Losing weight and eating healthy can be expensive but does it have to be? The U.S. weight loss market came in at a record $78 billion dollars in 2019. If some of that was your money you are not alone, we contributed to it as well.
In this episode we talk personal finance and eating healthy. Can we take care of both our health and budget simultaneously?
We also learn about our own Phil's new goal to lose 50 pounds by the end of the year. His plan? Applying the principles of budgeting to calories. Also how he plans to make a profit during his weight loss journey.
Losing weight and eating healthy can be expensive but does it have to be? The U.S. weight loss market came in at a record $78 billion dollars in 2019. If some of that was your money you are not alone, we contributed to it as well.
In this episode we talk personal finance and eating healthy. Can we take care of both our health and budget simultaneously?
We also learn about our own Phil's new goal to lose 50 pounds by the end of the year. His plan? Applying the principles of budgeting to calories. Also how he plans to make a profit during his weight loss journey.
Welcome to Talk Wealth, to me, a safe space podcast, where we chat about anything and everything related to personal finance. The information contained in this podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. It does not constitute as accounting, legal tax or other professional advice.
Chase Peckham:Good afternoon. Good morning. Good evening, wherever. And whenever you are listening to this, welcome to talk wealth to me, Phil, I, this is gonna be a fun one because this is something that I have been doing for a very, very long time. Uh, I, uh, you know, me, I'm always Mr. Uh, workout and do different, uh, workouts, different types of training, uh, trying to keep myself fit. Um, you know, how many times.
Felipe Arevalo:You've switched it up throughout the years?
Chase Peckham:I have switched it up throughout the years. That that is for sure. One thing that we do know though, is the wellness industry is blowing up and has for quite a while, uh, due to, well, let's face it. A lot of us are sedentary. Uh, we sit at offices and desks for a long period of time. Uh, we don't exactly eat very well because we eat a lot of processed food that is marketed to us like crazy. And it's pretty easy in this health conscious world we typically live in to let's face it, get obese. Uh, it can be, it can be very easy to gain a few pounds and people will spend an obscene amount of money to buy the latest workout DVD or stream the. Well now streaming
Felipe Arevalo:Streaming. Yeah, now it's a service
Chase Peckham:Buy pelotons buy. Oh, shoot. Uh, there's been rowing machines and workout machines for a very, very long time, uh, and.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:Supplements, uh,
Felipe Arevalo:Vitamins and yeah, you see the commercials late night. You see the commercials.
Chase Peckham:Yeah. You see it at the mall. You see it at. Weight watchers.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah. Weight Watchers, which now they like to go by WW. Um,
Chase Peckham:Is that right?
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah. They're trying to switch it up. Cause it's not just about weight. It's about being healthier something along those lines.
Chase Peckham:Well shoot back in the eighties, Jane Fonda was doing jazzer size. Uh, you know, it was, it was how to lose fitness videos,
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:Back on VHS. So this isn't something new, but.
Felipe Arevalo:No
Chase Peckham:Americans and Americans just of a get rich, quick, get fit quick. Uh, and, and the industries are, are giving us those options,
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:Uh, from all different kinds of diets and books and self-help and you name it, you can spend a ton. So how in this day and age, can we get fit, be healthy and do it on a budget.
Felipe Arevalo:So there's lots of different ways to, to do it on a budget. Um, and, and I think it's not always easy to it's it's easier to eat unhealthy sometimes short term.
Chase Peckham:It's cheaper.
Felipe Arevalo:It could potentially be cheaper.
Chase Peckham:Correct.
Felipe Arevalo:Um, it's one of those, um, it's more accessible. It's more, um, you know, it's readily available.
Chase Peckham:Right. And it's, Let's face it, it, uh, it, it curbs a lot of people's taste buds.
Felipe Arevalo:Right, right, right. You get used to the salty or the greasy or all of the above.
Chase Peckham:Yeah.$ 1.99 Cheeseburger is a heck of a lot more appealing than, uh, going and just ripping apart up.
Felipe Arevalo:Broccoli,
Chase Peckham:Big flower of broccoli.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:Although, we know which, one's better for you.
Felipe Arevalo:Right. And, and I, I think it takes, uh, there's a, there's a, there's a huge mental component to this and you know, it it's, it we're marketed to no one markets, broccoli. I mean, aside from avocados, from Mexico, you don't really see commercials for.
Chase Peckham:Right.
Felipe Arevalo:For fruits and veggies.
Chase Peckham:True.
Felipe Arevalo:And maybe dairy commercials back in the day. I don't even think I've seen like real milk from California from real cows or, or whatever those commercials were. Other than that, we see commercials for all the unhealthy things, the chips, the fast foods, the.
Chase Peckham:Pizzas.
Felipe Arevalo:So we're being marketed to yeah. Pizza all the time. Commercials,
Chase Peckham:Delivery, bring it to your house.
Felipe Arevalo:We're right. We're marketed to eat to, uh, to eat unhealthy and
Chase Peckham:At early ages too, by the way, it's hit. They, they hit the kids very, very early.
Felipe Arevalo:I mean, Chase, I started eating unhealthy when I started to be able to make my own eating decisions, like high school, where they had, and, and they don't have'em anymore. Thankfully vending machines. I could buy a Dr. Pepper or a mountain Dew, or they had the ASB room. They used to sell chips. And I used to buy like some giant cinnamon rolls. They were like the size of your head. And that was my lunch.
