I grew up in quite the health utopia, but it wasn’t because my parents were super health conscious. It was because they were broke. My dad worked as a city carrier for the postal service, and my mom stayed home with us. To save money, she grew a huge garden, planted a giant strawberry patch, lined our yard with plum trees, and saved everything. We ate fresh vegetables and fruit in season, and frozen ones out of season. My grandpa was a dairy farmer, so we got our beef from his cows, processed by a local butcher. My grandma baked her own bread. She also brought in fresh milk from the barn and merely skimmed the cream off the top before we drank it. We also had a lot of friends who were farmers. I remember going to another farm up the road and playing in the yard while my mom helped them butcher chickens for us to take home.
We played outside all the time. We climbed in hay, swam in a nearby lake, jumped off the deck, and climbed on a very weird giant rock my parents had put in the yard. When we were old enough, my grandpa hired us to work alongside the migrant workers, pulling weeds in his fields. We breathed clean air, worked hard, and ate fresh.
We had no idea how good we had it.
No, I didn’t grow up during the Depression. Smirk. I grew up in the 80’s, and my family unknowingly made an amazing number of healthy choices simply because they were trying to stretch a buck.
When I became the mom, I found myself also wanting (and needing) to save money. I prided myself on my frugal roots, believing I could make do with next to nothing. I was so proud when I succeeded at keeping household costs to a minimum. However, a lot of my money saving choices were hurting my family more than helping them. A pantry full of boxed and canned food, loaded with refined sugars and bad fats kept us within our budget. I would walk past the fresh food at the store because I couldn’t afford it, flip past the homemade recipes in the cookbook because I didn’t have time to fix them, and drive past the gym because I didn’t have the energy to exercise. I was full of excuses.
In 2011, my husband started seeing a chiropractor for back pain. I protested. We didn’t have the money for that! Then, that chiropractor started pushing even more into my comfort zone. If we ever wanted to live a quality life, we had to overhaul the way we lived. He introduced to us a wellness plan called Maximized Living. Again, I argued. I didn’t have time to cook a bunch of bizarre recipes. We couldn’t afford to eat and live like health nut weirdos. His response? You can’t afford not to.
I do understand his point of view, in theory. Had we been making healthier choices all along, we wouldn’t be having the health problems we were already experiencing, and were bound to experience even more in the future. However, the fact remained that we did still have a very tight budget. We still had very limited time to spend in the kitchen and at the gym. We weren’t an ideal family. We were a real family.
So, we weighed our options. My husband’s cupboard of prescription medications was continuing to grow. Our energy was declining. My “fat” pants had all gotten so tight I could barely button them, and our daughter was experiencing attention and sensory issues, along with an undiagnosed fever disorder. The chiropractor was right. We had to do something.
Armed with a teeny, tiny food budget, a couple of well-written books, and plain, old-fashioned determination, we undertook the task of maximizing our health without breaking the bank. Was it hard? Honestly, it seemed impossible at times. However, we did succeed, and we did take one step at a time toward better health, always considering what frugal options we might utilize to shave a little off the budget here and there.
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It worked. We stayed within our budget. We revamped our health. My husband has gotten off of almost all of his medications, and we have all stopped taking allergy medications. I’ve lost 30 pounds, and my husband has lost over 50. My daughter’s fever symptoms have dramatically decreased and her attention and sensory issues have greatly improved. All 5 of us feel fantastic. We go for a walk around the block because we want to. We wake up early because we look forward to our day. And we’re just regular people with a busy schedule and a tight budget. It hasn't been easy. Getting healthy never is, but it is worth it. I look forward to journeying with other families as we all seek to provide better health for our families without breaking the bank.
