You Think You Can't Afford to Eat Healthy

It's been a while since I wrote anything and I just saw a post of Facebook that inspired me.  Someone who has diabetes said they tried eating healthy but it was cheaper to eat junk food so they do.  Oh my goodness!  I don't believe that for one minute!  Perhaps junk food is the easier way but it's not expensive to eat healthy.  We have a limited budget for groceries, and from talking to people my grocery budget is less than most folks.  We don't eat junk at my house.  When the doctor told my husband he didn't have to continue taking medicine for his high blood sugar if he would keep doing what he was doing it inspired me to do the right thing and make sure that we eat healthy.  Not knocking anyone who has to take meds for diabetes but my husband is the type that does not want to take any type of medicine.  He won't even hardly take anything for a headache (which he rarely gets, lucky him).

So why do I say you can afford to eat healthy?  Recently I started receiving a produce box each week from a local farm.  It contains produce and fruit.  But even when I bought my produce at the grocery store I stayed within my budget and bought my produce.  We also recently started going to the butcher and buying a month's worth of meat but even when I went to the grocery store I stayed within my budget.  One of the key ways that helped me at the grocery store was to plan my week's meals, make a list, stick to my list and shop only the perimeter of the store (with the exception of picking up oats or something on my list that was in an aisle).  At the checkout my basket contained produce, meat and dairy products.

I also would go on-line to my grocery store's site and view the weekly ad and make my list based on the sale for the week.  Grocery stores tend to do cycles with their ads so if you learn their cycle and shop their sale its a win!  I would recommend if you have a local farm that delivers produce boxes to check them out and also if you have a butcher shop to check them out.  My produce box is $25 each week I buy one (right now I'm getting them weekly) and the mini freezer fill at our butcher shop was $160 (plenty for two) and the large freezer fill was $230 (for a family more than 2).  Basically I'm spending $260 for the main part of my groceries and then I purchase my dairy (butter, milk, eggs) at the grocery store. I also buy wild caught fish at the seafood counter of my grocery store but the butcher here also has fresh seafood on Thursdays so either place will get me my weekly serving of fish.  We also go to the farmer's market and purchase honey, locally made pimento cheese, goat cheese, etc.  Fresh is best.  The fewer ingredients the better.  Non GMO is better.  I also make my own tartar sauce, my own taco seasoning, my own mayonnaise and anything else I can to make sure the ingredients are simple and no additives.

Things I stopped buying:  white bread, white rice, white potatoes, potato chips, cereal (except Kashi or Great Grains are pretty good), french fries, anything white basically.  I still buy sugar because I have to make sweet tea for my kids when they visit LOL!  We now drink unsweet tea.  We use honey to sweeten our oats.  We do not use artificial sweeteners at all.  Below I'm going to post an example of a week's worth of meals at my house.

Breakfast each morning:  we have oats with walnuts or pecans, cinnamon and honey or we will have bacon and eggs or sausage and eggs or an omelette (I rotate so we don't eat the same thing every morning)

Lunch:  I use Dave's Killer Bread Super Power Seed and fix 1/2 sandwich with lunch meat (Boar's Head or Dietz & Watson are best) or with natural peanut butter and jelly sweetened with honey, cucumber slices or bell pepper slices, nuts, yogurt (be careful because some are high in sugar & carbs), cheese slices or string cheese, fruit such as an apple, peach, or strawberries.  Sounds like a lot but it's so we can snack throughout the day to keep blood sugar balanced out.

Dinner:

Monday:  Pork chops & baked sweet potatoes

Tuesday:  Baked chicken & roasted squash/zucchini/onion

Wednesday:  Wild Caught Cod baked (I've shared the recipe previously)  served over long grain brown rice

Thursday:  Meatloaf, mashed sweet potatoes (made with honey, cinnamon and butter), green beans

Friday:  Steaks on the grill, baked sweet potato and possibly a tossed salad (spinach, strawberries, blue cheese crumbles and pecans)

Saturday:  Ribs on the grill, sweet potato fries, and a squash casserole

Sunday:  It's our day to eat out for lunch and we usually don't eat dinner but we will eat healthy snacks or any leftover lunch we had.  We also select items on the menu that are healthy and opt for a sweet potato and not a baked potato.  If they don't have sweet potato we get veggies or a salad.

We also will take leftover dinner for lunch the next day when there are leftovers.

The one thing we also have almost every night is we treat our self to one scoop of Turkey Hill All Natural butter pecan ice cream.  The Turkey HIll All Natural has the fewest ingredients and its low in carbs and sugars without artificial sweeteners.  I  use a small bowl too so that way it "feels" like a lot of ice cream. 

I challenge anyone who thinks they can't eat healthy to just try it.  Shopping the sale cycle of your local grocery store is beneficial.  I always knew when they had meats buy one get one free and would stock up on stew meat, chicken breasts, cube steak and tenderloin.  If pork shoulder was on sale I'd buy one as well because it would feed us for a couple of days.  I think the key is planning out your week's meals, making a list and sticking to it.

Another help is lemon water.  Drink it all throughout the day.  We only drink water, coffee or unsweet tea.  No soda, no diet soda, no sweet tea.  You can do it!