Episode 44 - Wellness as Wealth: Functional Medicine, Family Nutrition & Travel with Rita Johnson
In this empowering episode, Deb Meyer talks with holistic health advocate Rita Johnson about how physical wellness impacts financial strength. They dive into functional medicine, family nutrition on a budget, simple food swaps, and how Rita’s family of eight travels internationally without breaking the bank.
Episode Highlights
(04:38) Functional medicine basics – How to bridge the gap between feeling “off” and needing a diagnosis.
(06:45) Nutrition hacks – Prioritize protein, reduce hidden sugars, and try DIY staples.
(12:10) Feeding picky eaters – Mix of tough love, one-meal rules, and smart “food hiding” tactics.
(18:50) Healthy eating on a budget – Frozen veggies, bulk protein sources, and home-cooked meals.
(26:41) Exercise strategies – Home workouts, accountability, and when a personal trainer is worth it.
(30:27) Affordable family travel – Budget airlines, Airbnb, and traveling while remote working.
(46:37) Opportunity fund mindset – Save for joyful experiences, not just emergencies.
Related Episodes
Episode 10 – Crafting a Saving Strategy for Bold Family Adventures
Learn how to build an “opportunity fund” for travel, starting a business, or renovating your home.
Episode 32 – Bucket Lists, Balance & Building Wellness
Discover how aligning physical, emotional, and financial wellness leads to stronger earnings and better life outcomes.
Connect with Rita Johnson
Divine Mercy Nutritional Care on Instagram, Facebook & YouTube
EWG Clean Fifteen and Dirty Dozen List
Connect with Deb Meyer
Website: WorthyNest.com/podcast
Full transcript
Deb Meyer (00:00.856)
Did you know healthy people earn about 28 % more money than unhealthy people over their lifetime? We all know poor health can affect parents in a variety of ways. And that's why I'm excited to introduce today's guest, Rita Johnson. Rita is the owner of Divine Mercy Nutritional Care, and she's a homeschooling mom of six amazing kids. Rita, welcome so much to Beyond Budgets.
Rita Johnson (00:25.771)
Thank you, Deb. I'm so excited to be here.
Deb Meyer (00:28.266)
Awesome. Could you share a little bit of your personal health story and why you became interested in functional medicine?
Rita Johnson (00:35.943)
I'd love to. I just want to say before I jump into my health journey that my husband and I met in math class. We're both math majors in college and I was going the CPA route. He was going to become an actuary. so numbers are very near and dear to us and to our story and to how I think. that will definitely permeate my question, my answers to your questions. So I really, my husband and I, we got married right as I was graduating college and
Deb Meyer (00:53.454)
Awesome!
Rita Johnson (01:05.013)
When we were married about seven years, I'm trying to remember, we've been almost 20 years now, but when we were married about seven years, we felt called to buy some land. And so we bought land and started raising animals and doing things very sustainably, if you will.
We actually joked, looking back at that period of time of our life, that everything was sustainable about what we were doing. Like our cows were only eating grass from our land, except that we couldn't keep doing it. It wasn't sustainable for us to maintain it. So we learned a lot about our food and the way that we were supposed to be eating and taking care of our bodies in that season of our life. And then we ended up moving for a job. The Lord brought us to the Cincinnati area back to suburb life.
Deb Meyer (01:31.834)
Wow.
Rita Johnson (01:48.948)
In that time, I struggled with secondary infertility. So we had four kiddos and it took us almost five years until we had number five. And so going through that journey at the time I had been teaching the Crate Model Fertility Care, so using the cycle charting as a critical piece of helping other women navigate their own hormonal imbalances, I really wanted
more in-depth answers for my own journey. knew what I would get if I went to the doctor. I'm not opposed to going to the doctor. I just knew that I would get these specific medications and I wanted to know the why behind that. I didn't want to just be put on medication. So I really started reaching out to these different types of providers that were naturopath and functional medicine. Dermatologists had some skin issues.
All of these kinds of things, and this really was what led me to feel like I piecemealed my own health journey together. And then after we conceived, which was totally, totally the Lord, there's a beautiful spiritual side of that story as well. But after we conceived number five, then I really felt like the Lord was calling me to be a part of that solution for other people that were struggling to get answers in their own health journey. And also ones that they didn't want to just start working with somebody and find out that they were doing things that were...
Deb Meyer (02:45.027)
Mm-hmm.
Rita Johnson (03:08.749)
against our religion. Sometimes in these functional medicine spaces, you come across some really strange new agey kind of things. And so I really wanted to be a voice and an ally for women that were not willing to go down those paths and open those doors.
Deb Meyer (03:10.542)
Sure.
Deb Meyer (03:26.712)
Wow, that's great. I'm glad you mentioned that because I know, especially being a Catholic mom myself, I've always kind of been interested in the functional medicine or some of the more alternative methods of looking at things and it is against, you know, more mainstream culture. And then when you hear about functional medicine just more broadly, I feel like there gets this weird disassociation of like, well, you can't really be
faith-filled and kind of there's just always some kind of competing imbalance there. So I'm glad that you kind of charted this path for women that feel like they don't really fit in either space of like, hey, I want to do just traditional medicine all the time and keep going to the doctor for problems. At least my understanding of functional medicine is it's more proactive. It's not trying to put you on a medication or get you on
And maybe I'm misunderstanding it, feel free to educate me. But it's really about looking holistically at what goes into your body, what is in your environment, the things that are really a part of your everyday life that over years and years can really make an impact on your health, right?
