Hey everybody. Kris Stokes from Custom Fitness Personal Training Studio where your health comes first. So today, we’re talking about better nutrition on a budget. This is part three of our series, and we are just giving some highlights on better ways to save money and better ways to use your money at the grocery store more efficiently.
So, whether you are on a budget because you are tight on finances or whether you’re on a budget because you’re trying to improve the efficiency of what it is that you’re purchasing or working on other areas of your life, then this is all going to be great for you. So, if you didn’t catch our first two parts, please go back and see them. It’s going to be a great addition to your grocery shopping arsenal, if you will.
Shop At A Better Time & Never Shop When Your HUNGRY!
We’re talking about finding better nutrition on a budget and the first way to do that is to shop at a better time. There’s two ways to do this. Number one is you don’t ever, ever go to the store hungry. And I know that’s so hard because we get off work, and we’re running past the store to go home, and you end up running in for stuff, and it happens every time. You go into the store hungry, you’re going to end up buying things that were not on the grocery list and probably shouldn’t be on the grocery list. You’re going to end up spending more money and you’re going to end up probably regretting some of that.
So, what I do or what my suggestion is to clients whenever the situation comes up, is that if you are hungry when you get to the store, you’re going to take a different plan of attack. You’re going to walk in. You’re going to buy something that you can eat in the car. You’re going to purchase that food and walk back out to your car and eat it. And then, you’re gonna wait about 10 minutes. Hopefully that food had some proteins and fats, that sort of thing in it that’s going to help to satiate you. Wait about 10 minutes to let that satiety kind of start to take over. And then go back in and do your shopping.
All of that’s going to do is help you to keep from making choices that perhaps you didn’t want to make or spending more money than what you should have. So, that’s number one. Don’t ever go hungry.
Sales, Sales, Sales!
Number two is always go during the sales. I know that there’s never been a shortage of time that my husband has said, “Oh, I do not want to go to that store because they’re having a sale today. I can’t imagine how busy they’d be.” Well, you know what? That’s when you’re going to get good deals. So, if you see on whatever form of media that they’re putting it out on, that they’re having a sale, that’s the time to go. Especially if you’re trying to budget your finances. So, if you’re trying to get the most bang out of your buck, go when there’s a sale. Maybe go early, or go super late or whatever it may be, but make sure and get there on those days because you’re going to be able to use the money that you’re spending more effectively for your family.
The other thing is that during those sale times, if you’re looking and you’re finding out that there are sales, then you can easily tailor your meal planning around those specials. So maybe you find that black beans are on sale, and you can have a few meals of black beans that week and be able to tailor that around. Or maybe it’s something like beans that’s less perishable or less quickly perishable than other foods and you could store up some extras and be able to have them for later on. So, that’s an option as well.
Supplement Better
All right, so number three is to supplement better. These days, I can’t tell you how many people come in to meet with me in the office and as we sit down for nutrition, we start asking about what supplements they’re on, and I can’t even … I don’t even have space on my paper sometimes to write it all down. I got to turn the paper over and fill out the whole back side of the sheet. There are a lot of supplements that we’re on, and the problem with that ends up being that we are playing with a very delicate balance of things that we may or may not fully understand, and a lot of people are taking supplements for no reason at all. I always ask, “Is this doctor-prescribed, or is this just friend-prescribed, or is this magazine prescribed? Why are you doing this?” And more often than not it’s just, “I heard that it was good for me so I started taking it, and I just haven’t stopped.”
Well, that’s great except that some supplements are not going to be flushed out of the system if you take too much. Some of them are going to build up until you have a toxic level in your system, and that can cause a lot of problems. So, I always like to go over people’s supplements with them and find out what are you taking that you should be, what are you taking that you need less of? What are you taking that you don’t need at all? Because number one, you’re probably wasting money on a lot of supplements.
Case in point, many of the multivitamins out there are not being fully absorbed by your body the way that they should. So, that typically ends up in a waste of money. So there’s a lot that can be said about that. So, how do we go about supplementing better? Well first, we buy better quality food. That is our first step every time. Supplements of any kind cannot override poor food quality or poor food choices. You have to buy the better quality food first.
Buy Better Quality Food
Now, if you are getting some sort of dollar menu meal from Burger King or McDonald’s or whatever choice that you may have and you think about the fact that they have to be making a profit off of that dollar and how much food they just gave you. Then you have to wonder what is in that food exactly because they are making enough of a profit to make it worth their time to sell that food. It can’t cost them that much, which means that you’re not eating a very high quality food. Correct? So we need to eat higher quality food. We don’t want to have to spend a ton of money on it, but we need to think about what it is that we’re putting in our mouth first instead of just grabbing the cheapest thing we can find.
Choose Better Supplements
All right? Second step to supplementing better is to choose better supplements. Just because it’s on sale at Sam’s doesn’t mean that it’s the best supplement for you. You got to look at the ingredient levels. You’ve got to figure out what’s in there, what fillers are in there, what type of transport unit it’s in, what is it that you need out of that? And that’s where we help our clients to build a better supplement nutrition plan. So, if that’s something that you need help with, feel free to talk to us because building a better supplement plan is definitely essential. You don’t need to be spending thousands of dollars on supplements every month whenever you’re already eating food. We need to make sure that food is your base, and that we just use supplements to fill in gaps. So, I’m always happy to help people with that.
In fact, in January, we brought in a new line of supplements that are medical grade supplements from a company called Eniva, and they have been doing amazing things for our clients. The stories that I was told and shown before we brought it in were amazing enough, but to be able to see it in reality and see people feeling so much different and experiencing a different quality of life has been great to be a part of. So, if that’s something that you’ve been concerned about or maybe you are now, maybe haven’t thought about it before, and you think, “Man, I don’t like taking 25 pills a day. Maybe there’s something I should do about this.” Then feel free to schedule a consult with us for that.
Check Social Media
So, number three is to check your social media. Whenever you’re trying to have better nutrition on a budget, check social media. Used to, it was always in the paper, right? You get it on the paper, maybe on commercials. Here’s the thing, most stores and brands will promote certain specials, like only these specials, only on social media. So, if you join their Facebook page or their Instagram page or whatever it is that you’re on, you’re going to be seeing different specials than what somebody who’s not on those pages may be seeing. Now that gives you a leg up, right? You’ll be able to save on some things. So, if there’s some favorite brands or something that you buy all the time, maybe check out their social media pages and see if you can find out where they’re offering their sales and offers.
All right, so that’s it. We’ve gone through all nine steps of eating better nutrition on a budget, and if that’s something that you feel like would be beneficial to you, I would love to know about it. However, if you feel like you need a little bit of help in that area, feel free to give us a call. (806) 322-3188. The team here at Custom Fitness would be happy to help you out. And remember that we’re fixing to startup our Transform in Four program here pretty quick. We’ll be taking a minimal number of participants in that, but we’d love to give you more information. So if you are interested in transforming your body over the course of four weeks with a plan that is maintainable for life, feel free to give us a call or give us a message.
Hope to see you soon.