Abhi
Great you have decided to be healthy. In these COVID stricken times, it is essential we keep ourselves active and avoid a sedentary lifestyle. The question today is, is it possible get healthy while remaining frugal?
It absolutely is. You don’t need a 50K threadmill in your hall to run. Here are a few ways for you to accomplish this without shelling out too much money.
Loose those with attitude
The first challenge to over come is to get rid of people around you with the wrong attitude. 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’.
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.
Shift focus to yourself
Now you’ve stood up to the nay sayers, the biggest voice you have to overcome is your own! Stamp out the little voice that whines and say this hurts, or this is aching. Silence the moaning that feels deprived and wants what it can’t have.
Positive Self Talk
Every single day, practice positive self talk that allows you to praise yourself for the good you are doing to yourself. Praise yourself for eating fruit, plenty of veg and drinking lots of water. Praise yourself when you go for a run and for cooking a healthy supper.
On the contrary, don’t nag yourself for not running 5K and beat yourself up for eating up large portions. Just stick to the positives.
Healthy food
You don’t need a fancy premium Paid app to track all of your calories per day. It is easier to stick to the prescribed amount of calories. Bulk out your meals with vegetables.
Reduce your snack spends. Just I don’t eat anything between one meal and the next. Be conscious and avoid snacking. And to drive home this point, remember, any meal tastes amazing when you are hungry.
Exercise
Gym memberships are mostly those things you buy to keep your spouse happy over the years but never keep going. Don’t get carried away and plan an elaborate workout regime and bulk up on powders and memberships.
Instead, start small. Stretch at home, skip, take a jog in the park. Even if you were to take a gym membership, your body will take a few days to warm up and use the gym fully.
So, instead, choose to warm up at a park. Do simple exercises that don’t require equipment. Improvise at home. Running in the park will any day beat a treadmill in the gym and is much cheaper.
Now, that does not mean Gyms are bad and personal trainers are useless. They are worth it depending on what your end goal is. If you want to exercise, be healthy and keep things frugal, then no, you dont need a gym or a trainer.
If your agenda is a lot more serious such as getting in shape, losing a lot of weight, getting a 6 pack or run a marathon, then it is a good idea to foot the bill for a trainer and gym.
Run
It costs you nothing is run. Actually, it costs you a lot of calories, which is good! It does not matter if you are a plodder and run very slowly. Just run alternating between running and walking. So, walk run, walk, walk, run, run and get round a self prescribed route whilst listening to music. If all else fails, just start by walking.
Here is a summary of 4 simple ways to kick-start a healthy frugal lifestyle
- 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.
- Positive self talk – praise yourself for the things you have done each day to take care of yourself.
- Eat real food and plenty of veggies. 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.
- Walk, run or exercise every day! Keep this consistent. Your mind will try to escape by making you think of planning, paying for costly apps or a gym membership. Before you know it, you would have ordered a water sipper, gloves, new shoes and spandex workout gear. All before the first day at the gym. Instead, keep things simple and just go to the park and work out. It is effective and costs a lot lesser.
