Can You Lose Weight During the Credit Crunch?
Sometimes, we're sure that throwing money at our problems would mean solving them more easily. Paying for specially-prepared diet foods, employing a personal trainer, buying fancy workout clothes may all be attractive ideas, but financially impractical.
Is it possible to lose weight without spending a lot of money?
Many experts say that it is.
In a New York Times article psychologist Kelly D. Brownell (director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale) says that:
What matters most is your level of motivation and your willingness to change.
Let's face it, that pricy gym membership won't be any use at all if you can't get up the motivation to ever walk through the doors. Those special diet packs of food may be nutritionally balanced, but they can't do anything to stop you succumbing to the lure of a candy bar.
Some dieters even report they save money whilst losing weight. Here are some ideas you might like to try:
- Cut out fast food, take-out coffees and vending machine treats. The money (and calories) you save will really add up over the week.
- During the second world war, rationing actually improved the diets of many people by restricting the amount of sugar, butter, cheese etc that could be purchased. You may want to give the ration book diet a try.
- Instead of buying lunch at work, brown-bag a healthy, cheap option. Try these weekly lunch menus and shopping lists (from a UK website).
- Walk, cycle or jog as an alternative to driving or paying for public transport.
Are you using the credit crunch to put off dieting, or have you managed to lose weight without spending much money?
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You don't necessarily have to cut out fast food to save money while losing weight. Where I live you, can get one of the following meals for about $2.18 (US)(includes tax):
1) McDonalds McDouble burger and small fries
2) Two Taco Bell bean burritos, fresco style
For many people on a fat-loss diet, one of those meals provides about a third of the calories they need daily. It's a lot of nutrition for $2.18. They make the profit on the drinks. Drink free water.
[I'm not arguing that those are optimally nutritious meals. That's a whole 'nother can of worms.]
-Steve
ReplyI do think people can lose weight no matter what. It really does come down to motivation & how willing you are to put in the work to get healthier AND how willing you are to eat better OR less if you are eating way too many calories. Look at Oprah & many other celebs that have all the money in the world but can't keep the weight off. It is not so much the money but how important it is to you to lose the weight and/or be healthier.
ReplyIt definitely doesn't have to be expensive to eat well. I eat a lot of cheap nutritious foods...eggs are dirt-cheap and a great source of protein, beans and brown rice are really cheap as well. I also buy frozen veggies and I get garden produce from my garden at my inlaws' farm. I try not to buy a lot of processed convenience foods because most of them are way overpriced and they don't taste that great. Seriously, did you know they make mashed potatoes that come already done in tubs in the refrigerated section? And they cost a couple of bucks? You can buy potatoes for about 20 cents each or cheaper and cook them yourself. It's not all that tough. People need to re-learn how to make things from scratch...they would discover a whole world of cheap, delicious foods.
ReplyThat's right - eat seasonally and shop smart. I made a pumpkin soup yesterday - a soup with 8 serves that cost me $3-4 to make (I was fortunate to buy a whole pumpkin for $2!).
ReplyBuying lunch & breakfast out would cost me about $15 a day (and bloated my fat cells) but now I eat breakfast at home and stock up on lean cuisines when they're on sale for $2.50. But, oh crap, that extra savings is spent on my Greedy Teens who consume juice, cereal and gallons of milk in large masses - and they have their hands out for cash. I can't win.
ReplyHell yes you can! For those that think they NEED equipment to workout, head over to my blog and search: replace a gym
For under $150 bones, I've proven that with just the right type of equipment you can LITERALLY duplicate every exercise that a normal gym allows you to do. In fact, the only down side Id say is that you'll never leave your house!
But beyond that here's another thing to consider. Buying foods and having an eating lifestyle where fat loss is your goal is CHEAPER. You're saving money by not spending it on the following pieces of cr*p:
soda
sugary juices
candies
Tv dinners
Other Processed Foods
cookies
etc.
and the list goes ON and ON.
And YES health food stores charge a slight premium but take the money you save from NOT spending it on the cr*p list above and subtract the cash you'll be spending on quality stuff and you'll have money left over.
I know I always do. If you don't... you're spending it on stuff you don't need.
Now go lose some fat... then celebrate by skinny dipping!
ReplyIs this a joke?
If you diet you will by definition spend less money on food, unless you buy into the silly notion that you have to eat some magical group of so called "healthy foods" to lose fat.
And, last I checked, moving your body was free.
ReplyYou can eat healthy, lost weight and save money. I did. When I was obese (300 lbs) I spent a lot of money on highly processed foods, and on junk. Why is it we can spend $3.00 on a bag of cookies, but balk at $.99 for a pound of apples? It's all about choices!
These days, we eat healthier food, and I don't spend an inordinate amount at the grocery store - except for the fact that I have seven children, but that's another story!
ReplyTo me it makes perfect sense that a healthy diet is more cost-effective than an unhealthy one. Eat out less, buy fewer drinks (alcoholic, specialty coffee, etc.), employ batch cooking methods, and eat less meat. Plus the less you eat the less you buy. Dried beans, by the way, have to be among the items with the most nutrition you can get for your money.
Replythanks for sharing this post with us-I agree-so much cheaper to eat at mcdonalds than get fresh poduce everyday! we included you in our high fives today...www.girlgetstrong.com
Reply