of meat. The dirty little secret is that deer love soybeans. So if you kill a deer near a farming area they likely got more calories from soy than grass.
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Ya, I doubt I’ll do it, but the eggs are so good.
This is true. Today’s lunch will be two cans of sardines, each costing $1.69, rice and leftover grilled zucchini. I used to eat a lot more canned fish, including mackerel, tuna, and salmon. Potatoes, oatmeal, bananas, apples, even some protein powders these days, canned fish, all are inexpensive. Plenty of broke college students, prisoners, and even some poor people in the US are built.
So money shouldn’t be a challenge for many. Time shouldn’t be either. With the time spent in a restaurant, one can use the same time or less, and prepare chicken, potatoes, vegetables, and or rice. How much prep time is there to oil and season food, pour water and rice into a pot, place foods in an oven or on a stovetop, etc.? Not much. One can simply set a timer and so other stuff meanwhile. One can even play in a backyard and do outdoor chores with some slow cooking BBQ foods.
Other meals do take much more time and involvement but for a typical gymrat diet, it’s not much.
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I eat out more than 18 times a week. Last time I checked, I am a dude.
But chickens are productive pets. Better than a dog or cat…
Slow cookers. Just dump ingredients in in the morning, 6 hours later you’ve got 3-4 meals. Stew, pot roast, chili, soup, anything you can think of, and as long as it’s not loaded with oil and you keep either carbs or fat moderately low, you’re set for nearly a week. People spend so much time cooking to avoid prepping in advance when the advance prep takes far less time if done properly!
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You know this may be the first time I’ll agree that it might be the people I’m around that tainted my views. Because all the women in my life, besides maybe one or two, complained about cooking or didn’t cook at all.
Most of my guy friends also complain about cooking then I come here and you all do it as if it’s nothing.
OR, it could be possible that this is a bodybuilding forum and people here put their health, and therefore the food that goes into their bodies a top priority.
Hmm… I wonder which one is out of the norm for America.
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Responsible people who plan things ahead and do things on purpose are weird/rare in every country. Especially among the lower and middle classes.
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It is important. It’s a big quality of life factor. The cost savings are cool, but so is sitting down to a meal with your loved ones that you prepared yourself and with them in mind.
I get a huge kick out of making something my kid loves, and he has a great time helping out. Hopefully he, like I did, will learn how to do the same.
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woah woah woah. chill. I only expect to do that during thanksgiving and Christmas.
I’m 15. I can cook (decently)
And the internet is a thing…
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that’s awesome my guy. keep up the good work
Because it’s stupidly simple. Your guy friends could do it (hopefully), they’re just lazy. It’s not like cooking basic meals is difficult. God help the guy who thinks cooking is hard. That man is in for a rude awakening when real hard things hit.
Whether or not it’s the norm has no impact on how easy it is.
Besides, if it weren’t for stupid and/or lazy people, it’d be harder to achieve in life. Success is all relative.
Remember, you don’t have to outrun the bear… just the guy next to you.
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What if the bear is still hungry?
I’m the only one in my close circle into gym things, though a few of them are outdoorsy (e.g. my husband), and they all cook, pretty much men and women alike with a few exceptions. Not all of my friends are good cooks, and not all of them are healthy cooks, but cooking is the norm and picking up crap food is not.
Obviously I’ve selected my friends to mirror my values to some degree, but looking beyond my social circle and those of my kids and other family, so now including the 25 or so people I see a week, who range in age and socio-economic status, I see the class breakdown I posted above, with the poor seeking high calorie food, more affluent people seeking fresh, plentiful food, and wealthy seeking presentation, so tiny portions with something fancy drizzled on top.
I had a 16-year-old offer me quinoa recipes once in session. It’s really not that weird.
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