Chase Peckham:Oh boy.
Felipe Arevalo:Hot Cheetos. A Dr. Pepper.
Chase Peckham:Oh,
Felipe Arevalo:Um, you know, and at the time I don't think, I mean, I knew it was junk food, but I wasn't really putting any thought into it.
Chase Peckham:You don't really know what it's doing your body and you really don't care care at that time.
Felipe Arevalo:Right. And I was far more active at the time I was playing soccer. Uh, you know,
Chase Peckham:You were young.
Felipe Arevalo:I was golfing during golf season. Yeah. Metabolism was still kicking full speed. And, and just like everyday things. I mean, I would play soccer, we would do soccer Saturdays or soccer Sundays, and we'd play soccer for hours on the weekend. Uh, I, during golf season, I walked a round of golf or eight, nine holes of golf and, and did the, all the practice swings. And so I was very active. It's not like that anymore. The metabolism has definitely slowed and there's no constant exercise that I do. Um, so I've gained some weight and especially, you know, in the office pre COVID it, I might park really far away and walk and get a few extra steps, take the stairs instead of the elevator presentation.
Chase Peckham:Oh, you know, that was my thing for years.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah. For years, you know, park a little further at the community college, sometimes you didn't have a choice. You just had to park far away.
Chase Peckham:Right you had to huff it.
Felipe Arevalo:Especially at, uh, love UCSD, but sometimes you were just parking way out in the boonies and
Chase Peckham:Praying you didn't get a ticket.
Felipe Arevalo:Exactly. So it it's, there was more opportunities. So I've definitely put on some weight since, you know, we've left the office, plus, you know, just easier to when you're at home to eat unhealthy. Uh, ease of, I mean, when, when I was younger, there was no Door Dash Uber eats, uh, all that, even when I was in college that didn't exist. You wanted a burrito, you had to get up and go get the burrito at the taco shop.
Chase Peckham:Yeah.
Felipe Arevalo:Now you want a burrito, you just reach down for your phone, grab your phone and you can order a burrito and it'll show up in 20 minutes.
Chase Peckham:Just not as good though, because it sits in its heated.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah. Especially if it's like a little busier time a day. Um, so
Chase Peckham:There's so many foods that don't translate to the, to, to delivery. It just,
Felipe Arevalo:No,
Chase Peckham:they're not as good as if you were to eat them,
Felipe Arevalo:Grab it there,
Chase Peckham:But that's not what we're talking about today. Right. But it does. You're right. It, it lends so much to us. It's efficient and we're able to, uh, we can eat easily and we don't have to make a lot of effort. Um, but that just leads to unhealthiness and weight gain. Um, and so we want, you know, we, as fast as we realize, oh my gosh, I'm my pants aren't fitin' and quite right. We wanna do something about it and we wanna do about it quickly. And you can't find anything, especially in this day and age of, of the way we, we, they market to us through Instagram or through Facebook or any of those things, because they know what you're looking at. And by gosh, if you happen to look up, how do I lose weight in 20 days, you're gonna get every product in the world.
Felipe Arevalo:Bombarded with everything
Chase Peckham:Saying, you know, from manage your gut, you know, leaky gut syndrome. And, you know, your health is in your gut to working out and Peleton
Felipe Arevalo:Eating according to your blood types.
Chase Peckham:Oh Yeah. All kinds of pseudoscience and science, legitimate science and pseudoscience. And there's
Felipe Arevalo:It's all mixed in.
Chase Peckham:supplements. It's all together. Right. So much of it. And it can be really expensive. I I've my wife and I, and it's worth it though. There's, there are things that are, that, that, I mean, I did, I swam forever, uh, as you know, and, and I, I went to a gym that was close to where I lived and it was down by the beach and it was a huge pool called the plunge. And it was$35 a month. It was for so affordable. But then I moved and then finding a pool was more difficult. And then when you did find the pool, it was tough to get in cuz lots of people were swimming.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:So a a hour workout or a half an hour workout turned into a two hour or cuz I'm waiting for a lane, uh, or waiting even to share a lane and then to get dressed. It was just, it got to be where it just wasn't, it wasn't easy to, to do anymore. And so what is it, you know, are we gonna do and things on a regular basis when they're not easy? No, eventually, I mean I swam for 15 years. Um, but then I had to figure out something else, uh, which, you know, working out wasn't gonna stop. And I was a terrible runner, uh, because running can be a very inexpensive way outside of shoes and clothes,
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:Running is a very good for you, but it can also really wear down your joints. And if you're not built a runner like myself, I'm kind of heavier boned and, and uh, I'm I running, doesn't come naturally to me. I just jam up my knees and my ankles and I'm sore. And then, you know, I just wasn't good at it, so I didn't do it. Um, so I had to figure out something else. And so you do look for those ways and then streaming came along and I could do all kinds of workout classes. And I found that and I loved it and I did stay in shape. Uh, but eventually, you know, that's a hundred dollars a year, which, you know, compared to 35, 40,$50 for a gym every month, uh, you can find those things, but then about all the things that you're putting in your smoothies and protein powders and all that kind of stuff.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah. It's tough. And you have so many options and you have so many different, uh, you know, and sometimes I think we overthink it.
