take small steps.
1. Stop drinking soft drinks (soda/pop, most juices, lemonade, most pre-made teas, etc)
probably the biggest one for a lot of people is this. It's ridiculous how much sugar and calories you get from shitty drinks that do nothing for you. I try to stick to drinking just water, black coffee, or tea with no/little sugar added.
^that will also likely be the hardest habit to break. I don't know how many times I've had to kick that habit.
2. Have a salad with lunch and dinner, + try to avoid using a lot of dressings.
pretty easy to do if you like having salads, I love spinach and would suggest it for your salads.
3. Make your own meals from scratch. You'll cut out a lot of sodium, sugar, and fat doing this plus you'll likely enjoy this food more.
bit harder especially if you feel like you don't have enough time, I suggest making a 1 or 2 week meal plan and then repeating it. It'll make it a lot easier for you.
Try to do just 1 of those to begin with (for a month or 2) and then add 1 of the other ones and go forward from there. Also don't beat yourself up for not sticking to a healthier diet it doesn't help you to do so.
take small steps.
1. Stop drinking soft drinks (soda/pop, most juices, lemonade, most pre-made teas, etc)
probably the biggest one for a lot of people is this. It's ridiculous how much sugar and calories you get from shitty drinks that do nothing for you. I [u]try[/u] to stick to drinking just water, black coffee, or tea with no/little sugar added.
^that will also likely be the hardest habit to break. I don't know how many times I've had to kick that habit.
2. Have a salad [i]with[/i] lunch and dinner, + try to avoid using a lot of dressings.
pretty easy to do if you like having salads, I love spinach and would suggest it for your salads.
3. Make your own meals from scratch. You'll cut out a lot of sodium, sugar, and fat doing this plus you'll likely enjoy this food more.
bit harder especially if you feel like you don't have enough time, I suggest making a 1 or 2 week meal plan and then repeating it. It'll make it a lot easier for you.
Try to do just 1 of those to begin with (for a month or 2) and then add 1 of the other ones and go forward from there. Also don't beat yourself up for not sticking to a healthier diet it doesn't help you to do so.
If you build up a small base of things that you like and are easy to cook and just have around a lot of the time, it's really helpful. For not spending a lot of money, you should learn how to make use of dry goods like bags of beans, lentils, rice, and oats. Very cheap and healthy. For example, I'll make big batches of crockpot or stock pot beans (onion, garlic, salt, and cumin are p much all you need to flavor them). You can freeze some of them for later and make burritos and tacos and stuff. If you keep a small pot of rice or oats or whatever grain made, you can use that with savory stuff or for breakfast--warm brown rice with a little maple syrup, bananas, and milk is rly good.
When I was really, really broke and having to spend in the low double digits on food for the whole month, I got sad because I couldn't buy a lot of produce, and it sucks to not eat fresh food, so I learned how to sprout lentils, which gets you a lot of an awesome, crisp, cheap-as-hell little veggie. Carrots and potatoes are also your friends, expense-wise. You can do a lot with those, but be sure to try baking cut up starchy veggies like that with some garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper... so tasty.
If you build up a small base of things that you like and are easy to cook and just have around a lot of the time, it's really helpful. For not spending a lot of money, you should learn how to make use of dry goods like bags of beans, lentils, rice, and oats. Very cheap and healthy. For example, I'll make big batches of crockpot or stock pot beans (onion, garlic, salt, and cumin are p much all you need to flavor them). You can freeze some of them for later and make burritos and tacos and stuff. If you keep a small pot of rice or oats or whatever grain made, you can use that with savory stuff or for breakfast--warm brown rice with a little maple syrup, bananas, and milk is rly good.
When I was really, really broke and having to spend in the low double digits on food for the whole month, I got sad because I couldn't buy a lot of produce, and it sucks to not eat fresh food, so I learned how to sprout lentils, which gets you a lot of an awesome, crisp, cheap-as-hell little veggie. Carrots and potatoes are also your friends, expense-wise. You can do a lot with those, but be sure to try baking cut up starchy veggies like that with some garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper... so tasty.