Rita Johnson (04:50.219)
Yeah, for sure, Deb. It's definitely, I like to think of functional medicine as, we have a lot of tools in our toolbox, right? If you go to the doctor and you're not feeling well and they run labs and they look at the tests and they say, everything's fine, it looks like you're great. That means that you're not sick enough that you need medication, right? Because that's the tools that they're trained to give. And so we really need this gap, fill gap place of,
Deb Meyer (05:04.524)
Mm-hmm.
Rita Johnson (05:14.943)
disease doesn't just happen out of nowhere. We have these progressive stages of not feeling well. And so when we have more of those, I like to think of them as tools in the toolbox, but it really is like things like how we're eating, how the environment we're living in, our homes, our mindset around our health journey, spiritually what's going on, really all those mind, body and soul that is.
making up our health journey. And so it's really helping that fill gap time of like, you don't have a diagnosable disease where you need medication, but it doesn't mean you just have to continue feeling sick. We can really dive deep into that in between place and be sure that advanced disease, God willing, doesn't happen. And so that's kind of where I see like the functional medicine.
Deb Meyer (05:44.172)
Mm-hmm.
Rita Johnson (06:02.013)
space working really well. And then of course there are times where we need medication, combining those with dietary lifestyle changes in addition is going to make it much more possible that you don't have to be on the medication forever.
Deb Meyer (06:14.9)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, so let's talk about food for a few minutes because I know obviously what we put into our bodies can really have a big impact not only on our weight but even just mood and energy levels. What do you think are some powerhouse foods that parents should be eating to stay, you know, energetic throughout the day?
Rita Johnson (06:33.599)
Yeah, for sure. You know, it's always amazing to me when I first start working with somebody and, you know, oftentimes it's kind of like they hit the wall. They're really struggling with energy or fatigue and they're sick of it, right? They're sick of not feeling like they have more to give to their husband and their children. And so right off the bat, a lot of times when we look at what we're eating in a day, especially as busy parents with lots of, you know, little ages, we might just be eating snacks off
the kids' plates, especially if you're in a season of motherhood where you just have little people. I find that we're not eating near enough protein, and that's really what's going to sustain us in between meals. So that's kind of an easy thing off the bat. Like the vast majority of the time, we are not eating enough protein, so start eating some more protein. Now there can be a myriad of issues that are contributing to that. Sometimes it is just, I'm not thinking about it, or I'm just gonna make a peanut butter and jelly because that's what my kids want.
You know, there's those minor stages, but there also could be something going on where you're not breaking down your protein. You might be consuming enough, but your body is not really able. It needs some additional support to be able to break it all down. You know, there could be different issues related to that as well. And so that's kind of a separate thing I won't go into right now, but just know that that's something that there's a lot of solutions we could pursue.
Deb Meyer (07:40.535)
Okay.
Rita Johnson (07:50.816)
relating to that. So that the first thing I would say is be sure we're eating adequate amounts of protein at your meals. know, just having a cup of coffee and a piece of toast in the morning is not going to be enough to fuel you through until lunchtime and make you a happy, joyful parent. Nor is it going to help us like mentally to really be on our A game, right? And that's important, even if you're a stay at home parent, like that's still very critically important for us to be able to regulate our moods and our emotions. So that's probably the first thing.
The second thing I would say is really evaluate how much sugar you're taking in. A lot of times we're not totally honest with ourselves how much sugar we're consuming. like, oh, don't, people say this to all the time. Oh, I don't really eat the dessert or I don't really go for a bowl of ice cream as a snack, right? Great. But you need to look at things like your granola bars and your protein bars and those little snacks that you're grabbing. A lot of times those have high amounts of sugar. A lot of times protein bars have more sugar, grams of sugar.
Deb Meyer (08:40.142)
Mmm.
Rita Johnson (08:47.931)
grams of protein and that's just not going to help you get very far. So just really evaluating those things are the first steps I would say.
Deb Meyer (08:49.804)
Really? Wow. Sure.
Deb Meyer (08:56.814)
or even like sodas, right? I I personally, I don't drink much soda. do like water or tea, but for a while there, I was drinking a lot of very sweet tea. And then I realized like, oh, I kinda need to cut the sugar on the tea if I'm gonna have more of a healthy lifestyle. So.
Rita Johnson (09:14.187)
For sure, for sure. And it's changing your taste buds, right? It's acclimating you to wanting sweeter things in general. And so yeah, that's a huge piece of it too. Honestly, sometimes I forget about, I forget about soda. The soda is huge. Eliminating that is really critical.
Deb Meyer (09:27.686)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I even got my youngest son looking at the soda can and like seeing the sugar content before he asked to drink it. Because I like, well, he's very math oriented. So I'm like, OK, I'm going to educate you on this. So now, like he'll be like, mom, this soda has 70 grams of sugar. I'm like, my gosh, you take that over like three days and we're going to get it.
Rita Johnson (09:37.513)
Yes, that's beautiful!
Rita Johnson (09:55.787)
Yes. Yeah, for sure, for sure. And I think that's a huge piece with kids. I just want to say, my oldest is 16. So I have teenagers that are starting to make their own decisions and they hear my husband and I talk a lot about why we do things the way we do, but we really have to empower them with that information for them to keep making those decisions.
Deb Meyer (10:04.323)
Mm-hmm.
Rita Johnson (10:16.513)
16 year old is not always in under my thumb anymore. When he goes to work, he goes to the cafeteria, he works at the mall, he'll go to the cafeteria and grab something. So I just have to continually educate him on that, right? Like he loves his soda pop here and there, he doesn't get it a lot, but he's been struggling with some poor skin health. And so I just have to continue to help him see like.
