Goal For The Green

Guest Post by Amanda Green

One of the most popular New Year’s Resolutions is “I am going to eat better.” This typically refers to starting and, hopefully, maintaining a healthy diet. It can even go as far as to mean eating only organic foods. Of course this is easier said than done. The process of successfully overhauling your diet is more complicated than you might think. Here are some tips to help you out.

1. Plan for food costing more than it use to. Organic food is, across the board, more expensive than its processed counterparts. This can be problematic if you’re used to living with a really tight food budget. Of course, as someone who is use to budgeting you’ve probably already done the high interest savings accounts comparison. Why not use some of your compounded interest to help you pay for your first few rounds of groceries?

Health (Photo credit: 401(K) 2012)

2. If you are serious about your goal, you might think about using a credit card (make sure to do your research so that you can find the best credit card rates and perks) to fund your initial ventures into healthier eating. Buying the tools you need to cook your ingredients properly can make the transition even more fun!

3. Go slowly. Trying to overhaul all of your eating habits at once is too much of a shock for your system. You might feel good for a couple of days but after that first week, you’ll be a lot more likely to fall off of your organic and nutritious wagon. By going slowly and changing out processed foods for organic and healthier options one or two at a time you’ll allow your body to get used to your new diet and you won’t have to worry that you’ve spent a bunch of money on food you don’t actually like to eat.

4. Switch up your eating habits by taste. For example if you typically reach for a bag of Skittles when your energy starts to wane, sub in a peach instead. The fruit is better for you and will raise your blood sugar and energy level in a healthy way (that won’t lead to a crash). If you’re craving pasta, why not make your own with whole wheat flour? From there you can make the sauce from scratch—this way you know that you’re getting healthy ingredients but you’re still satisfying the craving you’re having.

It is important to remind yourself, particularly when the cost of eating well starts to bum you out, that the money you’re spending now might seem like a lot, but it is much lower than the cost of the doctor bills and potential hospital stays you’d be in for if you kept up the unhealthy eating habits you’ve been use to using.