How To Eat Healthy if You Have More Time Than Money (or More Money Than Time)

When people ask me for ideas on how they can improve their diet, they usually tell me what their roadblocks are.

It’s almost always one of two things: a lack of time, or a lack of money.

(The people who have it the roughest are those who work a lot, and have very little time, but also have challenges consuming all their discretionary income.)

If you’re reading this, and you still have some time freedom, or some discretionary income, please tend to your health now. Don’t put it off.

Because when your health nosedives, your earning power usually does, too.

I’ve talked with far too many people who actually can’t work, or their career has suffered, because of their symptoms and loss of energy.

And then they suddenly are very motivated to hire a functional medicine team, and get an infrared sauna in their home, undertake a major detoxification protocol--

--and actually there are an unlimited number of things they want to invest in, to regain their health. As they begin to study, learn, and ask questions.

You’ve heard the saying that Americans spend their health to get their wealth, and then for the rest of their lives they spend their wealth to regain their health.

It’s a sick cycle. It would be cheaper if we intervened, and got serious about lifestyle change, before we’re sick.

So if you’re reading this before you’ve lost your health, I hope you tune in now, to (a) change your diet, and (b) commit to detoxify, twice a year--

--so that you’re preventing, rather than treating. But even if you’re sick, learning some easy hacks to eat better are critically important, in your strategy to get well.

When people ask me for ideas on how to eat healthy, given financial or time challenges, I ask them this question first:

“What do you have more of? Money, or time?”

Because my suggestions will be different based on which circumstance you are in.

I used to have more time than money. As a young mother of four children, working outside the home only part-time, I had time to garden organically, and cook for my family.

Now I have more money than time, and I travel a lot, so I buy more prepared foods from the health food store and cook less often.

There are still plenty of things I do make. But buying a pricey bag of kale chips and a small package of quinoa cookies at the store was not always in the budget, earlier in life.

They call it “Whole Paycheck Market” for a reason--the prepared foods at Whole Foods Market are for those with discretionary income.

If you don’t have that, you can make your own food, for a fraction of that cost. The fact is, besides living on the Dollar Menu, eating a Whole Foods Plant Based (WFPB) diet is the cheapest diet there is!

I’ve got some ideas for you that have big potential for your health, if you have more time, or more money.

How to Eat Healthy If You Have More Time Than Money

My entire 12 Steps to Whole Foods course was developed when I was a young, budget-conscious mother doing all my own cooking.

This video masterclass I prepared for you covers these 6 subjects:

• Video 1: 7 Foods That Fight Inflammation (and Promote Energy and Healing)
• Video 2: Rehab Your Gut With Food!
• Video 3: My 5 Best Tips for Eating Super-Healthy, Super-Cheap
• Video 4: Beat Your Addictions In Four Days Flat!
• Video 5: Make 12 Simple Shifts (for the Healthiest Year of Your Life)
• Video 6: How to Bring Your Partner / Kids Along (for Healthy Changes)

Jump in on the FREE video masterclass here, if eating right, for cheap, appeals to you.

Here are three tips for people with time, but little money:

1. You might have a friend interested in eating right, who would like to pay for green smoothie ingredients, or Detox program ingredients, while you volunteer to do all the prep work. We have seen this be an effective strategy for many.

2. Cook in large batches. Freeze single-servings or quantities, for later.

This works especially well for me, with my lentil or split-pea or chili (all vegetarian) soups. And with making up a quantity of brown rice or quinoa, or various types of beans.

Then you are utilizing the most inexpensive healthy foods, and you have super-cheap, no-salt-added beans to take out of the freezer, leave on the counter, and add to a salad or main dish or soup in the evening. Not much is better for your gut than eating legumes, with their fiber acting as a prebiotic for a healthy, probiotic-rich microbiome.

3. Grow an organic garden, even a small one.

Vertical gardens allow you to harvest food from even a patio, and some neighborhoods offer community gardens you can work in, without needing to have land of your own. It’s easy to grow food organically, and this will be not only the most delicious food you eat, all year, but it will also be the cheapest and the most chemical-free.

How to Eat Healthy If You Have More Money Than Time

As people get older, they tend to have more discretionary income.

If you find that your time is at a premium, but you have extra income but lack of time keeps you from healthier habits, perhaps one or more of these ideas will serve you.

1. Find someone for $12/hour to come to your home and juice veggies and greens for you, twice a week.

Or, pay for green smoothie ingredients, with someone you know who has time, but no money.

That way she can have half, and you have half--and it took you no time at all. At times, when running my business and my home was incredibly time consuming, I even paid the $12/hour assistant to shop for me.

2. Identify the places you can go, for “convenience” healthy foods, that minimize effort for you.

I have (a) the salad bar at the Harmon’s grocery store near my home; (b) huge, delicious Tex-Mex vegetarian salads at Cafe Rio for me and my teenaged son; and (c) prepared foods I can get, when time is limited, that I get at the Good Earth health food store. These are my go-to’s. What are yours?

3. One of the best things in my life is the fact that years ago, I got the Roxberry juice franchises to make me organic greens-and-veggies juice, and deliver them to me.

Fresh pressed greens and vegetables might be the most powerful nutrition strategy you can employ, but it’s also terribly time intensive. Left to my own devices, I’d never get around to it!

(This is why many health-conscious people have a juicer, but it rarely gets used.)

You might be able to get Uber Eats or some other service, or a $12/hour assistant, to make sure you’re never without fresh green juice. I get mine made custom, with no fruit except a bit of lemon--and some ginger and turmeric, and only organic greens. It's my secret energy and resilience weapon, worth every penny.