Lifestyle

Keep Your Health Without Breaking the Bank

By Lynn Nalupta

WARNING: You or someone that you know may have said one of the following phrases:

“It’s way too expensive to eat healthy!”

“It costs less money and is more convenient to eat whatever I want.”

“I can’t buy my groceries at _______ (insert local health food store name) because it will break my budget!”

It is no surprise that a healthy diet may be a lower priority in this economy. Across the country, Americans are rethinking where their dollars are being spent. Cutting corners on nonessentials and penny-pinching methods are on everyone’s minds nowadays. But your diet and taste buds don’t need to suffer.

How can you stretch your dollars without compromising a healthy lifestyle?

1. Keep an open mind Think of reframing the way that you shop and prepare meals. Although it may take more work to begin this process, it can help your budget and diet in the long run. If you always complain about this process, food shopping may never be as fun as it can be. So take that first step.

2. Plan! Plan! Plan! We all have to-do lists to help us move through the hectic demands of the week. Map out your meals like you would any other project. Why not take the time before the craziness of the week starts? There are so many blogs and cooking websites that provide you with free recipes and weekly menu templates. Providing yourself with a game plan can save you time. It can also stop the voice in your head that says, “I don’t know what to make for dinner. ”

3. Pantry staples Make sure to go shopping in your pantry before heading out to the grocery store. You may already have the ingredients you need. Every kitchen should have some basic ingredients that can be used in versatile ways. Here are some of mine: extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, pepper, nuts, toasted sesame oil, vinegar, beans, and lentils.

4. Bulk it up! Have you ventured to the bulk section of your grocery store? This is where you will get more bang for your buck! Nuts, grains, dried fruits, beans—it’s all there. While I was giving a client some shopping tips, we compared prices of boxed quinoa to quinoa in the bulk aisle. The savings between the two products were astounding! The bulk aisle was much cheaper. Plus, you decrease the amount of packaging that you end up bringing home. So you are also helping the environment. Feel free to pat your green self on the back!

5. Portion control When I get home from the grocery store, I will often divide my weekly food supply to stretch it out for the week. Reusable containers are great for this. You can take your trail mix or sliced veggies and separate them into bags to snack on at work.

My friend Melissa is a mother of two with another one on the way. To save time and decrease stress through the week, she portions and preps her family dinners for the week in one shot. She keeps all of them in the freezer and has them on hand when they're needed.

6. What’s in season? Eating the seasonal produce will save you money. Be your own investigator and compare prices of fruits and vegetables that are in season to those that are not. You will find that the produce in season is less expensive. Are you confused about what foods are actually in season? Check out our guide here.

7. Take the Prepared and Packaged Foods out of your cart While walking down the vegetable aisle, you can find vegetables that are already diced, minced, or chopped for your convenience. I know that there is more elbow grease involved in prepping your own veggies, but you may end up getting a larger portion when you buy it as-is rather than precut.

Packaged, processed foods may save you in a pinch. Just make sure you know what is on the ingredients list. If you can’t pronounce some of the words or don’t know what they are, how do you know what effect these foods will have on your body? A lot of the frozen meals have a ton of sodium in them to preserve the food.

8. When in doubt, improvise Have you ever seen the show, “Who’s Line is it Anyway?” There is a segment on the show where 2-3 comedians take a random object and each need to present it to the audience in a new, original way. Similarly, you may have times when need to improvise with what you already have.

With all great planning, there may be a day when you don’t have the time or you
forgot to pick up one of the ingredients. It may just be one of those moments
where you just don’t want to go back to the grocery store. Don’t fret. Take this as an opportunity to experiment with what you have. Go into that pantry and explore
your essentials shelf. Who knows? You may come up with something better!

9. Spice up your life Adding flavor to a dish doesn’t always involve upping the salt content. In fact, you can add excitement to a dish with new spices. Explore the spices, oils, and condiment sections at your supermarket.

While at your family table, try this: place pantry staples, spices, oils, and
condiments on a lazy susan. Allow your family to sprinkle or add what they
would like to their own dish.

10. Connect with your kitchen The more that you cook at home, the more money you can keep in your pocket. Sure, we all need a night to chill out with friends but eating out at restaurants all the time can be taxing on your savings. You can use your leftovers for lunch the next day or you could freeze them depending on what you are in the mood for. Plus, you control the amount of salt and other ingredients in your meal.

Lynn Nalupta is a certified health counselor and occupational therapist. She received her training and certification to practice health counseling at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and her bachelor of science degree in occupational therapy from Boston University's Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. She has spent the last six years working with children with special needs. Her approach to health counseling takes into consideration her clients' diets and their lifestyles in order to help them make better food choices, reach their health goals, and live healthier, happy lives that are flexible, fun, and free of denial. For more information, visit thehealthdish.com.

More by Lynn Nalupta

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» Check Your Neck
» Cravings
» Dinner with Andrea
» Fruit
» Go With the Grain
» Holiday Haven
» Jersey Fresh
» Kale and Hearty
» Recharge Your Life
» Roast
» Seaweed
» Snack Attack
» Soup Satisfaction
» Spring
» Spring Cleaning
» The Most Important Meal of the Day
» You Are How You Sleep