Health

Sure, everyone wishes that they ate a little healthier each week, but for most people, it’s just not finically possible. Even when you eat out, a double cheeseburger is often cheaper than an entrée salad.

When you need to change your eating habits without breaking the bank, it helps to have some useful tips guiding your purchases. Below are 21 ways of eating healthy on a budget.

Plan Meals First

Knowing exactly what you need to make and what you’ll have to purchase for meals ahead of time can cut down on weekly food expenses. By avoiding nightly trips to the store for this and that, you can prevent unnecessary impulse buys and cut out junk food purchases.

Stick to the List

All retailers use psychology to trick you into making impulse purchases you hadn’t planned. By adhering to your shopping list, you can avoid unnecessary items leaping into your cart.

Your list can save you a lot more if you find out ahead of time which items stay on sale. There’s no better feeling than seeing your saved amount reach the double digits during checkout.

Leftovers are Your Friend

Whether you live alone and don’t need a great deal of food or you can get creative and repurpose them, leftovers are a great way to save on meals. Even if you make a huge dish of pasta, that is several dinners you don’t need to buy or prepare.

If you’re worried about getting burned out on eating the same thing every night, try to come up with ways of repurposing it. Leftover chicken, for example, makes excellent salads, sandwiches, pizzas, and many Mexican dishes, as well as others.

Do the Hard Work

Pre-shredded and sliced cheese is expensive because the company has already gotten it prepared for use. Meanwhile, a block of cheese is less pricey per ounce, and you can purchase a cheese shredder or grater for a few bucks.

While it might be a pain to cook rice or slice cheese now, you’ll save a ton by avoiding prepackaged manufactured items. It may take longer than a minute, but your grains and dairy will save you a lot in the long run.

Skip the Drive Thru

Many people, especially those with entry-level jobs, insist that golden arches are the only way to save on meals. However, fast food isn’t as cheap as it used to be, and it won’t leave you feeling full for as long, forcing you to eat more.

You may even find that you can make a copycat recipe for cheaper than the real thing, and it will likely be healthier for you as well. Avoid the added fat, cholesterol, and sodium and stick to eating at home instead.

Buy Store Brand

No, the store brand doesn’t always taste like the real deal, but most of the time, the flavor will surprise you. And products, like cereal, sometimes taste even better than the original, pricier brands that you enjoyed as a kid.

Make sure that you check out the labels, however. Not all branded products have released their formulas, and the store brand may merely be a copycat.

Shop the Sales

You likely find yourself planning the same meals each week and buying the same items on every trip. However, by designing your meals around the weekly sales items and sticking to the discounts and BOGOs, you can save even more on your shopping trips.

Go Vegetarian

Many vegetarians and vegans cut meat and animal products out of their diet for political reasons. However, a growing number of shoppers have stopped buying meat because it’s too expensive, and instead have switched to plant-based proteins which remain cheaper.

Shop Seasonal Produce Sales

If corn is in season, it means that the plants supplied locally are at their peak look and taste, and they often go on sale. Trying to purchase your favorite fruits and veggies when the season is over means that you’re relying on suppliers from outside the region or even country, which requires higher shipping costs to bring home.

Head to the Freezer Aisle

While you’ll have to fight off ice cream cravings, your store’s freezer section shouldn’t get ignored. Here, you will find bulk bags of plain frozen fruits and vegetables, often sold in the store’s cheaper brand.

Frozen produce makes meals simple for soups, smoothies, desserts, and more. And when you can never seem to finish fresh food before they spoil, frozen bags are a much better alternative.

Clip Coupons

Many shoppers avoid using coupons because it tends to slow their checkout line to a crawl. However, if you’re not taking the time to clip either paper or digital coupons, you’re just leaving money on the table.

There are also many rebate and discount apps that can provide you with additional discounts not available to others. Don’t let embarrassment prevent you from saving more at the store.

Don’t Adhere to “Scheduled” Meals

Breakfast for dinner is fantastic, and you can often make it for far less than a typical steak or chicken dinner. By changing up what meal foods you eat at which times, you may find that you don’t need to make as drastic of changes as you first thought.

Bulk Stores & Online Shopping

You may not find it cost-effective to purchase specific healthy food items like flaxseed, legumes, or dehydrated fruit products. Shopping at bulk item stores, warehouse retailers, and online chains may prove much cheaper, and you’ll receive more food for your money.

