Green Living on a Strict Budget

by Christian Tore Andersen

Living on a student’s budget is a test to the limit, requiring you to overcome both overheads and fun-expenses. As a student who prefers a healthy, green diet in combination with a physical, active lifestyle myself, I know for sure that it is hard to say no to a social get-together or vacation in order to spend your money on healthier living. But this article should give you—as a student or simply as someone interested in a cheaper, healthier life—opportunities and tricks to live a healthy lifestyle on a budget. By presenting some key considerations and inspirational diet solutions, it is my desire to inspire you to live the lifestyle you prefer, without letting it conflict with your everyday priorities.

My philosophy to a well-functioning, healthy day-to-day is easy—keep it simple! Simply by adhering to a few actions it is possible to practice a healthy, green diet in everyday life. But with all decisions come an opt-out, and it is critical to decide how badly you want it. Well-known quotes say something like, If you want to succeed badly, you must sacrifice for the course, which is so true. Simply adding supplements to a crappy diet won’t make a healthy lifestyle. And choosing to party and drink every weekend pretty much denies success in sports, even when training and working out like a pro.

On the other hand, a strictly planned diet will drain willpower resources with time and leave you without flexibility and opportunities to enjoy food spontaneously. The key is to find the balance between basic principles of a healthy diet and opportunities to live your life without restrictions such as denying yourself a cook out or beverages with your mates.

With a spectrum that ranges between a strictly healthy lifestyle on one end to health-sacrificing pleasure on the other, you must decide where to place your lifestyle. Of course, it will move on the spectrum from time to time depending on life events, but it is important that the overall lifestyle will meet your decision on the spectrum. Speaking of average lifestyle, it is important to understand that a lifestyle close to the average, everyday one you’ve chosen is preferable over a far-ranging, contradictory day-to-day lifestyle. You might recognize that sleeping ten hours Monday through Friday nights won’t rectify a lack of sleep every weekend in the long term. The very same considerations may be comparable to diet routines—continuity in diet is definitely preferable in all matters.

These are the basic principles that I myself strive to follow in my diet routines. It is easier said than done following these principles, especially if you prefer an all-around lifestyle as I do, and furthermore are spontaneous as a person. My solution is the 80/20 principle; the intention is to simply implement a healthy lifestyle and strive to accomplish it 80% of the time.

The 80/20 principle is most easily achieved through everyday routines and gives the flexibility needed for enjoyment and unforeseen events. Simply by striving for a complete, healthy diet, the 80/20 delivers the buffer to “cheat” on the healthy diet without dealing with bad conscience. Furthermore, by planning a healthy lifestyle, it is possible to control the amount of money spent on diets 80% of the time.

To make the routines work and to minimize the challenge of implementing these changes into a new everyday routine, it is crucial to simplify them. The simpler they are, the less you need to rely on willpower, which can be concentrated on the challenging parts of changing routines.

For some this would mean the challenge of sacrificing junk food, sugar, and the amount of food consumed. For others this would mean the challenge of restructuring cooking and shopping routines. Finally—and often forgotten—is the challenge of fitting in or changing the routines of your companions, sweetheart, or acquaintances. These are challenges that I strongly suggest you take care of before realizing dramatic changes to your lifestyle.

After identifying the challenges of changing routines, knowing where to implement the changes comes next. My suggestion is to implement your changes in your most basic routines.

My favorite meal is breakfast, simply because it is important for me to fuel my body with maximum energy from the beginning of the day. Furthermore, breakfast is an easy meal to plan because it can easily be adopted into a day-starting routine. My routine is making a smoothie from frozen vegetables and fruits combined with almond milk and water to substitute dairy and gluten products. Simply by using frozen, dispensed ingredients it takes no time to make a nutrient rich meal with a minimum of dishwashing. Furthermore, it is incredible easy to shop for and blend the ingredients.

By combining the preparation of breakfast, lunch, and snacks together, time and energy can be saved. Prepare a salad or last night’s dinner for lunch in a to-go box, wrap small packages of snacks like nuts or seeds for small meals, and grab some fruit too. Prepare for workouts in the gym by adding extra nutrition for the workout: a protein-shake combined with easily digested carbs like a banana.

The key is to indulge yourself with plenty of healthy opportunities to snack, eat, and fuel nutrition during the day. This will prevent you from snacking on junk food, which will occur if you fail to predict your needs for nutrition. Simply offering yourself plenty of opportunities for snacking during the day will make your choice of quitting junk food much easier and your chance of living the 80/20 principle greater. Furthermore, by preparing your meals, you will easily avoid the dilemma of finding a nutrient lunch when you crave food.

When it comes to budget, the key is to shop in larger quantities. Simply planning purchases for more than a single meal, day, or occasion results in more from less. Of course, this will entail using the same ingredients twice or more. The challenge is to vary the menus with the same main ingredients. I suggest storing a basic selection of spices, oils, and other ingredients and toppings to be able to vary daily menus. Planning your healthy, everyday meals will give you extra money and conscience to explore your resulting 20% cheats.

Here are some great recipes and health tricks which are perfect for a strict budget.

Breakfast—fast made smoothie with lots of proteins, vitamins, and nutrition.

• 1 part almonds
• 5 parts frozen spinach
• 2 parts frozen peas (rich in fiber)
• 2 parts frozen berries
• 1 banana
• 1 tbsp Sunwarrior Ormus Greens
• Distilled water

Simply mix the ingredients in a blender. You can freeze the fruits and vegetables you bought in bulk or, as an alternative, buy frozen vegetables and fruits, which often come in handy doses.

Lunch—fast made raw coleslaw.

• 4 average sized carrots
• 2 average sized beetroots
• Lemon juice
• Chopped nuts (brazil nuts, almonds, walnuts or similar)
• Raisins

Cleanse and tear the vegetables and add fresh lemon juice, raisins, and chopped nuts as preferred. Mix and store in a container for lunch.

Everyday beverage—water with a squeeze of lemon juice.

Simply adding some lemon juice to water creates an alkaline beverage with smooth taste. Always carry a water bottle with you during the day.

The hangover cure—equalizing the body pH-level.

• 1 Cucumber
• 1 Lemon
• 1 Avocado
• 1 tbsp. Sunwarrior Ormus Greens
• Water

Mix Ormus Greens into a glass of water and add your preference of lemon juice.

Cucumber and avocado work perfect as a tasteless salad, which won’t interfere with your hangover-caused nausea.

Storing large quantities of greens—freeze it.

The easiest solution to storing larger quantities of vegetables and fruits is to freeze it. Start by parting the greens in portion sizes and storing in food bags or similar container. By freezing the greens, their nutrition and vitamins are maintained the most. By portioning them, they are ready for use when needed.