Over the past few months, I have slowly gained weight. While this may seem like the traditional American story, it is quite the contrary. You see, over the past 5 years, I have fluctuated between 5 pounds. Even after Thanksgiving, I was always in between two numbers that were 5 pounds apart from each other. I could eat whatever I wanted because I was fairly active. Nothing extreme, but enough to stay healthy.
Somehow that has changed. Whether it is giving in to too many sweets or not being active enough, I’m not sure. I tried to cut back on my diet and increase my exercise a little to put a stop to this. I can’t have this! That still didn’t work. After about a month of continuing to increase my weight, despite my efforts, I am starting to feel down on myself.
In many ways, I imagine that this is what living in debt feels like. While I have prided myself on living a debt free life, I know enough people to understand what it’s like.
The Cyclical Nature of Debt
The unfortunate thing about debt or gaining weight is that once you are beyond your comfort zone, you begin to feel down about yourself. You lose motivation to keep working. There is a sense of hopelessness. This only makes things worse.
A great example is someone with a lot of credit card debt. They got this debt because they either they couldn’t afford to pay for unexpected expense or they wanted to buy something and they couldn’t afford it. Regardless of the reason, they are in debt because they couldn’t afford it. Unfortunately, this means that it is that much harder to get out of debt. Not only are they getting used to a lifestyle of spending more than they make, but they now have more monthly expenses when you calculate the monthly payment (with interest) for the credit card debt. To add insult to injury, this can be quite overwhelming and make them depressed, thereby decreasing their chances of paying the debt off.
How to Overcome Debt
After finally having enough of feeling sorry for myself, I convinced myself that it is time to change. I want to get out of this unhealthy weight situation and went for a run. I am eating healthier food and going to stay active. I not only went out for a run, but committed myself to an exercise plan. I am going to prepare for a 5k race and this will help me stay accountable.
In the same way, paying off debt means creating a plan to motivate yourself. It will help you visualize your success and ultimately boost your spirit. Once you are able to see yourself succeed, you are one your way to pay off your debt and live debt free. Don’t stay down on yourself… do something to change your situation now before it gets harder to do so.
One thing we did while we were getting out of debt was make a chart and put it on the fridge. Every month, I would update the chart and we would see the debt decreasing. I helped give us hope and to see that we were really making progress!