Losing Weight and Debt at the Same Time

I’ve compared this journey of getting out of debt to weight loss several times before.  I’ve been a self-conscious girl for quite a while now, so I have a lot of experience with weight loss.  I had no experience with debt reduction when I started this, but comparing it to weight loss has helped me at a number of points.

To me, the two are most similar in that they look simple on paper, but you can never tell the whole story that way.  There’s nothing complicated about losing weight or getting out of debt: burn more than you consume and earn more than you spend.  The struggle is mostly psychological.  For me it manifests itself most destructively in the form of mind games and self-delusion.  I let my debt get so out of control, because I deluded myself into thinking it was no big deal.  I let myself gain back weight that I worked hard to lose, because I deluded myself into thinking I wasn’t really gaining weight.

Before I could do anything, I had to clear the air of my justifications and irrational thoughts.  My tricky mind had me thinking I already was being honest with myself, but I must have known on some level that that wasn’t true.  I also had to accept some drama into my life.  Just enough so I’d stop thinking this all was no big deal, and let myself get a little freaked out–at least enough to start doing something.

All of these comparison between debt reduction and weight loss are about to get literal, because in the last week, I’ve decided to make a renewed effort to lose weight and get healthy.   When I was still flirting with the idea of getting serious again about weight loss, my debt was a major factor.  My first concern was that getting healthy can be expensive.  In the past, it’s usually included gym memberships and more money spent on groceries and new clothes and shiny, pretty things to reward myself for success.  Of course, weight loss doesn’t require any of these things, but they make the journey a little less painful.

My second concern and the major one was that getting out of debt is already taking everything I have, so adding something as big as weight loss on top is just not practical.  Succeeding at one goal often gives you the confidence to attempt others, but I worry that a mind that is already so divided between school and work responsibilities cannot handle another huge goal.  In some ways, weight loss and debt reduction are so compatible, but maybe that’s because they use the same part of my brain.  They’re all-consuming, life-changing goals, so it’s only with some apprehension that I attempt to do both at the same time.

My instinct is telling me that I can handle it.  Financial freedom will, in so many ways, make it possible for me to live the way I want to (beyond the extent to which I’m already doing this), and it’s with that promise that I’ve started seriously trying to figure out what that means.  It will mean having spending money and traveling and taking time off, and when I think of the person doing all of those things, I realize how much I want her to be healthy.  If I’m thinking about how I want to spend money for the rest of my life, then that includes healthy eating at a reasonable price.  And when I think of finally purchasing new clothes, I realize that I don’t want to do that at my current size.

There’s no doubt in my mind that getting out of debt is the bigger priority, and seriously, nothing could stop me now.  But, I figure, if I’m already sacrificing, why not go all the way and include food and exercise too. (Side note: how exciting does it sound to hang out with someone who doesn’t spend money or eat bad food?  I should probably start working on my personality to make up for the rest.)  My first trip to the grocery store to buy healthy food ran be about $70, which is more than I aim for, but not outside of the range I usually spend.  Of course, as I walked through the aisles, it seemed like everything terrible for you was much cheaper than what I was buying.  On another practical note, the jeans I have in my current size will definitely need to be replaced before I’m out of debt, but I have a couple pairs of nearly-new jeans in a smaller size, so losing weight would actually save me money there!

I might write more about the financial impact of getting healthy, but if you want to follow my weight loss progress, I’ll be posting weekly vlogs on my personal blog.  Here’s to going all out!