Can I ask you a question?
First of all I need you to close your eyes and imagine something. It will only take a few seconds, I promise.
Imagine the following…
There is a new restaurant opening up in your town. All the locals are happy and excited to try it. It looks so inviting from the outside. Not too fancy, not too shabby, but juuuuuust right. You are hoping it meets your expectations. You are hoping it will become your new local hangout.
Opening night – YAY
The waiter shows you and your friends to your table. The aromas wafting from the kitchen smell UH-MAZING. You check the menu to find many delicious options including mouth watering images of each meal.
BUT, you cant seem to find the prices.
Do you
- A) Order whatever your heart (and stomach) desires with no concern for the cost? Even hand your credit card over at the end of the meal and don’t check it? It’s not important right?
- B) Investigate further. Maybe you ask the waiter or you check out the menu more thoroughly, looking for fine print or more info on the back maybe?
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I asked a similar question over on my Facebook page recently. There were differing answers, but most people wanted to investigate further to find the prices.
They wanted to know the following
- If they could afford the meal
- If they could afford to eat there regularly
- If it was good value for money
- If there might be a better option for the cost
- and quite frankly, most people just felt uncomfortable about not knowing
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Ok, back to reality.
- A money budget and awareness is important to most people.
- Having a quick check of prices is considered reasonable, normal and acceptable behaviour
- It only takes a couple of seconds to find the price (usually).
- You only need to check the price the first few times you purchase the product.
- After that you can put that purchase on auto pilot
- It doesn’t take long to determine if its good value or if you should swap the choice for something else
I happen to agree.
However, here is the part I don’t get. When I ask a fat loss client to check the labels of food, meal or drink before consuming it, I am often met with major resistance.
- I cant do that.
- I cant check every single food and drink that I consume
- That’s obsessive
- Its too hard
- It will take too long
- People will think I am fanatical
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Why is managing your money budget more important that managing your health and body budget?
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We only have one body. It has to last us our whole life.
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I personally think that reading food labels and knowing what we are putting into our body is one of the most important things we can do for health and weight management.
I will let you in on a little secret. Even if your brain is not aware of what you are consuming, your body sure is. Denial doesn’t make it less real.
I want you to look at images like the one below and NOT be shocked.
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Knowledge is power
I don’t want you to take all of the fun out of eating. Far from it. I want you to empower yourself. To know how much sugar you are consuming. To know how foods affect your blood sugar levels. To know how much fat you are eating or how many calories are going in compared to how many you are burning each day.
Just to clarify, this does not mean that you will never be able to eat any treat foods again. In actual fact, once you become educated you will know how to fit all food into a balanced plan.
I hope that you might look at this in a new light after reading this post and you might start to take a few seconds every now and then to turn the packet over and check out some of the nutritional details.