Earlier this week I received an email from a dear friend, wondering if I had any tricks for eating healthy without it costing an insane amount. She said, "I'm finding it more difficult to keep the standards I want to keep and not having it cost an arm and a leg."
Can you relate to this?
I get asked this question a lot! It's really easy to have a small grocery budget and fill your body with junk. So when we begin to transition to a more purposeful and intentional way of eating, sourcing humanely-raised protein and organic produce, it can be tough to swallow the larger grocery bill that comes with.
I absolutely have tips for eating clean without breaking the bank. I could easily write a blog post titled "1000 Ways to Save Money and Eat Healthy". We have a family of five so I can sympathize with those bigger grocery bills! {My oldest is 13 and I can't even imagine how much it will cost to feed him as he continues to grow!}
But, in addition to teaching you some strategies around budgeting and how to shop for deals, I also want to widen your perspective a bit.
This is what we know: The food we eat literally builds our cells.
It is the biggest determiner of our overall health, risk of disease, the integrity of our immune system, and our ability to recover when we're struck down from injury or illness. The quality of the food we eat matters BIG TIME! It's about far more than looking good in a bikini.
It's easy to look at our grocery bill, gym membership, nutritionist, acupuncturist, personal trainer, or chiropractor and think of those as "expenses". I view them as an investment. And wise investments in your health not only improve the quality of your life but they save you money in the long run.
When I choose to spend $1 more on organic produce I take into account that by taking less trips to the doctor's office, urgent care, filling prescriptions, buying OTC meds, and taking time off work to nurse sick kids, I SAVE money.
When I pay a little more for high-quality olive oil and fancy almond milk yogurt I take into account that I haven't had to swing by and grab a coffee at Starbucks in YEARS. {That used to be a several times a week habit because I "needed" an afternoon pick-me-up.} I don't have blood sugar crashes that force me to make impulse buys at the gas station or baseball snack bar.
$5 here and $5 there on the random coffee, candy, energy drink, diet soda, fresh-pressed juice... they all add up! I found that when I started working on my health I stopped spending money in a lot of other categories that I wasn't including in my "grocery budget".
I've had friends pour out their hearts about how they desperately want to get in shape but can't afford a gym membership... yet they swing by Starbucks every day.
I've had clients tell me they would love to buy grass-fed beef for their family because they know how much healthier it is but it's just "too expensive"... and in the next sentence spill about the $200 pair of shoes they splurged on.
On the flip side, I've had friends give up their Friday night dinners on the town to save $100 each week and allocate that money towards high-quality supplements.
I've had clients decide to do their own mani-pedi's for a few months so they could afford to do my group program.
Money is a super sensitive topic, I get it! I'm certainly not telling you how to spend yours or passing any judgement on what's a priority for you. As a coach it's my job to call my clients out when their confessing one priority with their mouth and their actions are saying something different. That's how we get them to achieve their goals!
It feels GOOD to live in alignment with your priorities. When you say something is important with your mouth, you believe it with your heart, and you live it through your life, that's a life of integrity.
I totally understand that there are some circumstances where the desire is there but the money is literally not. I've coached my clients through being at peace with doing the best they can right now and how to get the most out of the dollars they have.
We're all on different journeys, and no matter where you are on yours, there is always room for growth.
So now I want to ask you, are budget-friendly tips something you'd like to see more of? Are you wondering what are the expenses you should prioritize first to get the most bang for your buck? I always want these weekly newsletters to be full of content that you actually want to read and are helpful for your life. Like I said above, I have at least 1000 tips on this topic. ;)
