Food Poor = Poor Food

This week, I decided to change one thing... 

Avoid sugar. 

Which is really upsetting. 

Sugar is in everything. Everrryyyything.

One serving of my favorite chicken salad from Costco has the sugar equivalent of 2.5 sugar cubes. (That is only 1/2 a cup worth of scrumptious chicken salad!!!) if it was 2.5 sugar cubes in, say, half a tub, I could (and probably would) justify it. But only 1/2 a cup!!!!! so long delicious chicken salad. 😭😭😭 You fooled me with the word, “salad”. 

My favorite oatmeal has around 4 sugar cubes’ worth of sugar. When I imagine myself eating warm spoonfuls of white sugar, it’s not quite as appetizing. 

All my “healthy choices” are a big fat lie. 😤

According to FDA recommendations, we should only have about 24 grams of sugar per day— that’s around 6 sugar cubes’ worth and to think I was getting that in before lunch is a bummer. Oatmeal is supposed to be HEALTHY because it’s not even that tasty!! 😭😭😭

Actually... a glazed donut had a little less sugar so, maybe I should have been eating donuts this whole time. 

Kidding, 

But actually not really. 

Why the heck would I waste my sugar indulgence on OATMEAL, though?? I feel robbed. 

Anyway, another thing... 

Trying to shop for a family of 8 and choosing healthy foods on a budget is kind of obnoxious. Crap food is way cheaper than good food. People criticize the poor in American for being obese compared to the poor in third world countries, but it kind of stinks to have to work several jobs to be able to afford to eat fresh food not laden with chemicals. 

I watched a documentary awhile ago about a family struggling with diabetes and weight and they said it is cheaper for them to go to McDonald’s and order from the dollar menu than to buy the ingredients and make the food themselves- even if it would be healthier. 

That’s a bummer, but I get it- it’s not just money poor, it’s time poor that leads to unhealthy choices. It’s cheaper and quicker to buy a Little Caesar’s pizza than to make a pizza ourselves. 

If we want to be healthier as busy Americans with lots of expenses and responsibilities, we have to be strategic. 

Here is how we are affording a healthier grocery budget. Some of these things we have been doing for awhile not out of healthy habits but budget necessity. I think it’s helpful that this change has been and will be incremental. Better habits take awhile to form: 

- Meal planning. I bought this Meal Planning  chart on Amazon. I plan the meals for breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner. Snack is at 2pm. It may just be an apple. This way, the kids know when they can have a snack and what they can have so they aren’t sneaking in the pantry as much and not “starving” every waking moment. (Incidentally, I have another one of these charts for chores.) 

- I will explain more how I organize our meals next time. 

- Meal planning and organizing has helped us use what we have and is much less wasteful. We have been doing this for awhile, just not very healthy. 

- Aldi’s, Costco, and our local Grocer, Crest, generally have great, affordable produce, dairy, and meats. I shopped Monday and bought a lot of the Christmas feast clearance stuff... turkey breast and veggies. It is a pain to shop at three places to get the best deals so I need to organize my shopping trips better and I think that will help save more money, too.

- We can’t do organic on a regular basis. It just doesn’t work to feed all of us regularly on a budget. The only thing we splurge on is beef from a local farm.

- I figured out awhile ago, but am being more intentional about it, that we don’t need to eat as much as we think we do. We aren’t trekking woods and hunting and gathering... I don’t know why I had it in my head that we needed lunch with a side and dinner with two sides and a salad. Smaller portions are filling and we feel better than when we are overstuffed. This saves money too— food goes a longer way. I was wasting a lot of food and we are definitely eating more than we need.

- A lot of times our munching is due to boredom. Mindless eating. My strategy here is to go for a walk or do some form of brief physical activity, because then I want water which I never drink enough of anyway.

- Finally, one last splurge. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not a great cook and I’m very busy. If I see something that will ultimately save me time, time is money, too. I will buy bags of frozen fruit on sale for smoothies instead of cut up all my own. I bought some hard boiled eggs the other day which were on sale and already peeled! I hate peeling hard boiled eggs. They’re such a good lunch for the kids though- they love them. (I don’t...) 

So far the past couple days, no major breakthroughs, just slowly trying to help our family on our health journey. I do love the initial feeling you get the first couple days of eating better when you’re less bloated! 

Here we go... more pics in two weeks!