I was having a conversation with a friend yesterday who has gained more weight than he is now comfortable with and he was trying to figure out what went wrong. Where had his life changed to accommodate this extra weight?

He came up with several major changes in his life that had happened in the past 9 months and vowed to lose the weight. Well, since my first love and passion is to help people with their health before helping them with their money (even though it often is all wrapped up in one big snarled mess that needs unraveling), I talked to him about one of the strategies that I have used all of my life to stay fit and lean.

I call this strategy Pre-Deciding and pre-deciding works great in any area of your life where you need a little (or a lot) more self-discipline in order to get where you say you want to get yourself to in life!

Here are some of the areas where YOU can use pre-deciding in your life. I’m going to give you an example or two from my own life so you get the idea. Then, create a couple of pre-decisions in each area and see how much easier it is to be in control of yourself.

Fitness Pre-decisions

Let’s face it, America as a whole is pretty out of shape. A huge percentage of us sit in front of screens all day long, not moving out bodies, messing up our eyes and changing the way our brain works.

For me, it’s a little easier because my background and first love is movement and fitness but I do have some pre-decisions that help.

First, I almost always move my body in the morning before I do anything else. And by the way, there’s no use in saying you will ALWAYS do something. Give yourself a wee bit of a break for when something comes up and you can’t ALWAYS…

In other words, I make MY body a priority before I take care of any one else’s. At the very least I do 20 minutes of yoga. At the most, I walk 3-4 miles, ride my bike 10-15 miles or swim a mile. Now the only time I’ll veer from this path is when I travel early in the morning or I know I’m going to swim at lunch (I love the sun on my back!) or walk with a friend later. But even then, I still get up and do some yoga.

So you see, I never have to decide to exercise. I just have to decide WHICH type of exercise I want to do that day. And if you think THAT decision is going to get in your way, then set a schedule for yourself so you know exactly what you’re going to do the next day.

TIP: Set out the clothing and things you need the night before. If you’re going to walk, put your walking clothes and shoes and socks right there in plain sight. If you’re going to go swimming, get your swimming gear together. This way you don’t forget your goggles! (Ask me how I discovered this little tip:-).

Eating/Nutrition Pre-Decisions

This is one of my favorite areas to help people with. As an animal, we are very prone to eating emotionally and making sound pre-decisions in regard to food can make or break your ongoing health. Here’s some of my pre-decisions.

When I’m flying, I always order tomato juice. Never pop (don’t drink it hardly ever anyway), never alcohol, never anything with sugar in it and definitely never anything with caffeine in it. Tomato juice is low in calories, high in nutrition, no added sugars and I have found it to be so refreshing.

I only drink calories with a meal if it’s really good (note the qualifier) wine, and rarely do I even do this. My mom always said in regard to milk, “Milk is a food so if you’re thirsty, drink water.” I loved this and have taken it even further. I don’t drink milk either…I think it’s only good for baby cows but that’s a whole ‘nother blog.

I don’t put salad dressing on salads. I can’t stand the slimy, oily, fat all over my yummy, healthy vegetables. I know…there are doctors who can help me with this problem but you know…this one pre-decision has saved me from eating thousands and thousands of unwanted fat calories.

Anyway, you get the idea. Pay attention this week to the food situations where you are prone to make unsupportive choices and make some pre-decisions about how you will choose from now on.

Financial Pre-Decisions

OK, you knew I would get to this eventually, right? THIS is area that so gets in the way of our being able to have more than enough money to live the way we want to live. You see, to me, having just enough money isn’t enough money at all. ‘Just enough’ is what causes stress, causes us to do things we might not otherwise choose to do. Sometimes ‘just enough’ is worse than ‘not enough.’

So here’s the thing…unless you make some pre-decisions with your money, you will most certainly never have enough or more than enough. So here are a couple of my money pre-decisions.

First, you have to understand that I am not a shopper in the typical girl sense. I don’t give a hoot about little black dresses (though I do have one that I found at a thrift store for $5!), multiple pairs of shoes (unless they are flip flops or tennies) or purses. I don’t even have a purse!

Given that, it might be a little easier for me to have the decisions I have but you can make pre-decisions that work for you.

I put my change in a change jar when it gets full in my wallet and when that change jar is full, I wrap it and put it in the bank or use it for vacation spending. NOTE: I do NOT give 10% of it away by letting some machine count it for me. Use this as a great family activity. And please don’t use those stupid machines that only give you a gift card. Completely obliterates the point of saving in the first place.

I rarely buy food when I travel. For instance, I’m sitting in a hotel right now and have a meeting in a few hours and I have eaten a homemade gluten-free muffin I brought from home and a couple pieces of fruit. And last night I had a protein bar and something else I don’t remember. The point is, I don’t spent excessive amounts of money in hotels or airports because I take my own food.

The challenge always comes at the end of the trip but I have even found ways to handle that. If I can get to a grocery store, I can buy a couple of things or even grab a subway sandwich for the trip. There are a ton of ways to save money when traveling (remember the $1 iced coffee tip I gave you a couple of weeks ago?:)

I take my own cup and a tea bag when I meet people in a coffee house for a meeting…ESPECIALLY if the meeting has to do with financial education. I love to practice what I preach and it’s great to know you are setting the best possible example for those around you. This is how we REALLY teach, by the way.

Now here’s my favorite pre-decision of all but it’s actually a question that I’ve pre-decided to ask myself every time I’m tempted to buy piddlyjunk. I simply ask, “Can I do without this today?” If the answer is YES, I walk away. And I have to admit, the majority of times, the answer is Yes. And the funny thing is that we rarely even remember what it was that we wanted to buy a couple of days later. Try it!

CLOTHING TIP: When you buy a new piece of clothing, do this…staple or paperclip the receipt onto the tag (leave the tag on) and hang it in your closet or put in your drawer. See how long it takes you to wear this new item. If you don’t wear it immediately, TAKE IT BACK. I’ve done this many times and am always grateful that I have this tip.

And here’s a financial (and sanity) pre-decision I made when the iPhones came out and yes, I am an Apple girl. I decided that I do NOT want email on my cell phone!

I see all you people lost in your phones and your texting and your websurfing and everything else, often missing a multitude of opportunities in front of you to connect with others, notice and smell beautiful flowers, chances to see things you haven’t seen before, and I know I have made the right decision. AND I know it saves me hundreds of dollars every year.

OK, your turn. Think about those areas where you have a little less self-discipline than you’d like and make a couple of pre-decisions of your own:

Fitness Pre-definion #1

Fitness Pre-definition #2

Fitness Pre-definition #3

Food Pre-definition #1

Food Pre-definition #2

Food Pre-definition #3

Money Pre-definition #1

Money Pre-definition #2

Money Pre-definition #3

Now make one GRAND Pre-definition about your life in general and see how easy it really can be to have the life you want and be the person you want to be.

As always, just something to think about!