Comparison Shopping Contributes To Healthy Living

If there's one thing I've learned while raising my children and shopping with my husband, it's that prepared foods are laden with too much sodium, sugar and fats. When we shop, we compare the prices and nutritional information on the labels in order to purchase the healthiest foods for our money. One of the most obviously healthy foods would be salads. If you purchase and prepare very fresh, in-season vegetables, you would expect to be eating very healthy we thought. Wrong. The salad dressings that you buy in the store are not very healthy. Even some of the better name salad dressings we found were way too high in sodium. The very healthiest thing to do is to take Virgin Olive Oil and some fresh chopped garlic and mix it with some balsamic vinegar and you will have a healthy dressing if you use it in moderation. Other than that sprinkling lemon juice on the salad is a healthy alternative. Otherwise shop around for the lowest in sodium and sugar and use sparingly.

Next, we noticed as we cooked our healthy whole wheat spaghetti with homemade extra lean, lightly boiled sausage (to remove excess fat) and lean turkey meatballs, that the canned and bottled sauces were too high in sodium and some of them even in fats. We found that we should either choose to cook the whole tomatoes and tomato paste with herbs, black pepper, no salt and very little oil and no sugar, or to take a can of tomato puree when you're in a hurry and just season that and add it to spaghetti. Black pepper is very good for preventing heartburn. This is much healthier. Of course, cooking fresh, ripe tomatoes is the best, but time-consuming. Our blood pressure and heartburn are almost all gone now that we made these changes in our diet. We've also almost completely cut out the fast food diet that we had grown accustomed to eating for convenience and with coupons, low expense.

We don't buy too many frozen meals either because they are too high in sodium, sugar and fats. We use one of the healthier margarines that are good for your heart. If you use butter very sparingly, you would be alright with that. We've mostly eliminated sodas and substituted low-sugar cranberry juice mixed with filtered water or just plain water. When we make coffee in the morning, we make it in our own coffee maker so we can make it very weak. We also use low-fat milk. This diet combined with our daily walks is making us feel better, sleep better, and lose weight. I can tell by the fit of my clothes that I'm losing weight and/or inches although I haven't weighed myself for the last few weeks since we started walking daily.

We haven't eliminated desserts although we're trying to substitute more fresh fruit while there are so many kinds at more reasonable in-season prices in Summer. Sometimes we have a slice of watermelon at breakfast to break up the monotony of cereal with a fresh banana that we always have. Everyone should be trying to eat five daily servings of fresh fruits and vegetables whenever possible. In Summer, green, sweet, seedless grapes are often only $.99 per pound, and the watermelon was $35 per pound and very succulent and sweet.

You can make a delicious almost calorie-free cabbage and carrot soup that you can eat as much of as you want in order to lose weight. You can even have that between meals. You can saute a tablespoon of olive oil with chopped fresh garlic and add fresh, washed escarole which is about $.99 per pound right now here in New York as well as a can of cannellini beans for a delicious and healthy, low-cal dish.

There are many "No Sugar Added" ice creams on sale frequently put out by different brands that have only about 3 gms. of sugar in them. The only problem I have with them is that I want more than the one-half to one cup that I should limit myself to. This is where I will have to become more disciplined. You can give yourself more incentive to stick to this healthy and low-cost diet by rewarding yourself with a blouse or other item, maybe earrings, weekly or bi-weekly every time you weight yourself and have lost weight, maybe every two-three pounds. This is something my former diet counselor mentioned to my group that I have always done when I could afford it. Buying a nice two-piece or sexy one-piece bathing suit is always a great reward. You can try it on in front of your mirror every time you lost a couple of pounds because that's a real good incentive. It is very hard not to lose weight when you eat several servings of vegetables and fruits every day. Enjoy the rewards of comparison shopping and healthy living!