VP Health & Fitness

One of the most important things you need to learn when trying to change your eating habits to a healthier lifestyle is how to grocery shop.

Here are a couple of tips to help you get started:

Tip #1: Clean out your refrigerator and pantry.
Tip#2 Create a budget, make a list and stick to it!
Tip #3 Organic vs. Conventional Products
Tip #4 Read Labels
Tip #5 Remember the 3 S’s

CLICK HERE to read the entire article

And here are a couple of my own money saving ideas that you can use while still eating healthy:

Grocery Shopping Strategies & Money saving tips:

• Eggs, eggs, eggs!  They are cheap & have good quality protein in them. Whole eggs are way cheaper than egg beaters– just throw out the yolk.
• Make it yourself!!  Instead of buying protein bars, make your own!  It’s a lot cheaper and better for you.  You have more control over the ingredients and you can choose what type of ingredients you want.  This also applies to everything - pre-packaged food costs more and has a lot of unnecessary stuff, such as sodium.   
• Dried beans instead of canned beans.  Again, you get much better value without all the preservatives - you just gotta cook them!
• Only buy canned goods when they are on sale & buy the store brand ones instead of the name brand ones.
• Oatmeal is super cheap.  The Walmart brand oatmeal is JUST AS GOOD as the Quaker kind

• Fresh veggies getting a little too soft? MAKE SOUP. Use a bouillon cube instead of canned broth - much cheaper.

• Potatoes in bulk - they are very versatile & are a great source of carbohydrates. 

• Work with what the season has to offer & only buy fruits & veggies that are in season.

• Frozen veggies are cheap.  I buy them by the bulk. Green beans, broccoli, stir fry veggies.

• Plan your meals ahead of time so you will know EXACTLY what you need when you go grocery shopping.

• If you do go out to eat at restaurants you can use the following strategies to eat a healthy & non-expensive meal:

  • Sign up for online for newsletters for the restaurant - they often send you coupons in the email that you can print out and take to the restaurant.
  • Invest in a good coupon book such as the Entertainment Book or other discount cards.
  • And finally, see if you can find the restaurant at Healthy Dining Finder  which is a FREE useful resource for restaurants that offer healthy entree choices.

 ** Remember: The cleaner you eat, the less it cost. Seriously. You are not paying for all the packaging, advertising, etc, that are on all the processed foods.

Here are other ideas that you can use:

Maggie Wang’s list of healthy & frugal food & grocery shopping ideas

Finding healthy foods at the grocery store

Healthy Grocery Shopping List

Bodybuilding.com - a healthy Grocery shopping List

~ Vilma

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I can’t belive that there are only 2 more weeks until the New Year.  Exactly 14 days to get myself below 200 lbs.  It’s sad to think that i’ve let myself come to this weight again… but I have vowed to myself, not to EVER give up no matter how long it takes.  As I think back on this past year & everything that I have done & accomplished and I can truly say that I am happy.  However, I know that there are still many many things I need to work on to ultimately achieve many of my fitness & personal goals.

I also think back to the many books i’ve read this year & a lot of them have one thing in common.  GOALS.  I know i’ve written some down somewhere &  everytime I enter a challenge or come up with my own, I write goals for that as well.  There is nothing wrong with setting goals with strict guidelines, but i’m coming to find out that for me it’s just not working.  I usually set goals to high or with very strict perameters & end up failing everytime.

I read an interesting article the other day on Alwyn Cosgrove’s blog were he mentions the concept of a goal snowball. Skwigg also talks a little bit about goal setting on her blog & I though it was interesting because it really describes what I go through.

This is basically like Dave Ramsey’s simple and effective system for getting out of debt: the Debt Snowball (a concept that hubby & I have been trying to implement for the past year).

Basically, you list all your debts from smallest to largest (credit cards, loans, etc.) While making minimum payments on everything else, you focus all your efforts and extra money on the smallest debt until it’s paid off. Then you move up to the next debt and use the money you’re no longer having to pay monthly on the first debt to make larger payments.

That gets the snowball rolling. Pretty soon, you’re making $1500 payments on your car and paying it off in under a year. With no debt, you can begin building real wealth.

Cosgroves’ article applies this Debt Snowball method to fitness and writes out some guidelines for a Goal Snowball.  I thought it was interesting and might quite possibly be the answer to all this goal burnout i’ve been having lately.

