The Price of Success That Is Too Costly to Bear
Let me ask you a question. Does making $1 Million a year or even 100k a year mean anything if the rest of your life, such as your health and your relationships, completely suck?
“Hey! I’ve got ALOT of money, but no one around me to enjoy it with while I lay here in a hospital bed!”
Sounds pretty sad right?
Well literally, I see tons of people heading down this path on a weekly basis. I see people chasing the money at the expense of everything else, including their health. I see it pretty plainly because I’ve done the very same thing in the past.
The fact is, optimal health can be a big contributor to your businesses bottom line. The good news is you can literally improve the quality of your life in 15 minutes or less just by what you put in your mouth.
There comes a time when you realize there are some things in life that are more important than others. Sometimes you just may not realize it until your very core is shaken by something such as a drastic decline in your own health or someone close to you passes away unexpectedly. (Let’s not wait for either of these shall we?)
Generally when one of these 2 things happen is when you become emotionally invested in the outcome.
Becoming emotionally invested in an outcome, along with the actual emotions you associate to the outcome, can make the difference between you implementing positive or negative behavior patterns associated with your health. Not only can this positively shape your outcomes around your quality of health but it also can affect your relationships and your finances in a positive way too.
Your health, at the cost of building business, is a dangerous exchange in my opinion. Which is why I want to share with you how much of a positive or negative impact you can have on your life by what you choose to put in your mouth.
These days before I open that trap door to my tummy, I have some emotions attached to what I drop down in it and this has made a big impact on how I physically feel as well as emotionally.
A Driving Force For Success
It’s true that one of the most powerful driving forces for us crazy ass human beings is when we want to get away from something. When we associate enough pain around it, we simply want to get the hell away from it. For some reason many people are hardwired really well for knowing what they don’t want in life.
But what if you were able to discover a driving force that moved you consistently towards your goals in your life, strategically, specifically and just as powerfully?
I want to share with you how you have the power to shape the quality of your life by simply what you put in your mouth. Even if those effects seem indirectly related.
- It’s something you can control (provided you have associated enough emotion behind it)
- It’s something you can measure
- It’s something you can see and feel near immediate results with
- It’ something that impacts the quality of your living experience
- The principles you successfully apply to your diet, you can apply to other areas of your life to improve their quality too
- Once you have mastered the habit of what you fuel yourself with, the disciplines & behaviors required can flow over into the other areas of your life
I can simply tell you that you can have more energy, more vitality, better sex and over all improved health but if you don’t associate any emotion to those experiences, the Burger King drive through is in your immediate future. Simply because you will associate more feelings around the pleasure of sinking your teeth into that tasty burger than negative feelings around a big fat heart attack.
On the other side of that coin though if you can associate enough emotional pain (negative outcomes) to eating that burger coupled with the positive emotions attached to the positive outcomes you want, your chances of succeeding double or even triple.
The food you eat is important because the right kind of foods provide you increased energy to invest in the other important area’s of your life.
I know this may sound very common sense like, but if it is, why are 63% of americans overweight right now and an enormous amount of people diabetics? Why are more people financially challenged more than ever? Why do 53% of all marriages end up in divorce?
I may be in fantasy land but I feel they are in some way linked to how we treat our bodies based on what we put in them. I’m not saying food will cure people of bad ethics & morals, but those of us attempting to be our best selves, feeding ourselves live water rich foods certainly clears alot of internal stuff up.
You may be aware cognitively and intellectually that the food you eat makes a huge impact on your energy, clarity and brain function but until something drastically goes wrong, you may not associate enough emotion with it to do anything about it. (Until it’s almost too late)
What Do You Associate Food To
Many people simply don’t associate any pain to eating that 1182’nd hamburger for lunch because nothing goes wrong right away when they eat it. We don’t FEEL the error in our judgement immediately and therefore we don’t have any emotions invested in it. Hence NO CHANGE in eating habits. (Diabetes is slowly and silently killing more people than ever)
The problem with this rationale is that even though the food may taste good, you’re actually conditioning yourself for failure not only physically but in the other area’s of life as well.
You’re running on less than optimal energy when you’re body is bogged down trying to process fake foods.
[Hack] Trying eating “clean water rich live food” for about two weeks and then at the end of that two weeks eat a “processed food” meal and notice how much your energy dips for the rest of the day. You’ll be amazed at how much less energy you have and just how much in a haze you’ve been living in, just based on eating processed food.
If someone tells me, they’re rich but their health sucks and they have no close or intimate relationships, I simply don’t consider them “rich”.
You can positively impact the other areas of your life like your work, your relationships, your sex life and even your faith, just simply by what you decide to put in your mouth on a consistent basis. What you feed yourself can start you off feeling like a success almost instantly. (And you can control that happening)
Food impacts your emotions, even if indirectly, which impacts your overall mental and physical performance. This does impact how you see yourself and how you filter your overall experiences in the world.
The food you eat has an impact how you show up in your personal and professional life, how you look, how you feel and how much you’re able to contribute to the different area’s of life such as your faith, family, and finances. Honor your body and the rest can follow.
