Your diet as a loner working

10 comments

1. Matsuya err’day

2. Uber something for less than ¥2,000 for each meal. When you are feeling budget friendly cup noodle.

3. I try to eat a sashimi bowl or similar once a day and make a salad at home every other to get some healthy foods in. In between I’ll go for ramen, Izakaya, curry and sorts. There’s so much good stuff at affordable prices but I find many meals pretty salty/lacking vegetables.

4. Buy a rice cooker. Cook and freeze rice in batches. Use a resource like jutsonecookbook for recipe ideas. Meals will cost around 300 yen and won’t be the unhealthy garbage they serve at restaurants and kombini.

5. I have enough time to cook at home but it’s pretty basic. Easiest thing is to make stir fry, or something with eggs. You can buy pre-mixed frozen stir fry vegetables, all you have to do is chop up some meat or tofu and add some sauce. You can just throw it in an oiled pan and stir every once in a while until the meat is cooked. Set a timer on the rice cooker so it’s ready in time for dinner. I usually just make eggs with some vegetables. It cleans up easy and eggs are healthy. But if I don’t have time to cook I get something from the supermarket. They usually have something premade that has meatballs and vegetables. I can then add some rice with it and it’s a healthy dinner.

6. Find the cheaper supermarkets. These might be Gyomu Supa, Big A, My Basket and others depending on where you live.

   There’ll probably be at least one within walking distance. After that, you should find it’s cheaper and healthier than eating out all the time and you’ll be able to get the basics for what you are used to.

7. I usually try to have my main meal at lunch, taking advantage of 昼定食 offered everywhere (some Chinese restaurants in Ikebukuro give you so much that you can then skip dinner). Then for dinner I’ll go for 回転寿司 or one of the 定食 places or Matuya/Sukiya or one of the マグロ丼 places or a 天丼 place, or Saizeriya, or ラーメン, or a bentō shop, or …

8. saizeriya for dinner everyday. skip breakfast and lunch. ~1000 yen on food per day.

9. Be careful about calories. It’s easy to get into the habit of grabbing a katsu or karaage bento on the way home. But making a pot of soup for the week, or making sandwiches could be much healthier.

10. Meal prep is key for me (I workout and am trying to lose weight), plan what you’ll be cooking/making for the week and buy groceries especially if you need/want to save money.