Finances and Fitness

Many people use a lack of finances as an excuse to avoid fitness. Yes, being filthy rich would make it much easier to be fit. Expendable income could mean more free time to spend exercising. Money to spend on personal trainers, ideal equipment and a personal chef would be ideal. Unless you won the lottery, figuratively or literally, you don't get to have the ideal; you have to work within reality. That does not mean you have no hope of living a healthy, fit life, though. There are many, many ways to achieve fitness on a budget.

Walking: There is minimal cost to beginning a walking program. The only needs are a comfortable pair of shoes and socks. If it's cold outside, you would need winter wear, but it can be the exact same items you wear the rest of the time. There is no need to buy special clothing to begin a walking program. You don't even need to venture far from home, if at all. You can walk around the block, up and down your hallway, or around your yard.

Running: Just like walking, the only equipment needed are a good pair of shoes and socks. I do recommend going to a good shoe store and getting the shoes fitted for running. I would also try to avoid cotton socks, but sweat-wicking socks can be bought for about the same price as cotton. If you're a woman, you will also need a good sports bra, but if that's outside your budget, you can wear a good normal bra with a cheaper sports bra over it. Again, it's not ideal, but as long as it keeps the bouncing to a minimum, it will work. As with walking, you don't really need to venture very far. I have done interval training by running around my block repeatedly for 30 minutes.

Resistance: You can work most muscles without any weights, other than your body. Push-ups, sit-ups, lunges, crunches, squats, planks, and leg lifts are all exercises where you can use gravity and your body weight to challenge your muscles. There are about as many of these exercises as there are muscles in your body. For a few dollars, you can also buy resistance bands, which work like hand-weights, but cost less and take up less room. You can also use old, handled beverage containers filled with water as hand weights.

That's just the tip of the iceberg. If you want more cardio, you can buy a jumprope. You can also search online for fitness videos. There are yoga, Tai chi, stretching, and many other fitness videos available on youtube, netflix and cable's On Demand features. As always, the internet has as much bad information as good information, so you'll have to weed through the crap to get to the good stuff. I think it's worth it to get healthier, though.

Food Costs

I have heard people say for years that eating healthful foods is too expensive. It's cheaper to buy the highly processed foods in the middle of the grocery store than the fresh foods on the perimeter. A new study refutes that common argument/excuse for people eating poorly. Instead of comparing price per calorie, they compared price per serving. Prior studies have found that calorie-for-calorie, junk food is more cost effective.

What this new study did was acknowledge that healthful foods will keep a person satiated for a longer time than low-nutrition, high-sugar junk foods. A $1 apple will satisfy more than the $1 bag of chips. Once you account for that reality, junk food is not as cost effective. The same comparison can be done for oats vs. a doughnut for breakfast.

This knowledge led them to measure food costs in two new ways. One is price per edible weight, the weight after it's cooked and inedible parts removed. The other way was price per average amount eaten. I know I can only eat 1/2 cup of oats at the most, but can eat 1/2 dozen Krispy Kremes. I can eat an entire bag of Doritos, but can't eat the same $$ cost worth of broccoli. Even if I did, I'd be very full after the veggies and still able to eat after the Doritos.

This is only considering the direct costs, not the long-term effects of eating a diet of junk foods which will lead to higher medical costs later. If you were to consider that the hit to your pocketbook for eating poorly would be much more noticeable. After scanning through the study, it reminds me of the Weight Watchers system. The higher calorie foods actually cost you more. Weight Watchers will charge you more points off your daily allowance, the grocery store will charge you more money.

Today in Stupid Diets

K-E Diets. For about $1,500 a doctor will fit you with a feeding tube and provide you 10 days of nutrients. It's a fast, but without feeling hungry. The constant stream of liquid through the tube is said to suppress the appetite. The plan claims you can lose 20 pounds over 10 days, but you have to visit the doctor's office three times a week during that time. If you can spend that much time going to a doctor's office, you can spend that time lifting weights or running and getting fit that way. You would save also enough money for a trip and avoid the risks of a feeding tube, which include constipation, nausea, hyponatremia, internal bleeding, infection and allergic reaction to the tube.

I found out about this trend via an ABC News story. I have since found their facebook page and am happy to report that most of the comments are negative. I do not understand the desire to undergo a medical procedure for weight loss, especially when it's not weight that needs to be lost for improved health.

20 minutes

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It's possible that 20 minutes a day won't give you the "perfect" body you desire. However, 20 minutes well-spent can make a world of difference. In 20 minutes, you can run over a mile, do the P90X ab workout, burn tons of calories on any cardio machine. 20 minutes is 20 minutes more than doing nothing. The same holds true for 15, 10 or even 5 minutes. If you don't have a large block of time to devote to exercise, squeeze in small bouts wherever and whenever you can.

Columbus

You don't even need the gym. There are fitness videos on Demand with cable and Netflix. There are workout plans available online that can be done at home with little to no equipment. You can do push-ups and crunches at home without any instruction, too. I'm sure you can come up with great excuses to not work out, but that's just as much effort as just doing it. Plus, you get a reward if you exercise, there's no reward for clever excuse making.

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Animals

I have heard people say that they can't work out at home because they have pets. I have two dogs and two cats and they love it when I roll out the yoga mat. They know that means I will be getting down on the floor with them. Yes, their attention when I'm trying to do crunches can be annoying, but it's also a welcome distraction. It's hard to be upset when your dog steps on your chest to pin you down to lick the sweat from your brow. I laughed so hard when she did that, I felt it in my abs as much as the core work I intended to do. They also make the moves seem a bit more real to me. I know exercises are designed to target, but they aren't truly representative of how you'd use that muscle in the real world. If you're doing lunges over and around the dogs playing, that's more of a real world maneuver.

If you're using the presence of animals in your house as an excuse to avoid being active, you are just avoiding being active. It's not really because of the animals. You could just as easily use them as your excuse to be more active. I have rarely met a dog that didn't want to go on more and longer walks.