Grocery Store Woes

Let me begin by stating that as of now, I love the Paleo Diet. I am feeling great and running great! And guess what, I ate the last of our popcorn and feel very content to not buy anymore! I am just listening to what my body is telling me, that there are much better things out there to eat that are delicious and better for me. That being said, I have been struggling with the exuberant amount of money we are spending on groceries. I mean yikes! When Jake and I roughly budgeted out a month of spending pre-Paleo we guessed we could work with about $500 for food. Since being on the Paleo Diet that number has doubled. You read it right. For the two of us to get through a week with enough food it costs at least $200, probably more. Watching the total go up as I checked out at the grocery store used to make my heart rate accelerate and my hands start to sweat. But after several weeks of coming up to about the same number, I am finally coming to peace with the fact that eating Paleo will never be cheap. Yes, there are ways to save money, but we are just now starting to figure those out. I assume at this time next year, we will be much more knowledgable about how to live this lifestyle on a tight budget, but for now I suppose we just bite the bullet and take the hit.

Really the only way I can justify it is because I know how good it is for me based off how my body is responding to the diet. The thought of eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich instead of a chicken breast for lunch makes me cringe. I know that a good old PB&J would probably taste great, but it wouldn't supply my body with the nutrients or energy it needs to recover from training and get me through the day. As athletes I feel like we eat so much more than the typical person, which makes it particularly hard to save money at the grocery store. I mean we cook about 2lbs of meat a night, eat 1lb or a little less that night and save the rest for lunches. On top of that, we snack more and of course, Paleo snacks are equally expensive.

But all in all, my point here is that, yes the Paleo Diet is expensive, and yes my eyes tend to pop sometimes when I check out at the grocery store, but it is worth it. If you want your body to perform at it's best, you must fuel it with the best foods. If you are spending a lot of money on food, like we are, then find other places in your spending to cut back. We have a budgeted amount of money each month for personal spending, we know how much our bills will be, and we avoid going out to eat or out to the bars. If you are conscious about the money you spend, you can make almost anything work.

 

This would be the before and after shot of our fridge! You know you are eating healthy foods when they are all perishable (thus you have a nearly empty fridge at the end of every week). And yes, we do eat that many eggs, though we usually limit ourselves to one egg yolk per day.

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