Deb Meyer (10:20.387)
Mm-hmm.
Rita Johnson (10:37.409)
that wrecks your gut. It's really deteriorating your gut microbiome. It's making it really difficult for your gut to heal, which his skin is a reflection of what's going on in his gut. And so then that's going to make your skin a lot worse. So watch out on the pop. And he's like, oh, 16 year old, get him where their vanity is, right? He wants to look good in a suit at church. for sure, for sure.
Deb Meyer (10:55.254)
Yep, yep. They're starting to get interested in girls, hopefully. well, I have a 15 year old, so I'm right there with you trying to figure out like, okay, what's gonna be interesting to share where they're actually listening and not just dismissing it as, that's not something I have to worry about until I'm an adult.
Rita Johnson (11:08.373)
You get it.
Rita Johnson (11:19.625)
It's true. It's true. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Another one with my son in particular, he really, my husband's this big bulky guy. And so my 16 year old, know, skinny and scrawny still, he wants to bulk up. And so he'll talk to me about that. He's like, mom, did I get enough protein today or whatever? And I'm like, well, buddy, you gotta, you gotta be really intentional about supporting your gut health too, because if you want to gain muscle mass, your body's distracted if the gut is, is compromised. And so it can't focus on adding bulk.
Deb Meyer (11:21.614)
Yeah.
Deb Meyer (11:43.416)
Mm-hmm.
Rita Johnson (11:47.605)
And so, know, just kind of putting it into their terms and finding things that they're interested in, right? You want to boost your testosterone to build your muscle, this is what you got to do.
Deb Meyer (11:52.13)
Right.
Deb Meyer (11:55.578)
Uh-huh. Uh-huh. So while we're on the topic of kids, I'm curious about picky eaters because I have one in my household. It's extremely hard to find healthy meals that please the whole family. What's your opinion on, okay, we're just going to make this one meal and if they don't choose to eat it, they're going to be out of luck versus, you know, that kind of tough love or just saying,
If you don't want what we're eating, you have to make something on your own or what do you think is appropriate for those picky eaters?
Rita Johnson (12:26.421)
Yeah, you know, that's a great question. it is so I feel like maybe you have a similar story, Deb, like just the journey of my motherhood. It's just been like something that growing up, I grew up with a mom who would make four different meals for four different kids. And so when I my my oldest kids, know when my oldest kids were younger, we were very staunch. Like you will eat this or you don't get up from the table. And then if they did get up, that's what they ate their next meal. They wanted a snack.
Deb Meyer (12:43.374)
wow.
Rita Johnson (12:55.881)
it would reappear, like until they finally ate it. And now that my oldest two are 16 and 14, they're very good eaters. Like they will eat anything you put in front of them with very few exceptions. And so in general, I kind of let everybody have one thing that they just don't eat. So my 14 year old, for whatever reason, she is very against certain types of fish. That being said, she will try them.
So for years she would not touch salmon. If my husband and made salmon for dinner on Friday, she was like, nope, I'm not eating that. And I was like, okay, fine, go help yourself to something very simple. And generally she had a very specific alternative. Honestly, I can't remember what it is right now because she's grown out of it. My middle children are a little bit more particular and picky and one in particular.
is very, very thin. And so she's one that I'm like always trying to pack calories on. So I will say with her at this season, we do tend to kind of cater our meals a little more towards what she will eat. That being said, even with her particularness, she's not super, like she won't not eat certain things. So.
We also have a lot of foods that in general we kind of avoid. So I'm gluten-free, dairy-free. I've got a kid that can't have almonds and chicken and another kid that reacts to certain things. And so you know how it is, working. My husband works a lot, like homeschooling. We have a lot going on. And like, this is the meal. And if you're not going to eat the meal, then you're going to be hungry. I do try to take those things into account. I just got out of a season where my four-year-old refused to eat soup.
Deb Meyer (14:24.622)
Yep.
Rita Johnson (14:37.201)
And I was like, too bad. Like that just can't fly in this album. In the winter in Cincinnati, it's cold. I want to make a pot of soup. We needed soup. Yeah. And we had a new baby. So we had frozen meals and that kind of thing. So I tend to more of the sorry, tough love. Like this is just the way it is. That being said, if I had a different leftover and it was one of those few meals that they were like,
Deb Meyer (14:39.628)
Yeah.
Rita Johnson (15:03.435)
They're just not gonna eat that. I have one that is really opposed to mushrooms, but I've also started to get her over her fear of mushrooms because of how many times I've hidden them in things. And then later she's like, I liked that. That had mushrooms? So I guess that's probably, yeah, yeah. That's probably more my tactic strategy is cut it smaller, emulsify. Like how can we hide it? And then like get them to realize that they actually do like the flavor.
Deb Meyer (15:17.051)
nice, okay. Yeah, figuring out ways to hide the foods too.
Deb Meyer (15:29.518)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (15:33.706)
Okay, okay. And let's go back to adults for a minute. So obviously we know like cheeseburgers, french fries, they're not very healthy for us. But are there any kind of surprise foods that should be avoided? You know, people wouldn't think should be on the kind of quote unquote bad list of foods to consume.
Rita Johnson (15:53.25)
Yeah, I really think kind of going back to when we were talking about the hidden sources of sugar, I think that that is huge. Unless you really start to add it up, that whole what you measure gets improved or when you start to measure, I can't think of it. There's a really quickie saying. you know what I'm talking about. But really, I think it is like
Deb Meyer (16:12.076)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (16:15.724)
I know, yeah, I'm just forgetting it as well, but know what you're saying. Yeah.
