Fit Tuesday - Losing Weight on a Budget

It's been a full 4 weeks now since starting Fit Tuesday!!  I've been trying to stay on track, making small changes, with small results.  Time to kick it up another notch!

If you've dieted at all, you know that sometimes it is way more expensive to buy healthy foods than unhealthy.  However, in the long run, your expense is less since the health risks are so much less when eating healthy foods.  I just wanted to share some practical things I am doing in my home to try to eat healthy without breaking the bank.

1.  Use any free online resources available for losing weight and staying on track.  There are so many of these sites popping up...a favorite of mine is sparkpeople.com.  Everything is free and it is so motivating!  It does take more independent work for these types of programs, so I realize this isn't an option for everyone.

2.  Buddy Up!  This goes right along with #1.  I remember losing weight a while ago and it was a HUGE motivation for me to go to a weigh-in where someone besides myself saw the scale.  I was also paying $12 a week for that accountability.  Find another person who can be your weigh-in buddy!

3.  Don't buy food you won't really eat.  Seems obvious, but honestly, if you're not going to eat tofu, don't buy it just because it's in a healthy recipe you think you should eat.  Along those same lines, don't buy junk food.  If it's not in the house, you can't eat it!

4.  Eat at home!  This is a huge money-saver.  Period.

5.  Be realistic about meal and snack planning.  If you know you are always starving between lunch and dinner, plan a small snack.  This not only keeps your diet on track, but also your budget.

6.  Drink water.  This is one of the hardest things for me!!  Realistically though, it's just cheaper and so much better.

7.  Be careful of buying the latest and greatest exercise program.  You can borrow exercise videos from the library, or live-stream from Netflix, for no extra costs.

I haven't been able to weigh in this week yet.  I will post an update when I am back from my biz trip to Chicago!