Healthy Living on a Budget

A healthy life is essentially the wellbeing of a person’s state of mind and physical fitness. Mental health and physical health complement each other although most people ignore their mental health. Physical health is maintained by observing nutritional contents, engaging in workouts to burn calories and maintaining the cleanliness of a body. However, most people perceive being healthy as having an average weight. Mental health can be achieved by engaging in activities that calm the brain and reduce stress. It is everyone's wish to lead a healthy life but some people think that one needs to spend a lot to have a healthy life. A healthy life can be achieved on a tight budget with ease as it only requires careful and strategic planning.

Achieving Mental Health

Mental health is of vital importance, no matter how physically healthy someone is, he or she is less productive when they have any form of mental disorder. The most prevalent mental conditions that inhibit one’s health are anxiety and depression. Having low income or a tight budget also increases the stress level making the conditions even more common to the middle class and lower class people. Financial insecurity and dissatisfaction with employment also contribute to depression and anxiety rates (Bellemare et al., 2018). Mental health is achieved by ensuring that your brain has less stress. One can meditate alone in their comfortable places without paying for yoga classes by following online tutorials, meditation helps to relieve stress and hence reduces depression and anxiety levels. On a budget, proper planning and allocation of funds are essential as it will prepare one for surviving before the next income. A proper budget plan should include basic needs such as food which are a necessity, some savings, and investments and money to pay bills. The distribution and prioritizing between the essential requirements and urgent needs might be stressful hence one needs to monitor their habits that increase their bills and reduce the usage to a reasonable level. Priority should be given to investments as they offer some financial security, it does not matter how little one invests but making a deal with a personal bank on the investment deductions will give one some security and reduce stress due to the future.

Physical Health

The most significant aspect of maintaining a healthy lifestyle is the food people eat. The aim of eating healthy is to lower the risk of illnesses and early deaths. Although not all diseases are preventable, a large percentage of lifestyle diseases can be prevented by leading a healthy lifestyle. Physical health is not only about avoiding diseases, but physical health also compliments the mental health that then affects our social lives by mood variations. Many people consider healthy eating habits to be particularly expensive whereas it is cheap (Bellemare et al., 2018). Consequently, people on a budget can also lead a healthy life by using the below recommendations.

To sustain a healthy and balanced diet, one should be flexible in their meal choices to ensure that they get a variety of nutrients and still save money. Flexibility on a budget can be achieved by buying the product that is on season especially fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables are paramount in any meal as they are the source of essential vitamins, minerals, fiber, and plant chemicals. The nutrients contained in fruits and vegetables help prevent cancer, diabetes and coronary infections. However, the prices of fruits and vegetables vary throughout the year and sometimes the preferred choices are expensive. Buying something that is in plenty is cheaper and also has more nutrients. Being in season also means that the vegetable or fruits are naturally grown and, therefore, have low chemical composition. One can also check the local markets in the evening as they tend to reduce the prices of the goods to reduce the leftover stock of perishable stock.

When buying meat, one should try and choose cuts that are more affordable like chicken thighs instead of breast. Although they might take time to cook, they have the same advantages and are more affordable. Also, frozen fruits and vegetables will go a long way in reducing the cost of buying fresh produce (Saunders & Bedford, 2017). Frozen fruits and vegetables have an advantage overproduce because not only are they cheaper, they also last for a while and provide the same nutrients as fresh produce. Research has also shown that frozen fruits and vegetables are likely to be more nutritious than fresh produce. Frozen produce is picked at their peak ripeness and immediately frozen and this preserves their nutrients. One can also take the advantage that frozen fruits and other food items favorite food items are cheaper when bought in bulk as the retailer is likely to offer a discount.

One of the activities associated with healthy eating on a budget is cooking. Preparing meals guarantees higher quality diets and minimizes spending on food. Eating out and buying processed foods costs more and also offers fewer nutrients. Packaged or canned foods are not only expensive but also have few nutrients. Also buying fast foods and sugary drinks also increase the disease such as diabetes. Cooking gives one the authority to monitor the content and quality of the food they eat. Also, cooking enables one to save as cooked food can be stored for a later meal. However, cooking on a tight budget also requires careful planning and execution. It is advisable for one to make a list of the needed items before visiting the store (Saunders & Bedford, 2017). The list will help avoid buying things not planned for and hence saving.

Healthy living also requires someone to work out and have fun to relieve stress and check on their weight. A gym membership might be expensive depending on the budget o having a gym instructor. However, YouTube tutorials and applications that show various workout methods without gym equipment can help keep fit without accessing the gym. However, this requires discipline and commitment to healthy living. Morning runs and walks also apply to stay fit while on a tight budget. One should also aim to save on entertainment and other leisure activities that consume money. Leisure and free time are essential and foregoing leisure will not improve the health of a person. However expensive on a budget one should find affordable activities or invite friends to share the cost of whatever activities they will do for leisure.

It is clear that anyone can have a healthy life even on a tight budget. A healthy life guarantees more productivity at work and general happiness. Also observing the meal times and the content will help in living a healthy lifestyle. Breakfast should be heavy and healthier than dinner. Most people are accustomed to foregoing breakfast and sleeping while full which is not a healthy habit. A healthy breakfast plays a part in rectifying a person’s mood throughout the day.

References

Bellemare, D., Duchaine, C., Vezina, M., Mantha-Belisle, M. M., Sultan-Taieb, H., St-Hilaire,

F., & Brisson, C. (2018). 493 Healthy Enterprise Standard (hes) Evaluation: Impact on

Lifestyle Habits and self-Rated Health.

Saunders, P., & Bedford, M. (2017). New Minimum Income for Healthy Living Budget Standards

for Low-Paid and Unemployed Australians. Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW

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