Be Healthy Blog

Gardening Food

If you really want to eat healthy food, start your own garden. You can pick fresh fruit, vegetables, and herbs for your meals. The food tastes fresh and scrumptious, and you never have to leave your house! Even if you don’t have a green thumb or a lot of space, you can plant some herbs near a window and dry them for use throughout the winter.

You only need a few tools for a garden as well, including a spade, seeds, some potting boxes, and maybe something extra like a gardening hat, knee pads, and extra digging tools.

For truly healthy eating (without pesticides), start your own garden this year!

Healthy Holidays

This year I was determined not to gain more than a few pounds around the holidays. I wanted to enjoy myself, but not go overboard and feel guilty, thus forced to burn off the calories in the New Year. So, I hired a Salt Lake City caterer who provided healthy appetizers and treats for my annual family Christmas party. (The lower stressload from hiring a professional to bring the food probably helped my body as well!)

When I went to parties, I skipped dessert and focused on enjoying the main meal. When I did indulge in dessert, I went sparingly on the cheesecake, ice cream, hot chocolate, egg nog, and gourmet chocolate candy.

I’m happy to say that I enjoyed the holidays, and hardly gained a pound. Now I don’t have to make that New Year’s resolution to lose weight! I think instead my resolution will be to run a 10K with my husband.

How did your holidays go?

Healthy Money

Part of having a healthy life is having healthy relationships.  Most relationships with family and friends are based on who you are and what you have in common, but when it comes to marriage relationships there’s a whole lot more to consider.

Recent studies have shown that the highest stress on a marriage is financial concerns.  Nothing stresses people out like money does and even when there’s enough to go around the constant juggling act of calculating interest and paying off bills can get a bit wearing.  Here are some tips to help manage the stress of finances.

-Designate one spouse to monitor all the finances for the family.  One person can more easily see where the money is going and keep track of where it needs to be going.  Don’t get overly confused with multiple statements and balances but instead keep them manageable with one person in charge.

-Find out what debts you can pay off now.  It’s much easier to manage a couple monthly payments instead of several, so look into which credit cards you can pay off early or if it’s possible to do an early mortgage payoff to take the pressure off during the tight months.

-Discuss and decide what things you need to budget and what things have more leniencies.  Is your spouse an impulse buyer that needs to have a strict limit, or are you both willing to consider each purchase and how it will affect your finances? 

Health Tip - Plan Meals and Buy a Week’s Worth of Food at Once

I’ve been trying to get my life planned a little better…and I’ve found that it helps me stay healthy. How’s that, you ask?

Well, I’ve gotten in the habit of planning all the meals for the upcoming week with my wife and then making our grocery list accordingly. This way, when we’re at the supermarket on Saturday buying all the food we need for next week, we’re not spending excessively or buying things that we don’t need. It also helps, because if we plan, we don’t end up making the same, easy, not-so-good-for-you meals (hello mac and cheese). I also find that it means we eat out less because we already have a meal plan.

Less fast food=healthier us. (and it saves a ton of $$)