MyMoneyPicture wishes you a very Happy New Year!
With a New Year comes the inevitable new years resolutions. Mine often seem to concern money and weight, and this year is no different.
I am reminded of the advice from Scott Adams of Dilbert fame to focus on systems and not goals to maximize success. It is no surprise the best selling self help book is titled "Seven Habits of Highly Successful People" and not "Seven Goals of Highly Successful People."
In keeping with this I plan to focus on four main things this year.
Log Consistently
Last year I frequently stopped logging everything I ate whenever I became busy. I also gained weight during those times. This year I vow to log everything I eat consistently. And of course I will continue to log my spending in MyMoneyPicture, because I also want to continue to trim the fat from my spending. Even Oprah Winfrey is getting in on the logging bandwagon with the new Weight Watcher's app.
Water
I will also focus on drinking more water. Experts say water helps weight loss in several ways.
- When people drink water before a meal, they tend to eat less at that meal, perhaps because their stomach is partially filled with water.
- Drinking enough water can help help your liver metabolize fat.
There are many forms of metabolism going on in your body right now, but the one everyone is talking about is the metabolism of fat. This is actually something that the liver does when it converts stored fat to energy. The liver has other functions, but this is one of its main jobs. Unfortunately, another of the liver's duties is to pick up the slack for the kidneys, which need plenty of water to work properly. If the kidneys are water-deprived, the liver has to do their work along with its own, lowering its total productivity. It then can't metabolize fat as quickly or efficiently as it could when the kidneys were pulling their own weight. If you allow this to happen, not only are you being unfair to your liver, but you're also setting yourself up to store fat.
When your blood glucose levels are too high, your body tries to rid itself of some of this glucose in your urine. Drinking more water can help to replenish your fluids, potentially helping your body excrete more glucose in your urine. Increasing your water intake has the added benefit of potentially decreasing the amount of glucose you get from food. According to Dr. Richard Holt and colleagues, people who drink too little water tend to consume as much as 30 percent more calories than those who drink adequate amounts of water, potentially leading to dangerous spikes in blood sugar.
The great thing about drinking more water is that it also aids me in improving my financial situation. My office provides filtered water and I bought a water pitcher with a filter for home use. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, my food bill continues to be where I feel I waste the most money. I can save money when I eat out if I drink water with my meals, and I can save at home by drinking fewer fruit juices and other drinks and replacing them with water.
YUM
My business partner has told me that if I say "yum", or "boy this food is good", or something to that effect, that I often end up eating less food for the day. He is convinced that I can't lose weight and keep it off by ignoring taste. It is easy to grab a small snack here, a quick bite there, with nothing being particularly memorable or satisfying, only to find at the end of the day I have consumed more calories than if I had treated myself to something quite indulgent.
I find the same with spending. I know from using MyMoneyPicture, my problem spending is not from the times I decide to treat myself with something I have had my eye on for a while. It is more a death by 1000 cuts. Thoughtless spending that provides very little bang for my buck. Small amounts that quickly add up. This spending can easily go unnoticed, unless you are logging all your spending, like I log everything in MyMoneyPicture.
We noticed early on, saving money has many parallels with dieting. It is not surprising my resolutions: logging, drinking water, and focusing on taste and enjoyment, apply to both my weight and my finances.
Happy New Years and may 2016 prove to be a wonderful year for all of you to achieve your dreams.
