10 Ways to Eat Healthy on a Budget

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Welcome to the Virgin Diet Lifestyle show with your host, celebrity nutrition and fitness expert and New York Times best selling author, JJ Virgin.

One of the biggest myths out there is that it costs more to eat healthy. In today's show, I'm going to bust that myth wide open and give you 10 simple strategies that that will have you eating great food while saving cash at the checkout counter. In fact, I did a little experiment of my own where I filled up two shopping carts at the local grocery store. I filled one with a typical week's worth of food. By the way, I stocked other people's carts to see what they were buying and the other one with a week's worth of Virgin Diet approved food. I even added in my Virgin Diet shakes and Virgin Diet bars. You know, the results shocked even me. The typical cart costs 38 bucks more than the Virgin Diet cart. So here are some of the techniques I use to make that difference. First of all, buy locally and in season. When you buy in season, it means fresher, more delicious, nutrient dense foods. And by the way, they're less expensive. Asparagus peaks in the spring while blueberries are ripest in the summer. Learn which foods match with the season to boost your health, support your local growers and save a few bucks in the bargain. Buy frozen and stock up. You know, sometimes I just forget about it. I bought a few heads of organic cauliflower. I had a change in dinner plans and those poor things just browned out in my fridge crisper drawer. Darn it, seven bucks down the drain. So frozen foods can eliminate that problem and save you money. You can buy weeks, months. Heck, let's say months. I was going to say years, but let's not get crazy. Worth of frozen kale, raspberries and other favorites to store in your freezer. So you always have essentials for soups, shakes, stews and side dishes. Now big one number three, skip those convenience foods. That is where you're just hemorrhaging cash. You know, you're short on time. You go to the supermarket. And by the way, those supermarkets cash in when you get those pre sliced veggies, the cleaned and trimmed chicken breasts, even those pre cooked foods. And you know if you're getting those veggies all sliced up the minute you Start cutting them, you start losing nutrients. Once I realized that prepared broccoli florets cost twice as much as organic broccoli heads, and that I could buy a whole chicken for the same cost as four tiny chicken breasts, you know, saving a little time wasn't worth spending a lot more money. What making foods from scratch demands in time pales in comparison to how much money you save. Alright, so now less meat, more plant based foods. They're loaded with nutrients, they're high quality protein and essential fatty acids. You know what I'm talking about. Grass fed beef and wild caught salmon. And by the way, they're great for your health, but sometimes they can get a little expensive. I say go to your local farmers, right? But if you're trying to feed your family, include those in. But then stretch your dollars by loading up with inexpensive filling, cruciferous veggies, avocados, slow release high fiber carbs like quinoa and legumes, that's all part of that virgin diet plate. And that's going to help save you cash. Okay, my mantra, start your day with a protein shake. Start your day with a virgin diet shake. You know the two big reasons that I hear excuses? The people don't eat breakfast. Number one time. Number two, they're not hungry. Okay, first off, you want to get your body used to eating in the morning. Because if you're not hungry in the morning, when are you hungry? I'm guessing late at night. Not good. So those breakfast skippers, I see them a lot of times counting coffee as their breakfast. Sorry, it's not. Or the people who are rushed, I see them running through their local coffee place or worchette drive through and grabbing the coffee and maybe they think they're being healthy. Getting that muffin. Hey guess what? That muffin, It's a cupcake. And expensive at that. Look at what you're spending at that coffee place every day. Oh my gosh. You can have a shake for half that if not more and get a lot more nutrition. In fact, one meta analysis of six studies found a nutrient fortified meal replacement shake could safely and effectively produce significant sustainable weight loss and improve weight related risk factors of disease. For less than a designer coffee, you can create a filling fat burning virgin diet shake. With virgin diet all in one protein powder. Throw in some frozen berries, some freshly ground flaxseed meal or chia, some kale or other leafy greens like spinach and of course so delicious coconut milk or almond milk, make sure it's unsweetened. Great nutrition, low Cash Next one. Check out around your area and see if you have either a farmers collective, co op or csa. You know most cities have them. You can google this online and this is where you pick up a basket each week or you volunteer your time or you go and do your own picking. I mean the cool news is you are supporting these local farmers. You are getting local fresh food. You know where it's coming from, right? And you'll also find that there's similar opportunities beyond just produce for grass fed beef and other pasture raised foods. In fact, your city probably has a farmer's market too during the warmer months. Now I live in Palm Springs, they're all warmers months, so we have it all year round. But check out those farmers markets because that's a great place to get a deal. And it also gives you an opportunity to get to know your farmers so you really know how they're producing their food and you're supporting them as well.

