Had a good conversation today with my buddy John Barban.
Instead of Nutrition, we talked Economics (One of John’s Interests).
Whenever I get the chance to talk economics with anyone who is knowledgeable I’m always blown away – mostly because it’s an area where I have next to no education.
Of course, eventually we turned it back to nutrition, covering the major economic philosophies, using nutrition and weight loss as analogies (I learn best through analogies)
Now, I’ll get John to post on the some of the concepts we discussed, but for now I want to turn back to one of my favorites
Body fat as debt.
Now, I’ve talked about this before (here and here) mostly because it’s a concept I really find fascinating.
Being overweight is exactly like being in debt.
You ate to much, and eventually you have to ‘pay it back’, otherwise…it’ll drown you.
With money debt, you either have to start earning more or start spending less.
With Fat you either have to start burning more or start eating less.
And with both (debt or fat) it’s usually the latter than gets you out of trouble. (but striving for both is good practice)
But here’s the dead truth.
Losing fat and getting out of debt are both simple – not easy by any means, but simple.
Now I’m not a fan of the spend money to get out of debt plan, nor am I a fan of the eat more to lose fat plan. Both seem ridiculous and fueled by ulterior motives (ie someone else’s profits). Instead, I’m a plan of the more realistic money-in, money-out or calorie in calorie out approach.
Sure It takes longer than you want it to, and It will be uncomfortable. It will also take large changes in lifestyle in order to be successful. Quite frankly, you will not be able to do things that your friends can do. But if you embrace it for what it is (a lifestyle change that involves some self control), then the process is manageable, but you do have to make it a lifestyle.
After all, if you are overweight then you have simply eaten a little more than you need to at times. If you are in debt you have simply spent a little more than you should have a few times. So you ‘owe’ back.
In debt you owe money. In fat, you owe calories.
And here’s the truth in both situations –
If you stick with it – make it a lifestyle – you’ll get results.
And when you do, people will talk – they’ll wonder how you did it. They’ll look for the ‘secret’. They certainly wont want to admit that what you did was sacrifice (but just a little bit) in order to look the way you want to look, or to be out of debt and finally have some cash freedom.
In money terms – you didn’t buy the 62 inch flat screen TV…you stuck with your old TV, and now you are reaping the rewards.
And here’s some good news.
If you get out of money debt, you all of a sudden have a little extra cash to play with – so life gets a little easier.
If you get out of fat debt, you all of a sudden have a little calorie wiggle room to play with – so maintaining get’s easier.
But in both cases, this only applies if you make it a lifestyle.
Now with this analogy it becomes easy to think your way through weight loss fraud.
Just like ‘get out of debt’ schemes..if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.
You can’t spend your way out of debt, you can’t eat yourself out of being fat.
It’s a matter of aknowleding you need a budget.
And when it comes to your eating budget – Spend your Cals on the important things and the things that make you happy, just don’t blow your budget and you’ll eventually lose weight.
That’s all on this topic for tonight, but tomorrow I’ll tell you how fruits and veggies are like extreme couponing!
BP
