Healthy Living (without spending a lot of money)

 Taking care of our health is so important. Why? Our bodies are a gift from God that He blessed us with to use to glorify Him. We can't control everything that happens to our bodies (not by a long shot!) nor do I think we should be so paranoid that living healthy consumes our thoughts in a big way and we don't do or eat anything that we think might possibly be dangerous for our body. We need to have balance. If we gradually develop healthy habits however we can live a pretty healthy lifestyle and it will just be easy and normal for us rather than all consuming. 

 Health has been on my mind lately because a friend invited to join her (and others) in a 12 week challenge to live more healthfully. Here is what we are working on:

THE CHALLENGE

Each item is worth 1 point, with a possible 10 points per day

1. 7 hrs. of sleep (not necessarily consecutive - naps count too!)

2. 48 oz. of water

3. 30 minutes of exercise (not necessarily consecutive)

4. 2 servings of veggies, 2 servings of fruit

5. No soda, beer, wine, unhealthy snacks (ex: potato chips), or bad fast food (anything fried!)

6. No sweets. (Desserts, pastries, sugary snacks & cereals) * Sugar-Free alternatives are OK. (But be careful with sugar free!! Moderation...)

7. No eating after dinner/8pm

8. 15 min. of scripture reading (or spiritual text if you don't do scripture)

9. One journal entry (any length)

10. Express sincere appreciation, love or praise to your spouse (if single, to another person)

Note: You have one free point, PER CATEGORY, PER WEEK. One free point for exercise, one free point for soda/fast food/unhealthy snacks, one free point for sweets, etc. You do not have 10 free points to use however you choose -they are NOT interchangeable and if you choose not to use a free point in a category, it is gone at weeks end. You could also just choose to have one "free" day where all points are free (which is less confusing), but we are allowing for flexibility and success!

Exceptions: **You are excused from the sweet rule on YOUR BIRTHDAY. **You are allowed three sick days where you are excused (only) from exercising and eating veg/fruit/water [if you can’t eat/drink] This is ONLY to be used if you are indeed sick.

Many of the items are pretty easy for me as they were already habits (such as the water, Bible reading, prayer journaling, saying "I love you"/praise and getting enough sleep) which was good because 10 new habits would be pretty insane to try to start all at once. 

  The 30 minutes of exercise has been the most challenging but I have (mostly!) found it pretty fun too. I did have a habit of trying to stretch/exercise at least 5 days a week but if I stretched for 1 minute, did 10 sit-ups and 25 to 50 jumping jacks all of which I could easily get done in less than 5 minutes then I felt like I was good to go. I'm not saying that idea is wrong but it has been fun to stretch myself to do more and to do it at least 6 days a week. My exercise routine has been pretty eclectic and I haven't found a certain time in the day that always works to do it. Often I will be pushing in some time of it at the very last bit of the day before bed. Things I have been doing for exercise are: Walking, jumping jacks, planking, sit-ups, very vigorous cleaning (running up and down the stairs putting stuff away, sweeping or mopping fast - I only use this for minutes if I am getting my heart rate up), shoveling, hauling in wood and following various exercise videos on Youtube such as figure eight and this one below that I have really enjoyed:

I have also been using several that really promote pelvic floor health. Some of these are much easier so if I am really tired after a busy day of work I will do one of these that aren't so exhausting:

Another item that has been a bit of a challenge for me that I didn't expect was making sure that I was eating 4 servings of fruits and veggies. I have had to make a conscious effort to eat more fruit but I am really enjoying that.

 For the most part number 5 is no big deal as most of those I don't use ever and none were daily habits but avoiding junk food when it is easily available such as at a potluck (and we have been having 2 of those a week lately) can be a challenge for me.

No sweets was the second biggest challenge after the exercising. It hasn't been as hard as I thought (even with the 2 potlucks a week) but it is still something I crave from time to time. I did already have practice using honey instead of sugar some and I don't make or buy a lot of sweets so it wasn't a daily habit to have them anyway but I would pretty much always eat dessert (and sometimes several) if it was offered so that is something I have had to change.

Not eating after 8 pm is also a change for me as I tend to be a snacker but that hasn't been very hard so I am thankful. 

6 weeks in, I haven't noticed any great changes in my body but it has been fun. I am curious how much of the changes I will keep up with after the 12 weeks are over.

Some other healthy habits that I practice are....

1. Spending time in prayer (by myself and with others) and giving my troubles and worries to God.

2. Oil Pulling every morning. Here is an article that shows reasons why and how to do it. 

3. Drinking warm water with Raw Apple Cider Vinegar in it each morning. Here is an interesting article about that.

4. Eating primarily whole grains.

5. Growing as much of our own food as possible.

6. I do take vitamin D and C, Magnesium and Iron every day (though sometimes D and C only in the winter)

A couple of new ones that I have been working to start are:

1. Dry brushing (Here is a video that explains it )

2. Here is another video that I ran across that I thought looked like a good idea so I have been doing this lately as well.

None of these things are expensive to do and most of them are free. I would love to hear what things you do to try to stay healthy.

Also I did think this would be an appropriate place to share about Medical insurance. Once Ken left the home and I was having to finance things on my own paying for normal medical insurance was very cost prohibitive and I didn't want to deal with all the paperwork of using state medical assistance. So instead we use Samaritan Ministries. It is much cheaper than the state subsidized insurance we had before, it has a much lower deductible and it is super simple. I love getting to send a check and letter and pray for the people that we get to help each month. It is health cost sharing instead of insurance. I have not had to use it to get money for myself yet (Thanks be to God!) but a friend has and she said it worked quite smoothly. If you sign up please tell them that Abbi Cobb referred you (I think I may be benefited by that a little). Anyway - I have been thankful for this option and just thought that I would share it with you too.