Rita Johnson (16:22.977)
doing that deep dive look into some of these things that, especially if we're eating some, even if it's a small amount of your food that's packaged.
just see what you can do that improves that quality a little bit. So looking for the sugar content, artificial sweeteners, that kind of thing. So whether that's in your drinks, whether that's in your snacks, something you're grabbing and going, or your meals, prepared meals and that kind of thing, they're going to have a lot of preservatives and additives in them. And I think sometimes we just need to kind of step outside of that and think a little bit. And this isn't, I guess, a surprising thing, but you
looking at something that's so simple, like chicken nuggets, how could we do something that simple with fewer ingredients, right? So could we do a rotisserie chicken and a salad mix instead of doing chicken nuggets and french fries or whatever it is? Just thinking a little bit simpler and it's really not that much more work. It's really just grabbing that chicken from the store, grabbing that veggie and.
Deb Meyer (17:15.928)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (17:28.526)
Yeah, I was really impressed. just a weeks ago, I, I normally tend to go for like the chicken tenders or whatever. If they're on sale at Costco, I'm like, okay, I'll pick up a bag. But this time I was like, no, there's organic chicken. I can buy it here at the store and then take it home, put a little egg around it, some, you know, Italian bread crumbs and cook that. And I ended up getting such compliments from the kids. were like, this tastes amazing. And I'm like,
Gosh, they never called me on. So I was like, yes, okay, I'll keep doing this instead of buying, you know, the normal processed chicken fingers. But yeah, it really, it took a little bit of time, but it was like, okay, was a Saturday or Sunday and we had, you know, a little bit of ease in the schedule. wasn't a weeknight where we're trying to get things out quickly and go on to the.
Rita Johnson (18:01.729)
Ohhhh
Rita Johnson (18:09.013)
Yes!
It's true, just taking a little more into your kitchen. Yeah.
Deb Meyer (18:27.308)
the next activity. yeah, it's possible, I guess, if you make those substitutes. So just want to give encouragement to listeners that are toying with that idea of moving away from processed foods. Okay.
Rita Johnson (18:29.184)
Yes!
Yeah, for sure. Yes.
Rita Johnson (18:41.205)
Yes, yeah, I'm a big fan of keeping it simple still, but yeah.
Deb Meyer (18:44.812)
Yeah. And then I guess while we're talking about, I mentioned organic, I'm curious about your perspective on it because you know, lot of health coaches say organic, non-processed foods, but those can also be very expensive, right? They can put a strain on that pocketbook. So how do you balance eating healthy and then being financially responsible with a large family?
Rita Johnson (19:07.317)
Yeah, for sure. Great question. You know, I think the very first thing I'm always thinking is how serious is this? So like I'm gonna use eggs right now because everyone know eggs are through the roof expensive right this minute. So when we're looking at the different types of eggs, how much is it really impacting the nutritional quality, the health consequences of how healthy that chicken was when it laid those eggs, right? Obviously if I can get eggs, which I probably be able to.
Deb Meyer (19:14.286)
Hmm.
Rita Johnson (19:35.522)
depending on where you live. If I could get eggs from somebody that is letting their chickens free range in their yard versus buying them at Costco, that's going to be way more nutritiously beneficial for my family. And generally the price comparison is not that much higher, especially right now, it might be cheaper. That being said, like when I'm at the grocery store, I'm looking at all the options. If I have like the conventional eggs versus the cage free versus the organic.
I'm always weighing first and foremost, how much does my family eat this and what is going to be that cost differential if we buy like the most expensive versus the, you know, the conventional. And then is that really worth it in terms of the nutritional benefits? So stepping away from eggs a minute, I'll circle back. Tuna.
Tuna is one that my husband loves to talk about. He really likes to tuna post-workout. So you can buy canned tuna at Aldi and it might have water or oil you can pick. We usually go for the water since it doesn't have like a soybean oil base to it. That can of tuna at Aldi, my husband has the numbers. It might have like 15, 18 grams of protein. Cans of tuna at Costco have
I wish I had, I should have got the numbers from him before he had bought it I was gonna use this sample. But the cans of tuna at Costco have twice as much protein in them. So they're like 30, 35 grams of protein and the price is more expensive, but it's not twice as much. And so it's things like that that we're looking at, okay, this is wild caught tuna. When I open it up and flake it apart, it's a chunk of meat. Whereas the canned tuna from Aldi is like shredded and shriveled and.
Deb Meyer (21:05.443)
Really?
Deb Meyer (21:12.11)
Thank
Deb Meyer (21:19.403)
Mm-hmm.
Rita Johnson (21:23.275)
kind of, it doesn't really hold its own even in tuna salad. Whereas the tuna from Costco does. So looking at that kind of comparison is a big deal. And it says that it includes way less mercury than your average tuna. So when I look at that kind of decision, every time I'm going to buy the more expensive tuna, even when I have kids that love tuna.
Deb Meyer (21:23.372)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (21:38.296)
okay.
Rita Johnson (21:44.694)
particularly because I have kids that love tuna, because then I can let them eat it and I'm not quite as like, stop, there's so much mercury in that. It's more being regulated on its own. Going back to eggs, right now we're buying conventional eggs and that is just what it is. We're not eating a ton of eggs. So I probably could just say, you what, I'm gonna buy the organic. And when I go to Costco and they have the organic, I do. But if I just did a Kroger,
Deb Meyer (21:45.005)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (22:01.144)
Mm-hmm.
