5 Ways Your Health Can Affect Your Money

#1: How Sleep Affects Your Finances

Remember those all-nighters you used to pull in college before midterms?

Science has an explanation for the wooziness you felt right before you crashed: Going without sleep for 24 or more hours makes a person perform as if they had a blood-alcohol level of 1%—.02% more than the legal limit for drunk driving.

Most likely, all-nighters aren’t your M.O. anymore, but if you’re consistently getting just four or five hours of sleep a night, your decision-making skills may not be as sharp as they could be. And that can have implications for your money.

“Lack of sleep can cause us to make many poor decisions, all leading to negative financial consequences,” says Bob Gavlak, a CFP® with Strategic Wealth Partners in Seven Hills, Ohio. “It could be as simple as buying a magazine that you don’t need at the grocery, or as big as drastically overpaying for a new car.”

: How Diet Affects Your Finances

Eating too many restaurant meals is a hallmark of poor nutrition—those who indulge too often have higher levels of obesity, body fat and unhealthy BMIs.

Plus, as anyone carefully tracking his expenses can attest to, dining out can also wreak havoc on your wallet. According to the USDA, a family of four eating moderately at home will spend about $245 per week on food—that’s half of what they’d shell out eating at restaurants.

And there’s more: It seems that eating high-fat restaurant meals may also affect cognitive abilities. In an Oxford University lab study, researchers found that rats eating a high-fat diet for several days showed signs of short-term memory loss and lower levels of brain function than those receiving a low-fat diet over the same period.

“There are a lot of parallels between good eating habits and good financial habits,” says Jeff Reeves, author of “The Frugal Investor’s Guide to Finding Great Stocks.” “If you don’t have the discipline to say no to junk food or count calories, you probably make a lot of impulse buys and have trouble balancing your checkbook. Self-control is the key to good financial health, as well as a healthy diet.”

How to Get Healthier “A good tip for your nutrition and finances is to plan your meals in advance,” Gavlak says. “Even if you plan to go out for a few meals during the week, it still helps prevent gut decisions to stop at a restaurant instead of eating a good, home-cooked meal.”

And feel free to take a few short-cuts if it means you’ll be motivated to maintain your healthy diet.

“Don’t feel guilty about spending a little extra money for prewashed spinach or precut carrots,” says Marguerita Cheng, a CFP® and C.E.O. of Blue Ocean Global Wealth in Rockville, Md. “If it means you eat at home and you eat better, it’s worth it.”

Bonus tip: Instead of filling up on empty calories, add more energy-boosting foods to your diet, like almonds and blueberries, so you’ll have a clear mind to tackle your financial to-dos.

#3: How Exercise Affects Your Finances

We won’t sugarcoat it. Exercising regularly is no easy feat. But skip this good-for-you habit, and you’re likely to sacrifice more than just a smaller pant size.

For starters, regular exercise results in more energy for your brain, boosting your cognitive ability and sharpening your memory. So one consequence of staying sedentary could be that you’re operating at a significant disadvantage at work, compared to your more active coworkers.

You could also be missing out on a positive attitude that could help you tackle your finances head-on. “Exercise can improve confidence, which can help people make more informed decisions and take the meaningful actions necessary to reach their goals,” Cheng says.

In fact, Cheng says she often comes up with many of her most creative ideas after attending a cardio kickboxing or Zumba fitness class.

How to Get Healthier To fully gain the health benefits from exercise, try to clock about two and a half hours of exercise each week. If you need to ease into it, make it fun by incorporating more physical activity into your daily schedule—like, say, biking to work instead of driving, or watching your favorite TV show while on the elliptical.

The upshot? You’ll start to notice the benefits of sticking to healthy habits.

“In turn, you can take that experience and apply it to your financial goals,” Gavlak says. “If you want to pay off debt, increase your savings, or be ready to retire early, you’ll need discipline to stick to a long-term plan, much like regular exercise.”

 

 How Much Fats Do You Need For Better Health and Fat Loss?

• Add 2 teaspoons of olive oil per meal in your vegetables or to your meat when you cook it.



• Do not add oil to a meal if you are eating a fatty fish like salmon which is rich in good fats.



• If you do not like olive oil or oily fish, eat your grilled meats and your natural vegetables but do not forget to add another source of good fats. What you can do in this case is to consume 15-20 grams of almonds or walnuts twice a day with any meal.

I recommend that you try as hard as possible to get your good fats from these natural sources. If you have issues consuming your good fats from food, I recommend an Essential Fatty Acids supplement like Labrada's EFA Lean which contains a variety of good fats. I suggest a dose of 3 capsules in 2 of your fat free meals.

Now that we have covered the myth that in order to lose fat you need to stop eating fats, let's talk about the sort of food that you can eat in order to promote fat loss.



Foods That Promote Fat Loss

When we start a diet, the first thing to do is to make the right food choices. I will eliminate all of the confusion on what to eat by detailing exactly what foods help to promote fat loss:

1. Choose the right carbohydrates like whole grain pasta, brown rice, oatmeal, potatoes, peas, corn (and yes, these are vegetables but in the category of starchy carbohydrates). Forget processed carbohydrates that come from candy, cakes, processed breads, cereals and breading as these will get you fat.



2. Choosing the right proteins like chicken (knowing that the chicken breast is much less fatty than other parts such as the thigh or the wings), white fish and salmon (yes, salmon is a fatty fish but the fats are GOOD fats loaded with Omega 3s), 90% lean steaks, egg whites (with 1-2 egg yolks as these also contain good fats), and turkey. Avoid pork (because it is high in saturated fats) and reconstituted meats such as chicken nuggets, Cordon Bleu, deli meats and fast foods that contain lots of fat.



