As I have mentioned previously, my life stress has gotten the better of me as has my emotional eating. Now, ahem, I have some pounds to lose, so I joined Weight Watchers.
I can’t go to the meetings, so I just follow the online program. However, I have become a YouTube junkie watching many videos from people who are also on Weight Watchers. I watch weekend meal preps, people’s daily food diaries, etc.
What I’ve come to discover has taught me not only lessons about Weight Watchers and successfully losing weight, but also about money management and being successful financially.
Plan Your Spending
The most successful YouTube Weight Watchers vloggers plan for their day.
The night before, they see what is happening in their lives the next day and write out what foods they will eat as well as how many points they will use. Doing this helps them stay on track.
Likewise, to be a wise money manager, you need to plan your spending by creating a budget. Take a look at the upcoming month and what expenses you’ll have as well as income, and then plan a budget for those dollars. Planning takes the emotions out of your decision and makes it easier to stay on track.
Don’t Starve Yourself (Physically Or Financially)
If people continually go under their Weight Watchers daily points, they’re not helping but instead hurting themselves. Their metabolism slows and weight loss is more difficult.
Likewise, if you try to pay down debt by starving your budget categories, by paying as much money as you can on your debt while not setting aside money for clothes or home repairs or car repairs, you’ll just go into debt again when you have something come up. You need to budget money for your real expenses; if you have any extra money after that you can try to pay down more debt.
Plan For Treats
To keep satisfied, these vloggers make treats such as apple pie overnight oats or chocolate cupcakes. Having a treat once in a while helps them stay on track.
Likewise, your budget can’t be austere month after month. You need to allow some money for a bit of fun so you can continue to make wise financial choices month after month.
Make Your Journey Public
One YouTuber is almost 70 years old. She has about 150 pounds to lose, and she’s halfway there. She records a food diary six days a week. She takes Sundays off. Guess which day she struggles with the most and often binges on? Yep, Sunday. She herself said that sharing what she eats each day keeps her accountable and on track.
If you’re trying to pay off debt or learn to stay within a budget, share your journey. Either blog about it or make YouTube videos or tell family and friends. This will provide you with much needed accountability and keep you on track.
Find Friends
I have found many of these YouTube vloggers because one will mention another one. They’re all friends on the journey to lose weight and vlog about it.
When you have friends who think like you and are on the same journey, you both get and give support.
On your journey to fiscal responsibility, find others like yourself who are trying to pay down debt, keep a budget, save more for their retirement or their kids’ college fund, etc. The more support you have, the better you’ll likely do.
Find Substitutions
These vloggers find ways to have the things they enjoy in a way that won’t be as many points. So, they replace whole milk with low fat milk or applesauce for oil.
You can do the same in your budget. If you spend a lot of money on new clothes, consider shopping a resale store instead. If your internet costs too much, call and negotiate the rate. There are many things you can do to lower your expenses without sacrificing the quality of your life.
While you may not think following Weight Watchers has much in common with keeping a budget, the two are very similar, and there are important lessons to be learned that can apply to both losing weight and improving your financial position.
Are there other ways you would say that losing weight is similar to getting out of debt or gaining control of your money?
Great comparison. Of course it totally makes sense after reading your article but I never thought of it before today. Thanks!