At that age? I had an awesome positive experience in summer programs for the gifted at Purdue University. Amazing.

This. It's really not possible to eat only protein -- it leads to serious medical issues (rabbit starvation in extreme cases). But you can keep processed carbs eliminated and cut fat down, by using a lot of complex carbs.Check out glycemic index/glycemic load and eat carbs low on that scale.

Aldi for one -- I bought some there recently. I don't use much and what I do use is for cooking so it's pretty reasonable.

I'm really sorry if you felt like I was attacking you. That wasn't my intention -- I was just disagreeing with you. I do think that alcohol is going to be worse -- not because of the nutritionally void calories, but because of the level of alcohol being consumed, which would probably be problematic. Soda is just nutritionally void calories -- but so are a lot of other things such as candy and oreos, which I would also count.

Ya, that's an argument I can easily see both ways. And haha, I would totally agree with you about tp being a need, not a want :D Edit: As I think more about this, when I think about the non-nutritive, what I meant was more "I could see those being separated out as non-food luxuries" rather than "I think those should be separate non-food luxuries" if that makes a difference?

Well this is just me thinking out loud now, heh. I wouldn't count tea or coffee. You could easily drink the water without them. I think those are luxuries. I do count spices but I don't find them to be expensive. I mean yes the up-front cost is non-negligible but they are amortized over a decent lifespan. I could see a totally reasonable argument for not counting them as you could easily eat the food without them. But I do count them. Water is kind of a basic necessity, but I think bottled water is a luxury unless you're living in a place where you really can't drink the tap water. And in that case I'd probably count diet soda as well (why the ??? is soda cheaper than water? but that's another debate). Edit: But quite honestly I'm not firmly set on these -- you know -- what works for your family works for you -- I hadn't really thought in this level of detail before. But I do think that things that add a non-negligible number of calories to the diet should be counted. I'd probably count supplements too, because if I didn't supplement with some fish oil I'd have to eat a lot more fish, which is expensive. The things that don't add food value to the diet are a lot more arguable imo.

Personally I would agree more about the wine because that's a very expensive luxury source of calories. Non-diet soda is a comparatively cheap source, especially in 2L bottles (the off-brand ones here are about 75c) and so replacing those would cost more. I agree w/flyingiguana that I wouldn't count diet soda. Also, if one is consuming enough wine that it's a non-negligible part of the calorie budget, there are likely far more significant problems than a food budget. Edit: This discussion is interesting because it has me thinking quite a bit about it. I should try tracking food in more detail than "oh that bill was at Kroger, it was mostly food".

Yes. And a lot of farmer's markets have tokens so that you can use food stamps to buy food there. The one near my mother's has a two-for-one actually (you cash in $20 in food stamps and get $40 worth of tokens) -- I'm not sure how common this is.

Haha, this I totally agree on. It's not feeding YOUR family. It's feeding your friends. It shouldn't be in your food budget!

I am in no way, shape, or form arguing that soda is a desirable source of calories. But I am arguing that anything that contributes calories to the diet should be counted as part of the food budget, and that if weight loss is not acceptable, the calories need to be replaced. I do not see why this is even debatable. If weight loss is acceptable, of course they do not need to be replaced. But not everyone has spare weight that they are ok with losing.

I haven't used this but I have friends who swear by it -- https://www.doyogawithme.com/

If you didn't lose a significant amount of weight over 5 years without soda, then you almost certainly added more elsewhere. You probably didn't realize it -- most people don't -- but you compensated for them in some way.

That doesn't mean that you can just cut the calories out of your diet without losing weight. Unless her husband needs/wants to lose the weight, he'd have to add more in from another source.

Fat? Forks over Knives seems to take the position that any sort of added fat is unhealthy, and so their recipes tend to have none. If you're just going for vegetarianism, you can use a vegetarian fat in their recipes. For example, in this one, if you sautee the spices and some of the veggies (I usually do at least the onions) first in some fat it will be a lot more yummy and a lot more filling. If you want to stay low-fat, something like miso paste can help with umami.

I've never heard of such a thing but I don't necessarily think it's a bad idea. It fits with the learning self-discipline theme.

Yes indeed. It's like when I'm at the store and I see a 600 calorie bran muffin loaded with sugar. Holy crap, if I wanna indulge I wanna indulge, bring me the COOKIES. They've got just as much sugar and they taste a lot better.

It was really amazing when I started counting calories to realize how much some foods were -- even some that I had always considered healthy. I mean, nuts ARE healthy, but eating a quarter pound of them in a few minutes as a light snack sure adds up.

Try a recipe that's intended for cookie presses. A regular recipe will be too sticky.

Sorry, this is for self, which puts me right around the low-cost plan, above the thrifty.

Definitely not too high, especially for a family that doesn't eschew luxuries or have someone seriously couponing or a farm/large garden.

Pretty reasonable. I tend to come in a bit under $200/mo and I know I could cut that more if I quit drinking diet soda. edit: or if I ate more starch and less vegetables.

Try tracking a week's worth of food in cronometer.com and looking for anything where you're far under RDA that might be related to migraines.

Selenium? Riboflavin?

I'd actually be more inclined to do something else rather than precalc review. I wouldn't want her to get stale, and if she can do all but the imo/putnam problems, she will be excellently prepared. Some focused review right before the class should be all that's necessary. Discrete or stats would be my vote.

Haven't seen mentioned yet -- when mine hurt continuously and badly right at the elbow, it turned out to be an ulnar nerve issue. I had had some issues with waking up with my fingers numb but no other numbness, just pain. Mine was overuse but one of the causes can be sleeping with your elbows bent.