Dieting On A Budget

The rising price of groceries has hit everywhere, including Pittsburg, CA. The high price of food shouldn’t stop you from dieting. Most people think you must eat only fresh fruits and vegetables or include exotic and expensive food in your diet. That’s not true. Eating healthy shouldn’t break your budget. It only takes a little planning to get thinner without making your wallet thinner, too.

Eating healthy is far cheaper than eating at a fast food restaurant.

The prices at fast food places have increased more rapidly than in grocery stores. You can save money when you cook at home. That’s the first place to start. Meal planning is one of the best options to cut the cost of groceries. You plan all the meals at one time, using leftover meat and vegetables from one meal to use in another meal. On another day, you make your grocery list and go shopping. On the weekend or your day off, you cook all your meals at once and divide them into containers for storage. During the rest of the week, just heat and eat.

Save money with frozen and canned fruits and vegetables.

You can even buy extra for future weeks if it’s on sale. While fresh fruits and vegetables are necessary for most garden salads, frozen and canned produce make good side dishes. Frozen vegetables may even be more nutrient-dense than those in the produce section. They’re picked at peak ripeness, then make a short trip to the processing center and quickly frozen. That’s quite different from the route fresh produce takes. Those are picked early and allowed to ripen on the long route to the grocery, where they sit on the shelf for a while before you purchase them. Canned fruits and vegetables have lost only a few nutrients.

Meal planning cuts out waste.

How many times have you looked in the refrigerator and tried to figure out what that leftover used to be? When you plan meals, you know the exact amount for one serving. If you’re cooking for one or two, pack the amount left in containers and freeze them for later. Eventually, you’ll have enough containers for a week or two’s worth of meals. You can skip a week of cooking or save them for an emergency when you can’t cook.

• Use seasonal vegetables for your meals. If they’re inexpensive enough, buy extra and freeze them to use later. Roadside produce stands are also another place to save money.
• You’ll have fewer leftovers and duplications. You can plan around sales and coupons for more savings and have a meatless Monday using beans and brown rice or make eggs or poultry your source of protein.
• If you purchase poultry, cutting it yourself can save money, too. Instead of buying chicken breasts, get a whole chicken and use the other meat for Buddha bowls, soup, or a casserole, or freeze it to use later.
• You’ll not only save money on food, but you’ll also save time, too. When you just heat and eat the food during the week, there’s no sitting in a drive-through line waiting, so you’ll save money on gas.

For more information, contact us today at Thrive Fitness!