How to lose weight and save money

The art of reconnecting with food:

How cooking at home help lose weight and save money:

In the United States the number of phone and internet orders for restaurants surged 18% in 2016 to 1.9 billion, according to data released beginning of 2017 by Port Washington, N.Y.-based research firm NPD Group.

Dinner is the meal most often ordered online, and families are the heaviest users of digital ordering, the report finds.

Some 50% of digital orders come at dinner time, while 35% includes parties with kids.

This growing habit is bad not only for your pocket but also for your diet.

Indeed, a few studies found that cooking meals yourself reduces your calorie intake by up to 50 per cent, cause you to tend to eat less fat, sugar and salt and more fibre, even without trying to lose weight.

A research also found that those who cook at home more frequently, are less likely to choose fast foods on the occasions they eat out.

Whether you cook your meal or not also has profound consequences for your health.

One category of people, has control over food, while the other category, has no control at all.

The people with no control over food are generally those who will eat out, most of the time (fast foods or fancy restaurants), order takeaways or food delivery, or eat processed food at home. It is just easy, right? Americans get most of their daily sodium (more than 75%) from processed foods and restaurant food, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Such foods are high in sodium.

The people with control over food are those who cook, who think about a nice recipe, who buy what they need for their meal. They create something delicious from scratch, therefore they tend to have a better connection with food, a connection that is linked to pleasure rather than the necessity of filling themselves up.

Cooking makes you happy and also makes you eat healthier. When you cook you can select the healthier ingredients and control the portions.

When you eat out or when you eat pre-made sauces or meals, you can’t control your sodium and sugar intake.

Cooking also helps you see food as a pleasure rather than just calories.

A quote we really like is from Michael Pollan, bestselling author of Cooked. Mr. Pollan says that cooking makes you a producer, rather than just a consumer.

If you think cooking is difficult and requires time, there are plenty of free recipes online such as Youtube and great cook books that are designed for people who don't know how to cook and don't want to spend too much time in the kitchen. These materials will show you the way.

So our advise is:

- Avoid take away and delivery.

- Stock Your House with whole foods.

- Re-connect with food and start cooking healthy meals for your family and friends. -

- Instead of cooking alone while your kids or partner are watching TV, involve them, educate them, cook something together, make it fun for them.

- If you are alone, cook a bit more and split the portions so that you can have some left over for the day after OR invite a friend.

- Try coming up with a meal plan at the beginning of the week and shop accordingly. Having a plan will help you be organised and will make you avoid take away.

Now that you know how to lose weight and save money at the same time, you can apply these principles. Everyone can do it! So do you. Good luck!