Chase Peckham:Oh, for sure.
Felipe Arevalo:I think that's, that's the situation that I found myself in. I know I was gaining weight. I didn't wanna jump on the scale. And I was trying to figure out like, what am I going to do? So I, I, I dislike jogging, but I know that after I get used to it, it, I find it very beneficial. I get a lot of, I feel like I make a lot of progress if I can incorporate longer jogs. So just need to invest in a good pair of shoes. Otherwise the shin splints are just gonna destroy me. And, and I don't have, I have some bad knees sometimes. So especially initially it'll be getting the body used to it again.
Chase Peckham:Right. You got to work your way up to it though. Can't just run in and go running five miles beat yourself up.
Felipe Arevalo:Right you can't just go couch to a 5K.
Chase Peckham:Weight loss and health. Ironically, it's, it's so similar to financial health.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah. I always like to compare it during right presentations sometimes to, to budgeting. Whereas you know, the, in a budget, if you're tracking your expenses, you have your income, you have your expenses. The goal is to create a surplus where you have more money coming in than the money you're pushing back out at the end of the day, in the simplest of ways to put it. There's obviously lots of intricacies that go along with that in investing and saving and all that. But at the end of the day, you wanna bring in more money than what you're pushing back out.
Chase Peckham:That's right.
Felipe Arevalo:Now with losing weight, all you're trying to do in, in the way I've successfully done it before, the way I look to do it again is count the calories, estimate your calories burnt and create a deficit where you're burning more calories than you're breaking, bringing back in and, and in, in the most healthy way possible, I'm trying to increase my eating better and better veggies and better types of calories.
Chase Peckham:All calories are not equal.
Felipe Arevalo:Right. So, so incorporating that in it as well. But, but I think for me, it's finding the app that most clicks in my head where it's like budgeting something like the one I, I I'm gonna use is My Fitness Pal.
Chase Peckham:It's fantastic.
Felipe Arevalo:I can type in my, in my food.
Chase Peckham:Yep.
Felipe Arevalo:It's, it's a budgeting app for calories.
Chase Peckham:Yep.
Felipe Arevalo:And, and that, you know, that combined with, uh, my Amazon halo band that I gotta dig up and, and reactivate their monthly service. Uh, I think it'll, that's, that's my go-to, that's what I'm gonna try at least initially that, and just hitting the streets and running and, and trying to get some, some mileage in, in, on the running shoes, um, from a workout standpoint that that's the approach that I'm, uh, going to take. Um, but there's other new stuff and, and
Chase Peckham:There's all kinds of things.
Felipe Arevalo:There's all kinds of things that you can go ahead and do, obviously, if you have like smart watches, like your apple watches yep. Or Fitbits, or
Chase Peckham:My wife jokes that I just use my apple watch just to,
Felipe Arevalo:Emails and stuff?
Chase Peckham:Yeah, no, just, just to count the calories and, or not count the calories to, uh, all my workouts and keep track of all my time that I'm moving and working out and how many hours a day or minutes a day I work out.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:And, uh, how many calories I've burned? She's like, I don't, do you need a Fitbit or you need an eye watcher. Do you even need any of that? I'm like, you're right.
Felipe Arevalo:I've done the Fitbit and Fitbit was great, but the, I feel like the smart watches is just so much more complete.
Chase Peckham:They are.
Felipe Arevalo:Um, especially the apple one. I know it has some really cool features.
Chase Peckham:It does. I have it on my wrist as we speak. And it really is. It keeps you, uh, like it keeps me on it. Uh, and I feel guilty if, if my little circles aren't all complete, uh, at the end of a day, meaning, oh, I just, all I have to do was looking at my watching go, oh boy, I didn't work out today. And that kind of bothers me cuz I, I love to work out. Uh, and it happens to be the Peloton now, which was a, a something that my wife and I bought before the pandemic. But boy did it come in handy during the pandemic. Uh, when we, when nobody was allowed to go anywhere and gyms were all shut down. Uh, but it worked out very well for us because there's all kinds of other workout classes as well. Uh, relatively inexpensive, uh, as well. But it goes well beyond those things as well, because I remember you had a purchase during the pandemic, didn't you?
Felipe Arevalo:What? Yeah, it was actually, I was part of, I, I saw a statistic where the fitness equipment industry saw the biggest, uh, growth at the first quarter of the pandemic.
Chase Peckham:Yeah.
Felipe Arevalo:It went up like 50%. Oh yeah. From 19 to 20, uh, from 2019 to 2020, it increased 50%. And I was part of that. Uh, it, I, uh, I got myself like a, Bowflex, uh, elliptical Treadmill thing.
Chase Peckham:Is it still in box?
Felipe Arevalo:No, it's set up, I cleaned it up, uh, this weekend.
Chase Peckham:Ata boy.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah. Cleaned it up. I'm gonna, I put it in its actual place where it could be used as opposed to using it as a closet and uh,
Chase Peckham:Throw your clothes on it.
Felipe Arevalo:Time to put some miles on it. Yeah. Trying to put some miles on the, on the Bowflex.
Chase Peckham:Ata boy.
Felipe Arevalo:It, it it's, it's uh, I'm all in now. I've done it before. I don't know if you remember. Gosh, it was six, seven years ago. I was working out pretty hard.