Here are the basic concepts of the Goal Snowball:

1. Think of five or six behaviors you need to improve or change to reach your physique or performance goals.
2. List these things from easiest to hardest.
3. “Maintain” all your other goals and focus your attention on the first thing on your list (the easiest one.) This is the most important goal in your life for now! Remember, it takes about 21 days to change a bad habit and ingrain a new one.
4. Once that change has been made and ingrained in you, move up to the next item on your list and focus your efforts there.
5. One by one, knock out these changes and/or goals.
6. Once you are done, start the process all over again with new & differet goals

The idea here is to build little successes that add up over time. For many people, this is much more effective than trying to make a half dozen changes at once. Concentrate on one thing, pour your energies into it, achieve it, then move on.

I think this concept is AWESOME and most importantly - very simple.

I will write mine out and have them posted for next week’s update.

For now… my one goal for the next two weeks: Lose 5 lbs

~ Vilma

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Well, it’s been a while since I wrote an update on me.  I’m still under the weather - believe it or not… it’s been a pretty crazy & bizzare month.  I am feeling a whole lot better though and I hope to be good as new by my birthday next Wednesday (December 12th).

I’ve also been getting a lot of Christmas shopping done and I have a personal goal of finishing by next week to avoid all crazy last minute shoppers.  Thanks to my frugal & cheap butt self… i’ve been finding some awesome deals online (Ebay, BlackFriday.net, Amazon, etc…) and not I’m not surprised that we’ve managed to stay within our $350 budget this year (all CA$H). Off the top of my head these are the steals that we’ve purchased so far:

Via BlackFriday.net

• New Dell Inspiron 531 Desktop Computer w/ a 24? Dell Widescreen LCD
  Monitor for only $659 w/ a Free $100 Gift Card and Free Shipping! (does not fall into our Christmas budget)(Retail Value: $1200) 
  • Savings: about $541

Via Ebay.com

• New Logitech S510 Cordless Desktop Wireless Keyboard for $18 (does not fall into our Christmas budget) (Retail Value: $79.99)
  • Savings: $61.99
• New Babyliss Hair Setter 20 Roller for $34.77 (Retail Value: $57)
  • Savings: $22.23

Via shopping the stores after Thanksgiving between the hours of 12AM and 6AM:

• Old Navy Mens Wool Jacket for $29 (Retail Value: $60)
  • Savings: $31
• Old Navy Womans Cropped Toggle Peacoat for $40 ( Retail Value: $75)
  • Savings: $34
• Old Navy Jeans for $14.99 (Retail Value: $30)
  • Savings: $15.01

So…. as you can see, i’ve saved A LOT! Just with these items i’ve saved over $700!!!!

I was reading an article the other day by Christian financial advisor, Dave Ramsey and I found this interesting: he said that “Over 50% of Christmas shoppers will spend well over what they planned to and will go further into debt.” Ramsey also mentions that “more than $70 billion, over half of what was charged last year, ended up as revolving debt and the interest on last year’s gifts are still being paid today.” On average, “two-thirds (65%) of shoppers overspent their budget by $100-$500 and 75% overspent by $50 - $100.”

This was a HUGE eye opener for me because it was how I used to pay for my gifts. But not anymore…. My advice to you, open up a savings account at your local bank and start adding some money through out the year.  When the next holiday season comes around, you will have enough cash saved up to go shopping.  Before shopping, do your research, shop around & sacrifice a few hours of sleep to get to the BIG after thanksgiving sales.  It’s well worth it! 

Here are a couple of tips from Mr. Ramsey:

• Make a list of everyone you are buying a gift for and put a dollar amount by every name. Total it at the bottom. This is your Christmas budget. The people in the mall have a plan to get your money – get a game plan for your shopping so you can keep some money. There is no excuse for financing Christmas.
• PAY CASH – put the total from your budget in an envelope and when the cash is gone, stop spending. This will help keep you on budget because if you overspend on Aunt Sue, Uncle Harry won’t get a gift.
• 69% of Americans bought a gift for themselves last year. DON’T BUY YOURSELF A GIFT! This is the season to give not to receive…from yourself.

Most importantly take the time to stop what you are doing and remember the TRUE meaning of what this season is about - God’s gracious and abundant gifts to the world; the gift of life, family and friends, good food, music, worship, and the greatest and most important gift of all: God’s Son, Jesus CHRIST.

These are the real and meaningful things that make life satisfying. So this Christmas may we all be reminded to enjoy God’s gracious gifts, to cherish the beauty and wonder of life and this season—these will leave you feeling much more satisfied and debt free!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

~ Vilma

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