If Your Budget Mostly Affords Carb-Rich Food

Sometimes, your budget doesn't allow you to buy protein rich food which can be expensive. What do you do if you need to boost muscle growth? With limited budget, the priority becomes satisfying your hunger rather than getting good nutrition from your food. So you eat more carbs which are cheap and fills your stomach fast and hope that builds your muscles, too. But it won't. What happens is you find no muscle development even if you keep working out because you lack protein and eat lots of carbs. But you don't have to. 

Photo above by Minna Hamalainen on Unsplash.

There are cheap sources of good protein easily available in small wet markets or "talipapa" in Manila and other places. If you're thinking of buying protein supplements and your budget is limited, indeed you will have difficulty getting enough protein. Anyway, there are people who do not easily absorb protein supplements into their bodies and muscles so their money just goes to waste buying them. Opt for cheap but natural ones.

Cheap Protein 

Among my favorites is beans. Simply sautee string beans or Baguio beans (bitwelas) and you get a good source of protein. Consider mixing in some tofu cubes or try fried tokwa with rice. Another favorite is monggo or munggo (mung bean). Or try fish. There are a lot of cheap fish in the market like tawilis, tamban or dilis. Dilis competes well with milk when it comes to calclium and protein. My topmost favorite are eggs! There are a variety of ways to cook them and anyway you do it, they're rich in protein and vitamns and minerals. Eggs are a complete food.

Chicken feet are also cheap and rich in collagen and protein, without cholesterol. Beef or pork tendons (litid) are also ideal for protein and collagen, again, minus the cholesterol. And theyre cheaper than beef or pork per se. If high uric acid is not your problem, try chicken liver and gizzard (balun-balunan) cooked adobo style now and then. They're super rich in protein. So is pork liver, which also costs less than pork per se.

Taho. I eat it 2 to 3 times a week for a protein source. Less sweet syrup, better. I often eat it sugar-free or with a little pure honey. Some say tofu is better than taho because tofu is fermented, and therefore rich in probiotics. I don't care which is better. I just eat them when they're available. Bahala sila sa buhay nila. The thing is, you can have lots of protein without costing you a lot. 

If Your Budget Gives You More Carbs

Typical Pinoy foods today have more carbs and sugar. Just watch food videos and you'll see all of them putting sugar in their recipes. I don't know why. And they're fond of saying "put a little sugar" which is often 3 tablespoons. If you're a health buff, thats a lot. Each menu out there in restaurants and karenderia (street corner eatery) has sugar in it. Believe me. And because we're fond of buying these foods (buying karenderia food is more budget-friendly) and claim to have no more time to cook our food, we eat more carbs. What are we going to do about it?

OMAD or TMAD can help. If you eat more than enough rice per meal, you can offset that by eating one and a half meals a day. Eat half rice in the morning, one cup at lunch, and then half rice before 6pm (the before-6pm meal is optional). Drink enough water and get rid of all sweetened drinks. Then make sure you workout, especially walking or jogging, weights, situps and squats. Working out but eating less protein may not give bulk to your muscles but it will tone them, and your carbs will be burned before they get stored up as body fats. Workout regularly.

Most Pinoys, especially in these times of lack, are prone to eat carb-rich meals each day. This makes them more susceptible to bulging tummies, diabetes and serious heart illnesses. Sometimes, it's not our fault. Our time availability and budgets do not allow us to choose our foods. But we can do something to al least lessen the bad effects of carbs-rich foods. 

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