A helpful analogy I often use to think about health is to imagine it in terms of money in the bank.

The better health that someone has, the higher amount of money they have in their account. They have more money (energy) to call on in short term emergencies. They also have the ability to spend more on long-term projects, without depleting the original pot because more money continues to come in.

When working with clients, I’m always thinking about what their current wealth (health) is and what their current spending is like. What are things that they can do to bring in more wealth in the easiest way? And where are the holes where it is leaking out and needs to be plugged up?

I was listening to a Tim Ferriss podcast recently that made me think about this idea even more. He was talking purely from a money perspective, but the same principle still applies.

He mentioned that when he started out, he had to be conservative with spending. Like any entrepreneur, money is hard to come by in the beginning.

Over the years he started earning more money, but he still kept this same frugal spending mentality.

He told a story of how he was asked to do a talk in Australia and had to fly out from San Francisco. He looked at the price of a business class ticket and scoffed, and instead flew economy.

The long flight knocked him around. It was incredibly stressful and nose dived his health. He said he turned up to the talk feeling totally fried and overwhelmed. Luckily the presentation went well, but it took him some time to recover.

On reflection he realised the importance of the presentation. If he did a good job it would lead to hundreds of thousands in future revenue. If the talk had flopped, he wouldn’t have seen any of that money.

He was living in a thrifty way that had served him when it needed to. But now at the level he was at, this mentality was (potentially) making things worse.

I see this all the time. People who are in good health but are following practices that are draining instead of adding to it. Being hyper focused and rigid; doing things may be important for someone who has no reserves, but not for someone in their position.

I also see the opposite of this situation. People who used to have really good health but they’ve been spending well above their means for years and are now broke. Unfortunately they often don’t realise it.

They regularly say something to the effect of “but I used to be able to do all these things, I don’t understand why I can’t now”.

For these people, they need to have some time where they revert back to a more conservative way of life. They can’t work the long days like they used to. They can’t exercise in the same way (or at all). They can’t eat in an erratic way, where eating is low on the list of priorities.

This won’t be for the rest of their life, but it is what is needed in the short term.

There are also those who have a lot of wealth (energy) coming in each day. But they are also spending at an incredible rate because of everything they are doing in their life.

This is fine when things are working well but they need to be aware that they’re creating a situation in which they have huge amounts of overheads. If things change and the money (energy) stops being created in the same way, they can find themselves massively overdrawn pretty quickly.

I think all of us fit into these different categories of wealth/health at different points of our life. There is nothing inherently wrong with any of them because that is the ebb and flow of being a human being and the changing levels of demand.

The important part is having awareness to know where you are and adjust accordingly. To not get stuck in one mentality, because “that’s the way I’ve always done it” and instead be flexible and open to the idea of change and what might be right for you, right now.

Getting Help On Your Recovery Journey

I’m a leading expert and advocate for full recovery. I’ve been working with clients for over 15 years and understand what needs to happen to recover.

I truly believe that you can reach a place where the eating disorder is a thing of the past and I want to help you get there. If you want to fully recover and drastically increase the quality of your life, I’d love to help.

Want to get a FREE online course created specifically for those wanting full recovery? Discover the first 5 steps to take in your eating disorder recovery. This course shows you how to take action and the exact step-by-step process. To get instant access, click the button below.