Chase Peckham:Yeah.
Felipe Arevalo:I was jogging a lot hiking a lot.
Chase Peckham:Hiked a lot.
Felipe Arevalo:And, it was, and which is my favorite exercise because I don't think of it as exercise. It's, it's fun. It's really relaxing. I think it's soothing mind wise,
Chase Peckham:Which is just as important.
Felipe Arevalo:Just to be in the outdoors
Chase Peckham:Why exercise is so important as Well
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah. So, but when I'm jogging, it's like I'm doing this and I'm sweating and I'm concentrated and I'm maybe even a little angry that I'm having to be out there running, but when I'm hiking, I can just, I, I, I can, I feel like I'm relaxed.
Chase Peckham:Yeah.
Felipe Arevalo:And, and it's not, you know, even if it's a, strenuous hike, it, it's fun. I'm looking around, I'm listening, not to city noises, but listening to birds and whatever other wind and, and.
Chase Peckham:Yeah,
Felipe Arevalo:It's kind of cool. Uh, but it's, you know, I'm gonna do it again. I'm gonna, I'm gonna, this time I'm doing, I'm loose 50 pounds by the end of the year. And I'm, and I'm saying it here because I want to create an extra level of accountability, which I think is important. I've already told my friends, I've already told my wife, I'm gonna tell my family. I'm gonna tell my kids. And that's the goal 50 pounds by, by the end of the year, specifically, December 27th, but you know, the end of the year.
Chase Peckham:Okay. So how are we gonna go about doing this? And, and, and so do you find how is that, that it's gonna bust your budget?
Felipe Arevalo:It's not, and, and, and, you know, there's a lot of different little components that go along with it. And, uh, I, I think I'm gonna, I'm gonna make a profit off of it.
Chase Peckham:You're gonna make, okay. So this is, I gotta hear this. So you're gonna make a profit.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah.
Chase Peckham:Off of your losing weight or your dieting.
Felipe Arevalo:Uh, yes, that, that's the goal.
Chase Peckham:Please do tell.
Felipe Arevalo:So I was at my, uh, my best friend, his, his little, his youngest was turning three and we were all hanging out with, with, uh, you know, his brothers and, and some of our buddies. And he was pointing out that he was doing this weight loss challenge thing, where you bet on yourself to lose weight
Chase Peckham:Against who though. Who are you betting with?
Felipe Arevalo:Against against yourself against probability? I would imagine against the, odds of you succeeding and failing. So there's a, a website. And, and I told him when he was telling me about it, I was like, I've been knowing for the last couple weeks, feel a little sluggish. I, I know I could do better. And when he told me it was just kinda like, I'm an impulse buyer by nature. I said, send me the link.
Chase Peckham:Happens to the best of us.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah. I said, send me the link buddy. And I'm signing up, you'll get your referral bonus and whatever you need, whatever you get for it. I don't care. I'm signing up. And, and I signed up the next morning. And so it's the one I'm doing is called it's through, um, Healthy Wage. So I set up a goal and, and you, you kind of, you give it your height, weight, and, and everything else that goes along with it and date of birth and all that. And then it uses that. And you, you say you set up the timeframe, the amount of weight you're looking to gain and how much you're willing to bet on yourself. Uh, so I, I set out to bet$20 on myself for the next 10 months that I will successfully lose the 50 pounds. And if, or when I am successful and I'll get paid back$500. So I'm investing 200. If I successfully lose 50 pounds or more, I get back 500. If I fail, then they keep my$200. So then at that point, yes, it was a much more expensive than just sitting around and doing nothing.
Chase Peckham:That is so interesting.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah.
Chase Peckham:Well, you wonder, I mean, without getting into the boring part of it and how, how healthy wage started and, uh, and what I mean, boring part of it, how, how do they make their money? I mean, do they just bet on a lot of people failing, uh,
Felipe Arevalo:I think so.
Chase Peckham:Like Vegas does,
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah.
Chase Peckham:Uh, you know, Vegas isn't there because we win, uh, more than we lose.
Felipe Arevalo:Some people do. But most people don't. So I think, and I think, you know, depending on how, um, ambitious your goal is, is how much of a payout you're willing to get. So my, my buddy's brother was saying that, you know, he looked into it and he was gonna do the 10 months or whatever timeframe he was. And he is gonna make like$25. So it wasn't worth risking, you know,$200 to make 25.
Chase Peckham:Right.
Felipe Arevalo:So it depends on how ambitious your goal is and, and your, or set parameters on how much you're gonna get in return.
Chase Peckham:So you wanted to make it hurt a little bit, if you didn't succeed.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah. I almost grabbed Sarah's credit card and used that to pay for it, to make me even feel more guilty.
Chase Peckham:Wow.
Felipe Arevalo:Uh, but it it's,
Chase Peckham:You're married still, cuz you didn't do that. Good job.
Felipe Arevalo:I know. But, but it something where,
Chase Peckham:You'd be sleeping in the dog house.
