How to Stop Eating as Much (and Make Money at the Same Time…)

Shut your eyes for a minute and imagine you no longer struggle with food or money. You know how to stop eating so much. You love your body, and you don’t ever worry about your financial situation. Pretty cool, right?

Now come back. If you’re like me, you struggle at times with food and money (either or both). And if you’re like me, you’re sick of it.

I am. I’m really sick of wasting time dealing with food. Fortunately, I feel pretty secure on my financial path at the moment even though I’m not at the Bill Gates level. But I can’t think of a single person I know who feels at peace with both their body and their balance sheet.

It occurred to me that both issues are really tied together.

1. We don’t know how to stop eating and we don’t know how to stop spending money.

2. We worry about looking fat and we worry about looking like a poor slob.

3. Should I starve myself? Should I go on a spending fast?

Food and finance are interconnected in other ways, too. If I eat too much, I’m going to have to spend more time and money at the gym trying to work off that double brownie chaser I ordered after the triple-decker Rueben sandwich. I’ll have to buy bigger clothes, I’ll have higher health insurance costs and it will be tough to buy cheap term life insurance.  It will also limit my ability to travel.

The time has come to declare war on worrying about food and money. That worry has robbed us of too much of our lives – we’re taking it all back, starting today. I’m convinced that we can find solutions in the food court that also solve our financial woes. Here are a few ideas that came to me:

1. Eat slowly.

Don’t put food in your mouth while you’re chewing. You’ll end up eating too much when you aren’t even hungry.

Money lesson: Take it easy.

Example. I rarely buy clothes because I don’t like shopping. So when I do go looking for threads, I sometimes buy too many and do so too quickly. I just want to get the shopping over with and make sure I won’t need to do it again for a while. But the outcome is usually no good. I have to return half the clothes I buy once my wife sees what ridiculous choices I’ve made.

So, like the wisdom of not putting food in your mouth while you are chewing, it makes no sense to spend money ravenously. Slow d – o – w – n.

2. Sometimes, you’re just thirsty when you think you’re hungry.

Again, if you make this mistake, you’ll eat too much. Try a glass of water before the buffalo wings.

Money lesson: Are you confusing the need to consume with some other need? Are you shopping when all you really need is to get some exercise to get rid of your energy? Do you make risky investments because you need some excitement?

Exercise. Go talk to some friends. Play a friendly game of cards. Take the dog on a walk. You may find your energy shift and save a bundle at the same time.

3. You can’t be full all the time.

You’ll survive being hungry. It will pass.

Money lesson: It stinks, but we just have to do without sometimes. Sure we want to go to Paris, buy a new car, take that new pair of shoes home. We can’t always do that. It’s OK to be a little sad about having to say no to yourself. You’ll survive. Don’t expect to be in financial bliss 24/7. It ain’t the way the world works.

4. We can’t live on junk food alone.

You might hate broccoli, but it loves you. If you eat what you want when you want, you will end up an unhealthy person.

Money Lesson: It’s similar to the idea above. If you want to be financially healthy, you have to be willing to do things you may not want to do. Track your budget. (Read my You Need A Budget Review for a cool idea.) Cut spending. Get out of debt. Invest for the future. You may enjoy doing these things, but even if you don’t, you must do these things if you want a solid financial future. Now drop and give me 20!

5. What works for others, may not work for you.

Just because someone else found a plan that worked, it may not work for you.

Money Lesson: Be open to ideas. Take direction. Learn. Study. But understand that it’s much more important to have a plan you understand and stick to (with spending, debt and investing) than it is to have the perfect plan. In fact, there isn’t one. Once you find something that works for you…go for it.

6. You don’t need to have the body of Angelina or Brad to love yourself.

I might work out like a banshee and eat like a bird. If I end up looking more like George Costanza than George Clooney, do I have to be miserable? No.

Money Lesson: Do the best you can and accept the things you can’t change. As you know, I’m a big believer in taking decisive action, getting out of your comfort zone, taking direction and then doing it.

You might do all these things, do your very best and still not end up on the Forbes Richest People list next year. That doesn’t matter at all. Forget about it. You aren’t in a race here. You have a responsibility to yourself and your family. Do your very best and let the result go.  You can define success as simply getting into a good credit score range.  That would be huge and a major win.  Go for it!

7. Just because you eat a Ding Dong doesn’t mean you are one.

Money Lesson: Nobody is perfect. If you blow your financial plan, just get back on the horse and try to do better next time. Try to find out what went wrong and take massive action to make sure it doesn’t repeat itself. Do you need a financial accountability partner? Do you need a new budget-tracking plan? Do you need to start monthly family meetings?  Do you need to start creating a financial plan yourself?  Whatever it is…go for it.

Don’t dwell on past mistakes. Instead, spend that energy on finding solutions for the future, and forgive yourself.

Now that you’ve completed Lesson One, here’s your next assignment: try organic eating on a budget.

Do you think that food and money are similar in the challenges they pose? How have you applied a solution to solve either problem?