How Getting out of Debt is Helping me to Lose Weight

A couple of weeks ago I shared with you my results from one round of the 21 Day Fix. I’d dropped 6lbs and over 5 inches. After the 21 Day Fix was over I decided to continue doing the workouts, but instead of following the eating plan to letter I threw in a couple of cheat meals here and there. You know, because I’m human and all. Here we are 5 weeks later and the weight is still coming off and the inches melting away. I didn’t realize how far I’d come until I was browsing through some older photos and came across a selfie from March. I’ve always had a full face due to my inherited big cheeks, however, I didn’t realize how plump I’d allowed my face to get. Pairing this with a snapped a couple of weeks ago I could definitely see that my face was starting to slim down.  Once I saw this I made sure to snap a picture after my workout to compare it to my results from the end of my 21 Day Fix Round. I was blown away. I was actually developing abs and if that wasn’t enough I can now fit comfortably in my size 8 jeans!

 I shared this photo on Facebook and Instagram and got tons of questions as to how I was achieving these results. Of course, I shared with everyone that I was doing a modified 21 Day Fix, but after thinking about it for a while I realized that the reason I’ve been staying on track with my weight loss is due to living broke on purpose and sticking with a budget.  By being disciplined with my spending, I’ve also been able apply the same discipline to different areas of my life.

When we sat down and made our budget, spending on food was the first thing we had to get under control. We had a budget for food but weren’t always sticking to it. When I sat down and calculated everything out I found that we were spending almost $400 a month just eating out. Where that money came from I can’t even tell you. Instead of our usual $450 grocery/household needs budget I chopped it down to $350. Our dining out budget which was around $150-$125 was reduced to $100 and our date night budget was reduced down to only $100. This was probably the hardest part of our budget to cope with since my husband and I love to eat out on the weekends. With such a limited food budget for dining out we opted to cook on weekends instead of going out and eating something that was unhealthy and would blow our diet. Our Date night budget gives us just enough money to go out once a month for a really good dinner of food and drinks while our dining out budget covers small trips out  for late nights when we’re both too exhausted to cook or for little treats like Rita’s. 

Since my husband travels a good bit with his job, he can get his dining out fixes, but for me it’s taken a lot of discipline to pack my lunch daily and to eat leftovers two or sometimes three days in a row. By sticking to a budget and committing to getting out of debt I’ve also inadvertently committed to losing this weight and getting back in shape. As my debt whittles down so does my weight, and I’m excited to see what the next eight weeks bring!