How do I stay away from the Carbs?

are you making these pasta, potato, and bready meals... or buying them?

I wish I had some advice...

Bump because I'd like to see some of the responses to this.

Even though I have incorporated protein shakes into my daily snacks - I stll manage to be higher in carbs. Grrrr.

I am being really good and healthy with what I am eating recently whilst feeling full and energetic.

I have granola in the morning, and ryvita's crackerbread with light phili for lunch.

BUT.. I can't stay from the carbs for dinner. I fill up with pasta dishes, potato dishes and bready meals for dinner.
I am a student and I can't afford to buy meat so I tend to have quite vegetable based foods, but I don't really know what to do about the carbs.

Are there any replacements that are cheap and filling?

Thanks in advance for any advice

There are lots of meats on sale, there's always something so I don't really understand that statement. but . . eat beans, lentils, nuts, incorporate eggs (cheap protein), look at vegetarian diets, there's nothing wrong with having an all vegetable meal.

Maybe you can get a crock pot from someone pretty cheap pr free and make some stew or chili or roast beef. These things would last me all week if not longer when I feeding only myself. Just be sure to splurge a little on leaner meats. When you can eat it for a week the cost really isn't that bad.

I also made myself lettuce wraps and sandwiches. Mainly because for me bread would go bad and a head of lettuce is so cheap.

I guess I can't help because I intentionally eat a high carb diet, low protein and low fat. No meat at all and very little dairy or other animal protein. Watch my micronutrients closely and eat 5-7 small meals a day. I am 54, have tons of energy, am never sick, walk 4-5 miles a day and strength train.

Carbs are good it's all about portion control to stay in your set caloric requirements. Being a student you need the energy carbs will give you.

If you just start cutting back from REFINED carbs from one meal like lunch first for a few days, then do another meal so your only getting one serving of major carbs like maybe breakfast and then eat more eggs, lean meats and veggies ...process carbs are addicting so your basically addicted and literally have to break the addiction. Natural carbs are different ...think of anything that is NOT created by man, Buy stuff the grows above ground and on trees is good carbs is. Too many people eat too many carbs compared to there dairy,protein and veggies/fruits. There is over consumption of bad cards with very little protein and veggies/fruit /dairy. If you interested in really understanding good versus bad carbs here is an awesome link. Good luck!!

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-primal-carbohydrate-continuum/

If you are buying pre made/jarred/tinned sauces you are over spending right there! Hopefully, the pasta is whole wheat and the potatoes are sweet potatoes. If you are measuring the amounts and counting the calories and staying at your daily goal then you are fine. Just don't waste money on pre made sauces...

I know this sounds crazy but you have to eat more to lose weight. The hard part is eating the right foods. I think you're eating all that pasta, breads, etc., for dinner because you're not eating enough food throughout the day so when you get home you're really hungry.

It might help if you break your meals down into smaller meals. The nutritionist I went to last year had me eating 4 to 5 small meals a day. I was about 280 lbs. He wanted me to keep the meals between 300 and 400 calories each. On the days I worked out I could eat between 1800 and 2000 calories. On the days I didn't exercise I had to keep my calories between 1500 and 1800. When I followed his plan I wasn't hungry later on in the day. I was eating about every 3 hours. If you can do this you won't be so hungry in the evening. I wish I could say it was easy to do but it isn't...

It takes a lot of ahead planning to stick with it. I sat down and planned my meals out each week and used a cooler to carry them in. I'd do well for 3 or 4 months and then I'd start eating wrong again because I would get lazy.

I had to stop eating all refined sugar, no dairy except low fat cottage cheese and my carbmaster yogurt, all my fats had to come from good fats, no white flour and limited whole wheat bread, no white rice, or potatoes (I could have sweet potatoes as long as they were baked with no butter etc.. and only as a treat). If I was down in weight or body fat I could reward myself with something that wanted to eat but had to limit the amount I ate.

As far as nuts went I was only allowed almonds. My peanut butter was supposed to be a certain one but I didn't like the taste so I cheated and ate the Jiffy brand. Peanut butter and a banana helped me a lot when I was craving sugar the first week.

Once I made it through the first week eating clean wasn't too bad and I wasn't craving sweets or looking through my cupboards late at night. The only times I got hungry was when I didn't eat every 3 or 4 hours.

He also didn't want me drinking dark colored diet drinks. He asked me to switch to Fresca and to only have one each night with dinner. The rest of the time it was water or maybe a cup of coffee.

I'm a sugar, bread, and pasta addict. Kicking the sugar and white flour was a bear for the first 4 days

One of the tricks my nutritionist had me do was to buy prepackaged raw or roasted almonds from Trader Joe's. The bag comes with smaller bags that have about 20 or 25 almonds in each bag. One of my meals was a large apple, one bag of almonds, and a large glass of water. Trader Joe's also carries a ready to drink protein shake that has 21 grams of protein and is only 110 calories (good for a quick meal if you’re in a bind to eat on time). They use to sell Ezekiel bread but I hear they have their own brand now (it's a sprouted grain) and is better than whole wheat bread.

He made a big deal out of breakfast. I use to eat very little breakfast or too much bacon, eggs, and white bread. Breakfast on my workout days is a slice of whole wheat bread, with a level tablespoon of peanut butter, and half a banana an hour before I work out. On the days I didn't work out he wanted me eating a slice of the Ezekiel bread with one whole egg and 3 or 4 egg whites. On some workout days I would have a cup of Trader Joe's whole grain oatmeal with some of Ralph's carbmaster yogurt (which only has 3 grams of sugar). I would cheat and chop about 10 almonds to mix in too. It is a great meal and use to have it for dinner some times.

I use to reward myself by going to Outback Steak house each Sunday. I would have the shirmp skerwers and a plain baked yam. Never touched the bread or butter.

I went from 280lbs down to 229 pretty fast. I got carried away with the exercise. I was going to a trainer for an hour three times a week and I would get there an hour early and do cardio. Then on my off days I was using my treadmill each night while I watched TV.

He would weigh me each week and take my body fat every other week. I also was required to text or e-mail him each day what I ate and would get a call every day of the week from him.

The goal was to get down to 200 lbs. I went from a size 48 pants (should have been wearing size 50) down to a size 40 and was almost in 38's. I felt great and had lots of energy. My wife and some of my friends said I looked to thin or I looked sick. I just think everyone was used to seeing me fat. I still had 29 pounds to lose but decided I could maintain on my own so I stopped going to him. About two months later I quit going to my trainer and then I started not watching what I was eating and my weight started to creep back up.

Really think being held accountable for my weight each week was one of the reasons I stopped going to the nutritionist and my trainer. Now I'm back to my trainer and working hard but eating clean has been hard for me. I know what I'm supposed to do but just can't seem to eat clean consistently.

The nutritionist also told me I can eat whatever I want when I got down to my goal weight. The only thing I had to watch was how much I ate. It's all about how many calories you consume and how many calories you burn. I go to ball games from time to time and he would tell to take a sandwich to the game instead of having a hotdog but If I wanted a hotdog to go ahead and have one but I owed him extra cardio and I had to bank some calories and keep my calorie intake the same (in other words I still had to shoot for my weekly calorie goal).

I was never heavy as a kid. Seems like the weight started piling on when I was around 30 years old (I'm 63 now). In my younger days I was very active and as I got older got away from being active and seem to be working all the time.

Sorry I got carried away! I hope you make your goal and have a great wedding in Feb. Good Luck and try to eat clean!