3. Don't forget to eat your vegetables. The best vegetables you can eat are: green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, spinach, asparagus, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, garlic, and onions. You can have a desert, but it has to be a healthy one.



4. Concentrate on low calorie desserts like Sugar Free Jello and you can also have a piece of fruit with it. Samples of good fruits are: apple, kiwi, peach, strawberry, pear, pineapple, watermelon. All these fruits are good for health but like all fruits, they contain fructose. Thus, for the best fat loss, do not eat more than 2 of these fruits per day when on a fat loss diet. Note: Take a look at Hugo's article on Why Fruits Need to be Limited During a Fat Loss Diet?



5. For good fats, concentrate on getting them from the following sources: extra virgin olive oil, almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts. Eliminate butter, cheese and other sauces that come already prepared as they usually contain added sugars and the wrong kind of fats!

Putting It All Together and Creating Your Balanced Diet

With all these food choices, it is now easy to compose a balanced meal without bad fats. What is a balanced bodybuilding diet you may ask? One that consists of 5-6 small meals a day consisting of 40% carbs, 40% proteins and 20% fats as laid out in Hugo's Characteristics of a Good Nutrition Program.

A normal man needs 2000 to 2500 calories a day. Thus, at 40% Carbs/40% Proteins/20% Fats he will need around 200-250 grams of carbs, 200-250 grams of protein and 45-55 grams of good fats per day divided over 5-6 meals. (Note: 1 gram of carbs = 4 calories, 1 gram of protein = 4 calories and 1 gram of fat = 9 calories).

A normal woman with average activity who is weight training and looking for fat loss needs 1200 to 1500 calories per day. That comes out to 120-150 grams of carbs, 120-150 grams of protein and 26-33 grams of good fats per day divided over 5-6 meals.

Conclusion

There you have it! Now you have a very good base to design your diet and get started on your way to fat loss. The power is within you!

About the Author

Cecile Bayeul was born in France in 1982 in a firefighter family. She wanted to become a firefighter and passed the tough professional firefighter tests which included various physically demanding feats. However, she decided to keep a more peaceful job (as her family wanted her to) so she became a nurse.

As a registered nurse she ended up studying various diet protocols for patients with special nutritional requirements due to their sicknesses.

In order to relieve stress from her job and to heal from an anorexia caused by a difficult divorce she picked up natural bodybuilding. Through bodybuilding she learned to regain her confidence and to be happy with her body.

Her passion for fitness led her to start conducting personal training not only for women but for men as well. She teaches that by embarking into a fitness program you can achieve any body that you want; something that builds up faith in oneself and develops the valuable skill of goal setting; things that at the end of the day improve every single aspect of your life!

Picture yourself in one of the following scenarios.

You're cruising along in your new car by the ocean or in the mountains near the ski lodge, or just a leisurely drive through a beautiful forest or in the country. You stop and smell the fresh air you hear the scenic sounds. You are at peace.

You're relaxing on the patio of your new home - you see the mountains or lake in the distance. Your friends are over as you barbecue in your new back yard. Everyone loves your new home. Or you're out on the lake in your new boat with family or friends. Feel the breeze in your face - smell the fresh scents in the air.

Picture yourself on vacation - you are on the deck of a cruise ship - you are on the top deck under the stars. You feel the warm tropic breeze in your face. The full moon is reflecting off the water as you are holding the one you love in your arms.

We analyze the lives most of us actually have and what our lives could be and the role they play!

The question is who would want only minimum health (or worse) when they could have maximum health!


Maximum health is like you feel when you ask that special someone for a date for the first time and they say yes!
Minimum health is when you ask that special someone out and they tell you, that is the Saturday night when they have to do the laundry and wash their hair!

Picture maximum health as cruising next to the ocean in a sport car convertible with your lover next to you..
Picture minimum health as stuck in traffic in your 10-year-old station wagon with the air conditioner broken.

Maximum health is like being on a honeymoon on your own private beach in Hawaii. Running down the beach at night with the one you love with the warm tropic wind in your hair. The huge moon shining down on the palm trees and the tranquil bay.

Minimum health is stuck working overtime in an un-airconditioned office with a huge pile of paperwork stacked on your desk. In walks your boss - the one with all the personality of a geek with BO. He can't stand going home to his abusive wife so he works 14 hour days and gives dirty looks to his employees when they leave before him. Your boss starts yelling about some stupid unfinished report...

Minimum health is like living paycheck to paycheck - just getting by, just barely having enough money to pay the bills each month. Minimum health is like Darling we have a little extra this month - would you like to go out to eat at McDonalds and get a Big Mac?

Maximum health is sailing away on a cruise ship to the Caribbean with the one you love while dining in elegance each evening!





 

 Sure the above minimum health situations aren't going to kill you (or at least not immediately), but is this the way you want to live your life? Do you really want to just scrape by when there is an option? Let's examine the statement ...aren't going to kill you or at least not immediately.

Minimum health is simply the current absence of real illness or disease. Often people in minimum health are often too tired or sluggish to do things, they are overweight, etc. They don't feel real bad but they sure don't feel terrific. And what about our statement, some would argue that the above minimum health scenarios lead to premature and even a slow death!

Actually the attitude of minimum health is like too many other attitudes we have. We are always too willing to sell ourselves short. We are too willing to settle for second best even when we don't have to. Too often this attitude can flow over into our jobs and relationships. This over the course of a lifetime can cause us much unhappiness and cost us a lot of money.

But the real issue here is minimum versus maximum health and what are we doing to strive toward maximum health? For example do you take high quality nutritional supplements or are you depending on the fast and processed foods to get all your nutrients? I would encourage you to take high quality vitamin and nutritional supplements with enzymes, antioxidants and dietary fiber along with exercise and weight management on a daily basis to strive toward maximum health.