Rita Johnson (22:11.873)
drop off delivery order right before I got on this call. And I just had them do conventional eggs. Like it's not worth the extra $2 to me right now for them to just be cage free or have organic feed. It's not really contributing that much to the quality and the nutrition of the egg. If it's a smaller price, I might go for the organic. So it's things like that that I really am taking into account. And then always, you if we're in a season that our budget's a little bit tighter,
Deb Meyer (22:18.456)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (22:24.43)
Mm.
Deb Meyer (22:34.541)
Mm-hmm.
Rita Johnson (22:41.057)
It's just saying a prayer, right? Like bringing the food to the table, saying a prayer over it. Lord, even though this is not organic and not good, please just bless their bodies and help them to be able to grow from it and glean good nutrition. And, you know, doing a lot of those little things that we can at home, using dried beans in the kitchen. My husband makes a really good beans and rice and we just love to do that on Fridays and it's so affordable. You know, doing some things where we're kind of taking that control back into our kitchen and cleaning up the ingredients.
Deb Meyer (22:42.84)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (22:50.7)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (23:05.368)
Mm-hmm.
Rita Johnson (23:10.945)
Another one that's a staple for us is I do homemade yogurt. Every couple weeks I make yogurt and just the other day, me and my 16 year old crunched the numbers because he was like, mom, can't you just buy some yogurt? I was going to a conference and I was like, I'm just gonna make it really fast before I have to go catch my flight. And I said, but Kev, look at this. I was like, this is the cost of, you know, a quart of yogurt is like $5. Half a gallon of yogurt is just the price of the milk, which is like $1.25.
Deb Meyer (23:14.901)
okay.
Deb Meyer (23:35.458)
Mm-hmm.
Rita Johnson (23:40.436)
So do you agree with me that I should make yogurt real quick before I catch my flight? He was like, whoa, like just mind blown. But there's so simple things we can do. It's also adding more nutrition to the food. Homemade yogurt has a lot more beneficial bacteria than store bought yogurt. And so it's, you know, those things that aren't as easy to quantify with our wallet as well.
Deb Meyer (23:40.59)
Mm.
Deb Meyer (23:45.006)
Yeah
Deb Meyer (23:49.464)
turn.
Deb Meyer (24:03.746)
Okay, well the yogurt is surprising. I don't know that I have the courage to try to homemade yogurt, but I will think about it next time. Or at least look up a recipe or something. Yeah.
Rita Johnson (24:12.947)
It's one of those things. Yeah, it's one of those things. It's like the, like, I don't know if you, you could probably relate to this. Like when I first bought my Instapot, it sat in my kitchen for like two months and I was like, that's kind of scary. Like I might blow something up. Yes, yeah, we just like let it sit. And now it's a staple.
Deb Meyer (24:28.46)
Yep, I wasn't sure exactly how to use it either. Yeah. And then now I'm like, I love the Instapot. We don't even have a traditional cross pot anymore. We just have the Instapot.
Rita Johnson (24:37.461)
Yes! They're so amazing. They're so versatile. I use mine in hotel rooms. Like, it's incredible. So once we get over that hump, then we're like, this is so easy. It just becomes a part of our rhythm. And that's homemade yogurt for me.
Deb Meyer (24:49.066)
mm-hmm okay okay what about fruits and vegetables I know there's some different schools of thought on like certain vegetables or fruits generally better to buy the organic version but others like like an avocado it's not really gonna matter because it already has the external shell that you're not directly eating any thoughts there
Rita Johnson (25:08.831)
Yeah, yeah, so they're in general, I think a good rule of thumb is to just kind of look at the dirty dozen and the clean 15. So if you go to ewg.org (Environmental Working Group, they have the dirty dozen and the clean 15 and they update them annually. And it just kind of talks through the foods that are the most susceptible to holding on to the different pesticides and chemicals that are present on them. And then the ones that are least susceptible like you were saying with the avocado. And then
Deb Meyer (25:16.716)
Hmm.
Rita Johnson (25:38.114)
The other thing I like to do is say for example, broccoli. Let's say broccoli is on the Dirty Dozen. It has been in the past because they change annually. So if broccoli is on the Dirty Dozen and fresh broccoli in the grocery store is, I'm saying hypothetical, say it's way more expensive. Like you go to, I'm gonna buy organic broccoli and you drive your cart up and you look at the broccoli and you're like, ah, it's $2 more. I just can't stomach that.
Go check out the frozen broccoli, particularly the frozen vegetables at like Costco. I'm a big fan of just roasting from frozen and.
Deb Meyer (26:07.989)
Mmm.
Mm-hmm.
Rita Johnson (26:14.879)
you know, unless you're eating it raw, you really don't need to have it fresh versus frozen. Frozen will work just as well in the vast majority of things. And so I'm always kind of doing those types of cost comparison to the point where we very seldom in the summer, we'll go pick blueberries and have like pounds and pounds and pounds of blueberries. But this time of year, my kids still want to eat blueberries, but they're way more expensive. And blueberries are one that are usually on the Dirty Dozen. So I'll just buy the organic.
Deb Meyer (26:24.044)
Okay.
Rita Johnson (26:41.323)
frozen blueberries at Costco and that's what my kids eat if they want to eat some blueberries. So just kind of think outside the box a little bit because that can really help bring down the cost savings or increase the cost savings.
Deb Meyer (26:45.814)
Yeah, and just in general, cooking at home vs. getting the groceries … cooking at home is going to save a lot of money over going out to eat. And when you're going out to eat too, you don't really have that control over what you are. You know, you're just choosing from their menu of items, but you don't necessarily know the underlying ingredients or things like that. okay.
