April 2016

10 Surprising Reasons Healthy Choices Pays Off

1. Eliminate your Expensive Vices

The obvious culprit when it comes to expensive vices is smoking. Let’s have a look at how quitting can concretely benefit your wallet: If you kick your 10-a-day smoking habit you could see yourself $3650 CAN better off within a year. Best of all, your family and friends will thank you for taking their well-being into consideration as well. But don’t stop there. Fizzy drinks like Coca-Cola or Sprite are not only disastrous for your waistline, but could also be setting you back over $1825 CAN or more per year if you’ve made it a daily habit. Add in the possibility of developing diabetes, autoimmune diseases, obesity, heart failure, fatty liver disease, rashes, anxiety and it also can cause seizures particularly for people with epilepsy and those on anti-seizure medication. Especially from those non-organic sodas/pops that contain artificial sweeteners, made altered sweeteners, and high fructose corn syrups especially when they also contain caffeine. These and more have been linked to fizzy drink consumption, and you could be saving yourself from a future of costly treatments and medical care. Needless to say, your quality of life will significantly surge, too.

2. Reduce Monthly Food Bills
Switching pre-packaged, processed foods for homemade meals can have a huge impact on your monthly food spending. For the price of a pre-packaged soup that would last you two days, you can buy the ingredients to make a portion of soup that would last you five. Not mention the savings you’d gain from giving up or cutting down on expensive takeout. A takeout meal can cost anywhere from two to five times the amount a meal made at home would, and packs on at least double the amount of calories. What’s more, switching to fresh, homemade meals can also significantly improve your body’s processing of the food. It has been scientifically demonstrated that your body prepares for the intake of foods during the cooking phase and can thus digest them a lot better. You’ll find yourself feeling fitter and more satisfied after meals – once again, considerably improving your general quality of life.  Like a car, your brain needs quality fuel to run efficiently. When it comes to your job, working more efficiently can help you earn more, since high achievers are usually first in line for promotions and raises. People frequently experience increased focus shortly after improving their diets. How much can eating healthy help? One 2012 study published by Population Health Management found that eating an unhealthy diet puts you at a 66% increased risk of productivity loss. Another study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that an unhealthy diet represented the highest risk for low productivity out of 19 possible risk factors, including lack of exercise, chronic pain and financial instability.


3. Save Money on Life insurance

Health insurance premiums can no longer be based on health factors, since everyone is required to have health coverage. However, life insurance is elective, and those premiums are indeed partially based on how healthy you are.

If you’re shopping for life insurance, you could be required to hand over your medical records or be subjected to a health exam so the life insurance company can assess how healthy you are. You could face double the life insurance cost in premiums or be denied for coverage altogether if you’re obese. Simply switching to a healthier diet and dropping a few pounds before you apply for a policy could significantly lower your costs.

4. Enhance Your Mood

What you eat has an impact on your brain, including the parts that regulate mood. Although there’s no single food that acts as a proven antidepressant, maintaining stable blood sugar through regular, proper nutrition will help you feel better overall on most days. Foods rich in vitamins and minerals, such as fruits, whole grains and vegetables, have been associated with an overall lower risk of depression, as have foods rich in omega-3 fats, such as nuts, salmon and other fatty fish. True happiness isn’t just about the absence of depression; it also includes general well-being. “I frequently hear clients rave about their increased energy, more stable moods, better sleep, decreased joint pain” and greater ability to focus their thoughts and successful work projects after switching to a healthier eating pattern, says Tanya Zentner, RPT (Nationally Registered BCRPA Personal Trainer). Eating healthy can reduce stress too. When your body is in a chronic state of stress, it breaks down protein to prepare for battle, but certain foods have the ability to moderate the body’s level of cortisol, the stress hormone. Some studies have found that consuming foods with omega-3 fatty acids and magnesium may help reduce cortisol levels. Eating a protein-rich diet, including fish and dairy, can help replenish protein stores and keep cortisol levels low.


5. You Can Stay More Productive

Not much is better for your finances than making more money, and one way to do that is to work harder. According to 2012 research conducted at Brigham Young University, eating healthy can help you do that. The researchers evaluated 19,800 employees at three large companies and found that eating well every day may lower your risk of productivity loss by 66%. They also found that exercise lowered the risk of lost productivity by 50%, and getting five fruit and vegetable servings lowered the risk by 39%. (Other research has found that frequent exercise is connected to higher pay.)


6. You Can Take Fewer Pills

Disease costs a lot of money in terms of doctor’s visits, procedures, surgeries, and medical devices, but a large chunk of medical spending goes toward prescriptions that could be discontinued. In fact, three of the top five most commonly prescribed medications in the U.S. are for preventable heart conditions, adding up to more than 160 million scripts per year. Keeping your heart healthy and your weight down through diet will help reduce the need for these medications and the monthly expense that goes along with them.

7. Regulate weight

Most people know this one, but it still deserves a place on this list since more than half of Americans are overweight or obese, and obesity contributes to nearly 1 in 5 American deaths. Even if it’s only by 5-10%, reducing your body weight can lower blood pressure, improve cholesterol levels and decrease the risk of Type 2 diabetes, according to the Obesity Action Coalition. Simple healthy choices such as replacing soda with water, choosing veggies instead of chips, and ordering a side salad in place of fries not only will help you lose weight, it also can help you save money. The average obese person spends $2,741 more on health care per year than a normal-weight counterpart, according to a 2012 study in the Journal of Health Economics that looked at data from 2000-2005.

