I have been discussing moderation, cheat meals, and not beating ourselves up when we slip up on our diet. These concepts may seem foreign to you and you may be wondering how to incorporate them into your life to help you reach your health goals. As with most things in life, it starts with perception.
We could all benefit from perceiving our health similar to our finances. After all, nearly everyone cares about their finances. I think we all can agree that someone who is doing well with their finances is someone who has the appropriate balance between saving, spending, investing, and borrowing.
Similar to our financial bank, we have a health bank that we can save into, spend out of, invest into, or borrow against. You save into your health bank when you forgo certain pleasures that are not the most optimal for your health, you spend out of your health bank when you don’t, and you invest when you are actively putting in work that will lead to a healthier future you.
In life, we know that we have to spend money. There are things in life that you value like a roof over your head, food, your family, and maybe the occasional shopping spree. I think we can all agree that spending is okay, but we have to keep it under control. We have to make sure that times of spending are occurring after times of saving and ideally investing. We have to know that we cannot spend, spend, spend without ever saving and investing in our future. We have to understand that if we continue to spend without ever saving or investing, we are eventually going to have to borrow. Borrowing can sometimes set you up for a long path toward financial recovery. We are considered financially healthy when we have the appropriate balance between these things. The same applies to our actual health.
It is okay for you to spend out of your health bank when you want to enjoy that delicious homemade dessert, skip a workout at the gym, or enjoy a couple of drinks with friends. However, it is important that these times of spending are occurring between times where you are saving, or forgoing these things, and investing, or putting in the work to improve your health.
Just like our finances, if we continue to spend, spend, spend out of our health bank, we are eventually going to have to start borrowing and borrowing will set us up for a longer path to recovery later.
To learn moderation with your diet, look at it like a health bank. Be honest with yourself in assessing your bank statement. If you are having a hard time balancing spending, saving, investing, and borrowing, go get help from a coach. If you can’t achieve the balance intuitively, use tools to help you track it all, just like you would do with your finances. Most importantly, if you have spent all you have to spend and now you are borrowing, it’s time to cut up those health credit cards and start getting things in order.
Thanks for reading,
Chris Irvin
One of the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People!