The only downside of these options is that many retailers require a membership fee. As long as you’re getting enough mileage out of your trips, it’s well worth it compared to typical grocery shops.

Shop Cheaper Stores

Ritzy grocery chains that are famous for cookie butter are rarely known for their bargains. Rather than continue buying from expensive retail brands, go for the cheaper stores instead.

Aldi is well-known for their emphasis on cheaper items and store brand products, and they are rapidly expanding in the United States. While there may not be a convenient discount grocery chain near you now, keep your eyes peeled for newcomers.

Head to the Farmer’s Market

If you discover yourself fortunate enough to have a local farmer’s market, then you are missing out on some serious bargains. Most local produce suppliers have a higher quality than the selection found in stores, and often at a steeply discounted price.

Buying directly from local farmers helps keep the local economy growing, and it’s a simple way to try something new and exciting. You can often find other food stands as well, providing you with a more robust shopping experience over fluorescent lights and easy listening.

Homemade Freezer Meals

While boxed freezer meals are pricey and chock full of sodium and preservatives, making your own will save a lot more time and cash each week. By setting aside prepared meals and properly storing them in your freezer, you can avoid last-minute pizza deliveries by always having healthier meals ready to go.

Make it All at Once

Even when a recipe says that your meal will get done in 20 minutes, we all know that’s often not the case. If you set aside a specific evening to get all of your cooking done, however, you can enjoy more free time throughout the week, as well as already having dinner planned.

The hard part is successfully storing it all away, as well as labeling the items going into the freezer. If you are an organized individual, however, you might enjoy the chore.

Avoid the Snack Aisles

If you are currently on a diet or trying to make healthier eating habits, the last place you need to push your cart is down the snack aisle. Even products marked as lighter or healthier often are worse than the original items.

Cookies, chips, and crackers have next to no nutritional value, and many substitute products are equally bad. Just do yourself a favor and avoid temptation altogether.

Compare Prices Per Ounce

Many shoppers remain interested in the total item price, but they ignore the cost per ounce. Although a larger product offering, or package, might be a few dollars more, you may discover that it’s a better value by the size.

Invest in Food Saving Devices

While there are many gimmick products that you are better off avoiding, legitimate food saving machines are well worth the cost. Not only will your food remain fresher for longer, but that means fewer replacement shopping trips as well.

Keep a Running Inventory

How many occasions have you bought products, only to discover it hiding behind something else? By maintaining a dry erase board or similar simple inventory list, you can avoid buying the same things over and over again.

It might be a hassle to take stock, but it’s a cost-effective way of avoiding spending more than you must. Being frugal means taking a few extra steps sometimes.

Every woman goes through menopause usually around the age of 50 and it could be a very trying time in the life of a woman. With all the hot flashes and mood swings, you’ll wonder if there are more issues women have to deal with. But, there’s more. Menopausal women are prone to having fractures due to some of the changes they go through.

What Is Menopause?

Menopause is basically when a woman’s menstrual cycles stop (meno-pause = menstruation pause). The average age of menopause is 51 years. It is clinically diagnosed when menstruations have stopped for 12 consecutive months.

Although menopause is said to have occurred after 12 months of absent menses, there’s a period called perimenopause that occurs in the years leading to menopause. During this time, the menopausal symptoms develop and gradually worsen until menopause.

How Do I Know I am Going Through Menopause?

Menopausal symptoms affect women differently. Some may have all the symptoms while others may have none. Some of the commonest symptoms are

• Hot flashes
• Irregular menses
• Poor sleep
• Mood swings
• Tiredness
• Headaches
• General aches and pains
• Changes in sex drive
• Vaginal dryness
• Palpitations

Why Does Menopause Happen?

First of all, menopause is a normal state of health. It’s one of the normal changes that can happen to a woman’s body as she gets older. The science behind it is pretty straightforward.

When a female is born, she has some eggs in her ovaries which are released every month from the time she begins to menstruate. The ovaries produce some hormones called estrogen and progesterone.

These are the hormones that cause the release of the eggs thereby regulating the menstrual cycle. During menopause, the ovaries reduce the number of hormones it’s secreting so the eggs aren’t released like before.

Then the menstrual cycle first begins to go awry before it finally stops. This is why there is a period with symptoms of hormonal changes before menopause actually happens.

Can Menopause Happen Early?

