You might have noticed similarities between saving or investing money and dieting to lose body fat.
In fact, the two endeavours are strikingly similar.
It’s challenging to save money and change body composition. You have to commit yourself to a plan, stay disciplined, be patient and keep working if you want to see the rewards.
But the rewards are well worth the effort in both cases.
Finance and Food Literacy
Knowledge is a major barrier when you want to save money or lose fat. Most people have never been taught how to set money aside or invest it, and education about fitness and nutrition is lacking. Most people get a tiny bit of fitness info in a middle-school P.E. class, and from that point forward they just see a barrage of silly headlines such as “drink wine to lose weight” and “this exercise melts fat!”
We also live in a world of instant gratification, so it’s easier to sell products and services by promising dramatic changes in no time at all. Get-rich-quick schemes and sketchy fat-blasting programs are all too common, and they ignore the fact that financial security and ideal body composition are the result of repeated actions taken over a long period of time.
When it comes to money and nutrition, there is nothing worse than the “fast fix.” It almost always results in disaster. Consider the woman who puts all her money into a risky, “sure-thing” stock that tanks or a man who takes all sorts of harmful drugs to achieve a certain body-fat percentage.
If and when you decide to start saving money or losing weight, do some research first, and if it’s in the budget, hire a coach. Doing so will save you time and money in the long term! Instead of making costly mistakes and digging out of holes, you’ll acquire knowledge and hone the skills you need to accomplish your goals.
Planning for Success
To succeed with finance or fat loss, you need a plan, whether you create it yourself or use a coach.
Take budgeting, for example. Without a budget, it’s tough to stay on track financially. It can be very hard to cover fixed expenses, plan for unexpected expenses and set money aside if you fly by the seat of your pants. YOLO purchases are common, and many people succumb to peer pressure and buy that thing or take that trip to fit in. Then you have “lazy spends” where you pay way too much for something you could find for a better price.
You’ll never increase your savings if you just spend wildly. A clear plan lays out your priorities and helps you allocate funds appropriately to cover expenses, have fun and save for the future.
Similarly, you must have a plan to lose body fat. What is your total energy requirement? What kind of deficit do you need? How are you meeting your targets every day? How much are you actually eating? How will you accommodate social events, busy work days, high-stress days and eat-the-cookie peer pressure?
If you try to “just eat less” or “eat better,” you will end up feeling hungry much of the time and you’ll be very likely to binge eat. Or you’ll lose track of intake and go way off track without even realizing it.
Without a plan, you’re likely to feel frustrated, blame yourself for your lack of willpower and quit trying. But how can you make a precise plan if you aren’t an expert? This is where a coach can help.
Patience and the Slow Uphill Battle
When you first start pinching your pennies and saving for your retirement, you don’t see the money accruing very quickly. In fact, it feels like you will never have enough to retire. It’s hard to think 20 or 30 years in the future.
But consider this: If you take $10,000 and add $100 every month at an annual interest rate of 5 percent, you’ll have $68,229.77 in 20 years if the interest compounds monthly. More than half of the total is interest you earned!
The key here is patience. You can’t make rash decisions and pull money out to party in Mexico. You can’t skip months or years of saving. You can’t take on so much debt that you can’t put away $100 every month. You can’t panic and move your money into crypto on a whim because everyone else is doing it.
To succeed with savings, you must be patient and trust that your plan is designed well and will pay off in the long term. Slowly, over time, you will see your investments grow, and in the end your patience will be rewarded.
Nutrition is very similar.
If you want to lose weight, it feels like you have to put in a lot of effort, especially when you are just getting started. You won’t see the results right away, and it can feel like nothing is happening and the work isn’t worth it. If you’ve decided to try to lose fat and build muscle at the same time, progress will feel even slower.
That’s when it’s easy to quit and say, “This isn’t working.”
But patience is the name of the game. In fitness and nutrition, small daily wins start to stack up and you gain momentum. All of sudden, clothes don’t fit and people are asking, “What have you been doing?”
I regularly present transformation pictures of my clients on social media, and the results are amazing. But I never promise quick fixes and miracle make-overs. The reality is that these transformations were earned over a period of months and even years. The clients I feature show up for themselves rain or shine, they put in the work, they trust the plan and they have patience. And they win!
Expert Help
I’m not a financial expert. It took me a lot of time to learn how to save money, and I struggled with the concept. But with help I slowly learned how to budget and plan, and I discovered I could buy the things I want and still plan for retirement.
I’m thankful that I sought assistance—I would have been lost without it.
So I know how you feel if you’re confused or frustrated with fitness and nutrition. I felt the same way with finance. I can’t advise you on cryptocurrency or the best defensive stocks for your portfolio, but I can tell you exactly how to implement a healthy, sustainable plan to improve your health and fitness.
I can tell you what to do when and help you stay on track. I can measure your progress and show it to you so you know it’s happening. I can say “this is normal” or “let’s make an adjustment” when needed. When you feel like you’re out of willpower, I can help you refocus on the goal and keep moving toward it.
I’ve had clients lose 100. lb., deadlift 300 lb., bench press 200 lb, lose lots of body fat and gain muscle. The people who accomplished this stuff all stuck to the plan and stayed disciplined. And like patient investors, they’re reaping the rewards now.
To find out how I can help you with a plan, book a call to chat!
