is money REALLY holding you back?

Hiring a fitness and nutrition coach, whether it’s a group setting or 1:1, is often viewed as expensive, and sometimes labeled a luxury item.

With the current U.S. overweight/obesity rate at 67%, I’d say it’s becoming more and more of a necessity. People may know what to do, but they’re not doing it. I’m not negating cost as a factor, so let’s break this down a little.

Before I dive into this, please know I realize we’re not all the same, nor are we all afforded the same lot in life. However, at some point we all become adults, and we MUST take personal responsibility for ourselves. Life may have given you a shit sandwich, but that doesn’t mean you have to keep eating it!

Ok, moving on…

When looking at WHY we’re overweight, we have to pinpoint overconsumption. Yes there are factors that affect the way we individually react to food, but too many calories on a consistent basis causes weight gain.

MANY people visit Starbucks (or something similar) every single day. On average, doing a little math with reported earnings, the average amount spent is $8.00 of unnecessary and excess calories. That equates to $240 a month!! Even on the low end of $3-4 per day, we’re still looking at roughly $100-120 per month.

Now let’s take a look at food. The average American dines out 18 times a month, at about $12.25 per meal (I’d like to know where these people are eating cuz that’d be cheap compared to my area!). Doing the math, that’s $220 per month. I honestly think that’s a low number, but it’ll work for this.

I still hear people say how expensive eating healthy can be. I mean, if you’re buying everything at Whole Foods, then yes, your grilled chicken and veggies will be $800. For everyone who actually pays attention, though, it’s FAR cheaper to cook your own food, even the healthy stuff. I’ve calculated this many times, and it’s rare for me to spend any more than $4 per meal when cooking at home. My current breakfast of 2 whole eggs, 2 egg whites, and 1/2 a bagel, literally costs $1. Yes, that’s ONE DOLLAR. You can’t even get a crappy fast food breakfast sandwich for that, and at Starbucks it’ll cost you 4X as much.

So, subtracting the cost of cooking at home from dining out, you could easily save $150 per month.

By eliminating the Starbucks habit, which most likely is unnecessary, and controlling your intake more by preparing your own food (which will definitely help you reach your health and fitness goals faster), one could easily save $250-400 per month. That alone would allow you to hire a good coach/join a good program/get the professional help you need.

One more cost to take note of, which I have seen play out numerous times over the years for my clients: medications. A large portion of medications taken on a daily basis by Americans are  due to preventable issues (diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol). By taking better care of your body, I often find people lessening or completely eliminating these costly medications. This could quite possibly be the biggest savings of all, and more than pay for the cost of getting the help you need.

Don’t get me wrong, I know it’s not fun to quit dining out and give up your Starbucks habit. But it’s also not fun being deconditioned, losing functionality, being limited in life because of your lack of health, giving money to doctors and medications for something YOU can prevent.

Your quantity of life will probably be long, but what will your QUALITY of life look like? People invest in homes and cars and stocks of start up companies and all kinds of other “things,” while often neglecting the most important invest of all, THEMSELVES.

If you feel money is holding you back from getting the professional help you need, I encourage you to take inventory of your spending habits, and figure out which ones are holding you back. Like most things in life, we afford the things that are priorities for us.
Make YOU the biggest priority of all!​

Aaannnddd GO!!