Felipe Arevalo:How can I make it even more accountable? Where's your card and, but it's it's yeah, I I've I've it's wagering, I guess I'm, I'm making it a financial accountability for myself to go complete it. Now there's put your money where your mouth is Phil and go out there and get it done. Or you're gonna lose$200, which I'm not really in the business to lose money as much as possible. So it adds an even bigger layer of financial, what adds the financial point of it. And I always joke around like, oh, those movie stars, they can lose weight. Well, that's their job sometimes for roles and stuff.
Chase Peckham:For sure it is.
Felipe Arevalo:Athletes to stay in shape and, and things like that.
Chase Peckham:That's right.
Felipe Arevalo:Well now it's, it's, there's a financial implication for me not to go out for that jar in the afternoon to eat too much pizza or to eat too many hamburgers or whatever the case might be or a combination of everything in my case. And now there's a financial component that goes along with it, aside from the fact that just being healthy is just in the long term.
Chase Peckham:Yes. Is gonna help you financially. There's financial costs for being unhealthy and I'm not getting any younger, uh, the metabolism's not getting any faster, so I I've gotta just get on it.
Felipe Arevalo:So how are you going to do this? Does it give you a course? Does it give you, uh, examples of how to cause there's, I mean, obviously there's people that have go through the, uh, carb diets and then there's the people that, uh, that eat, uh, that are go vegetarian. Right.
Chase Peckham:Uh, there's all kinds of different ways to go about it, but sometimes that can be incredibly expensive.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah.
Chase Peckham:Um, so, and, but ultimately as much as you work out and all that kind of thing, you keep, there's the old cliche that you can't outwork out a bad diet.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah.
Chase Peckham:So you've got to eat well, which means staying away from which we are working very hard with our kids, uh, to not eat. And I can tell you, my wife who has colon cancer, uh, and is an incredibly good shape and never ate terribly. Uh, she is on that train heavily almost to, making me exhausted of eating whole foods and not eating overproduced, fake foods as she calls it.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah.
Chase Peckham:Uh, which, you know, and eating organic and cannot be, can you do that cheaply? And you can, uh,
Felipe Arevalo:You can.
Chase Peckham:that's the number, one more thing that we don't do is just like, we don't put together a budget is plan it. So how can people plan in, uh, how they're gonna lose their weight? So how are you going to do that? Or have you come up with that yet?
Felipe Arevalo:So the thing doesn't, it, it, they offer little support groups and things like that, but they don't necessarily, it,
Chase Peckham:They don't have a specific thing
Felipe Arevalo:The cool thing about it is do it the way that works for you. Good. Which like budgeting, it's gonna be whatever works for you. There's certain parameters that you wanna try and cover, eat healthy, don't eat junk food, this and that. But at the end of the day, everyone's method of doing it is gonna be slightly different to whatever works their needs. I'm going to try calorie counting. Um, I'm gonna use an app because apps are easier than to me and I'm gonna use My Fitness Pal because I've used it in the past and
Chase Peckham:I've yeah, I think I, you and I, I think we were using it around the same time I had a,
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah.
Chase Peckham:A trainer at the time I was paying for that recommended it.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah. And, and, you know, uh, Sarah's dietician actually recommended that one. Uh, but it it's something where, uh, I asked her if I could say Sarah's doing it as well. Sure. Um, Sarah's doing it as well. So she's got her own challenge so that we can kind of,
Chase Peckham:Did she use your credit card?
Felipe Arevalo:And keep herself accountable? No, after I didn't use hers, I told her, I was like, Hmm, Hey, I just let her, um, you know, it would've been funny to use each other's, but at the end of the day, it's the same thing. So.
Chase Peckham:Right.
Felipe Arevalo:You know, it's$20 each if I pay for hers instead of mine,
Chase Peckham:So you're gonna go basically
Felipe Arevalo:I'm gonna calorie count, while at the same time, changing my eating habits to incorporate more real food, less junk food, it helps that I have a refrigerator again.
Chase Peckham:Yeah. That does help
Felipe Arevalo:So more veggies, uh, making sure that I incorporate vegetables and fruits and, and all that into every single meal
Chase Peckham:Products that can actually expire.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah. Which, yeah, exactly. Which, and, and, and, you know, I've also, I've been watching, um, um, I love Masterclass, the learning, uh, app where you get to watch. So I've last weekend, not this weekend, last weekend, I binged watch a cooking one and with Michael Twitty, um, which is, you know, tracing your roots through food. And, and he went over like how he, he has a book and everything that, um, you know, kind of like the way his ancestors would have produced the foods and things like that. And, and the natural ingredients that sometimes individuals were forced to use out of scarcity out of the situation that they were in. And, but it got me thinking there's so much better ingredients. If you go back a generation or maybe two that the food that was being produced was cheaper and it wasn't processed everything.
Chase Peckham:Right.
Felipe Arevalo:You know, everything, it was all fresh and ingredients. What can I throw in a pot or pan and cook. And, and that's the approach that I'm gonna aside from just calorie counting, which is the math side of things, the, the science, I guess I'm also gonna try and change up my, uh, way of looking at food and I've retaken up, more cooking and, and.
Chase Peckham:Good.
Felipe Arevalo:Just trying to eat healthier stuff there. It's out there. I just need to put in the effort to make sure that I do a grocery list so that I buy it.
Chase Peckham:Right.
Felipe Arevalo:Because it's easier to buy.
Chase Peckham:Planning your meals. Planning ahead of time.
