Make Sense Living Healthfully - 5 Tips For Saving Your Wallet and Waistline
I always giggle at the category of "health food section" because it just naturally makes me wonder "As opposed to the diseased food section?" "Health food" and its role in losing weight is probably as misunderstood as Michael Jackson.
Healthy eating doesn't have to be expensive, bland or sacrificial.
These valuable tips will keep your wallet fat and your body fit: 1.
Understand how your food choices set you up for your next meal.
When you eat an apple versus a Tastykake or a bland Lean Cuisine (i.
e.
whole food vs.
processed foods), your appetite decreases since you are receiving more nutrition.
Eating less = saving money while losing weight.
Nutrients fill you because your body has what it needs to perform.
After all, the original purpose of food was (and still is) to nourish your body.
Processed foods lack significant nutritional value leaving you over-fed and malnourished - and feeling insanely hungry.
2.
Visit the bulk food section.
Foods like nuts, whole grains, and beans are many times cheaper because there are no advertising, packaging or marketing costs.
Processed foods like Lean Cuisine, Weight Watchers, "fat-free" and "sugar-free" claims cost millions to market (and they are bogus).
Companies like to keep you confused which not only results in failed weight loss, but keeps you obsessing over food.
The more packaging and advertising, the less likely it's nourishing food that will help you with your wallet or weight.
Find the quieter foods that don't need to convince you of anything.
3.
Think of cooking as assembling.
Eating healthy involves cooking, which saves you a bundle.
Many of my clients cringe at the idea of cooking because they imagine elaborate three course meals with non-stop dishes.
But once I introduce them to recipes that feel more like assembling (think of creative salads, scrambled eggs with salsa, etc.
, they see how easy and fun it is).
You can easily have an extra $50 in your wallet at the end of every workweek just from cooking at home.
Plus, it helps you connect to your food.
And bonus: cooking makes you appreciate your food which leads to natural portion control.
4.
Real food decreases your toxic load.
The chemicals in processed foods make it much harder to lose weight.
Your body fat stores the toxins your body cannot process.
More toxins = more stubborn fat.
The mainstream media is finally covering how toxins cause us to gain weight.
Check out this recent article on yahoo.
com about plastic contributing to weight gain: http://shine.
yahoo.
com/event/loveyourbody/why-you-cant-lose-those-last-10-pounds-1964849/ (by the time something's made it to Yahoo! news, you know it's practically written in stone by those of us who aren't paid by big corporate companies for at least five years!).
5.
Visit the grocery store Whole Foods' website:http://www.
wholefoodsmarket.
com Learn how to shop their aisles on a budget, and to implement their monthly specials and recipes into your meal plans.
I understand we all have different values.
Some people balk at paying for good food but will think nothing of buying the latest trend in clothing, or over-priced products that promise to make you beyond beautiful.
But remember this: when you eat well, you are comfortable in your body, your skin glows against shiny hair, there's a huge smile on your face, and you have a je ne sais quoi about you.
So the woman in the elevator who has a Chanel bag swinging from her arm, over-priced tank-top, bumble-bee Gucci sunglasses, and is comparing herself to you, is still going to think you've won because you look way better and, most importantly, you feel healthy.
And beyond the superficial, eating well is an investment in yourself.
Yes, free-range meat costs more than conventional, and organic foods can sometimes be pricier.
But while you may have to spend a bit more upfront, the people who get ahead in life do this all the time.
It's why people invest in real estate or further their education - it pays big bucks! But with food, it pays in the short run too.
You need to think of food as energy and the higher quality you ingest/invest, the more you and your life will be worth.
Healthy eating doesn't have to be expensive, bland or sacrificial.
These valuable tips will keep your wallet fat and your body fit: 1.
Understand how your food choices set you up for your next meal.
When you eat an apple versus a Tastykake or a bland Lean Cuisine (i.
e.
whole food vs.
processed foods), your appetite decreases since you are receiving more nutrition.
Eating less = saving money while losing weight.
Nutrients fill you because your body has what it needs to perform.
After all, the original purpose of food was (and still is) to nourish your body.
Processed foods lack significant nutritional value leaving you over-fed and malnourished - and feeling insanely hungry.
2.
Visit the bulk food section.
Foods like nuts, whole grains, and beans are many times cheaper because there are no advertising, packaging or marketing costs.
Processed foods like Lean Cuisine, Weight Watchers, "fat-free" and "sugar-free" claims cost millions to market (and they are bogus).
Companies like to keep you confused which not only results in failed weight loss, but keeps you obsessing over food.
The more packaging and advertising, the less likely it's nourishing food that will help you with your wallet or weight.
Find the quieter foods that don't need to convince you of anything.
3.
Think of cooking as assembling.
Eating healthy involves cooking, which saves you a bundle.
Many of my clients cringe at the idea of cooking because they imagine elaborate three course meals with non-stop dishes.
But once I introduce them to recipes that feel more like assembling (think of creative salads, scrambled eggs with salsa, etc.
, they see how easy and fun it is).
You can easily have an extra $50 in your wallet at the end of every workweek just from cooking at home.
Plus, it helps you connect to your food.
And bonus: cooking makes you appreciate your food which leads to natural portion control.
4.
Real food decreases your toxic load.
The chemicals in processed foods make it much harder to lose weight.
Your body fat stores the toxins your body cannot process.
More toxins = more stubborn fat.
The mainstream media is finally covering how toxins cause us to gain weight.
Check out this recent article on yahoo.
com about plastic contributing to weight gain: http://shine.
yahoo.
com/event/loveyourbody/why-you-cant-lose-those-last-10-pounds-1964849/ (by the time something's made it to Yahoo! news, you know it's practically written in stone by those of us who aren't paid by big corporate companies for at least five years!).
5.
Visit the grocery store Whole Foods' website:http://www.
wholefoodsmarket.
com Learn how to shop their aisles on a budget, and to implement their monthly specials and recipes into your meal plans.
I understand we all have different values.
Some people balk at paying for good food but will think nothing of buying the latest trend in clothing, or over-priced products that promise to make you beyond beautiful.
But remember this: when you eat well, you are comfortable in your body, your skin glows against shiny hair, there's a huge smile on your face, and you have a je ne sais quoi about you.
So the woman in the elevator who has a Chanel bag swinging from her arm, over-priced tank-top, bumble-bee Gucci sunglasses, and is comparing herself to you, is still going to think you've won because you look way better and, most importantly, you feel healthy.
And beyond the superficial, eating well is an investment in yourself.
Yes, free-range meat costs more than conventional, and organic foods can sometimes be pricier.
But while you may have to spend a bit more upfront, the people who get ahead in life do this all the time.
It's why people invest in real estate or further their education - it pays big bucks! But with food, it pays in the short run too.
You need to think of food as energy and the higher quality you ingest/invest, the more you and your life will be worth.
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