Weight Loss Is Like Investing Money

Losing weight (achieving your ideal, best, and healthiest weight) is like investing…

So what’s the smartest way to invest?

Putting aside a small amount of money each month, which gets AUTOMATICALLY deposited into your investment account so that YOU DON’T EVEN NOTICE IT. It’s so routine that you can basically ignore it and go about your daily financial life. Things start out slowly, maybe putting in 100 dollars a month aside, which in the first few months doesn’t seem to yield super impressive results. However, over years, as the investment builds, interest compounds, and after 30,40, or 50 years you could have over 1 million dollars to retire on!

What does this have to do with weight management?

The same principles apply for smart, health focused weight loss that lasts a lifetime!

• Small, totally do-able ‘deposits’ every day that aren’t very uncomfortable at all (these are your healthy habits) – in fact, after awhile you even forget that you are doing them!

• In the first few weeks, you may notice a few pounds lost, but nothing to write home about

• Over months, the results don’t just accumulate – they compound! As you build up healthy eating habits and slowly but consistently introduce more healthy foods, weight loss becomes effortless! Just like accumulating massive wealth, you accumulate impressive health – you BECOME healthy (weight loss is just one part of this)

Let’s contrast this with someone who invests their entire savings in a short-term gain, high risk investment. They may gain thousands of dollars in a short period of time – only to lose EVERYTHING.

This is like Fad dieting – going ALL IN, and then coming out EMPTY HANDED.

Study after study shows that restrictive diets FAIL in the long term. They make you more food focused, more weight obsessed, and less healthy. If overdone these approaches often perpetuate and can even initiate an unhealthy relationship with food. You may even have been through this before (maybe more than once). The HIGH of seeing the pounds come off rapidly, only to be followed by the LOW of seeing it slip away, the extreme frustration of not being able to keep the weight off, the depression and even shame at feeling like you’re failing at something so simple.

Let me re-assure you. Fad diets are actually designed to fail. By telling you that certain foods are “bad” “dirty” or “fat-promoting” and if you don’t follow the rules you are “cheating”. They instill fear, hypervigilance, and can destroy a perfectly enjoyable dinner outing with friends.

This is no way to live.

Choose health, invest wisely – and reap the benefits for years to come. Your healthiest (and wealthiest) years are ahead of you.

- Dr. Sheldon, BSc., ND