I have been eating clean on & off for the past few years, but I can’t be consistent with it due to many factors. As I am aging & getting older, one of my priorities in life is to be fitter & healthier. My passion for combat sports has changed my lifestyle a lot from once a smoker & a drinker to a fit athlete. One of my biggest challenges as an athlete/coach over the years is to eat clean consistently. The only time I have eaten clean in the past was during competition preparation to make weight for my competition. Aside from that, my daily meals include char koay teow, curry mee, nasi kandar, burger, pizza & other local delights.
In the last few months, I started my eating clean cycle again and I started to realize how much clean eating has changed my training performance while being able to lose 5kg by just eating better. In my years of competing in BJJ, I have always competed at my walking weight which was between 78-80kg & always felt the weakest in terms of strength. When I started to compete at a higher belt level, I realized many disadvantages I had in my competition & that was when I decide to compete in the 76kg division. In order for me to reduce my weight, I have to change my eating lifestyle. Long story short, I change my eating lifestyle, and I feel so much better nowadays from just eating better.
Eating clean is definitely not cheap no matter how much you try to save especially when you eat out. While I am trying to plan the best way to save money while eating clean, the overall meals of eating clean definitely cost more than most average meals. Imagine if I was eating a healthy rice bowl vs economy rice, an average healthy bowl will cost me RM15 onwards while the average economy rice will cost me RM7 onwards. It is almost double the cost. Trust me, I have tried to find the best ways to save money while eating clean but on average, it will cost more than a standard ‘dirty’ meal.
My daily routine includes working from home, office & straight to the gym right after work, which is why I need to eat out from time to time. Whenever I can meal prep or prepare food from home, I will definitely do it. On average, I spend RM400-RM500 on my monthly groceries which mainly consist of salmon, beef, chicken, eggs, yogurt, almond milk, kimchi & other healthy choices. To compare it with my outside clean meals, I spend around RM30 per meal. My monthly spending per month from eating clean costs around RM1200-RM1500.
Despite all the efforts to try to run on a better cost-efficient eating clean plan, this is the cost that I have to pay to adapt to my current meal plan of choice. To save more money, perhaps the best choice is to fully cook at home or meal prep, but it can be quite challenging especially when I need to work. Meal prep & bringing it on the road does not make sense at this point. Perhaps if I am fully having a WFH job, I may be able to save more money from my eating clean by just cooking at home. Or else, I will be expecting to spend more than RM1000 on my average meals per month.
If you ask me, if this will be a long-term plan for me to eat clean, I definitely think so as I truly feel so much better, both physically and mentally. Does that mean that I won’t be eating other nice Penang hawker food or other nice food? The answer is no, I still can’t resist all the good food in the world. My only problem after I eat that oily or non-clean food is, my body will feel horrible after I eat it. It will also affect my training as I will feel unwell. So, whenever I eat hawker food is when I truly crave it which rarely happens nowadays since I know the aftermath of it. Also, eating clean truly makes me feel healthier therefore it is definitely a good choice for me for longevity & my training performance. After all, health is wealth, and although eating clean maybe be expensive, not taking care of your health and body may result in a more expensive medical bill in the long run.
OSS!
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