Rita Johnson (27:10.571)
For sure. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. We even adapt that when we're traveling. Like my husband will say, let's do something fun tonight. My kids are like Chick-fil-A. Well, for us to go to Chick-fil-A, it's like $85. And everybody always pulls out and somebody, inevitably somebody says, I'm hungry. And I just want to scream. We spent $85 on this meal and the four year old's hungry.
And so my husband will go to Costco and he'll buy like some fancy steaks and we'll grab some vegetables. I like, sometimes I still am like, babe, do we really need the fancy steaks? Can't we just do some burgers? Because it's $40. But at the end of the day, if that meal cost us $45 versus the $85 that would have been going out to Chick-fil-A, it's still cheaper and we ate steak, you know?
Deb Meyer (27:46.88)
Right. huh. Mm-hmm.
Yeah, yeah, you got better than the chicken. Although I guess Chick-fil-A doesn't see it the same way. Only eating chicken, but yeah.
Okay, so let's switch gears and talk exercise for a minute. Is a personal trainer ever worth the extra cost or should a parent be reframing it as an investment?
Rita Johnson
I think that's a great question. The first thing that I would say is if you're going from couch potato to thinking about personal trainer, the very first step I would say is find some type of workout system that you enjoy and that also brings you life. So for example, for me, really have always liked to lift weights. I just enjoy it. It is something that I...
can easily put into my schedule because I know that I'm going to enjoy at least the after even if it's really hard in the during. And so I consistently know that I'll show up. And so as I do that, if I start to be able to measure my gains, so for me with weight training, it's looking at increasing weight amount. For you that might be looking for your waistline, getting a little smaller clothes fitting a little better, the scale getting a little bit lighter, whatever that.
external marker is. I think it's really important to have some type of external marker after showing up consistently for several months. Then that sounds like that's a really good fit for you and whatever that is that you're doing is working for you. All that to say if you start to do that and you're not noticing those gains or you're really starting to get frustrated or you're somebody that
really needs external accountability. That's where I think a trainer is really invaluable because they can help you overcome some of those humps of not gaining enough, not getting enough traction, not being able to show up consistently enough. So those are kind of some things I think about when it comes to exercise.
Deb Meyer
Great. And then for people that, you know, it's just simply not in the cards from an affordability standpoint, would you say like doing more exercises at home is a good option there? I mean, most gym memberships now you can get, you know, fairly reasonable price depending on where you're at, just to even have a base level of membership. But is there ever a recommendation there just for ease to try to focus on home exercises?
Rita Johnson
Yeah, for sure. mean, I personally am a big fan of working out at home. I have some YouTube channels that I really enjoy using their workout videos, so I don't have to think about what I'm going to do. I can just show up and say, I have 20 minutes, and I'll put on one of their 20 minute videos and do what I need to do. But in part, that's also because I think of my day a lot in terms of time budgeting.
Right? So for me personally, if I have 20 minutes, that is exactly the amount of time I have before the baby is going to need me. And so I don't have time to drive to the gym, even though it's only 10 minutes away, and to drive back and then to shower. And so I have to get in, get out, get it done.
And so, yeah, I think that that's a great option, even if, you know, it's really the budgeting standpoint that necessitates you needing to work out at home. Getting some dumbbell free weights is a very low investment, and that can help us to be able to really get some good work done in a very small amount of time. And being able to do those free resources are a great option.
Deb Meyer
Awesome, okay. Well, and I know when we originally connected, you said you love travel as a family. I'm a big fan of travel as well. So I'm just curious, do you have any kind of insights into some of your most memorable travel adventures as a family and how you guys actually budgeted for that?
Rita Johnson
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, so we have been very blessed to be able to travel extensively out of the country with our children. So we really, I would probably say that our most memorable, and I think this would be everybody across the board, last year we spent eight weeks in Portugal. In the last two weeks, we just traveled around the country.
Every couple days we were going to a different place. And so we, you know, did Airbnb's. We actually rented a car from our original Airbnb host who had, just happened to have a car with seven seats that he wasn't using. We were pregnant with number six. It was such a blessing. And he negotiated the price with us, which would have been like $2,000 if we had booked it through a car rental agency. And he, I think we rented it from him for 300 euro.
Deb Meyer
My gosh!
Rita Johnson
which is about $340. So anyway, we just really love being able to make that happen. My husband and are very motivated to see how can we make that happen. And so what that looks like is, first of all, we bought a house seven years ago when my husband was working for a non-for-profit. He was making about a third of what he makes right now, and we've never moved.
Deb Meyer
Wow.
Mm-hmm.
Rita Johnson
We just stayed in our house. Our kids have gotten bigger. We have four kids in one bedroom and we just make it work because we're also motivated to what's the next trip. And the other thing we always talk about is how we, every time we travel, we're in a smaller space. You know, we're blessed in our house to be in 2,400 square feet about, which most people would say, six kids, how do you live in that small of a space? And I don't feel like it's that small of a space, butt
Rita John
It is, when we go out and travel, it feels huge. Especially if you want to do things like go to Europe or go in an RV somewhere out west. It is very spacious. things like that that we've made life choices to not buy new cars when, you know, the old ones are working fine. You know, those kinds of things. But also then we found some different airlines that are budget international liners.
Deb Meyer
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, comparatively, yeah. Yeah.
Rita Johnson
So for example, when we went to Italy in 2023 with our kids, we flew an Icelandic airline that it only flies out of certain airports. So we drove eight hours and then took a plane, had a layover in Iceland, packed all of our food, brought all of our own screens. You know, it was very much like the Allegiant of the United States, but it took us to Barcelona.
