OK, so what is “My Alternative Plan”?  What is it that I do that I can save $$$ instead of shelling out tons of it for Ideal Protein?  Well here it is, broken down, including the price of items roughly and my total cost per day, and per week, and per month (My food cost including dinner is roughly $300/month).  I will advise that IF I do the snack items I have listed, those run about $11 for a box of 7, so that’d be an exchange from the cost of the shake to the cost of the snack on occasion.  Just putting it out there.

Breakfast Shake – GNC Amp 60 Wheybolic Protein powder, one scoop (a serving is 3 scoops and is 60g of protein, so I cut it into 1/3)

Lunch Shake – GNC Amp 60 Wheybolic Protein powder – I recommend chocolate, as the strawberry tastes like Pepto Bismol…yech, and 2 cups veggies, which I usually end up slicing up a cucumber to munch on the rest of the day at work.

Dinner – 6-8 ounces of meat, preferably lean, 2 cups of vegetables

Snack – Wonderslim product, either pudding, oatmeal, or a meal replacement bar, but more likely Proti-Diet chocolate dream bar, which is lower in carbs, higher in protein, and tastes better.

My “Daily cost” is as follows:

Shakes ($0.86/shake, so total $1.92 in shakes)

Lunch veggies:  Cucumbers usually run about $0.75 or so

Dinner Meat: OK this varies, obviously.  Canned tuna is like $1, and steaks are obviously more, so I won’t try to break THAT down.

Dinner Veggie: Most commonly a mix of green and red bell peppers, red or yellow onion, or asparagus.  Typical cost is AROUND $3 total for the veggies (for me and hubby)

Total cost per day for me?  $1.92+$0.75+_______+$3.00= roughly $5.67 before meat, ends up being probably about $10/day on a given day if I do steak, and closer to about $8/day for chicken or fish…ball park on that gets me to about $10/day=$70/week=$280/monthish+supplements ($9/month)=$290/month total

I also take supplements, including One-A-Day, Calcium Magnesium, & Potassium Gluconate. These run me about $15 for the three bottles, and those bottles last me 50 days, as they contain 100 pills and I take 2 pills per item, per day.

I would now like to point out that one PACKET on Ideal Protein (keep in mind you’re supposed to have THREE of these / day) is $4.00, so you’re looking at $12 before you add in the 4 cups of vegetables and 6-8 ounces of meat…just saying…

Wow I can’t believe I wasn’t going to do the math for this, $12+$0.75 (cucumber)+MEAT+$3(dinner veggies)=$15.75/day pre meat, we figured about $4 for a steak and $2.50 for chicken etc. (I rounded up I think)so say $20/day, just about double my cost.  Their supplements are also more expensive, sold in 30 day supplies.  I rant about this in another post, but suffice it to say the cost is like, $50/month or so, an additional $40/month compared to what I pay, roughly.  So IP cost is…20*7=$140/week+$10/week=$150/week total cost*4(weeks)=$600/month total

So I can say “neener neener I save $310 on food every month”.  Also unless I’m mistaken, folks have to go pay to weigh in on a special scale that’s like $15/week or something, but that could be specific to the clinic.