How to Save Money While Eating Clean

Here are a few tips to watch your wallet while sticking to a clean eating nutrition plan for your waistline:

1. Start slow and within your budget. Don't worry about drastic changes or being "perfect." No need to do an overhaul of your entire kitchen. Slow and steady wins the race.

2. Organic foods are preferred but if you can’t afford them, just do the best you can. Teach yourself to thoroughly read labels. Focus on the ingredient list. Select foods with fewer ingredients—and ingredients that you recognize as real food. Chances are if you can't pronounce it, it's probably not a good ingredient!

3. Change your mindset. Looking at your health as an INVESTMENT can keep you in check. Yes, maybe the organic chicken costs 3 dollars more. But you will be investing in your future-healthy-self and it will keep you out of the costly doctors office for years to come! (seriously)

Keep the bigger concepts in mind and always work to improve. It's about choosing the healthiest choice—not depriving yourself. Shift your mindset to actually wanting something healthier, and refuse to let your mind go all negative on you ("but you deserve that" is that awful voice in your head that needs to be shut down. NO YOU DON'T.)

4.Look for in-store coupons. Coupons and sales flyers for your grocery store are more likely to highlight discounts on real food (like fruits, vegetables and unprocessed meats) rather than the coupons provided by food manufacturers, which only discount processed foods.

5. Shop in bulk. Bulk items are often far more affordable than the packaged varieties. If your store offers bulk food bins, you also have the option to buy as little or as much as you want at a given time. {COSTCO}

6. Stock up on sales. When your store has a sale on clean food staples such as meats or frozen vegetables, take advantage of that by stocking your freezer. It will save you money in the long run.

7.Manage your food well. This is a big one! We throw away a ton of food in this country every day and it contributes to affect our food bills in a big way. Freeze cooked foods you know you won’t get to right away and don’t cook so much that you can’t eat it before it goes bad. Plan your weekly meals and snacks by eating the perishable foods first (cut up veggies, fruits etc) and save the nuts/cheese snacks for later in the week because they won't go bad as quickly.

8. Buy whole chickens {I DO THIS ALL THE TIME}. Be sure you use the entire bird by making broth for soups with the portions you don't eat (bones). You can always freeze it if you can’t use it right away.

10. Stick to your LIST! Consider shopping ONLINE with Peapod and just pick it up on my way home. It is only $5 extra dollars to have someone do the shopping FOR YOU and you will stick right to your budget and don't have to worry about temptations in the store.

Understand it won't feel easy or perfect, ever. If you do have something that doesn't meet your definition of "clean," don’t throw in the towel. Make your next meal clean. That’s the difference between a diet and a lifestyle change.