Healthier Living and More Savings: Upgrading Your Caregiver Lifestyle
Being a caregiver is demanding on several levels: physically, mentally, and emotionally. While it’s an essential role you’re fulfilling, you should make sure it’s not at the cost of your own health and wellbeing. According to Sixty and Me, 40 million adults offer regular caregiving services for their loved ones, but a staggering 1 in 3 are struggling with poor health themselves.
It’s only when you are in good health can you look after the people you love (or your clients if you’re a professional, for that matter). Moreover, you deserve to be cared for and be in good health yourself. It’s possible to create and maintain a healthy caregiver lifestyle, while still leaving enough time and energy to look after others. You could even save money while doing so – being healthy is surprisingly good for your financial wellbeing, believe it or not!
This article, along with this website in general, offers tips and suggestions on how you could build a healthier, more fulfilling lifestyle for yourself as a caregiver while saving money at the same time:
How to live healthier while saving money
Health doesn’t have to involve fancy gym memberships, personal trainers, and vegan-only food. Here are some suggestions on living healthy with only a few tweaks to your regular lifestyle:
1. Work out at home for free
Joining a gym or some other formal fitness center can, of course, be good for your health. But it’s time consuming, requires a ton of energy, and also costs money. You could work out at home instead and achieve similar results for free. Also, you could do it when it’s convenient for you when you are feeling up to it, making it a flexible option. Some fitness activities you could do at home are Pilates, aerobics, yoga, and strength training.
2. Walk or cycle to work
Do you take the bus to work or drive there by car? Walking or cycling to work can help you eliminate transportation costs – and it’s also good exercise at the same time. Of course, it may not be possible for you to walk or cycle every day, but even if you manage to do it once or twice a week, it could help.
3. Plan your meals out
Planning your meals out helps on multiple levels. Not only can you design a healthier diet for yourself, but it’d also reduce the likelihood of you binging on junk foods because you don’t have ideas on what to make. Furthermore, meal planning can help reduce the costs in some ways – you can reuse some ingredients for multiple dishes for the week, for instance.
4. Buy groceries only after lunch or dinner
It’s a good idea to go grocery shopping only after you’ve had lunch or dinner. According to the University of Southern California, if you go shopping hungry, you’re likely to have cravings for all sorts of foods when you shop. You may end up buying things that you don’t want or need – and it hurts your wallet too. If you eat and then go, you’re likely to only buy what you need.
5. Be smart about your shopping habits
Developing smart shopping habits can help you save money as well as get healthier. One, consider shopping for in-season foods. They’re healthier for you and, being in-season, also cheaper. Two, try to purchase foods at wholesale rates. For example, non-perishables like nuts and rice can last for months or even years. Finally, use bargain sites and discount coupons for finding even cheaper foods.
6. Garden to grow your own food
Gardening is a wonderful hobby and a surprisingly effective form of exercise. It has long been linked to longevity. Working with plants, in the open sunlight, is good for your mood, energy levels, and overall well-being. Furthermore, if you get good (it’s not as hard as you think), you could grow your vegetables, which would drastically reduce your food expenses.
7. Get your loved ones or clients involved
You can do many of the activities we mentioned with your loved ones or clients. It would help their wellbeing, not to mention you’d also have extra motivation and energy for maintaining your healthy lifestyle. You could garden with them, go on walks together, and cook healthier meals together (if it’s an option), for instance.
Healthier living automatically equals more savings
Finding and maintaining good health can have a positive, cascading effect on the rest of your life, including your finances. Here’s how:
- Fewer insurance premiums: When you can successfully maintain your health, it automatically leads to lower insurance premiums. Your life insurance (or other) policy calculations are based on how healthy you are as well as the lifestyle you follow.
- Less money on junk: When you eat healthy home-cooked food, you automatically spend less money on restaurant meals (which can be seriously expensive). Also, spending time on activities like exercising and gardening automatically leaves less time for other entertainment (or vices).
- Water is (almost) free: Drinking a lot of water is a part of a healthy lifestyle. It means you drink less soda or energy drinks, which can save you a great deal of money.
- Long-term savings: Good health gives you extra physical energy and can assist your mental clarity. That means you can be more productive, get more work done, and make better financial decisions which could give you more long-term savings.
Can you actually make money from healthy living?
Have you heard of lifestyle businesses? It’s a business concept that deals with people making money from their lifestyle. If they’re good at something, for example, they make it their lifestyle and make money through teaching, advertising, and similar. For example, if you’re good at cooking, you can have your own cooking-related business (or become a chef).
You could make money from healthy living by starting a lifestyle-related business. For instance, you could open a yoga studio, sell health-related equipment – or teach other caregivers how to be healthy while looking after their clients, without sacrificing their own wellbeing. You must do the groundwork when starting a business – research market conditions, make a business plan, and gather funds.
Creating a nice logo can help you make a solid first impression. It can build brand awareness and make your business stand out from the crowd. Online makers automate the logo design – you choose a style, add icons and text, and adjust fonts and colors. You can design an appealing and creative logo by yourself, with the help of an attractive template (chosen from an assortment). You can then utilize an image size converter to ensure that you can use this logo for an array of documents, from business cards to invoices.
Conclusion
You are advised to work out for about 20 minutes a day to feel good (and enjoy a mood-boosting effect). You should pair your workout up with a healthy diet, which gives your body the fuel it needs to function properly. A good lifestyle can make you happier and healthier, which also affects the people you care for, so don’t hesitate to do your best to look after yourself.
Thank you Suzie Wilson for contributing this article!
Guest Articles Written for Caregiverology
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