Getting what you pay for.
Hey Guys,
Today I would like to talk about value for money.
In this day and age (especially in the UK) money is tight and making sure you get the biggest bang for your buck (for the American readers) is very important. Now many people think that this means getting whichever product is the cheapest but is this always the best course of action? When we are so focused on spending the least amount of money possible, are we doing ourselves out of whats best for us?
What it really comes down to is what you consider 'value' to be? This doesn't always mean cheapest (for me anyway). What this means to me is getting the best experience/product that is available to me and within my budget.
I'm going to use the example of coffee to show you what I mean.
Now I'm not one of those people that has (or wants/needs) a lot of stuff. I don't accumulate possessions or spend money on things that don't directly influence my life in a positive way. So this means that when I do spend my money on something I want a great experience. Now one of the things that I really like is coffee. I'm not a coffee connoisseur by any means as I still drink instant most of the time, however I do drink a lot (especially when writing). Because of this I want great tasting coffee.
So recently I had the HORRIFIC experience of running out of coffee (its ok people, I made it through). So after making this terrible discovery off to the supermarket I went. Upon my arrival I was to find my current brand (Nescafe Espresso) out of stock. Now I have to find another brand to fill my coffeeless hole. After about 2 hours of reading every coffee packet in Tesco I had settled on 2 types in which I was to make my decision. The first being a premium, organic blend while the other being Tescos own brand Barrista coffee.
Now as you can imagine, the Tesco brand was considerable cheaper. In fact it was on offer as well which made it over £6 cheaper! Now upon applying logic to the situation I decided that there was no way that the other coffee could be so much nicer than the Tesco one to justify the extra expenditure. So I bought the Tesco one (at this point I most have spent 3 hours making this one cup of fecking coffee).
So the verdict? Did I get the best 'value' product by going for the cheaper one?
No. It tasted like utter crap. I robbed myself out of that delicious, caffeinated, coffee goodness by going for the cheaper one. I suck.
So in this situation I would have gotten better value by spending the extra money on the other coffee as I would have had a much more rewarding experience. See what I am saying about value being objective?
Now lets apply the same line of thought to buying fitness products and supplements. With the shear amount of products that are available out there, how do we know which ones will provide us with the best value and therefore the best products? How do we know that we are making a sound investment in our health and bodies?
With this in mind, here are a quick few tips to help you out;
Got a great product and want others to know about it? Comment below or let me know on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. Or drop me a message HERE
Stay healthy,
Mike
Today I would like to talk about value for money.
In this day and age (especially in the UK) money is tight and making sure you get the biggest bang for your buck (for the American readers) is very important. Now many people think that this means getting whichever product is the cheapest but is this always the best course of action? When we are so focused on spending the least amount of money possible, are we doing ourselves out of whats best for us?
What it really comes down to is what you consider 'value' to be? This doesn't always mean cheapest (for me anyway). What this means to me is getting the best experience/product that is available to me and within my budget.
I'm going to use the example of coffee to show you what I mean.
Now I'm not one of those people that has (or wants/needs) a lot of stuff. I don't accumulate possessions or spend money on things that don't directly influence my life in a positive way. So this means that when I do spend my money on something I want a great experience. Now one of the things that I really like is coffee. I'm not a coffee connoisseur by any means as I still drink instant most of the time, however I do drink a lot (especially when writing). Because of this I want great tasting coffee.
So recently I had the HORRIFIC experience of running out of coffee (its ok people, I made it through). So after making this terrible discovery off to the supermarket I went. Upon my arrival I was to find my current brand (Nescafe Espresso) out of stock. Now I have to find another brand to fill my coffeeless hole. After about 2 hours of reading every coffee packet in Tesco I had settled on 2 types in which I was to make my decision. The first being a premium, organic blend while the other being Tescos own brand Barrista coffee.
Now as you can imagine, the Tesco brand was considerable cheaper. In fact it was on offer as well which made it over £6 cheaper! Now upon applying logic to the situation I decided that there was no way that the other coffee could be so much nicer than the Tesco one to justify the extra expenditure. So I bought the Tesco one (at this point I most have spent 3 hours making this one cup of fecking coffee).
So the verdict? Did I get the best 'value' product by going for the cheaper one?
No. It tasted like utter crap. I robbed myself out of that delicious, caffeinated, coffee goodness by going for the cheaper one. I suck.
So in this situation I would have gotten better value by spending the extra money on the other coffee as I would have had a much more rewarding experience. See what I am saying about value being objective?
Now lets apply the same line of thought to buying fitness products and supplements. With the shear amount of products that are available out there, how do we know which ones will provide us with the best value and therefore the best products? How do we know that we are making a sound investment in our health and bodies?
With this in mind, here are a quick few tips to help you out;
- If you're going to spend a good bit of money on
supplements make sure that you're first buying the best quality food
first. No fancy supplement will ever out do a good nutritional plan. Buy
veggies and fruits in season, buy grass fed beef and butter, get wild
salmon and free range eggs etc
- If you are getting supplements the spend your money on
good quality fish oils, a multi vitamin, whey protein powder and a fast
acting carb powder
- Purchase from reputable brands. I recommend Myprotein,
Biotest and Phd.
- Do you research. make sure that the product that you
are about to buy has the science to back it up. If a product is backed up
by studies that have only been done on mice, how confident can you be in
it?
- Ask people with more knowledge than yourself. This is the
part where I tell you to talk to your coach.
Got a great product and want others to know about it? Comment below or let me know on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. Or drop me a message HERE
Stay healthy,
Mike