The Struggle Is Real......

So as many of you guys know I am currently unemployed so going to the grocery store and loading my cart up with delicous goodies just doesn't happen anymore, and when I say delicious I mean healthy as well. You really can change your eating habits in 21 days, especially if you are broke, and no I haven't reduced myself to eating off the dollar menu. Just because you may not have $200 to spend on groceries doesn't mean you can't eat healthy food for less. It just means that you need to stick to the essentials. What are my essentials you ask? Well I will break that down for you:

Salad Mix 0.99 cents

Open Nature Drumsticks $2.96

Strawberries & Cream Oatmeal $1.62

Taco Seasoning .75 cents x2

Wheat Bread $1.09

Deli Lunch Meat $0.69 x2

Honey Nut Cheerios $2.50

Butter $3.29

Tillamook Ice Cream $3.99

Total Spent: $19.32

So for $20 I was able to purchase enough food for a week of meals, plus a splurge item (I have to buy tillamook icecream when it's on sale its so good and a scoop goes a long way) Now you may be asking where is the milk where are the eggs what about other protein besides chicken? Well we currently have a total of 17 chickens so eggs are never an issue for me, milk I am set on and thankfully I still have turkey in the freezer, btw speaking of turkey I love going to Safeway on $5 Friday and stocking up on the big packages of ground turkey, I can easily get 5-10 meals out of a package of ground turkey. I have found that buying in bulk and then freezing them in individual packages just makes meal time so much easier, no fussing with cooking too much or too little. It's funny I recently read an article on facebook about a mother who said she needs more funds from the government to afford to live healthy because she can only afford junk and that is why she is obese. But truth be told it's not difficult to eat healthy, I find that unhealthy things are most of the time more expensive because you end up eating more then the recommended size and therein lies the weight gain. Now not everyone chooses to shop weekly for food but I have found that it works best for me, many a time I have went the grocery store and dropped a pretty penny only to end up eating out or not wanting to eat what I purchased so then it just all goes to waste. The only thing that I do stock up on is meat, if there is a sale on turkey or fish or chicken then I will be happy to stock up on it but everything else I buy on weekly basis because lets face it, those grapes might sound good now but are you going to single handidly go through 2lbs of them before they get gross? Probable not considering we all know what happens when you eat too many of them! So the next step I would like to take is planning my meals out a week in advance, just planning not preparing and freezing just planning so that way when I go shopping I know exactly what I need and there is less of a chance of something not so good finding it's way into my cart. I have also started a food journal to help me, and it's not going to be a typical food journal, i'm not counting calories i'm just writing down exactly what i've eaten and at what times to see if there is a pattern. Or I have a craving i'll write down what I replaced it with and see if it makes the cravings subside. I have a problem with bad food and it's time to take control, i'm not going to completely eliminate sweets or entire food groups but I would like to start following the 80/20 rule, aka 80% of your meals must be healthy and 20% can be cheat meals so essentials if you eat 3x meals a day (snacks are not included) then 18 meals per week must be healthy and 3 can be cheat meals, you can still have your cake and eat it too. Just don't eat the whole cake....