6 Simple Lifestyle Changes that Will Transform Your 2015

If you’re like most people with a roof over your head, a meal in your stomach and a car in your driveway, you know first hand that living life can get pretty expensive. As such, simple changes to our lifestyle can make a big difference in our pockets. However, not only can they help you with keeping more money in your pocket every month, but also enable you to shed unwanted pounds and live a healthier life.  These are two goals that nearly all of us can get behind.

6 Simple Ways to Improve Your Lifestyle this Year

1.  Buy Bulk or Grow Your Own Food – Yeah, growing your own food is actually a very economical and cost saving option for many people. If you have a little bit of land in your yard, roughly 1/8th an acre, you can grow a lot of vegetable and fruit needs. In addition, you will also be eating a lot healthier if you need to eat things you grow yourself.Another option for city dwellers is to buy produce in bulk, and avoid buying other foods to force yourself to eat healthy at home. If you have a lot of produce that will expire soon, and no other options for food, you can come up with new and creative ways to make foods. For the non-kitchen inclined there are actually apps out there where you plug in ingredients that you have in your refrigerator and they spit out recipe ideas.

2.  Get Rid of the Car – On average, Americans will spend over $8800 a year just to drive and maintain a sedan which travels roughly 15,000 miles. There are many public transit options in many areas people are not aware, and bike riding is all but accessible to the majority of drivers in the US, even for longer distances. Bike riding, with a good bike, is possible for distances of at least 10 miles each way, without requiring a person to be in tip top shape. Not only do you exercise more, you help save the environment, and save a ton of money each year.

3.  Tailor Your Own Clothes – Sure, this may seem basic, but many people don’t know how to sew very well. If clothes rip, or break, they simply toss them. Unfortunately this is a waste, as sewing them closed or fixing them takes only a few minutes, but saves tons of money ($30-100 to replace the item).

4.  Buy Used When You Can – For the already initiated frugal individuals out there, they’re used to buying things second hand. You can always find things second hand for cheaper than new, and often in the exact same condition. There’s a saying, the moment you drive a new car off the lot, the car loses 15% of its value at a minimum. But is the “used” car really different than the new one that point?

5.  Embrace the Frugality – As we’re often told, “the more you have the better you are”, many people find it difficult to not have “stuff” around them and be able to buy even more stuff. As Amanda Folson, a blogger who writes about how to stay frugal but live like you’re not, there are ways to keep your lifestyle high, have a lot of nice things, but pay pennies for them.

6.  Make the Most Out of Space You Have – Before trying to get an even bigger house or apartment, are you sure that you need it? Sure, the “American Dream” may be to have a huge mansion and barely enough furniture in it to live on, but this is just extra work for you, extra money spent, and more stuff to go wrong.  Think about if you need more space, only once you fill up what you have with essentials.

 

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Why the World’s Move to “Westernized” Foods is Killing Us

The developing world is rapidly changing from an agrarian society into one of full urbanization. Half of the world’s population now lives in cities with this figure expected to rise into the 70% range by the 2050s. Inevitably, this “progression” into urban areas also comes with it reduced physical activity and more demands on a person’s time. This results in the consumption of more speedy foods, prepackaged foods, and not surprisingly a more “Western” diet.

Dr. David Tilman, a professor in Ecology at the University of Minnesota, noted that as incomes rise, so do the consumption of calories and meat. These are typically more expensive ingredients, things that are high in sugar and meat or fish. As such, these desirable foods are eaten more once a person has more income to expend on food. As this rises, in a contradictory manner, a person becomes increasing malnourished. In addition to these problems, access to processed foods also increases. Diets deficient in natural fruits and vegetables have significant negative impacts on health.

What Is the Actual Diet of Westerners?

There’s no one answer to this, as people vary, but by far the differences between Western and Eastern diets is the consumption of refined sugars, highly saturated fats, protein from meat, and a reduced intake of vegetables and natural fibers like in fruits. Colloquially, this ‘Western’ diet is know as the “meat-sweet” diet, coined after its two primary constituents. In emerging economies, many of these foods are rare, and people have the time to cook, or live in a more rural area where the only foods available are vegetables and fruits which are locally grown.

The Health Consequences

Increasing your risk of infections – Ian Myles from the US National Allergy and Infectious Diseases office notes that eating foods high in sugar and fat, particularly processed foods, through the immune system for a tailspin. Palmitic Acid in particular is confused by our immune system as the bacteria E. Coli, which can cause an immune response. This lowers our immune system’s ability to cope with diseases, and increases our risk of falling ill.

Changing Your Gut Bacteria Flora – The bacteria in your stomach and intestines is of critical importance in everything from your mental health, to your metabolism. Every person has about 1 kilogram of bacteria in their bodies. The ones in your stomach and intestines are highly sensitive to the foods you eat. Eating the wrong things can actually kill “good” bacteria and allow the “metabolism slowing” kind to flourish in their place. It’s very difficult to fix this once the bacteria have been completely removed, which makes good diet practices that much more important.

Obesity and Diabetes Risks  – As of 2014, over 600 million adults are obese worldwide, and 2 billion are now overweight. This is a complete transformation from just a few decades ago when malnutrition and lack of access to food was far more commonplace. A multitude of diseases are associated with obesity, including type 2 diabetes, inflammation of joints, arthritis, heart disease, and cancer. Heart disease is now the number one killer in America, even surpassing smoking related illnesses for the last decade.

Many of these issues can be resolved through proper dieting and more due care being paid to what foods we eat each day. In addition, proven treatments like the HCG plus drops protocol, have shown themselves to be a great benefit for users looking to lose weight and stay healthy.  HCG has been demonstrated in numerous studies to boost metabolism and decrease appetite, which are two of the key causes of weight gain.  Yet, ultimately, this diet also employs a total transformation of the person’s eating habits, and what foods they are permitted to eat. Fruits and vegetables are a critical part of the diet, and all foods are converted to more natural ingredients.

There’s no quick fix to weight gain, and no quick fix to eating healthy foods. Both things are critical to get under control, even if a person chooses a proven aid to help them achieve their weight loss goals. Ultimately, the changes that are occurring with the Westernization of the world will result in obesity and poor health unless we select natural fruits and vegetables as the major stables of our diet again.

 

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