This one is inspired by the blog “Blond and Balanced.”
START A SNOWBALL
Have you ever heard of a debt snowball? My cousin introduced this concept to me as she and her husband were trying to pay off a lot of debt from college and starting a family.
Traditional logic has you pay off the highest interest loans first. So, if you have a 15% card, a 10% card, a 6% mortgage and a 4% student loan, then that’s the order you pay them off in.
The “Debt Snowball” ignores the logic of saving money and instead focuses on something that Americans are very fond of – immediate gratification.
If you like something, you keep doing it, right?
So, the debt snowball has you pay off the lowest BALANCE first. Then you get the warm fuzzies from that success and want to keep on attacking your debt.
A little off-topic, but this TRY IT works the same way.
FOCUS ON TODAY
One of the top motivators for getting healthy is to prevent disease and increase longevity.
Right, we all want to live a long time and not as decrepit old people.
Unfortunately, our human brains are really geared toward pleasure now instead of reward later.
So, while you’re still working towards a long, healthy life, focusing on benefits today might keep you climbing on to the treadmill and putting back that second donut.
WARM FUZZIES?
If there is anything you like about exercising and eating right – anything at all – focusing on that might help you keep making good choices.
Here’s Amber’s list of immediate workout benefits, maybe some of these apply to you:
1. The satisfaction you feel after a workout. The “aftertaste” as she calls it.
2. Unwinding and stress relief after a long day.
3. Not feeling like crap for skipping a workout.
4. Considering that you’re just going to waste that hour anyway (be honest, you were going to watch Survivor or some crap like that).
5. Creative inspiration. Having time to yourself is pretty rare. You might actually *think* of something.
6. Or you can use working out as an excuse to get out and see people – with a buddy, in a class, stalking that guy at your gym…
So what got you off the couch today? What reward do you get from making the right lifestyle choices? Better sleep? Workout afterglow? Not having to run to the bathroom after chowing down on a fist-full of deep-fried “food”?
Shut Up and Try It 