Debt Reduction like Weight Loss

I have to admit that lately I've been having a tough time writing about financial topics. That's a bad thing , especially when you have a website that deals with money topics.

I haven't lost interest in the subject of personal finances. I have been consumed lately with the topic of weight loss and health.

I'm trying to think of this in reverse. Many people who visit this site aren't interested in money, or the different aspects of it. Later on they find themselves in a bad situation financially, simply because they haven't focussed on it.

I was much that way with regards to health, food, and weight loss for the majority of my life. I didn't focus on health and I found myself 98 pounds overweight, feeling very sluggish with not much energy to live.

Over the last 2 months I've switched my focus over to health, weight loss, weight training and getting rid of Candida overgrowth. The more I've read, the more I realize how much more I needed to know.

Along with changing my diet, cooking at home and bicycling everywhere, I've had to learn about lifting weights, doing exercises and the disciplines that surround these activities.

I still have more questions than answers, but I'm making progress, slowly but surely.

I've lost 21 pounds to date, and am more certain that I'll be able to get down to my goal weight of 200 pounds, losing a total of 85 pounds. (I lost 13 pounds in the previous 12 months before starting this new health regime.)

Getting out of debt is a life change
If you're deep in debt, it's kind of like facing 85 of extra fat that you've got to get rid of..

I DECIDED TO ALLOCATE ALL RESOURCES REQUIRED
At the start of the program I said to myself, I've got 85 pounds to lose. I had heard that losing 1 pound per week was ideal. That would take 85 weeks, or 1.6 years. That seems like an awful long time. I've given up in the past because the time requirements, and all other requirements seemed to be too much.

This time I made the decision that I would allocate what ever time and resources required to do the exercising, the learning, the planning etc.
As I've mentioned it's taken time away from other things, but that's the way it will have to be for the next several months.

One good thing to note: Aside from the cost of a few supplements and some books on weight training, I haven't spent very much on my weight loss program. I've done a great deal of studying online which is absolutely FREE!

YOU HAVE TO DECIDE TO DO IT
Same thing if you're in debt. It's going to take a while to pay it all off.
If you're in debt and you're living off of a fixed income, then you're probably going to take a while paying off your debts. The more important thing is to develop the resolve to do it, and then just begin.

There is probably going to be a learning process that you'll have to go through. To be honest, if you understood in the first place why it's bad to have taken on too much debt, you wouldn't have done it.!! You must allocate time to learn about your spending habits, how to develop better spending habits, how to save money, and how to pay off debts. There are many things to learn about.

THE MORE YOU LEARN THE STRONGER YOUR RESOLVE WILL BECOME
When I started on my weight loss regime I thought I knew the basics. I soon learned that people put on weight because they're unhealthy and not eating properly. You have to eat healthy and exercise to become healthy and lose weight. This was a big break through in my understanding.

As I started to read about becoming healthy, I realized many of the reasons that I wasn't healthy, and the habits that made me unhealthy. I learned how these affected my weight.

(I was a bit frustrated to say the least as I exposed the bad habits that I had developed because now I had to spend the time changing them.)

If you've been spending money without any consideration for how it affects your short term and long term finances, then chances are you probably need to learn about your short term and long term financial requirements.

You'll soon realize that all of your credit card interest that you're paying could easily go to developing your emergency fund. You may realize that your latest big ticket purchase on credit is going to take away from your retirement fund for the next few years while you're paying it off.

These realizations will hopefully stop you from making the same bad decisions in the future. You'll also start to look for ways to build up your emergency fund and your retirement fund.

If you start to focus on these issues, they'll become clearer and clearer to you.

MY RESOLVE TO LOSE WEIGHT IS PRETTY STRONG
My resolve at the beginning of my weight loss program was pretty strong. I was very unhappy with how I was feeling and that was enough to easily fuel me for the first few weeks.

As I've learned a lot, changed some habits, lost some weight, and come to even more realizations, my resolve has strengthened enormously. I am committed to this project until I lose 85 pounds of fat.

This is the way it needs to be with paying down your debt. In some cases it's not a fun process, and will take time to make it work. However that's the price to pay. Trust me, paying off your debts and building up cash reserves will change your life as much as me losing 85 pounds.

Let me know how it goes.!