Often people want to eat healthy, but think it’s not really feasible for them. Organic is too expensive, it takes too much time to prepare the food, etc. Others are willing to take some steps, but think it’s too difficult to switch to a truly healthy diet, so they compromise. And still others take the bandwagon to the end of the road: all home-grown organic non-GMO foods.

So where do you draw the line? How far do you go toward healthy eating? Well, there are certainly some practical boundaries to consider. But there are also practical solutions.

Cost

One of the biggest hinderances I hear from people about healthy eating is the cost—or rather, the perception of cost. Many people think it’s expensive to eat healthy, but that’s simply not true. My wife and I eat really quite healthy foods, and we spend, on average, about $3 per person per day on food. Three dollars a day. It’s not expensive to eat healthy, but there are some tricks to it:

• Grow your own. Quite simply, food is cheaper when you don’t have to pay for it. Let nature do its thing and reap the benefits. No room for a garden, you say? Plant in your front yard. No yard? Plant on your balcony—that’s what we’re doing right now! No balcony? Really? Well worst case you can plant inside by a sunny window, and the bonus is you can probably grow stuff year-round that way.
• Buy in bulk. When you need a staple, buy a lot of it. Most staple foods will keep for extended periods of time, so it’s okay to get a lot and store it away. Foodstuffs like legumes and grains can last years, and even potatoes and onions will last for months in the right conditions.
• Say No. Learn to say no to packaged and processed foods. Learn to say no to unnecessary snack foods. The closer to the raw source, the cheaper the product.

Time

The other biggest concern I hear is that eating healthy takes too much time. You have to spend more time in the kitchen preparing meals, and who has time for that? This hurdle is a little trickier to overcome. And that’s because it takes a mindset shift.

Here’s the problem: Americans are busy. We always have stuff to do, appointments to make, places to be, people to meet. And when someone asks for our time, we have to schedule it and put it on a calendar like a business executive’s secretary. The problem is we’re too busy.

So the mindset shift that is required is that we need to slow down. We need to clear out our schedules and make time for the important things. Make time for faith, make time for family, and make time for food. These are all very important things in life, but too often we only have faith on Sundays, only see family in the morning before we all go separate ways, and only eat food out of bags in the car.

So we need a mindset shift. And once you make that shift, suddenly food is important, and it’s not hard to spend extra time in the kitchen preparing it.

All the Way

Thus I propose that if you really want to eat healthy, go all the way. Grow your own food the way God designed it, and eat food the way God designed it. Sure there’s a challenge to it, and lots of learning that needs to take place. But the biggest hurdle really is the mindset shift. And once you’re past that, the rest is exciting and fulfilling.

Ari and I are actively putting these principles to use, and we’ll be posting more about how we’re doing it. It really is doable!