Food. Diet. Money. Budget.

By Jacquette Timmons
 

Food and money have a lot in common. For starters, a healthy relationship with either requires a common sense approach – something that is often easier said than done. And, your relationship with food and money forecast to the world a great deal about your behavior, choices and mindset, and dare I be bold enough to say, your degree of self-love and self-esteem.

So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that diet is to food what budget is to money: Hard to do!

Especially during this waist and wallet bulging season – aka the holidays – when temptations abound.

The challenge with diets and budgets is that, by their nature, they are restrictive. You are saying “no” to a choice you would really rather say “yes” to.

Holiday season or not, people often fail at diets and budgets because neither is sustainable over the long-haul if you don’t approach them with the right intent, focus, and goal.

Here are a few tips to help you turn “diet” and “budget” – the terms and the practice - into your friends:

• Define “right.” People often approach diets and budgets as if one-size-fits-all. To truly achieve success, make sure you are tailoring the diets and budgets you are following to your particular set of circumstances.

• Define your success, yourself. If the first tip - “right” - is about process, then this tip is about outcome. Diets and budgets require discipline and dedication. Others can challenge you to stretch yourself, but you do the actually work and only you know what boundaries you can extend in a sustainable way. And don’t forget about acknowledging your milestones with treats! Rewards are good for your soul.

• You can substitute “diet” and “budget” with more friendly terms, e.g., food plan or spending plan, but the end result is still the end result: You are giving yourself a framework to help you decide to what you’ll say “yes” or “no.” The key is to determine if you are making a lifestyle choice or quick-fix one. When you approach a diet or budget as a quick-fix solution to reach a goal or to correct an unhealthy behavior, it is reactive; but when you approach the same as if you are making a lifestyle choice, you are thinking long-term and operating proactively. Proactive is always a healthier way to go!

• Lead with a system. As with food, so with money. Common sense wisdom rules: eat less than the energy you expend; spend less than the money you earn. Nothing new, but oh, so hard to follow at times. Having a system for doing what you know is the right thing to do will help you rebound faster when you fall off the proverbial wagon.

• Give yourself permission to (sometimes) cheat. There are moments when you actually do yourself a favor by just giving into the temptation. But only if you commit to doing it occasionally and for a limited time. As an example, the Thanksgiving holiday is later this week. Unless you are on a strict, physician-prescribed diet that says no sugar, allow yourself to have a slice of pie (or two)! Be sure to return to your diet after the holiday, though. Same for your budget. If you go a few dollars over your budget for gifts this season, avoid beating yourself up. Instead, identify ways to reduce your spending in the weeks ahead on other items.

• Where’s the joy? Before you begin any diet or budget, one of the first questions you’d benefit from asking yourself is: Why am I doing this? Your “why” factor is powerful…it is your source of joy. Don’t forget to look for and remember your joy factor! Otherwise, you will concentrate more on what you are being deprived of and you’ll become frustrated and you’ll abandon your game-plan at the precise moment when you have the most to lose – literally and figuratively.

Food is never just about food in the same way as money is never just about money. Wrapped up in our choices about both are our conscious and unconscious thoughts, perceptions and expectations. Diets and budgets frequently get a bad rap and aren’t sustainable not because of what they are, but due to how we approach and utilize them. Contrary to conventional wisdom, they actually can be sustainable over the long-haul if we get our intent, focus and goal right.

So, work on getting it right and while you are at it…have a Happy (and healthy) Thanksgiving!