As you may know, the other weekend I went on a Stag Do to Berlin.
One of my old friends from University is getting married this summer and we all headed out for standard Stag Do fair of heavy drinking, partying and watching an enthusiastic team of German children line up to kick a football at the Stag whilst he was bent over, wearing an MC Hammer outfit and with a Justin Bieber mask on his behind. Standard!
Thinking about the Stag Do has reminded me of few of the lessons I learned in university.
Lessons I’ve gone on to use on my clients and members over the years.
One of these came from two of my house mates, Ben and Matt, who were economic students at the time.
Four of us: myself, the guy who’s getting married, and Ben and Matt lived together throughout university.
One of the terms that I learned from the economics students was that of a “cost benefit analysis”.
For those who haven’t heard the term “cost benefit analysis” before the concept is pretty self-explanatory.
It’s the way you look at the cost of something, whether it be financial, time, discomforts, etc. and compare it to the benefits that thing can bring, again whether it be financial, or otherwise.
Thinking about it has got me thinking about the cost benefit analysis to the things people need to do to lose weight, get fit and get the physique they desire.
Below, I’ll talk about some of the things you might be able to do a ‘cost – benefit analysis’ on and decide which of them you are willing to invest in.
I’ve often found that when I’ve done this with clients and members in the past, when they actually stopped and think about it and rationalized the actual cost of what they need to do vs. the benefits that it will bring it becomes a no-brainer.
So, firstly eating healthily. Eating healthily has two main costs: the increased cost of purchasing the healthy food VS unhealthy processed rubbish; and secondly, the amount of time it would take to source and prepare the food.
If you speak to many health experts they’ll tell you it doesn’t have to cost more to eat healthily.
These experts will invariably advise eating brown bread, brown pasta, and brown rice as a way for you to achieve your goals.
Chances are from the fact that you’re reading this blog this approach hasn’t worked for you.
The healthy eating that we recommend, eating high-quality, unprocessed food, fresh meat, nuts and vegetables, will cost more than the average person’s processed food diet.
We’ll never deny this as it is a fact.
However, when we stop and think about this cost, add-up all the extra pounds you spend and then compare it to the benefits that it will give you: enabling you to live longer, have a high quality of life, and be happy with your physique, energy, sex drive and so on, it usually becomes an easy decision to make.
A useful way to take a paradigm shift on this is imagine you’d always eaten the way we recommend.
That you always spent a certain amount of time and money on the way that we recommend that you eat, and someone came along and told you there’s a new way of eating that will save you some money, and at a later time, will definitely make you live less long, reduce your quality of life, your happiness levels, energy, and sex drive.
Would you go for it?
If the answer is no then your cost benefit analysis suggests that time and money involved in healthy eating are worth it and are something that you should do.
You can make this cost benefit analysis about everything.
For the sleep you need to get, the cost is less time that you spend watching “Corrie” or “EastEnders”, the benefit is getting increased energy levels, increased longevity, extra happiness and so on.
You can form a cost benefit analysis on exercise. The cost is the financial cost of the kind of exercise you choose to take whether that be very low such as buying a new pair of trainers to go walking or running in the park, or right up to a 7 Day retreat in Thailand with the UK’s Top PT Dax Moy at £27,000 (plus flights).
It will also cost you a time of the week, the numbers of hours that you will need to spend doing the exercise and it will also cost you a certain degree of discomfort.
However, again when you look at the benefits of living longer, feeling happier about your body and so on, I usually find the cost benefit analysis suggests that this is a cost that you’re willing to pay.
So in summary, whenever you are thinking about whether or not you could or should do something stop and think what are the benefits, what are the costs, it will also help you decide whether it’s worth something that you’re willing to do.
