Are you looking for affordable strategies to help you eat healthier and live better? Check out these five healthier habits that your budget can handle.
While January and the flush of the new year is past us, healthy habits are not something we should shirk with the changing of the calendar. I don’t care how much you like your Valentine’s Box of chocolate.
I’ve been doing a little reading lately about how much control we really do have over our health. We don’t have to give in to genetic predispositions or bad habits. While there is certainly no Fountain of Youth, there are things we can do to improve our quality of life here and now.
You may think that you need a lot of money to buy fancy ingredients, hire a trainer, or pay for acupuncture. You don’t have to be rich to live healthy. Seriously.
Consider:
Healthier Habits Your Budget Can Handle
1. Drink more water.
Ditch the sodas and fancy coffee drinks — at least for all day long. Hydrate with good old fashioned water. It’s economical, readily available, and good for you.
Shoot for 8 cups a day.
2. Get moving.
The American Heart Association has identified 7 characteristics of heart-healthy people. One of those seven includes being active, defined as simply as 30-minutes of walking that gets your heart pumping. You can do that! It doesn’t cost you anything!
Make a date to go walking with a friend on a regular basis and you can enjoy good company as well as helping your health.
3. Eat more vegetables.
If you got yesterday’s Good Cheap Eats newsletter, you know that I’m on a mission to make veggies more fun this year. Truly, all these experts disagree on all kinds of things, but they do agree on vegetables. Vegetables are your friends. And they’re cheap!
Frozen veggies can be had for as low as 88 cents a pound on sale. Check your grocery sales flyer to find out what’s in season and on sale and stock up.
4. Make it yourself.
Processed foods are the devil. While I give into temptation from time to time, I know that they aren’t good for me or my family. Plus, making soups, sauces, granola, and main dish proteins myself is cheaper and better tasting!
Check out the DIY Convenience series for all kinds of favorite foods you can make yourself.
5. Skip the sweets. Or at least make them count.
I know. Those conversation hearts are just so tasty you can’t give them up, can you? Seriously? Are they really your favorite sweet? Probably not.
Make your sweet treats count. You’ll save money if you don’t buy that stuff too often — and you’ll enjoy better health. Whenever possible swap the junky sweet for a piece of fruit or a whole grain baked good. Do it enough, and you won’t even miss the sugary excesses.
What healthier habits are YOU working on?
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This self-paced, multimedia course will provide you with the tools to reach your healthy eating goals.
5 Things to Help You Save Money in the Kitchen
Bowl Meals Tips and Recipe Ideas
Buy Groceries on a Budget: How To Make it Happen
Use a Price Book to Track Grocery Prices & Save Money
Healthier Comfort Foods that Won’t Break the Bank
SLEEP! My daughter has been diagnosed with a medical condition that explains why she has such a difficult time going and staying asleep. She is under doctor’s orders to follow good sleep hygiene, which sounds easier than it actually is at times.
1. Maintain a consistent sleep schedule. Trying to convince my tween to not sleep in on the weekends is easier said than done.
2. Get a minimum of 9 hours of sleep, which is the recommendation for her age group.
3. Establish relaxing bedtime rituals. My daughter has taken to listening to quiet music for 30 minutes before bed.
4. Use your bedroom for sleeping only. This is a near impossibility for kids, so our rule is to not use your bed for anything but sleeping. During the day sit on the floor or in a chair, but no lounging on the bed.
5. No lights while sleeping, which includes the lights on cell phones, laptops, alarm clocks, and other electronics.
6. Reduce your fluid intake before bedtime, which like many health habits contradicts the suggestion to keep a glass of water next to your bed.
To make it easier on my daughter the whole family is participating. While I don’t get the 9 hours of sleep per night, I have been averaging about 30 minutes more than before we started.
Great strategies! I hope you all see some progress soon!
We’re still on a healthy eating kick too. I’m going to up my water. I’m using cauliflower rice these days instead of pasta or rice. It’s an easy switch to make. I also added spinach into a bolognaise yesterday.
Great, easy swaps!
I’ve cut down drastically on buying deli cold cuts. Instead I’ve replaced them with my own sandwich fixings like sliced leftover roast beef, chicken, turkey, and meatloaf. Once in a while, I have to have a little bologna or salami which I love both. I believe in everything in moderation including moderation. LOL But when I do, I savor them for a day or two until they are gone and then back on to the more healthier meats. I’ve also stopped adding salt to my cook pot and on the table and I’ve been buying low or no sodium products.
I also enjoy a good walk almost every day especially when the weather is cooperating. And I try to incorporate veggies into every meal we eat and always keep a full fruit bowl.
Yep, my latest reading said that deli cold cuts are from the devil. Which is too bad since they’re so good! We have a weakness for good salami over here.
Your substitutions are great!
I always thought we ate a fairly healthy diet but last fall hubby had to have a double bypass. Since then, believe me, our diet has tightened up a lot.
Absolutely no deli meats, very little in the way of processed foods. – more and more is home made. Whereas cheese used to be a regular item for us, it has now become an occasional treat. Regardless of the cost of fresh fruit and vegetables, we buy them and make sure we eat them. No more caffeine either!
We have no choice – this is a lifetime change. We’ve been given another chance and, believe me, we’re taking it!!
My advice is read the labels on the items you are buying. Yes, it costs more to avoid the bad stuff but if you can do it, please, please, do it. My hubby was lucky. It could have been so much worse. He is recovering well and will be able to get back to doing everything he used to do, including golfing and gardening.
Great advice. Thank you. I’m so glad to hear that you guys are flourishing under your second chance!
The past few yeas we have been eating healthier, not perfect but better! Hoping to continue getting better. On another non-related note for some reason I no longer get your emails 🙁 Should I resign up missed yesterdays
It looks like you signed up for the recent freebies which put you on a different list. I can take you off those lists and back to the regular ones? Just let me know.