Hello Dear Reader,
Frugal in Bucks asked in her blog “Can you be healthy and frugal?” My resounding answer to that is yes you can!
I thought I would break this up into manageable chunks as any form of ‘change’ doesn’t happen instantly or easily. The first one to over come is the attitude of people around you. It doesn’t matter if you are on a diet, not spending money, giving up smoking, getting more exercise, giving up booze, sugar or just staying in a getting more sleep. Some one will be the voice that tries to tell you that not eating cakes, not eating sugar, going running, being on a diet is dull and ‘you’ve only got one life’. It never ever ceases to amaze me that people think my life is boring or unfulfilled as I’m not bored and my glass is over flowing! I have a **** you attitude to what anyone else thinks of me and I also have a rubber arse. If I fall down or get knocked down then I just get back up again.
The first thing that is frugal and even free is ‘your own mind’. If you have decided that you are going to change your life then remember it’s YOUR life and no one else’s business if you choose to change it.
Now you’ve stood up to the nay sayers, they biggest voice you have to overcome is your own! I’ve stamped on the little voice that used to whine and say this hurts, or this is aching. I’ve silenced the moaning that feels deprived and wants what it can’t have. I no longer hear ‘oh go oh, eat it, that won’t hurt you’ into ‘good for you, you make the right choices and you are healthier for it!’. Every single day, my advice to everyone is to practise positive self talk that allows you to praise yourself for the good you are doing to yourself. Today, I praised myself for eating fruit, plenty of veg and drinking lots of water. I also praised myself for the 3K run and for cooking a healthy supper. I didn’t nag myself for not running 5K and I didn’t beat myself up that my supper portion was large. I stick to the positives.
Healthy food. I eat real food. I don’t eat diet food and don’t suggest that anyone else does either! I followed the Weight Watchers plan initially and found the habit of tracking my eating invaluable. I now no longer need that level of support and use an app to track all of my calories per day. I find it easy to stick to the prescribed amount of calories. However, to get plenty of food down my neck I have to bulk out my meals with vegetables. I eat a box of salad for lunch every day and pile my plate high with veggies with my supper every night. My change in my eating habits is that I don’t snack so I don’t eat anything between one meal and the next. This means any meal tastes amazing as I am hungry. A simple veggie risotto or a vegetable soup tastes amazing when nothing but water has passed my lips for six hours! I eat meat but stick to portions of 100 - 130g in each serving. Anything is affordable when you eat a small amount only. I eat good cheese such as parmesan but only eat 15g grated at a time.
Exercise. I’ll come clean. I started seriously exercising on and off many years ago. I have been a gym member over the years but never kept it going. Now, I’ve been almost every day for a year and for the first time, I’ve really had my money’s worth. I’m not going to let this one slip. I also have a personal trainer and no, he is not cheap but he has reprogrammed me to become a runner and I thought that would never ever happen. I certainly won’t keep him forever as he’s going off to pastures new but I have been left with a fitness legacy that means I have formed a habit. What I will do that costs me nothing is run. I’m a plodder and run very slowly. I run in spits and starts and interval train. So, I walk run, walk, walk, run, run and get round a self prescribed route whilst listening to music. However, this is not where I started. I began by walking. I built that up to power walking and that alone kick started a whole new lifestyle where I was active every day.
I’ll try and sum up the how to be healthy as cheaply as possible.
1. Listen to yourself and not others. If you want to be healthy then go for it. It’s not just about weight or shape but most importantly living a full and active life and that’s difficult if your body size impedes your mobility. If you want to change that then don’t listen to others but listen to yourself.
2. Positive self talk - praise yourself for the things you have done each day to take care of yourself.
3. Eat real food and plenty of veg. Eat at meal times and quit the snacking. A big bowl of vegetable soup will taste amazing if you only eat at meal times. Eat until you don’t feel hungry anymore instead of eating until you feel full. Get used to the difference and you will become healthier.
4. Walk every day! Get home, put your coat on and walk for 15 minutes every day for the first week. Do this every day! After one week, build that up to 20 minutes a day! Even if that is just up and down your own street. Make a point of doing it. By the end of the first month, you will be walking for 30 minutes every day just by increasing the amount you walk by five minutes a day. Each week, add five more minutes to the daily walk until you reach one hour a day. Now, start to add hills or steps. If you have steps then add in five minutes a day of just going up and down the steps! Within six months, you’ll be able to skip up them.
Over to you Dear Reader. Are any of the four steps helpful? Would any of the four steps be prohibitively expensive? Can you be healthy and frugal? As ever, I look forward to hearing from you.
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxxxxxxxxxxx
How to be healthy and frugal
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I enjoyed this post. I particularly liked the bit about the 'rubber arse'. A great expression. Good for your for sharing such good solid advice.
