Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

Day 4

Your money and your stomach are directly connected. It costs you money to eat. No matter what the occasion, venue, or what else the recipe calls for, it will cost money. Once you accept that fact, you must also realize the decisions you make pertaining to your diet also affect other matters of your family life. If you spend too much money on food and can't pay your electric bill, you have a problem. If you eat out too much during the week, you might not have money for the little things that always come up during the course of life. 

Even to a casual observer, the connection between food and health is quite obvious. Therefore, food impacts how often you see your doctor and for what reasons. How many co-pays you have to come up with. How many medications you take. How often you need to see a specialist. On a larger scale, all such expenses add up exponentially. This has an overwhelming impact on our culture, both as a community and as a nation. From there, it's a short walk to understand how every choice you make can in turn mean something to your bottom line. If it impacts your bottom line, then it does the same to your employer, to your doctor, to your customers. Round and round it goes.

No one is suggesting you empty your fridge and start juicing everything you can for the rest of your life. No one wants you to cancel that dinner date you have with friends next week. What I am trying to point out, is how even small changes you choose to make in your lifestyle can add up to big differences throughout your daily walk. No matter how much we try to deny it, the list of things we have direct control over in our worlds is limited. What we eat is not one of them. Shouldn't we seize the opportunity in this area that does belong solely to us, and make the best possible choices? Choosing how you spend your money to eat, will likely have as much influence on your quality of life as will choosing what stock or bond your invest in next quarter. Yes, spending more money in the produce section of the supermarket will increase your bill. To that I say the following:

1. It will still remain cheaper then the 100.00 dollars or so that comes out of your paycheck all year long for "health insurance". Not to mention that amount likely increases every year.

2. If more people purchased food that was indisputably healthy, those same foods would come down in price quite quickly. Such is the nature of supply and demand. How else does that cheeseburger on the dollar menu stay so cheap?
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Morning:

Asst passion fruits

Lettuce

Ginger

Apples

Tangerines

Sweet peppers

Afternoon:

Fennel

parsley

sweet potato

tomato

sweet peppers

cucumber

avocado

swiss chard

apples

spinach

oranges

lime

Afternoon:

apples

pears

Evening:

carrots

kale

lettuce

apples

broccoli

asst mixed vegeables

lime

sweet peppers

Evening:

tangerine

kiwi

grapes

pineapple

blueberry

pears

apples