I struggle with finding the balance between a healthy lifestyle and a frugal one. I am fortunate that I do not have any dietary restrictions and I like to cook. Yet I still find it difficult at times to eat healthy on a budget.
Well, if I thought feeding myself was tricky, I have an even greater challenge in trying to turn my father’s diet into a healthy one.
The Challenge
My 67 year old dad lives alone in an apt 2,000 miles away. He has been overweight my entire life and has subsisted almost completely on a diet of restaurants and fast food. Needless to say, he does not enjoy cooking.
Currently, he lives alone on a fixed income and obtains half of his monthly groceries from a local food pantry, where healthy options are not offered as much as I would like. He is also on the anticoagulant Coumadin. One of the downsides to this pill is that he cannot eat anything that is high in Vitamin K, for example, green leafy vegetables.
Other limiting factors to my father’s diet are his simple palate and the fact that he lives in Wyoming, where choices and competition are slim. Continue reading »