8. Be healthier you look and feel better about your self - yes! Veggies improve self-esteem!

Not everybody who is thin is healthy, and not everyone who is overweight is unhealthy, but eating right can improve health for even thin people who are junk food junkies. If you cut out toxic processed foods and eat more homemade foods and more servings of organic and NON-GMO veggies, it will improve your skin, hair and nails and your waistline too! You can think of junk food as anything that’s high in calories and low in micronutrients like vitamins and minerals, like highly processed foods that are usually laden with hydrogenated oils, artificial sweeteners, and toxic preservatives that are not aimed for your health but to make the food producers more profits for them and their share holders. This includes potato chips, greasy foods like french fries, and soda pop and commercial bought ice teas that are not home made as well as sports drinks like Monster, Red Bull, Gatorade, or Power-aid that claim to be healthy but are not and filled will artificial sweeteners and high fructose corn syrups, and sometimes other bad chemicals in conjunction with caffeine in some products that are bad for you in various ways. Some scientifically proven in various forms and concentrations to cause fatty liver disease, diabetes, obesity, muscle soreness, arthritis, bowel problems, linked to the development of IBS and seizures in epilepsy patients and more. If you miss out on too much of the vitamins and minerals that your body needs, you could put yourself at risk for early death and often subject to late night food cravings, usually for more bad pseudo foods because your body did not get the nutrients that it really needs. A 2014 study published in the British Medical Journal found that eating at least five servings of fruit and vegetables per day was associated with lower risk of dying from any health-related cause as you will read more in number 9.

9. You’ll Steer Clear of Complications

When you’re unhealthy or obese, you’re more likely to have complications with an existing condition. For example, obesity decreases lung performance and is thought to exacerbate asthma symptoms. But foods rich in antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids can increase lung performance. In addition, high blood pressure and diabetes can complicate your pregnancy, according to the CDC, and those costs can add up. Eating a healthy diet and keeping a normal body weight can help you avoid these problems. Exercising properly and safely but in a moderate to vigorous way daily for 30- 60 min not only helps your burn fat and help you have the great body you want, but it also lessons joint pain if done correctly and monitored by a professional registered trainer for correct alignment and to prevent injury while maximizing efficiency and successful goal acquisition & succession. Plus, increases your joy and fulfillment with life. Life is too short to not life it to the fullest and have fun being active and finding ways to be active that you enjoy like dancing, having your friends cheer you on in a workout at the gym, or swimming is just a few of many options you can try until you find which ones are a right fit for your personal success.

9. You’ll Age Better & Live Longer

When most people think of retirement planning, those in the US think of 401(k)s and IRAs. That’s a great start, but if there’s anything that can deplete your retirement funds, it’s unplanned medical costs. Studies conducted over the past 20 years show that plant-based and Mediterranean diets increase longevity and health, helping you work longer (if you want), save more toward retirement, and hopefully spend less on health care later. More recently, researchers in Rome and the Washington University School of Medicine jointly published a paper that concluded that calorie restriction may be the best way to prevent disease and lengthen lifespan—even for people at a normal weight. The paper, published in 2011, took into account studies on rodents and humans. More human studies are needed, but the paper provided a basis for in-depth trials to come.

The same diseases that make you feel bad and cost a lot of money may also lower your life expectancy. A diet of fruit and vegetables, in combination with exercise, was associated with extended life expectancy for women in their 70s, according to a study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
Other studies have shown similar associations between a long life and calorie restriction or consumption of a Mediterranean diet, which includes lots of fruits, vegetables, and omega-3 fats from fish and olive oil. No matter how you cut it, a healthy diet can play an important role in how long you’ll live.


10. You'll Improve Your Memory

Ever feel like you think a bit more clearly after a good workout? Not only is your brain getting more energy and oxygen, but many studies have shown that exercise can boost your memory and help you learn better. Of course, an intense workout right before a big exam could leave you more tired than smart—but the two are still undoubtedly linked.

Tips for eating healthy

If switching to a healthy diet were easy, everyone would do it. So what should you do if you’re having a hard time choosing the right foods and sticking to a healthful eating pattern?
“Small changes over time result in big payoffs,” Zentner says. That means setting small, attainable goals each day that will translate into long-term results. Here are some of her tips:

• Stay hydrated. This will help you reduce cravings and feel fuller.
• Don’t skip meals. Eat at about the same time each day, if you can.
• Get active. Just increasing activity a little bit daily creates a mindset to eat better too.
• Pre-plan around cravings. If you always get hungry for salt at 3 p.m. or sugar after dinner, have a healthier alternative ready to go.
• Forgive yourself when you slip up. Beating yourself up after a slip-up tends to unravel all of your goals and even increases cortisol levels in your body; picking back up as though you didn’t make a misstep is a better option.

Keep in mind that good choices, like eating a healthy diet and doing something more active, happen one occurrence at a time. A few small changes in the right direction can help improve your life now, promote more healthy changes more easily, and they will likely fatten your wallet too.