Are you struggling to lose a few pounds? You know what to do, but just can’t seem to stick with your plans to get to your goal? You want to exercise, eat right, give-up junk food and other bad habits. It can be easy to get discouraged. It is hard to be patient and keep the motivation to do what we know we need to get done.
Sometimes it helps to use your money as a way to see the changes. It doesn’t take much if you don’t have much. I like to have a money jar that I use to see how I am doing.
Denomination Habit
Dollar 20 min cardio or weight lifting
Quarter Healthy meal
Dime Healthy snack
Nickel Junk food/ alcohol
Penny Any small activity like walking, dishes, laundry, stairs, etc.
Put aside the money every time you find yourself doing one of those things. Even if you are busy at work. It is easy to have a change pocket where you transfer from the bank side to habit side. At the end of the day, add up your ‘change,’ being sure to subtract all the nickels. You may only end up with 15 cents on a bad day or find you have over a two dollars on a great day. It doesn’t seem like much, but it adds up at the end the month.
This is the challenge of getting healthier. Every little step barely seems to measure up in this day and age of instant gratification. But after a month or two you have enough to buy yourself a gift or a reward. And the beauty of this is that the harder you work, the more you lose and the more your ‘change ‘ adds up to results.
