Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is all about finding a balance between your expenditure, your time, and your ability to make a positive change to your circumstances. Often, healthy living is equated with an elite style of living. A style which entails large-sum expenditure on health products, gym subscriptions, healthy supplements and ingredients, and pricey doctors’ bills and pharmaceuticals. It need not be this way, though! This guide aims to educate anyone who’s interested in keeping a healthier lifestyle while saving money, by managing your health-cost efficiency and taking productive and sensible steps to protect against ill health.
Exercise
An integral part of a healthy lifestyle, maintaining a healthy and frequent exercise regime is paramount to living a rich and fulfilling life in good health. There are dozens of recent studies confirming this fact. However, for many, it’s not enough to force them out to conduct regular exercise. Gym costs can be off-putting for those also looking to save money. Likewise, running gear or other equipment can be costly to the extent that some are discouraged from taking up an exercise regime. Finally, it can often be difficult to find the time to exercise, especially with full-time jobs and responsibilities commanding much of our attention and energy.
While you may be justified in considering the above a good enough reason to put your exercise aspirations on hold, it’s certainly not the be-all or the end-all. For instance, look at your time management. Plenty of people wake half an hour earlier each morning to take a short morning jog, which is more than your recommended minimum exercise. Others build cycling into their routine, on the way to and from work. You don’t need to pay excessive gym fees to get fit. With some cheap sportswear and a little research on the internet, you’ll find a wealth of exercises and workouts that cost nothing and will train every area of your body.
Diet
Unfortunately, it is true that healthier foods such as fruit and vegetables tend to be more expensive than their less-healthy frozen or microwave meal equivalents. The same can be said for eating out: inexpensive fast food is worse for you than a healthy Italian meal cooked in an expensive restaurant. But this is not to say that you cannot eat healthily on a budget. It just means you’ll have to be creative in the ways you choose to tailor your meals and snacks around a healthier array of ingredients.
Start by getting up to scratch on your healthy cooking. By buying a cheap recipe book for those looking to gain the skills necessary to cook healthier, or by doing your research online for the near-infinite collection of healthy and inexpensive meals, you’ll be able to assemble something tasty from the cheapest of ingredients. Get your protein from split peas, beans and pulses instead of from expensive meats, and your vitamins and minerals from tinned fruit and vegetables that are cheaper than their fresher alternatives. Buy fresh where you can, but always look for reduced items and those on promotion to fill your shopping cart with.
Medicine
Anyone who is required to take regular medication will know that pharmaceuticals can be a huge drain on your finances. Whether you’re on antibiotics or a more habitual kind of treatment, constantly visiting your chemist to purchase increasingly pricey medication can be incredibly deflating for individuals who are low on money. In this scenario, it’s strongly advised that you head to this website, which offers an incredibly useful price comparison on all the medicine you’re likely to take, including their non-branded equivalents sourced from all over the world.
The internet has truly opened up your ability to shop wisely when it comes to your medication. By consulting webpages and international stores, so long as you’re certain they’re accredited with official licenses, you’ll be able to find far cheaper products than you’ve been recommended domestically. Always consult with your doctor before trying a new medication, ensuring it’s a comparable equivalent, or you may find yourself paying expensive hospital bills for a mistake in your research!
Monitoring
When it comes to your medical health, it’s smart to practice consistent monitoring to avoid being forced to pay expensive insurance premiums or hospital bills for a disease you missed in its early stages. Be comfortable in visiting your doctor regularly, and always be aware of your particular risk category, so you know what kind of symptoms and warning signs to keep alert for as you age. You never know how valuable an early diagnosis could be both in terms of your overall health and the money you are forced to spend on your recovery.
The same goes for your dental health and hygiene. This is an area of life in which, if you’re not covered, can be indecently expensive, shattering your budget when dental mishaps arise. Be concerted in your efforts to maintain dental hygiene and be alert to pains and signs that your teeth are perhaps on their way to becoming infected, rotten or broken. Like with early diagnoses, catching dental issues early will save you an arm and a leg and will prevent further damage that might be otherwise averted.
Habits
Everyone is made aware through national health awareness initiatives that the habits of smoking and drinking to excess are two common forms of a lifestyle choice that can result in ill health, disease, and a shorter life expectancy. Breaking these habits will save you money. You’ll no longer be spending money on cigarettes or alcohol, which will mean you’re less likely to live a less healthy life with the accompanying costs it entails. Other unhealthy habits include overeating, poor sleep routines, drug-taking, eating disorders and overworking and stress. All these factors lead to illness, and all should be controlled as much as is possible to maintain good health on a budget.
These tips will help those with little money to spend on their health nonetheless live a healthy and fulfilled lifestyle free from worries that you’re not doing enough to guarantee your good health.
