Think you can't afford to eat healthy and exercise?

The holidays are upon us, and as if everyone in this country wasn't strapped for cash before, now we have to buy loads of Christmas and holiday gifts for our friends and family. However are we supposed to afford organic produce and groceries and gym memberships and equipment?

Your body cannot and should not take a back seat to your holiday responsibilities. Your body is the single most important thing you'll ever have in this life. I'm not saying that it needs to have washboard abs, but you need to take care of it as well as humanly possible at all times, and this does not have to cost a fortune for anyone.

Organic produce is often not that much more expensive than regular produce. Conventional baby carrots are typically $1.69 a bag while their organic counterparts are $1.99 a bag. Aside form the fact that organic carrots just taste better, I think NOT ingesting pesticides is worth the extra 30 cents. Organic apples work just like regular ones, in that certain varieties are cheaper at different times. The price difference is often no more than $1/lb and usually less than that. I get whatever organic apples are the lowest price and often find that they are only 20-40 cents per pound more than the regular apples down the next aisle.
The same goes for grocery items like soups, pastas, cereals and frozen foods. The difference in cost is hardly worth the risks you take of eating genetically engineered, synthetic, and dangerous chemically-infused and processed foods. Do yourself a favor, and don't skimp on your body. You can shave a few cents off in other areas of your life, like buy one less song on iTunes each month, or wash your dishes by hand once a week.

And don't even think about putting your gym membership on hold to save some holiday money. What will you spend that money on, cookies, mashed potatoes and pie? That all sounds good, but in January, you won't be thankful anymore. It is especially during the holidays that we need to keep up our fitness. Get to the gym and put in a little extra when you know you'll be having tons of great holiday eats later that night.

Yes this is the season for giving, but you can't give up on yourself in the process. It isn't about coming out of the holidays looking like a model. It's about being healthy and fit so you can enjoy the holidays that much more. It's about BEING WITH your family and friends, not how much you can buy them and how much you can eat.

And that's where I stand on this subject. :)