There are many ways that you can make changes to your health and they need not be expensive, in fact, many of them are free. The only costs are time and commitment.
Diet
You’re already spending on average £227 a month on food (see previous blog), and there’s no need to add to that amount, all you need to do is make a few changes and you may find that you can even reduce the amount you spend on food.
Increasing your fresh fruit and veg
This doesn’t need to be expensive, you don’t need to buy fresh blueberries and expensive goji berries (unless you really want to). Frozen fruit can just as easily be made into smoothies, added to cereal or yoghurt, and it’s a fraction of the price.
Increasing oily fish, nuts and seeds
This is really easy to do and also not that expensive, if you buy your nuts and seeds in bulk you can often save quite a lot compared with the little packets you get in supermarkets. Find some you like; try new ones, flavoured ones. Be careful not to have too many nuts though as they are very high fat and while those are good fats, they will make you put on weight if you eat too many of them.
Exercise
Walking is free!
You can even get a free pedometer from Diabetes UK http://www.diabetes.org.uk/mobile-ad-faqs
If you can increase the amount you’re walking in your week that goes a long way to improving your health. Can you take the stairs instead of the lift?
There are also lots of free walking clubs you can join and meet up with other people.
There are also outdoor gyms that are free too. http://www.tgogc.com/Gyms/United-Kingdom/South-Glamorgan/Howard-Gardens-Cardiff.html?cPath=19_20_57
The key to any exercise is if you enjoy it, it makes you laugh and you feel great afterwards, the likelihood is you’ll want to do it again.
Herbs
If you want to try herbs but don’t want to go and see a medical herbalist, the following books are ones I recommend as a starting point. Please note I am not affiliated with these authors, they are reputable and highly respected medical herbalists.
Holistic Herbal by David Hoffmann
The Complete Woman’s Herbal by Anne McIntyre
Herbal Remedies by Andrew Chevallier
Please be careful if you are buying herbs from the internet, I recommend the following reputable suppliers. (Again, I am not affiliated with these suppliers, but have used them myself for many years)
http://www.organicherbtrading.com/
You could also go along to a free herb walk (find a herbalist in your area) and get tips on herbs you can gather yourself and make into your own remedies. My herb walks are free but most herbalists charge a small fee to cover their time (and/or materials).
I have some websites that I recommend on my ‘where can I find out more information?’ page http://www.lauracarpenter.co.uk/where-can-i-find-out-more-information/.