What Now?
So I’ve purposely left some holes in this post for some comments. I know there are lots of excuses out there why we can’t eat healthy.
- No time to do it
- Takes too much time to prepare
- Too expensive
- I don’t know where to start
- I’ll focus on it when I’m financially stable
Is your fitness and health a priority or is it something that sits back somewhere between the Rice Crispies and the V8 juice?
How do you feel about this post? Do you feel your health can impact your business or do you think I’m off my rocker?
Leave your feedback in the comments below.
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I couldn’t agree more. The financial reason is the one I hear about the most. I used to shop in a regular grocery store buying packaged foods. When I switched to Wholefoods, by planning carefully, shopping to the list and shopping in the meat and produce section almost exclusively, I spend no more money for my family of four. It *is* possible to eat healthy economically. It needs organization preparation and looking for the opportunities out there..
My food-conscious friend! Thank you for writing and educating others about food and for keeping the excitement going. With my juicing newsletter, we are very much on the same wavelength and should really take it up a notch if you wanna do something together, like an interview maybe? Great work, Tony!
The cost thing is a real issue Tony. I made a Tilapia and pesto salad on Friday for me and the wife and it went like this:
Organic lettuce $2.99
Avocado $2.49
Cucumber $2.50
Tomatoes $1.95
Pepper – $2.20
Green onions – $1.19
Tilapia – $6.50
Pine nuts $4.99
Pesto – $3.50
That’s not far short of $30. Now I know that we didn’t use all the pesto or pine nuts and they’ll come in again and there was some other left overs, but jeez that’s expensive.
I could go and buy a McDonalds (and I don’t by the way ever eat that crap) for a third of the cost. And bear in mind, other than the lettuce that wasn’t even organic.
GOOD food in this country is insanely expensive, I would say 50% more so that the UK.
As for what Alison said about Wholefoods. Seriously? I love Wholefoods and would by all my food from there if I could afford it, but it is way out of reach for millions of people. I bought 4 sausages from there last week and it was juts over $7 and if I’d made that salad with organic produce from there it would have been closer to $50.
Tim, that’s an elaborate meal for our family. My kids get beef stew with root vegetables and broccoli. Today they’re getting a portobello mushroom stuffed with pork sausage and spinach. It depends on how you eat and how many you prepare for. Also you can grow your own veggies – we do a few. You can also buy whole sides of beef to get economies of scale and cut out the middle man direct from the farmer. You can do it but it does require, as Tony says, investment.
It is funny that people won’t buy organic, natural foods but they don’t think twice about paying that 20% copay when they are at the doctor all the time for aches and pains. A lot of pain and headaches go away when you omit processed foods. There is one preservative called Sodium Benzoate that is in mainstream soda pop, juices, sorbets and it’s even in a product called “Fruit Naturals” by Del Monte and I swear the FDA lets them put it in there to keep us sick. (Look it up. It’ll scare the shit outta you.) Medicine is BIG business. It really pisses me off that they allow what they do but on the flip side, I am really happy to be living in a place where it is really easy to get natural/organic food. I feel bad for the ‘sheeple’. They know not the path they are being led.
You know it Farnoosh! Let’s make it happen!
Agreed! I go to a local market right around the corner and buy 5 huge bags of live water rich foods for around $30. I stay out of away from the “Publix” for live foods and it saves me a ton of cash. Preparation and enough emotion behind it and you can make damn near anything happen. Especially eating to serve your health.
Yeah Tim, I don’t shop at Wholefoods myself and I can feel your pain.
Personally If I were you I’d find a local farmers market or market stand in your area and buy there. For example:
Avocado (The BIG ones which make two meals for me) $1.49
Cucumber .89
Tomato: .89
Bag of Carrots: $1.89
Onion: .79
Tilapia: 2.29 lb (They have other fresh fish and meats too)
You get the picture.
I walk out every week with 5 huge bags of stuff (melons in hand) and spend about $30.00.
Wholefoods and Publix carry not only the burden of shipping cost, but of course advertising too. No wonder their shit is so expensive.
My little small market stand has been there for 7 years and works by word of mouth.
Just a thought my friend, and a suggestion to anyone looking to eat “healthier”. I also don’t expect anyone to make this kind of transition overnight either but it’s a damn good start.
I agree Coryn. The cost of eating processed foods far out weigh’s the price of paying for live foods. I know that’s a sensitive subject for many people (I watched Food Inc.) but frankly I’ll do without some “supposed pleasures” in life (such as cable since I don’t watch TV) and apply that to eating well.
If eating healthy is a problem, it’s one worth solving as far as I’m concerned.
Don’t get me started on the whole FDA thing cause I’ll lose my freak’n mind. Conspiracy I say! LOL.
BTW Tony that was from Publix not Whole Foods! There is no farmers market anywhere near us (that I know of), although there is one about a 45 minute drive away, but the only time we went I didn’t think the stuff was much cheaper.
