I was in church on Sunday and my co-senior Pastor, Nike Adeyemi said something as she preached that really struck a chord, and gave me even more permission to do this post. Fact remains that the prices of food, fuel and dollar have hit the roof in Nigeria. Truth remains that God supplies all our needs according to His riches in glory, and doesn’t need to consult the day’s exchange rate or fuel price to do so, and I enjoy heaven’s economy and all?
But does the latter mean that we just keep moving on in faith, and not making adjustments to our spending and eating habits? If we take somethings out of our budget, does that mean we don’t have enough faith? That was something I personally struggled with as I navigated the increase in prices and considered making adjustments to my own family budget.
So how do we find a responsible and pragmatic approach to merging today’s reality and our faith?
I’ll throw more light on that in this post so keep on reading!
Shalom Shalom Beautiful People,
Super excited about life in general, and this blog post in particular. So, I will be sharing five practical steps to live at your best, especially when it comes to your health and fitness, in this season of incredible inflation.
Funny in this blog post I did in February 2023, I had talked about the inflation rates hitting 50% by June when subsidy is out, but my goodness, even that prediction was incorrect as it has definitely hit more than 50%.
Like I said in that post too, we can no longer afford to be eating junk anyhow, because of the huge potential it has to impact our health and our children’s too. I mean, why intentionality add any more unnecessary stress to an already high-stress situation, and then now waste extra energy, and finances on hospital visits.
Please don’t be that person!
And because food prices affects everyone, the mood of people hit can be quite cranky, so we must do our best, especially as believers to still be joy dispensers. But you cannot give what you do not have, so the steps I will be sharing will not only impact your health, but will impact your joy so that you not only have enough but overflow with joy, and then every other goody can flow from that…
Ready?
Let’s gooooo
1. Budget everything!
Now I started with this because this is not the time to freelance with your finances. In an email I sent out recently, I shared how I canceled a market trip because I was not prepared, among other things, budget-wise.
(You can join my mailing list here)
I wanted to be sure that before I did any shopping, major or minor, I had sat down and crafted a super tight n’ right list that allowed me to cover all the basics, cut out the nonsense, reduce or eliminate waste, and still feel like I was making the best choice for my family,
Please don’t shop without a budget, and never shop in a hurry or spontaneously. Plan ahead and look at it over and over again. And then as you shop, you also want to take note of prices so that they can form a kind of benchmark for future shopping, which then makes you an even better budget-er!
Also look out for good bargains and deals.
One last tip here; check your fridge, freezer, pantry and everywhere else at home you keep supplies before you shop, so you don’t waste money on buying what you already have, and then you don’t forget about things until they expire.
Great tip there!
2. Say buh-bye to the ‘unnecessaries’.
This was really something PN said as she preached that touched my soul. There are just some things that have to leave our shopping lists and kitchen because they do us and our health absolutely NO GOOD! Not only are they expensive to our wallets, they are also expensive to our health. I’ll share an in-exhaustive list… Milo, Bournvita, Cereals (especially those coated and sugary ones.), sausages, ketchup, butter, peanut butter (yup, it does nothing), juices, ribena, biscuits, chocolates, etx.
Listen, you and your family can do without these things that can truly harm our health, especially if they form a part of our daily or regular diets, and even especially for our kids.
You can check out these posts for more on these danger foods!
– #ChildNutrition: The Dangers Of Store-bought Frozen French Fries.
– You think your Kids need these, but they’re USELESS! Stop them!
– JUNK Pandemic in Kids: Here’s how Schools and Churches can join the fight.
3. Have a healthy breakfast!
Really, except you are fasting, this is NOT the time to skip breakfast, please! And also not the time to take crap for breakfast. Eating a healthy breakfast wins on many levels but let me share two
– You actually get enough energy to carry you through the first part of your day, which totally…
– boosts your mood! This one is so key because if you are eating crap or skipping breakfast, you will find yourself lethargic, hungry, and angry. You won’t focus like you want to, which will further dampen your mood.
And how can you bring joy when your mood is foul?
So please, this is not the time to NOT be breakfast person, (well, except you are absolutely sure of that). Eat a super healthy breakfast. The No-No’s are white bread, deep fried anything, sugary biscuits and drinks, confectioneries made from white flour (buh-bye all those ‘tea breaks’), tea made with Milo and co, noodles, simple and sugary cereals, and so on.
The correct options are any real food that came from the farm (brown rice, potato, yam, beans, etx), oats, boiled eggs and smoothies, and high fibre cereals (weetabix original, fruit and fibre, etx)
These will fill you up, hold you on longer and give you the energy and brain fuel you need to take into your day!
4. Keep a ‘faith phrase’ handy!
Let’s face it, the gloom in the land is LOUD! If you are not careful, it will drown out the voice of God and what His word says about us as His dearly beloved children. So, it pays to have a ‘faith-phrase’ to push back the gloom. Silence is consent so that is not an option. You gotta clap back with words, even if all you say is JESUS. Or IT IS WELL, but it has to come from a place of DEEP CONVICTIONS and nothing just casual!
You gotta believe.
I also love to say ‘thank God we can afford it. Or there is always more where that came from’ or ‘I have all and I abound’
You know, stuff like that!
You can check out my Spoken WORD Party webinar replay and learn how to craft your own confessions and win with your words. WOW-30 is also a great resource. It’s free on my reader app E’Zivah, which you can download HERE for iOS and HERE for android.
5. Be ridiculously generous!
Now this one is literally the MOST important. It is the easiest thing to default to HOARDING in this season, and while it makes sense, it doesn’t align with Kingdom values! We are a GIVING people and the very foundations of our faith is giving.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
John 3:16 NKJV
This is why points 1 and 2 are super important, because then, with waste eliminated, there is more to give. And even if you cannot give 100, don’t give zero. It is not an ‘all or nothing’ matter. Give your 10. or 25, or even 5.
You MUST give, and especially when things seem the tightest, the fastest way to break free from that is to quickly give something. And while there are many non-financial and material things to give, I want to challenge you to give materially and financially too.
It’s really the BEST way to not only give JOY but also hard-wire your own joy and blessings, because the Bible says it is more blessed to give than receive!
So give give give!
Don’t let this season, and/or Nigeria turn you into this stingy, hoarding, miserly person that you cannot recognise
“For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you.”
2 Corinthians 9: 10-11 NLT
Ok, that’s all.
Let’s go out there and spread JOY!!!
So much LOVE,
Eziaha
PS
If you’re running low on motivation and desire to go after your healthy living goals, then check out this video on my YouTube channel and Get ‘motivated’ in 5 seconds to do anything!
P.P.S
As you know we are BIG on living your best life as helped by God, check out this post on my personal blog eziaha.com where I gave 5 permissions you need to live your best life everyday