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Fantastic advice! Love the “positive self-talk”. Yes!
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I had a trainer, like you and the sole reason was to teach me to run, sounds daft but until you know how to do it properly it does hurt, you can't progress and you do give up. It's been invaluable to me and although I'm not a diehard, I know I can put my trainers on and go and run, the pace and time are relevant to me no-one else. Yes it cost but I think it was a worthwhile investment and for the outlay I got my money back many times over and a healthier way of living! 🙂
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We started the eat good food and exercise in July. Both of us are down 30 pounds and have muscles. My clothes are just dropping off. Love it. You have pinpointed exactly what is needed.
Too many tell me that they cannot do…….. I am amazed at their excuses.
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hey Froogs,
I love Homemade soup too. We are still eating salad as I don't thinks its a winter food, we do warm one with warm meat etc. I have started running over the last 3 days but my legs are killing me!
I have stopped smoking and cut out crap food. My energy levels are rising already.
Thanks for the mention. Hope new house going ok. X
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This is very helpful and is all very good common sense, it's just avoiding all the advertising and supermarket tricks when it comes to shopping that is the hardest for most folks.
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Excellent advice and post Froogs!
I just wish I could honestly think positive about myself. I know it can be done, it's just bloody hard when you've had years of negative thoughts about yourself!
Take care dear lady. X
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Hi, Frogs, the thing I find difficult is to visually see what I should be eating. Is it possible for you to take apicture of your usual supper plate? That would be most helpful as having the meats, etc. in written weight measurements, means nothing to me. Thanks
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During the three years of our debt clearing mission, I often used to think that the attitude towards it is very similar to losing weight or giving up cigarettes. You need the same determination, motivation and the ability to ignore others around you. Then you can succeed! There were times when we felt miserable and felt that there was nothing to look forward to while there was debt to clear. But we would give ourselves a good kick up the bum and I would say out loud, “Just get on with it!”. No one else can do it for you and you have to be strong enough not to listen to those who tell you 'life's too short', or 'you've only got one life', or 'you can't take it with you'. I may not be able to take it with me but I'm damned if I'm living my life in debt and leaving a load of debt behind. The day we were debt free felt absolutely fantastic, not just the being debt free but knowing that we had been strong enough to achieve this after so many years of spending more than we were earning. Be strong and don't give up!!
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Hi Retro Wren. I just wanted to say (as someone who had counselling for bad self esteem) I know how you feel. If it helps at all, try to think about the things you “say” to yourself (when you're thinking them you're in effect saying them to yourself) and imagine listening to someone say them to either your best friend or to a little child (we all still have an inner child). Would you stand for it? I know when I thought about it like that it horrified me, especially the child scenario. Be your own best friend and/or nurture that child. Stand up for yourself and stop that inner voice bullying you. It might be easier if you start by observing yourself to start with. So take a step back and consciously listen to the things you berate yourself with. It can actually be quite shocking!
I hope you get to see this and I hope it helps. Be kind to yourself and I hope you start a new chapter of appreciating *you* very soon. xx
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Frugal food is often more healthy than the dear stuff, especially if you usually buy processed. I don't agree with people that say they have to cut back on fruit and veg because it is too expensive. Check out Aldi! Meat IS dear, and too much of it is not great for your health. As Froogs says, fill up on veg and you will have your 5 a day and more without actually trying that hard.
A friend recently lost 4 stone eating sensibly and walking. She used an app called Map My Walk to motivate her. I have used it a few times and it is excellent. It records your route, distance and speed so you can map your progress as you walk further more quickly! You can share it on Facebook to show off and get some positive praise too 🙂
Smoking? I don't get it at all, especially if you are short of cash…
Jane
http://shoestringcottage.wordpress.com
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I seriously need to lose weight, a lifetime struggle. I don't find it easy AT ALL to keep to the calories I have set for myself.
My resolution is to use myFitnessPal to help me, and to work hard on controlling my portion sizes
If anyone is finding it difficult to keep to a budget and eat healthily, I have written some meal plans at thriftylesley.com that cost £1 a day per person, that adhere to current governmental guidelines and are about 10 portions of fruit and veg on average per day
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Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Your “Final Four” are great summaries of how frugal and healthy can be complementary concepts. It's motivating & encouraging. They reinforce my current habits.
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This is great but I think it's also important to expect initial progress to be slow, and not to beat yourself up if you find it hard going. I am someone who finds many mental tasks easy, and avoided physical tasks, so I never learned how to make slow, incremental progress with something I naturally find difficult. For me, finding (exercise) difficult = failure. So I am having to learn to celebrate very small achievements and not beat myself up about slow progress.
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