Double hey jj, Virgin here. Okay, real talk.

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Okay, load your plate with high fiber foods. My number one nutrient for eating. Less fiber. It slows down stomach emptying, it balances your blood sugar, it curbs your cravings and it makes you feel fuller, faster. I mean, what is not to love there besides the fact it also feeds the good bacteria in your gut? This is a major issue. We're finding now that people have too much bad bacteria that's causing you to extract more calories from the food you eat. Store them as fat. That means you're not eating much and you're gaining weight. I've seen it happen with several clients. Yikes. You know the other thing with good bacteria is it's going to help you have a better immune system and extract more nutrients from your food. Really critical. So fiber. What I want you to do is you're going to aim for about 50 grams of fiber a day. So you want to include a couple of inexpensive high fiber foods at every meal. So let me give you some that are easy to do. Avocado, believe it or not, high fiber legumes, lentils, black beans, garbanzos, raw nuts and seeds. Actually, I like to soak my nuts and then let them dehydrate or slow roast them. I've got that recipe in the Virgin diet cookbook. Seeds, chia seeds. Soak them in some coconut milk and then make your shake out of that freshly ground flaxseed meal and of course, loads of non starchy vegetables.

Huge.

Now this is is my secret weapon to bypass those seconds and reduce your dessert hankering. Here it is.

Ready.

Stir a scoop of freshly ground flaxseed meal or my extra fiber supplement into water and then have that 30 to 60 minutes before a meal. Boom, baby. All right. Prepare ahead of time. You know the saying, we've all heard it. Fail to plan, plan to fail. So whether your goal is fast fat loss or getting a healthy meal on the table for your family, thinking ahead can save you time, money and effort. Now, if you know you're going to be stuck late at work tomorrow, prep those dinner ingredients and you'll be far less tempted to spike your credit card bill, ordering in or grabbing takeout. What I like to do, and a lot of my clients do, is we'll take a free day Like Sunday and make it the prep day for the week ahead. And I really stock up that freezer like we've talked about earlier, so that I've got grab and go stuff. Other thing you want to do is learn the dirty dozen. Now, in a perfect world, every food would be organic. It's not a perfect world. Realistically. Sometimes it's hard to justify spending three times for organic produce that looks like it's kind of rotting there. So what you want to know is you want to know the dirty dozen. These are the ones that you want to make sure that you're buying. These are the most contaminated foods. Okay, then look at the Clean 15. These are your least contaminated foods. And if you're going to buy non organic, this is where you go those clean 15. And so how do you find this out? You go to ewg.org that's for environmentalworkinggroup.org but this is a great resource. You really know where to spend your money. Okay, final one, brew your own. Now, if you've been listening to me at all, you kind of know that I love coffee and I love bulletproof coffee. Thanks, Dave. So I try to brew my own as much as possible of great coffee and ice cream tea. I mean, when you look at how much you can buy some tea bags for and make loads of ice cream tea versus what you're spending at the store at one of those coffee places, it is crazy. Now you know, you could probably save big money making your own pinot noir or gluten free beer, but I'm not going that crazy. But you look at it and I think of a client of mine who, you know, wasn't thinking about it. She was spending 35 bucks a week on these sugary lattes. By the way, skinny latte sugar, don't be fooled, and stale pastries. Your caffeine habit can take its toll not only on your cash, on your pocketbook, but your waistline too. So I want you to become your own barista and brew your own cups of organic coffee or green tea for five, far less than what you'd spend at the coffee shop. So I love, I'm doing green teas that have a little bit of fruit essence in them like orchard, peach or cherry blossom. You know, pick a couple, mix and match and always keep a fresh pitcher in the fridge. If you'd like a free transcript of today's show, text 58885 and enter save. And the number one save one again, your first name space and your email address. So that was 58885 and then you enter Save One Space, your first name space and your email address. In the Virgin Diet I have you swap seven foods for three weeks to uncover your hidden food intolerance so that you can finally lose the weight and feel better fast. Why wait? Start those three weeks today.

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