Menopause can happen a little early is some women. If menopause happens between 40 – 45 years, then it’s called Early menopause. If it happens before 40 years then it’s called Premature menopause. Menopause can be early or premature due to some of the following reasons

1. Smoking: Studies have shown that women who smoke are more likely to go through menopause earlier.
2. Family History: If your mother or sister had early/ premature menopause, you may have it too.
3. Chemotherapy or pelvic radiotherapy: These medical treatments may destroy the cells in the ovaries.
4. Surgery: Removal of the ovaries means there are no ovaries to produce the hormones needed for menstruation. Removal of the uterus without removing the ovaries has been linked to early menopause.
5. Auto-immune diseases: Sometimes the body’s immune system may erroneously attack its own cells thinking they are foreign cells. The presence of an auto-immune disease such as hypothyroidism and rheumatoid arthritis may indicate that the body may have attacked its own ovaries.
6. Turner’s syndrome: Women with Turner’s syndrome have a missing chromosome so their ovaries don’t form properly. This causes abnormalities in their menstrual development and ultimately premature menopause.
7. Eating disorders like Anorexia nervosa

If you feel you might be going through early or premature menopause, please see your doctor with your symptoms and a record of your menstrual cycle. She would likely run tests on you to confirm if you are going through menopause and then figure out why.

What Is The Relationship Between Estrogen And The Bones?

Estrogen is a very important hormone for the development of strong bones. Simply put, there’s a war between two types of cells in our bones. The osteoblasts are the cells that make new bone and the osteoclasts are the cells that destroy old bone. There’s a delicate balance in the functioning of these two cells and estrogen helps maintain this balance.

When there is a decrease in the amount of estrogen in the body, the osteoblasts begin to lose the battle with the osteoclasts. Slowly, but surely, the osteoclasts increasingly function more than the osteoblasts. This causes more reduction of bones than the production of bones.

A consistent reduction in bone mass leads to osteopenia which is like a midpoint between healthy bones and really bad bones. If osteopenia isn’t corrected or slowed then it will lead to osteoporosis.

Osteoporosis is when you have really weak and brittle bones due to the increased function of osteoclasts over osteoblasts. It is a silent disease occurring without any pain until there’s a sudden, unexpected painful fracture usually from a minor fall. Weak, brittle bones are prone to breaking with just a little pressure applied to it. This could cause mobility issues, and they might require a knee scooter to move around.

Can Osteoporosis be prevented or treated?

The good news is yes! Prevention, they say, is better than cure. So let’s start with the preventive measures. The trick is to make your bones as strong as possible before and during menopause so that it takes a longer time to get to the point of really low bone mass. Here’s how:

1. Load up on calcium and vitamin D. This helps with bone development and strengthening. You can take foods rich in these vitamins and you can add supplements.
2. Exercise. Weight-bearing exercises strengthen the bone. Examples of such exercises are jogging, walking, aerobics and yoga. If you don’t have a home gym, you can also consider using a good recumbent exercise bike.
3. Decrease alcohol to less than 2 drinks daily and quit smoking.

If you have already been diagnosed with osteoporosis, then, unfortunately, you are prone to fractures. However, there are medications available to help reduce your risk of fractures such as bisphosphonates, hormone replacement therapy, and calcium and vitamin D supplements. Also important is to reduce your risk of accidental falls. Please see your doctor and ensure you keep regular appointments to avoid debilitating illness.

Menopause and osteoporosis have a strong association; the earlier preventive measures are taken the better the quality of life you enjoy in your menopausal years.

Studies show that almost 75% of women may experience yeast infection once in their lifetime and up to 45% have two or more. It’s because yeast is present even in healthy vaginas. However, there are instances when the yeast proliferate too much that eventually lead to infection.

Yeast infection commonly occurs when a woman reaches her 20’s to 40’s. The duration of the infection depends on the severity of the infection and how it is treated. But, before ruling out how long the infection lasts, it makes sense identifying the factors that cause yeast infections.

What Causes Yeast Infections?

Naturally, there are various healthy bacteria present in the vagina as well as yeast. The healthy bacteria control the production of the yeast and at the same time keep the vagina slightly acidic to prevent the growth of Candida.

The yeast itself isn’t the cause of the infection, but when the proper balance of the good bacteria and the yeast is disturbed. Once it is disturbed, the candida becomes more aggressive like a fungus that makes it capable to release and spread more than 80 kinds of toxins.