Felipe Arevalo:It's easier to buy. Yeah. Like I'll make these little like egg, egg, white, and spinach and cheese, little cupcake things. I can make a batch of'em on Sunday, pop the microwave for breakfast.
Chase Peckham:Yep.
Felipe Arevalo:And it's quick, it's easy. It's cheap. And it's healthy, healthier than getting a pizza pocket or something like
Chase Peckham:Or going to get a California burrito like my son wants to do every other morning.
Felipe Arevalo:Uh, love em'. If you're ever in Spring Valley, I have some California burrito places for, to recommend you guys. Uh, but it's it, it's a matter of making that change, changing that habit. Like finances, if you've never budgeted before and you jump into it, it's hard.
Chase Peckham:It is.
Felipe Arevalo:And, and you can't jump into it.
Chase Peckham:It has to become a way of life.
Felipe Arevalo:That you're gonna be good at it. You're not gonna be good at it more than likely.
Chase Peckham:Yes that's right. You gotta get it to the point where, you know, and you feel good. And once you start feeling good, this, so that's why planning your meal seems like such a pain, but it, it one it's gonna save your pocketbook. It's gonna save your bank account. You're planning it out a more, you stick to your grocery list, you know what you're gonna get, and you buy that and you don't go to the chip aisle. You don't go to the frozen food section. You, you stay away from that. You know what you're going to get and you get healthy vegetables and, and things that you like and using spices, uh, stick to that grocery list.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah. So trying to find the, I have a very picky eater in my eight year old. And, and that is gonna be one of the big battles, because I wanna do this as a family. Sarah's trying to lose weight as well. She's got her own challenge. The, that she's doing.
Chase Peckham:Good.
Felipe Arevalo:So it's her and I,
Chase Peckham:Doing it together is a lot easier
Felipe Arevalo:And it's not gonna hurt the kids to eat more vegetables.
Chase Peckham:Not at all. In fact, you have to get them to start eating that stuff at this age, or they really never will.
Felipe Arevalo:Just won't do it.
Chase Peckham:That's yes, that's right.
Felipe Arevalo:And Barrington's a very picky eater. So the biggest battle that I'm gonna have with my food and, and just with eating healthier is gonna be him. And I haven't quite formulated the entire process, but I'm gonna set up a, a system where I'm gonna put it on the refrigerator. I'm gonna write in what the meal is with some, um, room for, for changing around. And I'm gonna give him one day a week where he could say, you know what? I, that's just not my thing. I'm gonna make a sandwich or I'm gonna eat a soup, or can I have chicken nuggets instead of that, all the other, the days he's gonna have to deal with it. It's my,
Chase Peckham:Or don't eat.
Felipe Arevalo:Compromise or don't eat. Yeah. Just don't ask for dessert either don't come asking me for cereal.
Chase Peckham:That's what we had to finally do. Don't my kids have great pallets now, by the way.
Felipe Arevalo:Right. So that's what I'm gonna do. He gets one pass. If he does something extraordinary, he gets a really good grade on of test. Maybe I'll give him a second one, but use it on a Monday. You're eating whatever we eat the rest of the way you save it to Friday, then you know, and it's gonna be a battle. It's gonna be hard.
Chase Peckham:And you're gonna, yes, it's gonna be hard, but it's gonna be hard for you too. It's it's but that could inadvertently, uh, drive you even more just because you're trying to stick it to not stick it to him, but, but you're gonna have to be battling him. So it's almost like, man, let's,
Felipe Arevalo:I can't tell hi to eat his broccoli and skip the broccoli myself.
Chase Peckham:Right.
Felipe Arevalo:Which broccoli is actually the only vegetable he'll eat without a fight. He loves broccoli. So if I give him broccoli every day as his vegetable, then we won't have that fight, but he's gotta eat other vegetables as well. Um, my youngest Ignacio will munch on lots of other vegetables. He doesn't really care. He likes those little sweet, sweet mini peppers,
Chase Peckham:Right.
Felipe Arevalo:Like I buy two bags of those and I go to the grocery store because he will just snack on'em and that's so much better than him snacking on anything else. So I, I think that's the system I'm trying with my kids, but at the same time, they see me eating a chicken grilled chicken salad for dinner. At some point it's gonna click and it's gotta be better for them in the long run health wise, financial wise.
Chase Peckham:Right.
Felipe Arevalo:And, and everything that goes along with it.
Chase Peckham:So well, and you can save so much money too, because you can make the chicken, you can cut it up a lot of it and put it away or use it for your salad or whatever you do, but you can have it for another meal.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:Another day. And you can have it to, you know, to a, a, a eggs and make a chicken burrito, uh, or a, a, you know, chicken and eggs or whatever, healthy breakfast, uh, in your little casserole that you're making in the, in the cupcake sheets,
Felipe Arevalo:Do a stir fry or something with a bunch of veggies. And you can
Chase Peckham:Buy generic brands. I mean, cost of food is going up right now, regardless. Um,
Felipe Arevalo:It is.
Chase Peckham:but you it's still
Felipe Arevalo:With some creativity
Chase Peckham:It's still affordable to buy, right. The Costco chicken at whatever 4 99 a pound. And yes, it walk away and you're, it's$25, but that is so much cheaper than buying the frozen cut up a brand name chicken. Yeah. In the frozen section.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah. You can season it yourself.
