Food Is My Worst Enemy on So Many Levels | brokeGIRLrich
Over the years I’ve read and even written a few posts about how finance and physical fitness are so similar.
Lately I’ve been really unhappy with my weight, my energy levels and my perpetually upset stomach. I keep coming back to the idea that personal finance and physical fitness are so similar that I should actually be good at this and yet I’m not.
It’s actually making me a lot more sympathetic towards people who suck at money. And a lot less impressed by a lot of physically fit people.
Personal finance is super easy for me. I’m fairly privileged and also, even within that privilege, a few things have happened over the years in my relationships and even with my family that make me super hard wired to save and be careful and invest and make good decisions. I value freedom over, like, everything, and I really, really like feeling secure too. So thanks to those two deeply ingrained personality traits, I have like the personal finance equivalent of a high metabolism and a natural enjoyment of running.
As far as physical fitness goes, I have the metabolism of a nearly dead slug and a deep, deep love sugar. I manage to avoid most addictive things in life, but I am like hardcore addicted to sugar. I’m well aware every pleasure center in my body is hardwired to want it. Sigh.
So, as easy as personal finance is, physical fitness is not.
That being said, the payoffs of strong personal finance habits have been pretty awesome. My net worth now goes up most months even if I barely make any money. If I want to YOLO, not only can I do it, but what I need to satisfy my YOLO-ing, sincerelysatisfy it, isn’t really all that much.
On the flip side, trying to start the Couch to 5K programs legit makes me feel like I’m dying. I hate everything. Why would anyone do this to themselves? Runners highs are a lie.
I imagine a lot of folks feel similarly about emergency savings accounts and couponing.
Let’s pivot here and talk about the fact that besides food being my psychological worst enemy and health wise my worst enemy, it also often the weakest spot on my budget.
How easy is it to overspend on the food line? I mean, food is a necessity! For me, it’s difficult to find that balance of meaning well about cooking at home and the reality of I’m just constantly exhausted from work and will not be cooking anything.
Currently, there is no balance. There are just groceries that go bad while I eat takeout for the 6th night in a row. Pretty much the only grocery I will actually definitely consume is coffee and Sweet Cream creamer.
I totally have the good intentions (as evidenced by all the vegetables that go bad in my fridge every month). I even bought a crock pot/pressure cooker because, like, how much easier can I make cooking than that?
It’s also not like I don’t know how to fix this problem. I could easily take 30 minutes a week and map out a meal plan and compare it against my work schedule. Then I would know which days are absolutely, no way, take out will win days and which days a crock pot or a little preplanning could have dinner ready to go when I walk through the door.
I do hate meal planning for some reason though. Even though there are awesome groups like $5 Dollar Meal Plans out there to make it easier, I still can’t seem to commit, despite it often being my highest line when I review my expenses each month.
But in reality, the motivation just isn’t there. I always read these personal finance blogs that are all about how you have to change your mindset and want to get it together first and I just nod as I drink my coffee and Sweet Cream creamer, like “yes, absolutely, amen” but when you flip that on the fitness side, I can read recipes for days, tips about working out for people who hate working out and all the motivation you’ve got to want this posts around and get nowhere.
Probably because I haven’t fully managed to change my mindset about health yet.
I have found the last few weeks though, as I ruminate on it more, that it is slowly shifting a little. More into a curious spot than a totally against doing anything spot. I also keep reminding myself that while my personal finance skills are pretty on point, they took several years of experimenting with everything, rejecting what didn’t work, and essentially building my own “workout plan” and “diet” that I can mostly stick to – and if I manage to stick to it like 80% of the time, I’m generally pretty fine.
Oddly enough, that comparison has fueled me more than ever to start taking baby steps to get in shape. Or to at least start reading about how to do it without outright dismissing it before I even try.
