A Little Bit Healthier

Using Small Substitutions to Increase Nutrition

Some of you may know that before studying Family Finance in school, I first studied Nutrition. I really wanted to be a Registered Dietician. It was a difficult thing for me to let go of that dream. However, I am grateful for the time I was able to spend learning from some wonderful Dieticians and Food Scientists.

It would be impossible for me to share everything I learned (and probably really boring), but I'd love to share my biggest takeaway:

MODERATION

and

BALANCE

Strict Diets are difficult to maintain, and some are just downright unhealthy. Diet plans can be a great starting point for weight loss, but often once people are done, they go right back to their old habits.

BREAKING NEWS: It's difficult to break a habit.

Wow! Shocker! 

When I read or hear things about breaking habits, I often hear how important it is to replace the bad habit with something good (or at least better).

Those who want to quit smoking are often encouraged to chew gum, brush their teeth often, exercise when they feel a craving, etc.

Focusing on Replacement instead of Restriction can also help us on a journey to an active lifestyle with better Nutrition.Here are some replacements, additions, or changes I've applied to help myself and my family eat and live healthier:

* Mix 1/3 whole wheat flour with 2/3 white flour (I pre-mix so I don't have to think about it when I'm cooking)
* Buy Whole Wheat Pasta (or white pasta with added fiber or veggies)
* Serve more side dishes with meals (fruits and veggies)
* Replace Ice/Water or Fruit Juice in Smoothies with Milk (easy way to increase dairy, though it will have more calories than Ice)
* Popcorn and tortilla chips have more fiber than potato chips.
* Dried fruit has more fiber than gummy candy.
* Use Brown Rice or ParBoiled Rice instead of White Rice.
* Don't keep treats in the house (at our house store bought treats are for holidays and events, if we want a treat we make brownies or cookies which means it takes WORK)
* Drink more water. (if you're feeling hungry grab a glass of water before you eat, you may find that you were really only thirsty)
* Add Lemon Juice to your water instead of reaching for Sugared or Artificially Sweetened drinks.
* Add some veggies to mac and cheese, ramen noodles, or other quick meals.
* Plan healthy snacks. When we're hungry it's easy to think with our stomachs rather than our brains.
           Smoothie ingredients (or pre-made frozen smoothies), lowfat yogurt, fruit, string cheese, nuts, sunflower seeds, jerky, whole grain/low sugar cereal and other healthy snacks are a great way to combat those breakdown moments.
* Sit Less. Exercise can be intimidating but setting a goal to sit less is quite achievable.
* If you're going to have a treat, or a few, Relax and ENJOY. Beating yourself up doesn't invoke feelings of goodness, determination and progress.
* Never eat so much it hurts
* The easiest time to be hungry is when you're sleeping.



And my frugal tip for staying healthy:
Gym memberships can be expensive for a long time it was a luxury beyond my wildest imagination. Now it would be a significant financial sacrifice, and since I'm awkward and uncoordinated I prefer to work out from the privacy of my own home. YouTube has some great workout videos, and they're FREE. One of my favorite channels is JessicaSmithTV. She's great at cuing, gives modifications, and has tons of different types of videos and lengths. She does Pilates, Yoga, HIIT, Barre, Ballet, Kickboxing, and more...
This is the workout I did during naptime today.


What are some healthy replacements you've made in your diet and/or lifestyle?
I'd love to hear them, and I'm sure other readers would also.

It's May, Have You Pulled Your Credit Report?

Back in January I wrote about Three Easy Ways to Protect Your Identity and Your Finances. In that post I talked about pulling your credit report.

If you pulled all 3 in January you'll have to wait until next January to pull another one, if you pulled only one, it's time to pull a report from another credit bureau.
If you see that post or didn't pull a report at all, here's a quick recap and you can read the full post here.

publicdomainpictures.net

An easy way to monitor your own credit (i.e. you don't have to pay someone to do that for you), is to pull a copy of your credit report every 4 months.
Federal law mandates that each of the credit bureaus provide you with one free credit report per year. There are three credit bureaus, so that means you can pull from one of them every four months. (If it's your first time pulling a credit report, experts recommend pulling all 3 at once, then in a year start rotating through each bureau.)

To do this go to annualcreditreport.com and click on the "request your free credit reports" button.
 

 ***DO NOT go anywhere else, you will probably end up getting charged for a credit monitoring service, your credit score, or something else.

Checking your credit report regularly allows you to watch for unauthorized accounts (Fraud, ID Theft), ensure that accounts which you've closed are actually closed, and see that your payments are being recorded correctly.
Even if you have no debt, and no intentions of borrowing money you should still be checking your credit report.

Three Ways to Protect Your Identity and Your Finances in Less Than an Hour

1. Take a look at what's in your wallet

One time a college professor (you can visit her blog here) told us to pull out a piece of paper and write down EVERYTHING in our wallet. When we were done with our list we were then to pull out our wallet and compare the contents to our list, the point being that if we didn't know it was there it shouldn't be there.
That store credit card you signed up for 3 years ago to get a great deal, but have only used once or twice since? Imagine if your wallet got stolen and you forgot that card was in there because you've forgotten you have it. You responsibly cancel all your other credit cards, but the thief can still max that one out.
If you don't know you have it, perhaps reevaluate whether or not you should have it.

2. Cancel cards you don't need and relocate items you need but don't use regularly 

Place infrequently used items in a safe-deposit box, a safe, a locking drawer, or some sort of safe place.
These might include an HSA or FSA card, a debit card for a second account, a credit card you only use for large purchases, a store card, etc.

AND if you're still carrying your Social Security card in your wallet, STOP IT!

You're making yourself an easy target for identity theft.

3. Pull a copy of your credit report here.

Not your credit score, they're two different things.

A Credit Score is basically a grade of how you use credit that is available to you, it's only important to know your credit score if you're considering borrowing money.

A Credit Report is a record of your financial dealings.
It will show all the lenders who have extended credit or loans to you.
It will show whether you pay on time, the amount of your payments, the total amount of your loan or credit limit.
It may show current or previous employers.
It will show short-sales, foreclosures, bankruptcy and other matters of public record.

Federal law entitles you to one free copy of your credit report from each credit bureau every twelve months.
There are 3 credit bureaus
Experian
Equifax    and
TransUnion
So that's a total of 3 reports per year.

If it's your first time pulling your credit report, the recommendation is to pull all 3 at the same time.
Look over all of them and make sure there are no errors.

If you've looked at your report before then it's a great idea to pull one report every 4 months, start with one credit bureau now and then in 4 months pull the next, and so forth until you're back to the one you started with, this allows you to regularly monitor your credit for errors or signs of identity theft, for FREE.

Many websites will give you access to your "Free" credit report and "Free" credit score, but you end up paying for credit monitoring.
AnnualCreditReport.com is actually free. It is set up by the 3 credit bureaus to provide you with your Federally Mandated FREE access to your credit report.
DO NOT GO ANYWHERE ELSE.