Healthy and Cheap Ways To Switch Up Your Diet For The Better

Switch up your lifestyle with some healthy eating! Over quarantine, my healthy diet plan quickly slipped away from me. Now I want to share some easy ways I got back on track without completely going broke.

Starting a new diet can be extremely difficult and requires a lot of practice and dedication, but you will quickly see how beneficial a healthy lifestyle can be. But living clean has its drawbacks, mainly monetarily. Natural Organic food quickly becomes expensive, and without a solid plan you could lose more money than its worth. So what can you do to budget yet stay healthy?

“By choosing healthy over skinny, you are choosing self-love over self-judgement. -Steve Maraboli.”

Stores to Explore

Due to the growing awareness of healthy eating, it has become fairly popular for stores to offer diet or all-natural options. While this is great for aspiring health gurus, this doesn't help those of us still looking to maintain a fairly low store budget, as many of these items are far too expensive to be viable. However, after a lot of research and some trial and error, I was able to find several stores that still offered reasonable prices. Aldi, which is a supermarket located in over 20 countries, is one of my ultimate favorites. They often sell produce like fruits and veggies for far cheaper than any other grocery store chain around. You can save a lot more money shopping at Aldi's than you will at a store like Wegmans or Walmart as long as you don't mind not buying name-brand. Some other budget stores I have often shopped at are Walmart, and Costco, although the later often sells in bulk which is still an issue for those with limited spaces.

Planning and Preparation

Sometimes it's as simple as switching up the stuff you buy, rather than adding stuff into your budget. For example, the figure below explains some easy ways you can maintain a healthy diet by simply switching up your previous eating habits. Instead of buying all junk food maybe try a bag of fruit. If you have the time to food prep, this is also a huge asset to any meal plan. Overnights oats, for example, only take ten minutes to make and can be a healthy and tasty alternative to cereal. Overall, planning what you want to eat can also save you from overbuying groceries in the store.

Stay Fun: A Reminder

While it is often beneficial to eat healthy, it isn't for everyone. If you are struggling with a meal plan and it is affecting your mental health than you should try something else. Eating healthy is about taking care of yourself, and if it is making you miserable than you need to explore what else might work for you instead. Eating healthy doesn't mean losing weight, and if you are too hard on yourself your body will still be affected for the worse.

Thank you for reading!