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Eat Right and Save Money

What is the Best Way to Save Money and Eat Right in the New Year?

We all want to start the New Year out right and change some things that aren’t working for us. For a lot of us, that means changing the way we eat and spend our money. So what if we tackle both of those topics in one fail swoop? Let’s dive into how to save money and eat right in the New Year to create some balance.

The Secret Ingredient

There is one main secret ingredient to saving money and eating right to create that balance. Breakfast! You may think this one simple thing is a bit crazy, but eating a well balanced breakfast can help achieve a few things, such as:

  • Long Term Satiation.- thereby causing you to eat less throughout the day and assisting with weight control
  • Energy – boosts your energy level in the morning which helps set your all day energy level
  • Saves Money – eating less throughout the day directly impacts how much money you spend on food
  • Balance – sets your mind and body to operate at the maximum potential, thereby assisting with creating balance
  • Overall Wellness – assists with proper immune system function and sets baseline metabolism for the day

Now that we know breakfast can do all of that, let’s talk about how to maximize this to save more money and eat right.

Save money

Eating breakfast has a waterfall effect that can cause us to eat less throughout the day. This translates into us spending less on food. And depending on our food choices, it can dramatically affect our food budget, for the better. I don’t know about you, but I happen to be a big fan of anything that both saves me money and makes me healthier.

Here are some of the best ways to save money on breakfast:

  • Eat less animal protein
  • Incorporate more healthy fats (such as Omega 3’s)
  • Incorporate more fiber for longer term satiability
  • Purchase local produce from a CSA or Farmer’s Market
  • Eat more mindfully because it slows down how fast you eat, and therefore how much you eat.
  • Reduce processed food as much as possible

Eat healthy

Diversity is one of the key ingredients to eating healthy, I have found. The main reason for this is because it increases the number of vitamins, minerals and nutrients you get. This not only keeps you healthier, but keeps you from getting bored with the same old thing.

Some of my favorite staples include:Save Money

  1. Tapas – Walnuts, Half an Avocado with Pink Himalayan Sea Salt, Mandarin Orange, Havarti with Dill or Smoked Gouda, Halved Grape/Cherry Tomatoes, Olives and Cannellini beans. Any combination of these items are my usual suspects.
  2. Toast with Egg and Avocado or Omelette – Gluten Free Toast with Whipped Cream Cheese topped with Avocado and a Fried Egg (or Omelette with Avocado and cheese) with spices paired with a Mandarin Orange and Walnuts.
  3. Cereal – This is a combination of Crunchy Flax Cereal with Kind Peanut Butter Clusters, Sliced Banana, Walnuts and Almond Milk.
  4. Homemade super protein muffins (we prefer pumpkin because of the extra fiber). I add vanilla protein powder and ground flaxseed to my muffin mix (usually homemade but sometimes, when I am short on time, I use the Trader Joe’s Gluten Free Pumpkin Muffin mix).
  5. Yogurt with granola, honey, fruit and ground flaxseed
  6. Hard-boiled egg, half an avocado with pink Himalayan sea salt and apple slices with peanut butter.
  7. Protein Smoothie – usually contains frozen fruit, almond milk, super green food powder, protein powder and ground flaxseed. Adding honey, cayenne and/or lemon can give your body a huge immune and metabolic boost also though, if you are feeling under the weather or trying to burn some extra calories.

What all of these have in common is a really good balance of Protein, Fiber, Carbohydrates, Fruit and Omega 3 Fatty Acids. Creating a good combination of all of these things assists with the incorporation of crucial ingredients needed to rebuild from the “fast”. Not only does it do that but it helps to create balance and keep your budget in check.

start the new year right

We have talked about how eating breakfast can save you money throughout the day on your food budget. We have also given you a few different breakfast choices that can be done on the cheap. Now that you have this information, it is time to take action.

What small changes can you make to your regular breakfast routine this New Year to help you save money and eat right? Do you think this can help your overall health, wellness and budget?

4 comments

  1. Josh says:

    We are planing to do a wheat and sugar fast once our Christmas goodies are gone. Typically we don’t eat wheat and forgot the half-bloated/half-sick feeling we usually get when we eat it on a regular basis.

    For breakfast, I usually have a couple farm fresh eggs or other whole grains as a hearty breakfast means I’m not snacking all morning.

    • Shanah Bell says:

      I love that, Josh! I was just speaking about this exact thing at a Health and Wellness talk earlier this week. The participants loved the idea and didn’t realize how hard wheat and sugar are on our bodies and directly affect our immunity, among other things. Like our waistlines!

      Eggs for breakfast are one of my favorite things with the addition of whole grains because of the longer term sustainability. Great choices and I would love to hear how your wheat and sugar fast are going so far!

    • Shanah Bell says:

      I was just listening to a great podcast on the Model Health Show (http://theshawnstevensonmodel.com/ori-hofmekler/) discussing this exact thing. But what the expert was saying was that we should still eat something for breakfast, as intermittent fasting has the best health effects if we eat dinner earlier and fast for 12-16 hours throughout the night and eat breakfast a bit later.

      I would love to hear your thoughts on intermittent fasting though, as it seems to operate a bit differently for everybody!

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