Two dollars for a few apples and eighteen dollars for a jar of almond butter sounds crazy to the average shopper not yet converted to raw. The price of organic produce and raw snacks can be obnoxious and even put a damper on your excitement into raw foods. Yet there is hope! When I first started purchasing foods for my raw food exciteo-prep, my grocery bill tripled which is scary for someone who already doesn’t have a lot of money to eat or set on fire. When I first began playing with raw recipes, I purchased all sorts of expensive foods and in quantities that were even wasteful.Anything in the produce isle does cost more indeed yet try to look at your food from a new perspective. Instead of viewing your food in how high you can pile it on your plate, put the value in the nutrition and life force it brings to your body. When you are used to buying five, toxic, greasy burgers for the price of two organic raw apples, it can be difficult to see the value at first. By buying foods that do not clog your colon, make your butt bulge, skin erupt, or age you pre-maturely, the fresh raw foods are priceless! The cleaner foods you eat now, the less mess you need to clean up in the body later. What food have better value? Huge plate of processed man made cheap chow or apples straight from Eve’s flawless hands?
Have fun: Go ahead and buy all the fresh foods you wish to experiment with! Help yourself to the snackie-snacks offered in the raw food section. In the beginning of your raw food journey, there will be much to taste, enjoy and savor. Eventually there will come a point when you find balance and narrow it down to the nutritional and most delicious essentials, thinning your grocery bill back down to a more realistic expense.
Smoothe transition: Once our bodies get used to eating nutrient-dense food, our bodies run much more efficiently and need less food in portion and weight. For example the size of salad I ate when I first became raw was Gi-normous compared to the present. Back then, I ate what most families shared at the dinner table for holiday. Today, realizing that what I eat is far more nutritionally sound; I eat much less. My body is also cleaner (detoxified), there for utilizing what fuel (food) I do put in. I get much more out of my food because it is alive and organic and my body was able to utilize all that was consumed. Not to mention like mine, your body too will become more efficient as a result of being cleaner from years of sticking with the raw food program.
My transition and tailoring of food was gradual, so it was much easier on my psyche! Psychologically, you may feel that you need more food to be satisfied and that is okey. Just be aware that sometimes we eat more than we truly need.
Be reali-istic: By making major changes with foods or portions too quick, we can put a damper on the whole point and cause an internal conflict; even discontent. Do what feel best and that you can stick to constantly and make gently upgrades as you gain more momentum. Remember what your health goals are, the reasons for making the change and take pride in that you are doing better every day. Strive for consistency rather than perfection.
Budgeting more conservatively and enjoying the process may take time, so do not hurry to scale down your food for the sake of saving money unless that is comfortable with you. Expect to pay more in the beginning, and know that just like a newly tuned car, your engine will burn much cleaner and waste less. Less is more! Below are ways you can get more!
Budgeting more conservatively and enjoying the process may take time, so do not hurry to scale down your food for the sake of saving money unless that is comfortable with you. Expect to pay more in the beginning, and know that just like a newly tuned car, your engine will burn much cleaner and waste less. Less is more! Below are ways you can get more!
Get more Tip #1: Start or join a CSA in your local area. Getting fresh produce from local farmers is very economical and beneficial in all ways. Buying produce with friends or forming a co-operative can also help keep your costs minimal. Farmer’s markets are a great place for inexpensive produce as well.Top secret Get more tip #1.5: When I first began eating raw foods, I would visit my local co-op’s composting bin in the back of the store for produce they were tossing out. Most of the produce was just fine just not perfect enough for the average shopper! I found pounds of juice able produce that equals pitchers of fresh juice that equals nutrients! Find out who is in charge in the produce department; make them a magnificent raw dessert and presto! You have a friend on your side and your in! They will set aside all kinds of delicious foods their store would normally toss out or let you know when the best dumpster diving time.
Get more tip #2: When I lived in Arizona, a friend of mine would walk the neighborhood scouting out trees with fresh oranges, grapefruit, lemons, olives, pomegranate, and persimmons even large gardens! I would knock on the door and offer to rake their lawn or do some yard work in exchange for fresh fruits. Ten times out of ten, they would say..”naw..just help yourself!” There are plenty of fresh, free foods growing in your neighborhood if you just look! There are even wild greens that you can snack on such as dandelion, malva, lambs quarters, persaline, and mint . You will never starve! Just have to think outside of the store!
Just recently I was surfin’ the net and found a fun site to be inspired by! Here is a woman who is proving you can eat fresh prepared raw food for $10. A day or less! Take a look!
She is not chewing on celery sticks for dinner. She has full on recipes and pics too!
http://rawon10.blogspot.com/
She is not chewing on celery sticks for dinner. She has full on recipes and pics too!
http://rawon10.blogspot.com/
I will do this same experiment for a week using my own recipes and get back to all of you on the results!
\m/ \m/ Melissa Mango
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