FOOD AND MONEY WHY DYSFUNCTION IN ONE IMPACTS THE OTHER

Food and Money, Money and Food. There are many similarities and overlaps regarding our relationship and behaviour with both.

Understanding these similarities and behavioral patterns can help us have a better and more generative relationship with both. 

Like food, money is an input into our lives, something we need to live.

Food gives us nourishment and energy to live our great juicy life. 

Money gives us a means to buy the food, shelter and other life inputs we need to live our lives.

The quality and quality of the food and money we have in our lives and what you do with both, has a direct impact on the quality of our life.

If you're going to live on donuts, you're going to have consequences. 

If you're going to live on consumer debt, you’re going to have consequences.

Notice it’s about how we CONSUME both.

The similarities between money and food doesn't end there and that is what this video is all about.

Watch it now.

In the video I talk about the relationship with smart eating systems and the similarity with smart money management like Wealth Pie.

I grew up being drilled with the belief that “you've got to eat everything on your plate”. If I didn't eat what was on my plate, it somehow impacted somebody somewhere else in Africa who was starving. 

Crazy stuff, but it’s what I was told, so I believed it.

I never quite got how me eating that last piece of broccoli was going to stop someone starving, but when a person with authority and influence tells us something we often believe it.

There are a lot of dysfunctional and disempowering beliefs we are indoctrinated with from a young age around scarcity, lack and even disempowered gratitude.

Be happy and appreciate what you've got.  

Waste not, want not. 

It’s not that these are wrong beliefs, it’s the context and the shaming that usually goes with the phrases that makes them so destructive.

It’s the stories around these sayings that make them so damaging because how they can start creating a dysfunctional relationship with food, and often spills over to our relationship with money. 

If you've been taught “you've got to eat everything on our plate”, that often translates into the money world to ... “you've got to spend all the money that comes into your life”. 

Most people have this urgency to get rid of all the money that comes into their life. This is one of the primary dysfunctional money flow patterns called the Break-Even money flow.

There's a very, very deep correlation between “if it's there, you better eat it” and “if it's there, you better spend it.” 

Maybe you see this pattern in your life?

I had to become aware that I had been indoctrinated into this “if it's on your plate, you need to eat it all” belief before I could change it. 

As I kid I used to try and hide broccoli under a gem squash shell so I could say I'd eaten everything on my plate but now I know, I don't need to eat everything on my plate. 

That’s smart eating. Eat until you're satiated. 

Slow down so your body and mind can catch up and realise you’ve eaten enough, you are full enough and you don't have to keep going. 

The aim of the game isn't to eat it all or spend it all.

If we have trouble with eating everything that's on that plate, we've got two options…

#1 Put less on the plate. 

Make less available to consume. I had to become conscious that I had this belief that I have to finish what's on my plate,  so knowing this, I can put less on my plate and still finish what's on my plate but not eat more than I need. But that wasn't always that healthy for me either because hey, you got a plate, you gotta fill it. Which brings me to option 2.

#2 Use a smaller plate.

It's not just about the portions we dish up, we can control that, we've got far more control than we like to believe, but we can make it even easier on ourselves by using frameworks and structures to automatically do that. Like using a smaller plate which automatically limits the amount you can consume. 

The same happens with our money. 

For many people, if the money is in their bank account they feel a pressure to spend it and so they do.

Many people also go into consumer debt by making spend choices on how many minimum repayments they can squeeze into their expenses. Then when they manage to clear some of the debt they feel pressure to fill that gap created in their expenses. “Oh no, there is a bit of spare money, I had better use it with another minimum repayment.” 

It’s a similar kind of energy to “ I've gotta eat whatever's on my plate”. 

We can beat ourselves up about these deep seated belief or patterns or we can use systems like put less on your plate to make it easier on ourselves. The money equivalent of put less on your plate is the money management system Wealth Pie.

Allocate less of the money that's in your life to day-to-day spending or whichever money category you don’t have a grip on.  

The money equivalent of “use a smaller plate” is automating the things that are good for your wealth, so you don’t have to rely on willpower or discipline - both of which are in short supply. 

Put in systems that ensure money just goes off to your investment, saving, debt blitzing etc without you even having to make that choice.

So instead of agonising over how you’re going to dish-up your money to your different needs, have a system that dishes up what you've got automatically. 

So instead of making yourself stand at this massive buffet and trying to restrict yourself, know that your systems have already allocated you exactly what you need to live your juicy life and look after yourself now and in the future, so you can get on and enjoy yourself. 

Which brings us to the next bid food / money challenge many of us face. The reality of infinite desire and appetite.

There are infinite ways for us to spend money, not only physically in stores but online, with single clicks, with one swipe, hell, you don't even have to get your card out, you can just wave it in the air and money goes. 

You don't even have to have a card, you can just use your cell phone and poof, there the money’s gone. 

We've gotten more and more disconnected from our relationship with the money exchange, just like we’ve gotten disconnected from the energy exchange in eating. 

That’s why with both food and money we need to be more conscious.

To be a conscious eater, notice when and what you are eating. Slow down and listen to your body letting you know when “it’s enough”. Use food systems to ensure you have good quality food and allocate some of your grazing to foods that will enliven and nourish you. Eliminate the foods that destroy your body and health. Be conscious about why you’re eating - is it because you are hungry or some other numbing or emotionally triggered reason?

To be a conscious consumer, allow money to stay in your life. Use systems and automated payments to ensure some of it is directed to the things that are good for your wealth, like assets and savings.  Eliminate consumer debt that destroys your wealth. 

Living our juiciest, wealthiest, healthiest lives, in right relationship with food and money is a matter of us claiming back agency of our lives. 

Instead of reacting to life, choose to drive this extraordinary life bus.

Decide where it goes, decide what size plate you’re going to have and decide to enjoy every bit of it. 

In the comments below, I'd love to know:

• Has portion control regarding food or money been a challenge for you and if so which or both? 
• Do you feel an urgency to spend everything that comes in or find another liability to fill any extra money gaps with another monthly repayment? 
• Do you already use a system to automatically reduce the portion available so that you don't overspend or over eat? If so what are they?

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