#FitOver40 - 5 Tips To Eating Organically On A Budget

My journey to eating organically started during my first few months in massage school back in 2000. At the time I was married, still reading up on eating organically, learning about genetically modified foods and more. During this time, my husband and I spent way too much on our grocery bill. I think one time we walked out of the store with a receipt that totaled about $400. Oh-My-God. I wish I could find that receipt from so long ago. I'm pretty sure $400 is what we spent. Now how do two people rack up such a huge grocery bill and on groceries that probably only lasted us 2 weeks? Well, for starters, we ate a LOT. During this time I was probably a little over 150 pounds, my husband was over 300 pounds and I think we ate not because we were hungry, but out of habit and also because we were stressed. Food also played a big part in our social life. We were always joining others to go out to eat. And we prepared meals at home like we were at a restaurant, LOL. A meal at home would typically include an appetizer, a salad, a full on meal and yes, even dessert. Oh and bread service, I can't forget bread service, LOL. I remember having one of my manager's cracking up, laughing so hard as we talked about our husbands and I shared that mine loved bread service, even during our meals at home. Hey, nothing wrong with that as we both were the type of women who loved taking care of our husbands in this way, but I tell you what, buying food to prepare like you're dining out 5 to 7 days a week was pretty darn costly.
If you read the first #FitOver40 blog post you may recall that after my divorce I had to do deeper budget cuts and got my monthly grocery bill down to $100 to $140 a month. Not bad I think for eating organically. Before sharing my tips for eating organically on a budget, I will briefly share that I highly contribute my lowering my cholesterol to eating healthy and exercising and praise be to God I have not had any serious health conditions. I contribute this to eating organically as well as contininuing my spa and massage rituals like doing body brushing daily and a monthly seaweed wrap which helps to detox heavy metals from the body. More on that later. So here are my top 5 tips for eating organically on a budget.

1. Eat in moderation - I use myplate.gov to see how much food I should eat from each food group. It suggests that I only need 6 ounces of protein a day. And just to think back in the day I would easily eat 8 ounces of protein at JUST ONE meal probably eating 16 ounces of protein a day. Wow, that's a lot of protein.
2. Use Coupons - It really helps. I like to pick up the Whole Foods coupon booklet when I first enter the store and see if there is anything on my list that has a coupon.
3. Eat your grains - Before turning to eating healthier, I ate no whole grains AT ALL. I maybe had a piece of white bread when visiting family and whatever bread was served to us during bread service while eating out. And at home, bread was biscuits out of a can for breakfast and toasted french bread with garlic and butter for dinner. Once I started to add whole grains like brown rice, steel cut oats and granola I felt more full causing me to eat less. I want to say I read once upon a time that eating such whole grains and eating every 3 to 4 hours helps to keep our blood sugar regulated. That's also great for keeping weight off and for a healthier self.
4.Eat various forms of protein. Meat can be expensive. When you consider that beans and eggs are protein and count eating items like that as part of your daily protein intake, you can save a LOT of money. Eggs typically equal one ounce of protein and you can get a dozen of organic, cage free ceggs for only $3. That's only .25 cents for an ounce of protein versus what an ounce of chicken, beef or fish may cost. Adding forms of protein other than meat has also been healthier for my heart, vessels and other organs.
5. Buy produce that is in season - I LOVE strawberries, but simply can't bring myself to purchase them out of season when they cost like $6 for a carton. When in season I get them for half that cost. Buying produce in season also helps me to explore preparing various vegetables. I love summer squash and have returned to favorite vegetables that I forgot I enjoyed.

Cheers to eating healthy, feeling great and doing it for the low low. :) And speaking of low, low, since Amazon Prime has teamed up with Whole Foods, you can save on your groceries that way too. Often time the store has specials just for Amazon Prime members and 10% off your total bill. Visit my Amazon page and search for Amazon Prime Membership to check out all of the goodies you can receive as a member.

Alright ya'll, thank you so much for stopping by and remember to join me every Friday as I share my continued journey of staying #FitOver40.

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