TOP 10 TIPS FOR EATING HEALTHY ON A BUDGET

Healthy Food Blog

Hey, everybody. It's Kristin Shaffer and you are reading FAB University, where you get everything you need to live a healthy, fit, and fab life right here, right now. In order to lose weight and get into amazing shape you have to focus on your diet. That's got to be one of the primary focuses for you because the reality is that you cannot exercise away a really bad diet.Quite simply, 70 to 80 percent of your success is dependent upon your diet. With that in mind, many of you have been asking me to do a video on how to eat healthy without breaking the bank, and there are several things that you can do, so let's dive right in and get started.

1. Cook your meals. One of the quickest ways on the planet to spend a bunch of money on food is going out to restaurants. At the restaurantsyou are paying for the building, the service, and the food, so cook your meals at home.That saves you a ton of money, plus you know you're preparing your food clean. One dinner out at a restaurant can, quite frankly, be your entire grocery bill for the week. Now, if you're anything like me and you're not a really good cook there are a ton of videos on YouTube on clean, simple cooking, and I even did one that's called Meals for Fat Loss. It shows you how to prep your meals for the week. It's really simple, really quick, really easy. So not being a gourmet cook--that's not an excuse. Cook your meals at home and you'll wind up saving a ton of money. 

2. Do not eat processed foods. Ugh. Yeah. Expensive. When you're buying processed foods not only are you buying the ingredients but you're also buying all the packaging and all the processing that went to put it into that little package so that's costing you extra money. So stick with the whole foods that haven't gone through a whole lot of processing. Stick with the foods that have been picked,

plucked, or harvested--essentially the foods that are closest to the source. That's not to mention that processed foods--most of them--are really, really bad for us. They put on the fat pounds like crazy. 

3. Buy in bulk. Buying in bulk is a great way to eat healthy and save money as well. Eggs, for instance, typically last a few weeks so I tend to buy them in big flats. Oh, look, eggs. This will last me about two weeks. Yeah, I go through a lot of eggs. Too many. One of these days I'm going to start growing feathers and cluck like a chicken. (makes clucking noises) Another one is chicken. Now, I buy these big flats of chicken and I really watch the prices, so when the prices dip down I'll buy quite

a few and stick them in the freezer. They last quite a few months that way. And even oatmeal. You can buy 25-pound bags of rolled oats and it will last you forever. Well, maybe not in my house. 

4. Buy frozen. No, not the movie. Frozen vegetables in particular can be much cheaper than buying fresh, and oftentimes the quality of frozen is actually better than fresh. That's because the producers and growers freeze these very quickly after they're picked or plucked so they don't lose their freshness. And, yes, this is all in my freezer. I oftentimes get asked at the grocery when I'm in the checkout line if I'm buying for a group home. I can't imagine why. 

5. Buy the store brand, not the fancy brands that pay a ton of money to advertise. That's because the store brand is oftentimes even better quality than these big name brands that have been advertising. They spend a ton of money on that. Sometimes the store brand is even manufactured at the same plant that these other big brand names are. So don't pay for the labels and don't pay for the advertising. Buy the store brand which is much cheaper. You'll be getting the same quality and, in some cases, the taste will even be better. 

6. Drink water. Fruit juices and sodas can be really super expensive and you know what? Water is free. Well, I mean, it's not really free because you have to pay your water bill, but it's really, really inexpensive. So I highly advise that you don't spend money on bottled water and the other waters that you can get in the grocery store. I highly advise that you just drink your tap water out of the sink. 

7. No fast food. Do I even need to explain this one? One trip through McDonald's can be a third of your weekly grocery budget. Stay away from fast food altogether.

8. And this one is a touchy one don't buy organic. Now, I know a lot of you are very passionate about organic foods and, if you are, you're just going to have to work that into your budget. But if you're not so passionate about it, stay away from the organic foods because they are typically much more expensive than non-organic. 

9. Buy local and look for coupons. If you happen to live in an area where you might have some local farmers go ahead and check out to see if you can buy from them directly. You'd be surprised at how much cheaper it can be. If you go to them maybe once every three weeks or so and you stock up on your eggs and chicken you can save yourself a ton of money. Also look for coupons. It's a fact that most stores have what they call loss leaders and these are items that they put on sale to get you into the store so that you can buy other things, other value added items, that give them more profit. These are items that the store actually takes a loss on. They don't make any profit. So watch the sales, watch for coupons, and take advantage of those loss leaders. 

10. My favorite look for cheap protein. Out of the clean foods that we have to have in our diet in order to lose weight and to get into great shape, which are proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, proteins are generally the most expensive out of those. They are a critical part of our diet, so that's where you got to get a little creative and you have to watch for the less expensive proteins. My two favorites are chicken and egg whites, of course. (makes clucking noises) Beef right now is really expensive and it has to do with the worldwide market. So what you need to do is kind of watch the prices and get really cognizant of the per-pound prices when you go to the grocery stores and don't hesitate to check out other grocery chains because you know what? Every grocery store is not created equal. What one grocery store might be selling chicken at maybe $1.98 per pound, maybe another grocery store is selling it at $1.70 per pound. 

That can make a big difference when you buy in bulk. Also, depending on where you live, you might  be able to buy local proteins cheaper than you would in other places.  For instance, if you're living in the U.S. on either coast you might be able to get seafood fairly  inexpensively versus somebody who's living in the Midwest. So there you have it my top  tips for eating healthy on a budget. If you want more information on how to get into amazing shape head on over to FAB-University.com and pick up my  Weeks to Sexy, Fit, and FAB plan. If you like this video make sure to hit that "Like" button below. That tells other people that this video is really valuable. Also, don't forget to subscribe. I'm Kristin Shaffer, founder of FAB University and FigureAndBikini.org, and I hope to see you next time. Second try. That's it. Are you recording? Yes. Go, go. No, let's see. So foods that have been pucked--plucked. Plucked. So stick with the foods that have been plicked--plicked. There that don't perish really quickly so that you can (makes babbling noises). So I really highly advise that you drink water. Yeah, that was not planned. I have a drinking problem. This is awkward. Come on, dry that
up. What? Outtakes. That was not what I expected. I didn't want to spit it across the kitchen.