Comments on: Overweight And In Debt: The Correlation Between Weight Gain And Pocket Drain

By: snacking

snacking — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 03:45:56 +0000

On thing that helps with snacking is to only eat snacks at the kitchen table or dining table, rather than in front of the TV, computer, book, etc.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:55:43 +0000

Hey there,

I liked this post, and bookmarked it here at work.

to the author: What are some good late-night snack reccomendations that are high in protein and under 200 calories.

THIS IS MY BIGGEST PITFALL TO WEIGHT LOSS/MAINTENANCE! and I would really like to fix that

By: HowIFixedMyLife

HowIFixedMyLife — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:39:33 +0000

Funny you should post this just as I’m trying to get my life together in more ways than one: weight/fitness and finances being 2 of them. After making an effort on the finances side, I was just debating whether joining a gym, while very tempting, made any sense in my case. After reading you post and the comments, I’m reminded that I need to balance those two areas of my life not put them in constant tension with one another…

So I’m lacing up my walking shoes this evening and taking the dogs for a walk instead of adding one more “thing” to do to my day, not to mention one more bill to pay. Thanks!

By: DDFD at DivorcedDadFrugalDad

DDFD at DivorcedDadFrugalDad — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 05:43:18 +0000

Nice post. Good job cutting back on the sodas, but I think I have you beat . . . no soda since the Wednesday before last Thanksgiving. Personally, I am shooting for one year.

By: Cat

Cat — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:39:12 +0000

Great post! Both come down to impulse control and willpower.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 15:42:34 +0000

I work on both of these issues just a little at a time. I found the same thing, very difficult to do both at once – feeling deprived is a pitfall! For the food, I gradually got into seeing it as a fun challenge – what new veggies can I introduce into my diet? Try it out with the family members? Also, because I love good food, it helped with cutting down on eating out. Aiming for affordable and delicious. My repertoire has expanded.

If you eat out once a week, and still need to economize, you could try going down to once every two weeks. Or once every ten days.

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Fri, 07 Aug 2009 11:01:36 +0000

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By: Time Is Money, So How Do You Spend Your Day?

Time Is Money, So How Do You Spend Your Day? — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 05:57:40 +0000

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By: Makahui

Makahui — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 01:43:53 +0000

I used to be obese, and I used also to be a compulsive shopper. At 27 I decided to lose the weight, but then I developed this compulsive behavior towards buying clothes, shoes, bags and things like that. Two years ago I decided to put my life under control, I went to a therapist and found out that I had a “limits” situation : I was having problem trying to stop certain behaviors like eating or shopping.
I decided to put my finances under control and I quit “cold turkey” , I did not buy clothes or shoes for more than a year, I paid off my credit card and now I am working on paying off my mortgage in 10 years instead of 20. ¿What about my weight? I recently lost 9 pounds without a lot of effort ( I did not go to the gym )
Losing weight is not a matter of paying for better foods or for a gym, is a matter of self control, at least that is my experience.
I started to write about my experience in a blog, now I am getting published on a national circulation magazine. Life is better than ever.

Grettings from Mexico

By: Matthew Miller

Matthew Miller — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:49:21 +0000

Jason, I can really associate with this post – I’m working on both these goals right now, too.

One of the things I’ve learned over the last year, partly from reading the Zen Habits blog, is that taking several very small steps, one at a time, can lead me to greater growth/loss/change etc. than trying for the big change all at once. The key is to consistently make those small changes.

For example, I used to get up at 6:30am. I set my alarm 1 minute earlier each day, and 2 months later I now get up at 5:30am without any pain or stress from the change. Now I have an hour a day in which to wake up, have a cup of tea, and exercise.

Adding whole grains, switching to fruits and then veges for snacks, adding a big salad at dinner then making the salad the primary part of dinner, switching to diet cola then reducing the number of colas I drank by 1 each week, reducing the portions of treats by 1/2 (and then further, as I discovered the amounts that really tasted good), and so on all became small steps that were taken one by one and thus pretty easy to accomplish. Again, the key has been to keep taking the steps and not stop and rest – keep my mind on the goal.

Writing up the small steps can be really fun, too.

In response to Kevin’s comment, I’d say one subtle but very powerful change that can make a huge difference in both goals is to focus on the positive rather than the ‘denial/lack/scarcity/loss’ version of each goal. It’s a subtle difference between “I’m working on reducing my debts” and “I’m working to become debt-free” but really powerful.

Finally, one last thought (sorry about the rambling here). One tool I use in my fitness goals is the weight tracker at Hacker’s Diet (https://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/HackDiet). I put my weight in each day (yep, every day!) and it graphs my weight loss using a weighted-average formula to show a much closer approximation of my true weight than the up-and-down of the scale. There’s an accompanying book on the program (http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet) but it’s not necessary to read if you just want to track your weight.

-Matthew