Fitness & Finances.
Now, most know me as a financial advisor and fitness instructor, but what if I told you, these are the two areas of my life that caused the most pain and stress and the most insecurities?
It’s true. Like most humans, I spent years of my life in the trap of financial peril and drowning along with weight management and fitness rollercoasters. I do not claim to be the master of either today but what I can claim is that I figured out that the path to freedom and peace in both are the same. The only thing I can conquer is a consistent daily routine.
I know the feeling of guilt and shame. I remember worrying about how to save for retirement, pay student loans and then afford to have a child. Have you priced daycares lately? I remember filling out college loan applications and working three jobs to cover rent & ramen noodles. I cried in dressing rooms. I had a doctor tell me I was “big-boned” and felt the sting of comments about my weight from others. I remember feeling intimidation and fear in a gym and in my checkbook. I didn’t know who to listen to as far as nutrition, or was there a pill to take? Was there an investment I should buy and hit the jackpot, or do I pay off debt first? I remember, vividly, all these feelings and insecurities. No one wants to live in that, so you do what anyone does…you google your symptoms. You can type either in your search bar, and you’ll get millions of results that claim they have THE answer. The mystery is solved by buying their product or stock. Lies. All of it.
The truth is all boiled down to habits and choices broken down day by day. I am not at the end of my journey in finance or fitness, but I am making progress every single day to pursue the path and let go of perfection. This is where discipline equals freedom.
- Identify your trouble spots. You must first be aware of the choices that you are making. You can’t change it if you don’t acknowledge it.
Finance: Do you spend too much on excess streaming television? Do you skip paying your retirement in order to go on a vacation? Are you aware of your income? Are you aware of your expenses? Do you track your finances and net worth by an app or excel sheet? If you don’t even know where you are, how do you begin to make progress?
Fitness: Identify where you are indulging. Do you indulge late at night in your child’s Poptarts? This cannot just be me, right? Do you know that when you are stressed or tired, you eat more sugar? Do you tend to indulge on celebrations and then find a reason to celebrate weekly? It’s Taco Tuesday; how can I not drink a margarita and eat chips & queso? Be honest with yourself and drop your excuses!
- Plan. If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.
Finance: Track and plan your finances. Yes, a budget would be ideal. You must plan for the upcoming expenses. Christmas comes every year on the same day, and so do your property taxes; this is no surprise. You also must plan for the unexpected. You must know that you will have a tire blow, a water heater will go out, an unplanned emergency. If you plan your day and your coworkers decide to order out lunch, but you brought yours, will you cave and order, or will you stick to the plan of bringing lunch 4x a week?
Fitness: Track and plan your meals. Period. Stop whining about how you don’t have time to meal prep or how you get thrown by the cupcakes in the workroom. You don’t have to spend money or time, but you can take 15 minutes a day to think and write (or use an app) to plan out how you will eat today. If it is YOUR birthday and you want to eat cake, celebrate and eat the cake. Don’t live an all-or-nothing life. Celebrate but also recognize when it’s the 4th birthday for a coworker this month, then you’ve likely just convinced yourself it’s ok to blow another day, another week, or another month.
- Personal Responsibility. Please stop judging yourself and being a victim. You will be thrown off by a bad choice – that’s fine, but recognize that you can just stop and make the next right move. This is a motto I live by in both areas to this day. Progress to health and wealth is not linear.
Finance: You clicked open the sale ad on your email late one night and purchased the new boots of the season. You had set a budget, and you blew it. You’ve worked so hard; you deserve it. You do not have to spend the next day in a shame spiral and swear you’ll never get ahead – that’s it, just forget the whole month. You just make the next right move. Maybe that means skip the latte from the coffee shop or forgo the lunch out tomorrow. All progress is not lost by one purchase.
Fitness: You overindulged at the office holiday party; you had too much to drink, which led to a stint at the dessert table where you ate your feelings. What’s the next right move? This doesn’t have to be a 2-hour treadmill session; it can be a glass of water. The next meal is full of vegetables and protein. Indulgences will occur, and you are fooling yourself if you don’t think that will happen. Don’t let that deter your progress, and wait to start again in the New Year. Just focus on the next meal.
The reasons you are unhealthy are also the reasons you are not wealthy. The truth is simple: You are in a place in your life where you are choosing that convenience is more important to you than success. These two items in your life are directly correlated, and I can assure if you start to feel progress in one of these areas, then you can absolutely make progress in the other. The steps are the same, and while you may not always have control of your options, you always have control of your choices. You can choose for today to be different. You can choose your next meal and where to put your next dollar. If you stack those choices day by day, you might just turn those two fears into your two favorite passions.