And doing things in that way have helped us to be able to afford buying seven plane tickets. The other thing is because we homeschool, and so I know some of these things are kind of unique to like, you really have to like create your life around it, but because we homeschool, we were able to fly at a time that flights were really affordable when we went to Portugal. And so we did exactly.
Deb Meyer
Sure.
It wasn't the traditional summer break where everyone's trying to get over. Yeah. Okay.
Rita Johnson
Exactly. Yep. So we were gone for, we left at the end of April and got back at the end of June. So we were gone for eight weeks and then we, let's say we drove for that one to Chicago, which is about five hours for us. We actually rented a car one way and then we had our flight from Chicago to Ireland and we did a long layover and we explored Ireland and we have some wonderful memories of being really, really tired in Ireland.
Deb Meyer
Getting that jet lag worked off.
Rita Johnson
And then we went out to Portugal exactly. Yeah, everyone falling asleep at lunch and my husband and I being like, wow So just really being creative and then when we do travel domestically Doing things like bringing my insta pot to the hotel room We eat out very seldom even when we would go to Europe and it would be so much more affordable to go out to eat
Not in every city, but in several cities we went to, was way cheaper for us to go out to eat with the kids there than it is here in Cincinnati. We still wouldn't do it. We would still go to the grocery store and make dinner. And going out to eat was, we were in Portugal for eight weeks and I think we went out to dinner with everybody, I think it was twice. We would do some lunches.
Deb Meyer
Mm-hmm.
Rita Johnson
So we would go out to a cafe and get a drink or a cup of coffee and a pastry. They're European. And then we would go back to our Airbnb and we would make up something really fun and fresh and local with our different ingredients for dinner. It was just so much more affordable to go out for pastries and that kind of thing. costs like $15 versus going out to dinner, which still costs 50. And so doing things differently and not feeling like it has to be done a certain way was how we have found to really extend our travel budget.
Deb Meyer
Well, I know I'm going a little long on time, but I'm just curious, how did you work it with your husband's job? I mean, was he still employed at the time you guys were over there?
Rita Johnson
Yes, yep, yep. So my husband works full-time remote. And so that's really how we do it. Thank you to COVID. That was a change for him. He no longer has an office. Everyone's more likely to travel for work, but that's how we've really been able to manage long stints of time. So what we would kind of do is explore in the morning and early afternoon. And then my husband would work from like in Portugal, it usually looked like about 1 p.m. was about 8 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. And so he would work from one till nine, 10 o'clock at night. But we would just exhaust the kids before then. And so then I might take the kids to a park in the afternoon and make dinner and he'd have his lunch break with us when we ate dinner. And then we put the kids to bed early. So it just worked out really well to be able to shift our days in that way.
Deb Meyer
That's awesome. All right. Okay, cool. So I know we talked about a lot of different things. If people are interested in learning a little bit more about you, your offerings, where can they best connect with you online?
Rita Johnson
Yes, beautiful. So I am on social media, on Instagram and Facebook, Divine Mercy Nutritional Care. I also have a YouTube channel at Divine Mercy Nutritional Care and a podcast, Health and Hormones. So any of those places.
Deb Meyer
Great, well, thank you so much for being here today. This is a little bit different kind of episode talking about health and wellness that I think it is so interlinked with, you know, just financial health as well. And really, really glad to have you here.
Rita Johnson
Sure. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Deb. Thank you so much for having me.
Deb Meyer
Wasn't that interview with Rita awesome? Uh, yeah. So I do want to offer some additional resources. If you're interested in exploring some of these concepts further, I would say, um, as a starting off point, if you want to go back to episode 32, we talk about bucket lists, balance, and building wellness. And the idea there is there is a very strong correlation when you think about financial wellness, uh, health and emotional wellness, you know, physical health.
All of these things are intertwined. So as we alluded to in this interview with Rita, there are a lot of important concepts that if you're feeling well physically and emotionally, you usually have a better earnings potential and you're able to meet your obligations. If you're mood sour and you're having a really difficult time in life, just one struggle after another, it tends to...
when it rains, pours typically. I do think having someone like Rita, who's a health expert more on the holistic side, is someone who can give a little bit different perspective than what you would normally hear on a finance podcast, but at least you're getting that well-rounded focus. So again, I encourage you, if you want to dive a little bit deeper into some of those links between financial,
physical and emotional health go to episode 32 on bucket lists, balance and building wellness. And then one of the other things that we talked about in this interview with Rita was around travel, budgeting for big family travel. So her family loves to be adventurous. Mine does as well. I did record an episode early on called episode 10 and it's crafting a saving strategy for bold family adventures.
And within that, we talk about going as a family of five over to Spain for three months. So we did that trip back in 2018. And just to give a little bit of background story, I'm a big Spain lover. I studied abroad in Spain. I took Spanish throughout high school. We even had our honeymoon in Puerto Rico, just because I'm so obsessed with Spanish culture.
I'm not sure why I don't have any Spanish relatives or anything like that, but just love Spain. So anyway, I go into all the nitty gritty details in that episode about how we budgeted for it and how we shifted our savings strategy away from the emergency fund and into an opportunity fund. So if this is a new concept for you, the idea is let's seize opportunities instead of always looking at it through a negative lens of emergencies.
And obviously for like car issues that might come up unexpectedly or system issues, usually like a starter emergency fund is about a thousand dollars. But I like my clients to have well over that amount and we don't necessarily position it as emergency fund. We might position it as opportunity fund or just general savings where it gives people more flexibility to have.