The toxins may affect different parts of the body and make the immune system suffer. In this case, your health will be at risk of various diseases. The overgrowth of yeast is caused by Candida Albicans. If the normal chemistry of the vagina is out of balance, the yeast present in the vagina grows too much.

Some factors that change the balance in the vagina’s environment include the following:

• Hormonal changes particularly during menstrual cycle
• Pregnancy
• Diabetes
• Taking cortisone, antibiotics, and other medications
• Weak immune system
• Poor hygiene and toilet habits
• Wearing tight clothing
• Using contraceptives such as sponges

Yeast infection doesn’t only affect women but men as well. The infection may occur on the scrotum and penis. Such infection is different from an STD or sexually transmitted disease. But, keep in mind that yeast may overgrow when the body chemistry of one person has the bad reaction to another individual’s natural genital bacteria and yeast.

Being aware of the symptoms of yeast infection can also help to prevent or treat the infection. Here are some symptoms to look out for:

• White thick, clumpy vaginal discharge
• Whitish, creamy coating around the vagina
• Itching and burning sensation and redness around the vagina
• Painful sexual interaction or during urination

Yeast Infection Self-Test

Self-test is possible only if you know the symptoms of the infection. But, it is important to seek doctor’s advice to prevent the infection to debilitate.

Aside from self-test, your doctor may conduct a vaginal exam or wet mount test. A vaginal culture is done to confirm the infection. Likewise, a blood test may also be requested to know if the infection is caused by diabetes or other health problem.

Do Yeast Infections Go Away On Their Own?

Yeast infection may go away without treatment as long as the cause of the infection has subsided. Likewise, if your body’s immune system is strong, most likely the infection may heal by itself. But, this is only possible if the yeast infection is mild.

 

How Long Does A Yeast Infection Last Without Treatment?

As mentioned above, there are cases in which yeast infection may heal by itself. But, it also depends on the severity of the condition.  Mild yeast infection may subside for few days without treatment. Usually, within 2 weeks or few days, medications can cure 80 to 90% of vaginal yeast infections.

Home Remedies for Yeast Infections

If the symptoms of the yeast infection are mild, it may heal by itself or may clear out by using home remedies.

• Probiotics

Probiotics or the good bacteria are commonly found in yogurt. The probiotics help to restore the normal balance of the bacteria and yeast in your vagina. You can treat the infection by consuming yogurt, but some women testified that applying it directly to the affected area provides faster relief.

You can also find probiotics oral supplements that contain Lactobacillus acidophilus bacteria. This brings that vaginal flora and digestive tract back into alignment.

• Tea tree oil

A study showed that tea tree oil is effective to treat yeast infection because it has the ability to kill bacteria, viruses, and fungi. It also helps to preserve the healthy balance of vaginal flora. However, if you will use this oil it should be diluted with a carrier oil like coconut or jojoba oil especially if you will use it as a vaginal suppository.

• Boric acid

According to a study, using boric acid topically showed positive results for vaginal infections because of its antiseptic property. Some women testified that using boric acid vaginal suppositories is also effective in treating yeast infections.

But, you should be careful because boric acid can be toxic when used in large amounts. Absorbing more than enough of it can damage the kidney, lead to circulatory system failure, or worse death.

It is not recommended to take boric acid orally and should not apply it to broken skin. Mix it with water before applying it to the affected area.

• Over-the-counter (OTC) options

OTC medications can be used only for mild or moderate yeast infections. This means that over-the-counter options won’t do well with chronic yeast infections. Examples of OTC options include the following:

Short-course treatments are the first in line used for yeast infections. These are antifungal drugs that are administered within seven days. Short-term medications are available in creams, ointments, tablets, and suppositories.  The most commonly used OTC options are clotrimazole, tioconazole, and miconazole.

Aside from using home remedies, it is also essential to practice proper hygiene and to boost the immune system. Taking vitamin C can prevent candida overgrowths because of its antimicrobial components. You can also use apple cider vinegar and consume more garlic.

When to see your doctor

Most home remedies may relieve the condition within few days of using it.  If the condition persists, you should seek medical intervention.  The treatment that you have been using may not be enough or effective to get rid the infection.

On the other hand, in case that the condition recurs after few months, consult your doctor. The infection may be caused by other underlying medical conditions such as diabetes.

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