I’ve been putting a lot of effort into exercising more lately, but I’ve also been trying to eat better. I’ve developed some bad eating and snacking habits over the past year that had gotten me into a bit of a rut. It’s not that I was eating a lot of junk food or processed food, but my eating habits were boring and repetitive. I wasn’t being healthy and I had no idea how many calories I was consuming on a given day.
How I Got Started With Healthier Eating
Choosing to eat healthier came as a bit of a natural bi-product of running longer distances. Most of my runs took place in the evening, when it wasn’t so hot out. This meant I’d usually run after supper. Before I changed my eating habits, I’d have a huge heavy meal at around 5:30 or 6:00, and then I’d try to go out and run 5k at 7:30. Have you ever done this? It’s not pretty. I’m talking cramps, disgusting food flavoured burps, and general sluggishness.
As my long runs increased from 5km, to 6km, to 7km and now 8km, I decided that I really didn’t want to eat heavy meals before a run. Instead I’d make a delicious salad, or grilled chicken and a few potatoes. Lighter, healthier food, which made my runs a lot easier. My healthy eating just snowballed from that, eventually culminating in me downloading the app MyFitnessPal. It’s a great little app for food tracking because it has just about every food on the planet covered, and it’s a great way to be mindful of what I’m consuming.
Keeping Costs Down
A complaint I hear a lot about trying to eat healthy food is that it’s so expensive. I don’t really find this to be the case. Sure, fully prepared healthy meals are expensive, so if you’re planning on buying “healthy” microwavable dinners or pre made salads from the grocery store, you’re going to pay more. But if you’re mindful about the food you’re buying, it’s not more expensive. Here are a few key ways I make sure my healthy food remains cost effective:
I Buy Raw Ingredients
Buying a pre-made salad is expensive, but buying a tub of spinach, some sliced almonds, feta and chick peas is cheap! Similarly, buying “fat reduced” snack foods are also expensive, but you know what’s not? Unpopped popcorn. Popcorn is a great snack food, is oh so cheap to buy and healthy to consume. Yes, if you go with convenience foods that are healthy, you’ll be paying a lot, but if you make the food yourself, it’s rarely more expensive.
I Sub Out Foods
If you’re buying healthy food on top of your regular food, yes, your food bill will go up. The best way to incorporate healthy food into your diet is to make substitutions. Skip tacos for veggie and black-bean wraps. Forgo that huge bowl of homemade alfredo pasta for a small serving with a giant yummy salad to go with it. By eliminating or reducing unhealthy food from our pantry and adding in healthy food, our grocery bill has stayed about the same.
Some Healthy Foods Are More Expensive, Live With It
Boneless skinless chicken breast, I’m talking to you. I don’t buy meat from the grocery store, and haven’t for years. This is partly for animal abuse reasons, and partly for health reasons. Instead I opt to buy my meat from the local farmer’s market. The problem is, farm fresh boneless skinless chicken breasts (my go-to healthy protein) cost an arm and a leg. I’ve tried the substitution thing, forgoing bacon and ground pork in favour of chicken, but it still doesn’t quite even out. It’s still more expensive, and I’ve got to live with that.
But, my health is important to me, and if eating healthy means shelling out cash for healthier meat, I’m ok with that. It’s just one less serving of poutine or beer that I probably shouldn’t be eating anyway.
So that’s how I’m eating healthier, how I’m keeping costs down, and how I’m feeling better about my physical health than I’ve felt in a long time.
How have your eating habits been lately? I want to know!