You know, if they fall on tough times, that's one situation, but also if they're not falling on tough times and just want to take advantage of having this extra cash reserve, being able to do some cool family travel adventures or investing in new systems, if you want to improve your house, things like that, building up a down payment for a new home, whatever the case may be. But if travel is a focus for you, again, I'd encourage you to go back to episode 10.
And I'm even going to highlight just a few of the things on building that opportunity fund now. So if you think about the basic physiological and safety needs in Maslow's hierarchy of needs, those are always going to be at the bottom, right? Food, water, warmth, rest, security, those are always at the bottom of the hierarchy. Then once those basic needs are met, you typically move to that middle of the pyramid where there's belongingness and esteem.
Those psychological needs could be intimate relationships or feelings of accomplishment. And then at the very top of that hierarchy, Maslow's pyramid are the self-fulfillment needs. Those are focused on achieving your potential. So when we think about that emergency fund, it truly is for emergency, for those physiological and safety needs at that bottom level of the pyramid.
Deb Meyer
And once you're able to move up beyond that, that's when you can really focus and unleash that opportunity fund. So the idea is, number one, start small if you have to. Rome wasn't built in a day. If you can only start the account with $100, that's a great start, right? Then the next step, again, these are all simple steps, but steadily add cash, right? You already accomplished that first step. You have some sense of achievement there.
Now build on that momentum, take it to the next level. Maybe it could be a recurring hundred dollar contribution or maybe at some point you get enough of a financial windfall or an increase in cash that it could be a thousand monthly contribution. The sky's the limit on how fast you can build this. Then once you get to a point where you feel comfortable,
where you know with the amount that you have saved just really congratulate yourself and if you're married congratulate your partner as well your spouse those are some big accomplishments to have and I don't think we always take enough time to to celebrate those those wins. So from a practical matter if you're trying to get that savings momentum going usually like a recurring ACH transfer online can be helpful.
or if your employer has the direct deposit option, maybe you could just have a certain portion of your paycheck automatically go into that account so you're not moving it from checking over into savings. For online banks like Ally Bank or Capital One, a lot of them are gonna offer higher rates on the money markets or savings accounts.
then you would find at some of the brick and mortar banks. Like Bank of America, I'm a checking account customer there, but I can never earn more than like 0.02 % interest on any of the balances, but I can earn close to 4 % right now on a Capital One savings account. So those are some considerations as you're trying to build that cash reserve, really looking for those banks that are going to offer above average interest rates that still have good name recognition.
You still trust the quality and level of the bank, but those are two good starting points, Ally and Capital One. And then the idea here, as you're steadily adding cash, think about what the purpose of this opportunity fund is really for. Is it for travel? Is it for starting a business? Is it a capital-intensive business? Or is it a business that you could just start service-based?
A capital intensive is going to require way more in savings upfront than a service-based business, just because of the nature of that business. So if you're looking at a home project, know, really estimating, okay, if it's a new roof or a new HVAC system, what is that realistically going to cost and trying to put emphasis on saving that? You know, with those kinds of home renovations, if you go with a larger company,
Typically, they're going to have more financing options, but they also might be more expensive. So some of it's really going to depend on who you end up hiring for that work. I've worked with lot of contractors just in the last year with my house, and I will tell you, there's a wide variety of quotes you get and skill levels and everything else. So just be careful if you are earmarking it for a home improvement to really...
Do some research, get multiple quotes, get an idea of workmanship and don't be afraid to consult like Better Business Bureau, bbb.org in your area for, you know, look for A plus ratings or A ratings on there before you even reach out for quotes. And you know, when we talk about emergency fund in general, a lot of advisors are recommending anywhere from three to 12 months of living expense.
So for self-employed people who have a little bit less regularity with their cash flow or for those who are the sole income earner for the family, know, typically they want to err more on the side of caution and try to have that 12 months of living expenses. But if you're thinking more of an opportunity fund, that's truly future oriented. So that's going to be based on the specific goal that you're trying to fund.
Deb Meyer
Those are two different mindsets, emergency where you're looking at historical expenses and trying to gauge based on that. And then a different one where you're saying, okay, what do I want to be purchasing or investing in the future? And how much is that going to cost? When we talk about building this cash reserve, don't always count on a loan to finance some of these dreams. So, you know, there might be an opportunity if you have some
substantial home equity, maybe you can take a home equity line of credit, but the interest rate's really gonna be determined by whatever that market rate is at the time you're taking out the loan and also your credit score. So you really don't have much control over the market rate, but you do have more control over your credit score. And the idea here would be try to come up with at least a good portion of the cash in that savings account and that opportunity fund.
Before making a big purchase don't rely entirely on financing to make those purchases unless you're in a desperate situation and then The last part of building that opportunity fund is just finishing right? It's the hardest of all the steps Typically for a lot of people perfectionism can show up and with perfectionism You know, we need to focus on making the goal fun instead of trying to be perfect so if you
are discouraged in your journey, if you get called off track, feel free to go back and revisit, okay, what was the original goal? Do I need to revise that goal? Is there anything I can do to make this more fun? The savings have it. And yeah, I'm gonna offer some other resources in the future just on, it's not per se a budgeting app, but it's more of a digital envelope system that could be making some of those savings goals fun as well.
So your opportunity fund goal is going to be different than mine. And that's for good reason, because we don't all have the same exact things that we're trying to accomplish with money, right? Some of us love to travel. Some of us love to invest in our homes. Others want to have big philanthropic goals. It really is going to be specific and individual to your, I'm sorry, not individual, but unique to your family.
So again, those are my encouragement. If you are looking for additional resources, go back to episode 10, crafting a saving strategy for bold family adventures or episode 32, where we talk about bucket lists, balance and building wellness.