It is just shy of inevitable that in any Personal Finance blog, fitness will come up as a topic. There”s plenty of good reasoning behind this, and it isn”t because working toward your financial goals can be quite similar to working toward better health: tedious, slow, and occasionally boring (I kid, working out can be a lot of fun, but it won”t always be). How you take care of yourself physically can have a lasting and sometimes irreversible impact on your finances. If you eat junk food for most of your life and end up developing type 2 Diabetes, do you know how much that is going to cost you down the line. I have a hint for you: A Lot.
Yet if the holy grail of earning money is passive income, then logically it would make sense that passive calorie burning is in turn the holy grail of fitness. Now I can just hear the “skepticism” alerts going off and for the most part you”d be right, but stick with me here for a moment. Much like a portfolio of passive income like real estate, investments, or in my case small niche sites, they won”t provide you with all of the calorie burning power you need. You will still need to monitor your nutrition, and you will still need to exercise on a regular basis. There is no way around this, it”s just a fact.
Still, there are plenty of tips and tricks you can use to help augment how many calories you burn in an average day. Here are some nutritional tips:
- Tea and Coffee: I blame the 9-5 workforce for addicting me to caffeine, but a cup of Joe or his weaker counterpart Ms. Tea can have some serious calorie burning effects. Studies have shown that your average cup of coffee will burn about 30-60 calories while 3 cups of green tea will knock off the same amount. Note that if you use creamer or milk the end result is null and void.
- Spicy!: The chemical (drawing a blank on Ruotsalainen kasino on tehnyt niinkuin uuden casinon kuuluukin: se on katsonut alan parhailta tekijoilta mallia ja yhdistanyt sitten muiden parhaat ominaisuudet nayttavaksi, napparaksi ja nykyaikaiseksi kokonaisuudeksi. the name) that give chilies their kick can also hep you burn those unwanted pounds off. Eat at least 1 a day and you could net up to 100 calories of calorie burning power.
- Portabella Mushrooms: Packed with potassium, these guys help flush salt out of your system.
If you”re looking for passive ways to exercise..well..there aren”t very many options. The whole idea behind exercising is getting your body to move around to burn calories, so you”re probably out of luck. Still, here are some helpful ideas.
- Embrace the Stairs: The bottom line is throughout the day you”re going to have to get from point A to point B, and I shake my head when I see people taking the elevator instead of one flight of stairs. They should put up a sign next to them that say “free calorie burning this way!” If you”re going that direction anyway, take the stairs and get some extra burning power in.
- Walk Fast: Sprinting to your car when you get out of work might send the wrong impression to your boss, but walking briskly not only saves you time but also helps burn significantly more calories. You don”t have to get winded every time you take a leisurely stroll, mind you, but it”s easy to turn it up a notch or two.
- Consider Mini-Workouts: So I”m breaking the line of “passive” here, but one of the biggest reasons people don”t exercise is that it”s long and boring. You can combat this problem by working at home in small intervals. If you have a stationary bike, hop on for 5 minutes before dinner and/or during your favorite show. I also like to get in 100 pushups a day, every day. 100 pushups at once is very hard (for me) but 20 at a time is easy.
As long as you aren”t relying on these steps to do all of the dirty work for you, you can net better results by incorporating them into your daily routine. Fitness and finance are getting more linked by the day as healthcare costs continue to rise, so start making changes now.