I looked into the side of beef thing, but the problem for us is there are some cuts we never eat and that would kill of the economics of it.
And it’s tricky for us to grow veggies as we rent!
The real point is that it is way cheaper to buy fast food crap and to my mind it shouldn’t be. But while it is you cannot blame poor people from buying a hamburger for 99 cents when it would cost them 4 times that to make it themselves.
Great post, Tony!
I was forced to ‘eat healthy’ when my body rebelled and I got sick whenever I ate the SAD (Standard American Diet) of processed foods. It took a long time to associate my migraines and body aches with the food I was eating and then to gradually make the switch.
Eating habits are very difficult to change, but I think a lot of it has to do with addiction to the additives in processed foods. Once I gave up even a little bit of that (and the sugar and gluten), it was much easier.
I don’t shop at Whole foods any more – too expensive (and too much temptation!) I buy most of my produce at a farmer’s market and the rest at a store with a good organic section and reasonable prices. I try to stay out of the aisles of packaged foods, no matter how ‘healthy’ they may appear, and go straight to the produce area.
I’ve found that no longer paying the high cost of snacks and treats (Doritos, Pepperidge Farm Goldfish, ice cream) balances out the extra cost of organic whole foods – as long as I think of fruit/veggies as snacks and treats! That took a while, but I do now. Fringe benefit: I’m losing weight! 😀
Tim, I won’t argue with you that yes, the game is set up for us to eat cheap and unhealthy. I just won’t agree that it’s “just the way it is.” I just feel since it IS a problem (and I agree it is) it’s worth finding a solution for and if that’s going to happen we have to get it out in the open.
Blame poor people? I’ve eat’n plenty of .99 burgers when I was broke off my ass. I’ve been in those shoes, more than once, and I know what it’s like to be there. From my perspective I wouldn’t say I’m laying blame. There is always a choice and there is always a solution. That may be my inner optimist screaming (and I’m sure it is) but I won’t agree I’m blaming anyone for their choice. Only making them aware that there is one. Sitting quiet about it and doing nothing but agreeing how bad it is, isn’t really a solution.
Good stuff LaVonne, I like that SAD acronym 🙂
You hit it on the head about the addiction to additives. I struggled myself with it and it can still be bear!
I haven’t found farmers markets to be cheaper either and in fact when
you factor in the cost of gas and parking, they are more expensive. Many people rave about them, though.
I’m very passionate about this (perhaps you can tell 😉 because while I understand there are people who simply cannot afford healthy food, there are many people who can eat much healthier with education, some reprioritizing, smart shopping and cooking. Unfortunately, they receive the ‘it’s expensive’ message which causes them to not even try.
It’s like the argument that says ‘I don’t have time to exercise,’ – in reality that’s not true for many, perhaps most. A lot of people can make time by making some adjustments. And nearly everyone can make a few steps in the right direction even if it’s walking more. The same is true for eating healthy.
I just don’t want to perpetuate the notion that eating healthy is only for the privileged and out of reach of most. It is not true and it isn’t empowering. Everyone, no matter where they are today, can make progress towards healthier eating even if it doesn’t amount to perfection. Or even close.
I heard this quote over the weekend. “Ultimately you can pay the farmer or the pharmacist.” Is it true? Not necessarily – some people can eat anything and have no ill-effects but for others (most?) we have to watch out.
And if you do decide to throw out your unhealthy food, please donate it to a food bank. It is better for those who go hungry to eat boxed food than the alternative.
Thanks for letting me climb on my soapbox 🙂
I agree Coryn. The cost of eating processed foods far out weigh’s the price of paying for live foods. I know that’s a sensitive subject for many people (I watched Food Inc.) but frankly I’ll do without some “supposed pleasures” in life (such as cable since I don’t watch TV) and apply that to eating well.
If eating healthy is a problem, it’s one worth solving as far as I’m concerned.
Don’t get me started on the whole FDA thing cause I’ll lose my freak’n mind. Conspiracy I say! LOL.
There are lots of simple ways to eat healthy. What’s easier than picking up an apple and biting into it?
The key I think is having it ready to hand so it is the first thing you pick up.
Did you see the 2 Jamie Oliver series of Food Revolution? Jeez, that guy was trying to help kids and he was stopped at every turn by red tape and ignorant people that cared more about covering their arses than helping kids.
That’s what we’re up against.
They’re not just ignorant – they’re bought and paid for. People still think our educational system cares about kids. It doesn’t, any more than our government cares about citizens.
They’re not just ignorant – they’re bought and paid for. People still think our educational system cares about kids. It doesn’t, any more than our government cares about citizens.
Great Post Tony & Great comments by all!
It use to be in the old days that being “overweight” was a sign of wealth becuase it showed that you could afford to eat alot! Today we see that it is reverse and that the wealthy can afford to eat well while the “poor” are stuck with the dollar menue!
I am glad that our “country” and “society” has made this a challenge!
If something is hard to do its usually worth the reward.
The harder it is the greater the reward!
What better reward than good health, long life, and tons of energy?
Right on brother 😉