Hi there! I can understand losing motivation. I almost lost it myself during the past few weeks since Thanksgiving. Only problem for me was I was so stinkin' busy I didn't keep track of my FitDay and my bathroom scales were so frustrating I didn't bother weighing. Much to my humiliation, when I did weigh in a few days ago I was up by about three pounds! That was enough for motivation for me! Thank goodness by this morning I was back down two pounds. I know some will say this was probably water weight, but I'm not so sure it was. The timing just wasn't quite right.
I'm thinkin' you could probably call me and my family the frugal gourmets of low-carb cooking. It isn't so much everyone loves to cook, but everyone here loves to eat (and one daughter absolutely adores cooking!), so if we want to eat we have to cook, LOL.
It may be a little late now, but if you can find any turkeys cheap, buy a couple and put in the freezer. We picked up at least a half-dozen before Thanksgiving for around 60-cents a pound. When we have a low motivation day for cooking, we put one in the oven. We also buy a lot of chicken hindquarters at 37-cents a pound, and plenty of ground beef, and fill in with pork and cheaper cuts of beef. One thing I like to keep on hand for a couple of times a week breakfasts or mid-day meals is turkey ham. Jennie-O runs about $1.28 a pound and sometimes cheaper. It's quick and easy to cook some for breakfast.
When you look at how much money you're spending on meat now, think about how much you're not spending on bread, cereals, etc. We no longer spend $20 a month on bread. No more $20 a month going out on cereal, either. Right there is $40 that can be spent on LC friendly foods. We also buy no more pre-prepared foods like chicken nuggets or frozen fish patties. Granted, they're not that expensive, but that money is now spent on LC friendly foods instead. Oh, and my pop habit--almost forgot that! I was spending around $30 a month on pop, and now I may buy 2 bottles a week, if that. And buy half-and-half instead of cream to keep costs down. Sure, the cream is better fat-wise, but it also costs a LOT more.
It takes a little twisting and fenagling, but eventually you do get the hang of the shopping and in the end it seems to level out. I think we spent a lot more during out first month, but now that we're getting used to it, our grocery budget is being about the same as it was before. Frankly, it has to, because we don't have more money to spend on groceries than we did before.
I know what you mean about getting sick of eggs. My well-meaning hubby fixed me eggs for breakfast today (bless his heart, anyway!). I didn't have the heart to tell him I honestly didn't want to eat them. I'd just had fried eggs yesterday morning. There are ways around those eggs, especially once you get off Induction. My breakfast now generally consists of some type of meat (left-overs if I can horde them from the night before, turkey ham if I can't), a few frozen berries with half-and-half, and maybe some kind of veggie like sauteed mushrooms. Thankfully I handled eggs well during Induction.
And by the way, once you reach the end of the two-week Induction period, whether or not you up your carbs, you can start adding things like nuts and berries in moderation. You don't want to overdo any of them. I usually eat 1/4 cup of berries a day (these are frozen whole) as well as 1/4 cup of mixed raw nuts (I buy them in the bulk and mix them myself), and the nutrient content of these foods more than make up for their costs.
Anyhow, best of luck to you, and just don't give up!