The average U.S. family of four wastes $1,500 in food annually. Satterlee recommends selecting ingredients that can be used for multiple meals per week to save $100 per month. She suggests hard-boiling eggs to start the week as a snack and afterwards as a salad topper.
A quarter of an avocado may top your omelet, but mash the remainder with salt and lime juice for a taco salad guac. Besides dipping veggies, hummus can be put on turkey sandwiches. (See our top 10 home food waste reduction tips.)
You want to buy more fruits and vegetables, which have less calories yet filling fiber. Organic vegetables is costly. What can you do? Avoid organic and eat normal produce.
"You can lose weight and be healthy without organics if they're not in your budget," adds Satterlee. Eating more fruits and vegetables—organic or not—will increase your fiber, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.
Keep canned vegetables in the cabinet to always have veggies (we like corn and tomatoes; read our top 5 canned veggies). Choose canned vegetables without salt or compare cans for less sodium.
While meal delivery kits like Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, and Plated may seem expensive, Satterlee says they save her money. "I realized I was spending more at the grocery store than when I bought a subscription service, and many of my clients have found that too
So you don't squander money on bulk purchases of high-quality, speciality ingredients, they offer tiny amounts. Although expensive, they make dinner at home feel like date night in, which is usually cheaper than date night out.
Beans may not be sexiest, but they're some of the cheapest groceries, especially if you buy them dried and soak them overnight. They're waistline-friendly too.
A meta-analysis of 21 trials in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that eating one serving of pulses (beans, dried peas, chickpeas, lentils) daily caused 0.75 pounds of weight loss over six weeks. It seems minor, but the decreasing trend is what matters, and people weren't changing their diet to lose weight.
A 2018 BMJ Open study found that slow diners reduced BMI and abdominal fat more than speed eaters. The answer is obvious: scarfing food causes overeating. Slow down and you'll be content with less and have leftovers.
Slowing down is simple but hard, especially if you eat on the move. Keep your phone away and the TV off, and put your fork down between bites to slow down.