Maintaining a Healthy Diet on a Tight Budget

For call center agents, it’s very common to set a certain budget for meals since most of the time they’re not entitled to free meals at work, like many employees at hotels and restaurants. When you’re on a tight budget, the thought of preparing tasty, healthy meals on a regular basis can seem discouraging. That’s why many telemarketing and customer service agents run to their best friend – fast food restaurants.

An important factor is to be knowledgeable of the consequences of an unhealthy diet. The first thing to keep in mind is when you count the costs of a healthier diet you don’t forget to tally the costs of being overweight. Bad eating habits, combined with a lack of exercise, leads to an estimated 310,000 to 580,000 deaths each year — about as many as smoking.

Another thing to think about when buying food is how much nutrition you’re getting for your money. Having a plan and sticking to it can help you get more food at lower costs and allow you to prepare better, healthier meals. You can also make your own snacks. Fresh fruit and vegetable sticks with dip are much healthier than the bags of chips or crackers that come from the  vending machines.

Whenever possible, make your food from scratch and eat it at home. Not only will this give you more control over what your family eats, but it can also save you a considerable amount of money. Finally, when eating healthy on a budget, don’t forget to think about what you’re drinking. Expensive, sugar-laden drinks take a toll on your budget and are counter-productive to healthy eating.