Food Budget

It has been a while since my summer stay in Germany and Switzerland where experienced first the effect of inflation on the grocery. This comparison might not be in line due to continuous increase in food prices but gives a clue on how much one needs for the food budget in these two countries. As Food and Travel is passion and many wonder how much it takes to maintain well-balanced eating budget while being consistent with your eating patterns or just curious about the prices in other parts of the world, the initiative of sharing my experience was being made. You can get inspired by eating habits and purchases to get pumped most testosterone and HGH out of your food, thus effective gains and fat loss.

To be an effective bodybuilder, you need to be consistent while also organized. Knowing what to eat on daily basis is more important than when and how. To refresh your knowledge on effective eating, check the old posts found bellow. The process of effective eating got even more effective and enjoyable but that for further post. The main point of traveling is to keep the nutrients logistic and workouts going smooth. When staying somewhere longer (for months), you should find a way to outsource everything like at home where you are based in (especially, when progress oriented).

There are foods that are must like nuts along with fruits and veggies. Do not forget meat and other key ingredients that should not go off your table but does not necessary be on it on daily basis (pastry, legumes and other super foods or whole foods that make up well-balanced eating). The rest is just about getting the necessary calories in and enjoying the process. Bellow you can see the price comparison.

Daily

Frozen berries 2,5€ 1kg + oats 1€ 1kg 11,5€ monthly

salted peanuts with two bananas 1,3-1,5€ 40€ monthly or sunflower seeds with 2 bananas 0,8€ 24€ monthly (main dish)

water 1,5l 40-60 cents 15€ monthly

rice 10 bags each 200g altogether 1 euro + 90cents 200g fish can with sauce 10€ for 10 days (lunch option 1)

spaghetti + tuna +ketchup + cheese 1,1-1,5 tuna but 4pack for 4 euro 0,7€ 500g spaghetti ketchup 0,8€ 21€ for 15 days (lunch option 2)

pasta with beef 400g beef 3,5€ 1kg 1€ pasta 12,5€ for 6 days (lunch option 3)

1,5 1kg broccoli or kale 9euro monthly

Every second Day

tomato + mix of veggies (around 0,5€) bread (around 1,5€) + salami 4€ 400g + bio eggs 6pack (approx. 2€) 20€ monthly

Every third Day

nutella 5 for 1kg + whole grain bread 1-2 12€ monthly

some sweet pastry 2,4€ 24€ monthly

As you can see, you can comfortably live out from 150-200€ a month for food. Normally, I do not eat nutella at all but had caloric surplus due to very active lifestyle and limited time for cooking made me chose this option for big and tasty calories. You can still round it up to 200€ when from time to time eating outside but that would be like once a week maximum going for best deals for this is always the most expensive choice. Honestly, never went for this option. It is cheaper to get yourself invited for barbecue or so and club together. The most problematic was obtaining some fruits you had been used to like oranges. One orange costed the same as 6 bananas. The apples weren´t cheap too. So were, lucky to be spending some time on the bike and getting some wild apples while still being active.

On the other hand, one of the best option to save is picking sunflower seeds over peanuts or nutella and sweet pastry for simple pastry. In this meal plan you might miss potatoes or other stuffs. It is important to have a simple organized routine where you know how much you going to spend and your digestion is used to it, thus can keep optimal performance up as well as productivity. Most importantly, something you can be consistent about and is easy to replenish/afford. Also, ate potatoes and other stuffs but that was like once weekly when had to make it more balanced. Still, everything done in order to keep it within the budget. P.S. recommend Laupheimer beer – there are seven kinds once in Laupheim surrounding.

Why is it important to have a food budget? You can state clear how much you put on investments (self-investments, assets, travel, savings). Basically, you have a clear picture with how much money you can play your game of self-development and assets creation which is becoming more of the goal than actual fitness but there is still more to explore in it. For example, had my very first Europe championship in strength and conditioning which did not work that well for me for many reasons. Been only once in my whole life higher than 2000 meters above sea level which was still less than 2100 meters and not speaking of giving the best possible performance. My VO2 Max is still not even 50ml/kg/min. so need to focus on this aspect (we will have more performance talk in later posts no worries).

The highest performing attitude was 2700 meters where it was my only 7th half marathon. Longer runs catabollic to your muscles which is not really the way. The championship got cancelled all of the sudden in last December when was totally prepared and then moved to Swiss Alps a half year later. Before that had student exchange program so did not train that focused and intense, especially when lock-down finally loosened up. Up there could literally, felt the strength leaving me once we hit above 2000 meters starting at 1500m and breathing got harder with increasing altitude. Finished 60. out of 64. contenders but was a great experience and finally in my home environment where can focus fully on training and already going for Europe championship 2022 qualification in two weeks to sunny Mallorca. Also working on creating better training environment which you also find out how and what got achieved.

P.S. once in Verbier, Switzerland, definitely check Mont Fort (3328m) it costs around 45€ there and back where cable car from Le Châble to Verbier costs around 15€ there and back. The parking lot is free of charge in Le Châble. So the whole journey will costs you less than 60€ and views totally worth it. In this location is also situated Mont Blanc and it is 30 minutes to France and Italy. There was no time for Mont Blanc but definitely on my to do list. Great I was not alone for this mountainous and performance journey and had a friend competing too as his first race experience. We do not know how he finished as he lost his chip but had great experience and did more than fine as had time to see him compete. What totally got us was seeing vineyards growing on the slope of Alps like we are in Switzerland in Alps how this is even possible, especially when you saw growing it on the rocky slopes.

The prices in Switzerland was not that bad if you follow the same eating habits like above. Would most likely skip on outside eating and eat more pasta as the prices were literally the same as in Germany. Also for fish cans pretty much the same. So would prefer lunch options 1 and 2 above the third one while real meat is must so would most likely go for more salami and eat it every second day. Also, easily storable. Surprisingly, the bread prices were also pretty close to what were used to in Germany. Check the photo bellow for quick review. So, the monthly budget would be between 400-500€.