Healthy Eating Is NOT Expensive

As I’ve been making my way through my extreme grocery budget challenge this year I feel I can vouch that eating healthy is not an expensive venture, contrary to popular belief.  In fact, I think it is quite the opposite and I’ve proved that time and again throughout my lifetime.  I also feel very strongly that to not eat a healthy diet is extremely expensive, in more ways than one.  On the front side when you purchase the UPFs and on the backside when you seek medical attention for your diet induced ailments.

 

Ultra processed foods (UPFs) are not only filled with chemicals, additives and preservatives that our bodies were never meant to ingest, but they’re really expensive, especially these days with the hyperinflation we are seeing in the grocery stores.  However, if you get back to the very basics and only purchase and eat REAL food it makes a world of difference, not only in how we feel and how our bodies respond, but to our wallets as well.

 

For the most part I am a seasonal eater and shopper.  I consume fresh produce when it naturally occurs in nature.  In the spring I look forward to strawberries and asparagus, summertime I partake of a vast array of fresh vegetables, berries, plums and peaches.  In the fall I enjoy the pears and apples.  Wintertime it is the hearty root vegetables and pumpkin I crave most.  During each season I preserve a lot to enjoy off season which not only gives me variety, but also boosts my nutrition.

 

Instead of buying processed cereals I will simply buy oatmeal and make my own porridge or granola.  A box of cereal runs about $5 a box and would only last a week while a tub of oatmeal is $3 and lasts much, much longer and is much more versatile.  I can bake my own breads and rolls from scratch for mere pennies while the average loaf costs $4 and the ingredient list is rather lengthy with items I don’t recognize.  I can buy organic milk and make my own yogurt for less than what it costs to buy a carton or pack of the individual cups and it tastes better.  For variety I just add in my own fresh or frozen berries or fruit.

 

There is a reason we all look forward to those homemade dinner rolls at Thanksgiving.  They just taste better than store bought.  In fact, REAL food just tastes better in general and it is better for us.  Right now I can grill a steak and prepare a nice green salad for less money than I can buy a burger meal at a fast food restaurant and I won’t feel sick after eating it, but rather I will feel energized.  For what it would cost to have a steak dinner at a nice restaurant I can buy a month’s worth of groceries.  I buy my own clean ingredients and make my own food.

 

I would strongly encourage anyone who is still regularly consuming UPFs to stop.  Buy and eat healthy fresh foods and see what a difference it makes in how you feel, how your food tastes and how it affects your wallet too.  You just may be surprised.  Healthy eating is not expensive.

 

New Cardiologist!

 

Just over a month ago I had my annual visit to the cardiologist.  It has been a bit of a battle for me in the last four years to find a practitioner that is able to meet my needs, other than when I visited the Mayo Clinic.  For one thing, I have a rather complicated medical history and I’m blessed to have a couple lesser known disorders that I am dealing with, hence the trip to Minnesota back in 2021.  Even still, please just listen to what I am saying.  You know what I mean?

 

Along with my medical issues I was also battling Mayo Clinic bias.  My doctors were not interested nor were they willing to take any direction from the Mayo Clinic.  At one time I was even told by one cardiologist that I had made a wasted trip and didn’t really need to go there even though she did admit that there is no doctor in the state of Idaho that specializes or treats patients with Fibromuscular Dysplasia, the whole reason for that trip.  Most doctors have never even heard of it.  Another one thought I had Fibromyalgia and actually had the audacity to tell me it was all in my head and that Fibromyalgia isn’t even a real disorder.  I couldn’t get out of his office fast enough.  I’m sure there are plenty of people with Fibromyalgia that would beg to differ.  What a jerk!

 

I have a new practitioner now and I love her. She is young, open to conversation and has a vast knowledge of women’s heart issues and the unique problems they face with those issues and in seeking treatment.  A little over a year ago I had shared with you my frustration with the side effects from one of the medications I was taking.  Well, guess what?  I’m not taking that one anymore.

 

She told me I should have been taken off of that medication and prescribed something else because of all of the side effects I was experiencing plus, and even more importantly, I am also very much allergic to it.  In the past two years I had become allergic to that medication and was experiencing hives on a regular basis.  When I saw the cardiologist last year and told him about it he told me to keep taking it because it was the best medication for my condition and unless I became anaphylactic I’d be okay.  He then suggested I take an over the counter allergy medication to combat the hives, but he didn’t tell me which one.  I left there feeling so dejected, unheard and uncared about and I shared this with my new practitioner.

 

She took me off the medication (it has a staggering long list of potential side effects) and adjusted another one I am currently taking and doing well with to help me with what I was taking the other one for. Then she told me the hives would go away as would the dizzy spells, I would no longer feel so tired and I’d get my energy back, plus I’d probably start to feel a lot better too.  The excessive sweating I’ve been dealing with since the get-go , and my chief complaint, would go away within the next couple of weeks as the medication got out of my system.  Thank you God!  That has been absolutely miserable.  She also said my weight would start to go back down and I’d stop steadily gaining!  You would think I’d just won the lottery with all of that good news!  I left my appointment feeling hopeful for the first time since all of this started four years ago.

 

But wait!  There’s more!  The next day she contacted me with even better news.  The results of the test I had done the day before showed my heart has completely healed from my heart attacks in 2021 (finally!) and is strong and healthy.  All we have to do is take care of its little defects, which is what we are doing now, so it stays that way and keep doing what I’ve been doing to avoid too much stress and manage my anxiety.  I am now physically able to do whatever I feel I can do with no restrictions.  Whooo hooooo!  Isn’t life just the best?!

 

Since then my life has improved substantially.  I am no longer sweating like I’ve just run a marathon on a 100° day and I have not broken out in hives either.  I am sleeping much better at night because I am no longer tossing and turning and throwing off the covers to cool down from what feels like monster hot flashes for twelve hours straight.  My deodorant is working once again.  You are welcome!

 

My energy levels are back to a normal level and I haven’t had any of those days where I feel so exhausted I can barely move.  My weight is steadily going back down.  I can exercise again without feeling dizzy and short of breath.  The best part is I no longer feel like I’m fighting with my own body just trying to get it to function normally.  At my last appointment the cardiologist said the goal is to make me feel better, not worse and I think we are doing just that.  I am ever so grateful I persevered and kept at it until I found a practitioner that would listen to me and was willing to do something to help me.  There were many times I felt like giving up, but I am forever grateful that I found her.  It feels amazing to feel normal again!