I want to touch on the expense of living a Paleo lifestyle in diet & exercise alike as this has recently come up again. Eating all natural, whole foods is ideal for a Paleo diet; but if you can't find organic items readily available at a reasonable price or if the grass-fed meat selection is just too expensive for you then go with the commercial products. No they won't have as many nutrients, but
eating commercial fruits/veggies/meats is better than eating prepackaged foods/grains/legumes/dairy.
When I first started eating healthier I was cooking more so I was buying more. It was definitely more expensive than I was used to since I never added up my fast food receipts, but that was because I didn't know where I could get the best deals. I did research on how to save money on grocery shopping. I came across a life saving book at
Half Price Books (if you've never been here you're missing out!!) called
The Coupon Mom's Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half by Stephanie Nelson for $3.99. You can also visit her website,
CouponMom.com, to get some great information without buying the book.
The best advice I can give you is to
price match. Use a notebook to track your items purchased & their prices. (I know it sounds like a lot of work, but if you go in with a list in hand you're more likely to stick to your list & not pick up random items that "look good." Therefore saving you money right off the bat without even writing down their prices!) Then visit different stores in your area to get familiar with the prices of their produce & meats. I set out on a mission to shop at each store around my neighborhood to see who consistently had the best prices. I also cut coupons so I was saving James & I about $15-30 a week which brought our weekly average to about $70. (That figure includes the "big ticket" items we occasionally have to buy when we run out like spices, teas, etc.) However, we were constantly stopping by the corner store for granola bars or snacks because we were overloading on carbs & burning through them so quickly that we were constantly hungry.
Then we started living a Paleo lifestyle & suddenly the coupons weren't for things I was buying anymore (besides toilet paper/paper towels). This is when my price matching came in handy from shopping at the different stores. I knew who consistently had the lowest cost of produce & meats. I'm lucky that I live in a big city where I have a ton of options to choose from, but in my area Sprouts has the lowest prices on produce & meats. Sprouts is a farmers market grocery store so I know for the most part I'm getting locally grown products (products from Mexico are considered locally grown here in Texas). Whole Foods & Market Street are great for specialty items like coconut milk, etc. that you won't find in most grocery stores, but they can't beat Sprouts's prices. James & I usually buy $20-$30 worth of produce that lasts us for a week. We buy most of our meats from the butcher counter &
plan our meals around what's on sale for the best price! (This is where you'll save the most money! When you find "your" store make sure you check their online ads to see what is on sale that week & plan your meals around that as much as possible.) Our normal grocery bill now is about $90-$100 every week, but this includes breakfasts, lunches, dinners, & snacks so we are definitely get the most out of our money by shopping here. (That figure includes the "big ticket" items we occasionally have to buy when we run out like spices, teas, etc.) Our grocery bill may look like it has gone up since we made the switch to a natural, whole foods Paleo diet, but really it's been an even trade because we don't hit the corner stores anymore. However, I do want to point out that we are both students & live on a very tight budget so we do not buy organic or grass fed unless it is on sale. This is another big reason we shop at Sprouts since most of the produce is locally grown it is unlikely to have a high amount of preservatives.
*Also, if you just can't live without milk or cheese then choose grass-fed organic milk & cheese while trying to limit your intake as well. This should be an item you splurge on so put the higher cost into your budget if you
absolutely can't live without.*
As far as working out goes, you do not have to pay for a gym membership to get your physical activity in. I choose to be a part of a gym because seeing others sweating it motivates me to push harder, there are classes I can take for free with my membership, & a swimming pool I can swim laps in if I want.
On the flip side, there are also a plethora of free options:
- Walking/Jogging/Running outside
- YouTube has at-home exercise videos
- bodyrock.tv is an at-home exercise video site
- Yoga poses you can look up on the internet
- Exercises using your own body weight i.e. pushups, planks, jumping jacks, toe touches, mountain climbers, etc.
The bottom line is this, if you want to live a healthier lifestyle you will, but until then there is a wide range of excuses you can conjure up to justify why you're not doing it. If you're reading my blog then you've already taken the first step by getting informed. Get motivated, get inspired, find what works for you & get healthy!
You can do this!!
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