We’ve all heard of the Latte Effect as it relates to personal finance, right? You know, cut out the cost of your daily high priced drink and save $5. Do that for a month and viola, $100 or so. Not sure I’d cut them out entirely. I mean, you’re entitled to a vice every now and then eh? And I love a vanilla latte every now and then.

No Pop

But the same pertains to regular pop and calories too. I love pop, especially Pepsi. If you’re a daily drinker the amount of sugar (calories) can add up quickly. Let’s do some math.

150 Calories in a can
365 Days a year
54,750 Calories in a year

54,750! That equals 15.6 lbs. Just by doing nothing more than cutting one can of pop a day out of your intake could save you nearly 16 lbs a year. Besides all that extra weight, you’re saving some money too with not purchasing the pop, or as much of it at least. Maybe that’s a little exaggerated with assuming a can a day. But maybe not. I can think of several people who I know are drinking a can or more a day or pop, every day.

Which takes us to weight control. Am I some expert in nutrition and weight loss? Nope. But I have years of experience learning how my body reacts to food and exercise. We should all be working to keep weight in check. We all need to control our weight and be careful what fuel we’re putting inside. Want to know what I think is the secret to weight loss? There is no secret. Seriously, no magic pill, no special exercise, no juice fast (although it may be healthy once in a while). Weight loss is as simple as if you burn more calories in a day than your daily allowance, you’ll drop weight over time. That’s it. Have an allowance of 2000 calories per day, eat 1500 and you save 500 for that day. Add up all the saved calories and once they reach 3500, you just lost a pound. It’s just math, and simple math. I didn’t even have to take my socks off for that one.

The hard part is the will power. That’s tough, so much so I’m not even going to get into it. 🙂

As I get older, I’ve come to understand how important health is. Both for my longevity and even for my pocketbook. Here’s a stat that most don’t include when retirement planning. The ERBI estimates that it will cost the average 65 year old couple over $150k to cover just HALF the medical expenses incurred in retirement. My thought is, the healthier I am the less chance I’ll need that much medical help. Of course, there are some things that may just happen. But if I can help influence that number, I’m going to!

BTW – Here are two great apps to use for tracking your exercise and food intake if you’re interested in taking it to that level. Both are available on iPhone, Android, and Window devices.

My Fitness Pal
Runtastic

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