Chase Peckham:Much healthier and you can buy the generic brands.
Felipe Arevalo:Put in a little elbow grease and and cook it. Yeah. And it's funny. I was, I was gonna share recipes with my buddy after I found out that, that he was doing it. And first thing he said is I went to Costco. I bought a big thing of chicken. I grilled it. And that's what I ate all week. And I was like, okay, I can't do that. I need to, I need, you know, mix it up.
Chase Peckham:My wife would go bananas I did that to her early on in our, in our relationship, just
Felipe Arevalo:Grilled, a bunch of chicken?
Chase Peckham:She ate more chicken than she's ever eaten in her entire life. And I think I've ruined her on it. So I have to eat chicken on my own too.
Felipe Arevalo:And I was like, you know what? I could do chicken. I, I, I like it, but it's not gonna be grilled chicken every day. I'll drop some grilled chicken on a salad. I'll do like a stir fry with some grilled chicken. I, I think I can incorporate,
Chase Peckham:I can tell you what a great way to eat better too, is in the mornings you can, I've been doing eating smoothies.
Felipe Arevalo:Oh the smoothies yeah.
Chase Peckham:For so long. Cause if you don't love vegetables and, and those kinds of things, you can put fresh veggies, greens, power greens, it's at Costco or whatever. It might be kale and spinach and all those.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah.
Chase Peckham:And you can dump it in there with frozen fruit and banana, and then maybe a little yogurt
Felipe Arevalo:Some Greek yogurt or something
Chase Peckham:You want, if you want it to be a little bit more frothy, um, I put an avocado in there and you cannot taste it. And it's delicious. And it's so good for you.
Felipe Arevalo:and having a freezer,
Speaker 3:Right. That helps.
Felipe Arevalo:having a freezer helps. But I even when our freezer was working, we were getting in the habit of having those little smoothies and it's cheap. And the kids say, oh, can I have dessert? Can I have a smoothie?
Chase Peckham:There you go.
Felipe Arevalo:That's so much better. And you, while they're not looking, you drop the spinach in there, you drop whatever other vegetable you happen to have you mix it in. Now they're thinking they're having a fruit smoothie with a handful of greens that go along with it. And they just don't taste it
Chase Peckham:By the way, when you buy frozen fruit or even frozen vegetables, uh, at that. And when, when you mess them up, they can be as nutritious because usually they are flash frozen, uh, right after they're picked, which means that they're maintaining all of maintain their.
Felipe Arevalo:Nutrients,
Chase Peckham:Nutrients. Correct.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah.
Chase Peckham:Where as fruits and vegetables get all older and they're getting closer to expiring, they lose a lot of those. So that is a really, and, and it makes your smoothie cold without having to put ice in it. So it it's a great way to do it. It's it's real. And you can just buy it.
Felipe Arevalo:It's easy. Cause you buy a few bags. Yeah. Keep'em in the freezer. And then you don't, if you do fruits, then you, you know, they're, they, you gotta use'em or, or, or use'em or lose them.
Chase Peckham:Correct.
Felipe Arevalo:But if you have'em frozen in the, in the freezer, you can have'em frozen in there and you can buy lots at a time
Chase Peckham:If you don't wanna spend a lot of money on like, like a protein powder. There's some really good ones at Costco's that are, uh, really good that aren't with used with tons of fillers. But if you don't wanna spend the money on that, which is completely understandable as well, you can always buy like, uh, hemp seeds or, uh, other kinds of quinoa, other kinds of.
Felipe Arevalo:Chia seeds,
Chase Peckham:or that have protein in'em or you can put a, like a, even I used to do raw egg, or I put the, the avocado in there with protein and you can mix it all up.
Felipe Arevalo:Like powdered peanut butter.
Chase Peckham:Yeah. Powdered peanut butter or almond butter,
Felipe Arevalo:Whatever it's.
Chase Peckham:Yes. Yeah, absolutely. My wife loves that. So that is something that you can do, cuz you do want, when you're putting fruits and vegetables, you need, you need the fats of, or proteins of some kind to break those down to help you metabolize it.
Felipe Arevalo:I like a little Greek yogurt.
Chase Peckham:There you go.
Felipe Arevalo:Kinda make it a smooth texture wise.
Chase Peckham:Texture wise. I don't love the taste of Greek yogurt, but texture wise. It's fantastic. And it's very,
Felipe Arevalo:But once you mix it in with the fruit,
Chase Peckham:Right.
Felipe Arevalo:You don't get the taste anymore
Chase Peckham:That's right. Yeah. That's right. Uh, and that's good. And you can buy those in bulk and you can save money and put way I'm proud of you less basically too, whatever it is, everything in moderation. Right.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:So that just it's
Felipe Arevalo:And I gotta ease my way into it. I can't go running up the hill and putting two miles
Chase Peckham:In portion size matters
Felipe Arevalo:On the first jog.
Chase Peckham:Right.
Felipe Arevalo:And, and I think that's part of the reason I, I wanna do it this way is I, I don't want to, I, I'm also trying this food thing and, and trying to, you know, be more, uh, pay more attention when I'm cooking and pay more attention to the foods that I'm eating. So I don't wanna make it where I say exclude a certain food group that perhaps is necessary for me to like, I don't wanna say I'm never gonna eat tortilla. No. If I eat it tortilla though, make sure that I account for those calories and make sure that I make myself responsible or maybe if I'm gonna have a tortilla or two, I don't have this X, Y, Z,
Chase Peckham:Right.
Felipe Arevalo:To balance out the calorie intake or go for an extra jog or whatever the case may be.
Chase Peckham:Yeah. Exactly. And I, you know, I'm one to say that if you want, when it comes to the exercise thing, uh, really food is the most important thing. Bottom line, uh, staying away from, from sugars. Uh, and, and I'm not talking about fruits and vegetables, natural sugars, I'm talking about
Felipe Arevalo:It's those processed
Chase Peckham:Processed sugars.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah.
Chase Peckham:Uh, anything that says high fructose on it. If you look at the facts on the food and you see this large list of ingredients,
Felipe Arevalo:It's not your go to,
Chase Peckham:And, and if the earlier words are things you don't recognize, um, you, chances are pretty good. You just wanna stay away from those.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:Uh, and, and, and so the less ingredients the better, um, but it, it really comes down to too is just less portions, uh, uh, food that you get at restaurants, uh, is really too much food. Uh, you don't need, remember our parents used to say clean your whole plate. Well, if the plate's gigantic, right, you don't want to do that. So I have to give Autumn Calabrese from beach body, really some kudos here. Uh, a beach body is an online streaming workout. Uh, she came up and her brother, I believe came up with this eating proportions, uh, where they put so much of the different things into these little containers and you make it,
Felipe Arevalo:I have those still.
Chase Peckham:And it's pretty good. They're fantastic to live by. Um, I don't even do her thing anymore, but I do use those and follow that and it.
Felipe Arevalo:I have containers They're way up at the top.
Chase Peckham:It's so great. They, I mean, I measure all my stuff with those, uh, for the most part. And it's, it works. It's like it's counting calories without counting the actual calories. So if you do that.
Felipe Arevalo:Well there's a Psychology behind it.
Chase Peckham:Right. Well just knowing what the size should be correct.
Felipe Arevalo:Right. So like, if you have things like Noom where, where I've never done it but I know people who have, but.
Chase Peckham:It is so weird that just popped up on my computer. I just literally gotta pop up from Noom. Yep.
Felipe Arevalo:Man, these marketing guys are too good.
Chase Peckham:They are really good.
Felipe Arevalo:Hey, Google. Uh, but I know people who, who are doing the Noom and that's what it teaches.'em like, I'm under the impression of you better eat the whole thing on the, you ordered it, you eat it.
Chase Peckham:That's a generation thing.
Felipe Arevalo:That's how I was brought up. And, and if we were at a restaurant and I left something, but there was no take, take home baggies or anything like that, you ate it. And, and it's ingrained as much as I try and break out of that cycle to say, it's okay to go get it a little.
Chase Peckham:Yeah.
Felipe Arevalo:It's okay to put it back. It's okay. Not to get a giant thing.
Chase Peckham:Correct.
Felipe Arevalo:But I think it's like money, like finances, it's a discipline thing. And if you can get the discipline down, you're gonna be successful. And, and I think that's, that's what I'm counting on.
Chase Peckham:Especially if you see the benefits.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:We talk about it with a budget. We talk about it with paying off debt. You know, when you see,
Felipe Arevalo:You gotta push through those first section, maybe Imagine 20%
Chase Peckham:Right. But when you start seeing results, you're gonna, keep on going,
Felipe Arevalo:It becomes addicting.
Chase Peckham:Yes.
Felipe Arevalo:Like when you start saving or investing and then you start looking at it and you say, wow, I'm, I'm killing it.
Chase Peckham:Yeah.
Felipe Arevalo:Look at my investments.
Chase Peckham:Without question.
Felipe Arevalo:Look at a saving account. Same thing with this. I think it's just a matter of it's discipline. And if I could just nail the discipline and maybe translate some of the financial lessons that I teach all the time and use those every time I present a budgeting, which several times a week, every time I do a credit presentation, just have that and use that as a reminder, to become disciplined with my calories, with my eating, both intake and output that that's how I'm going to get it done. It's it's, budgeting, it's money.
Chase Peckham:Well I'm all for it. I'm, I'm, I'm happy to hear this. I'm I'm proud of you for doing it on your own. I know that I've needle you from time to time about doing different workouts or trying this or trying that, um, I'm proud of you that you're doing that. And I think what we're gonna do here is we're gonna follow up.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah.
Chase Peckham:Um, we're I would, we're ever, we're gonna, we're gonna do the, are you gonna, are you gonna, is Felipe gonna win his bet? Uh, we're hoping so, so I hope that we will, uh, get updates both good and bad.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah.
Chase Peckham:You know, if there's fluctuations, but.
Felipe Arevalo:There's failures along the way.
Chase Peckham:Yeah.
Felipe Arevalo:And you just kind of adjust and how you gonna same with budgeting can get financial emergencies adjust and move forward.
Chase Peckham:Ata boy. Well, if you would please, we, we love, uh, five stars. Uh, we would love a, a good writeup. If you follow us, download us, uh, and tell your friends, uh, come out and check out, Talk Wealth to me and we'll see you next week.