Living Like No One Else

The other night I was leaving a bridal shower after not partaking of the barbecue chicken, potato salad, corn on the cob with a roll and saw this sticker on my friend's car:

This is a portion of a quote financial advisor Dave Ramsey has made famous which states, "Live like no one else, so you can live like no one else."  This describes his teachings about living simply to get out of financial debt, so that you can be free to live with all your income later instead of constantly giving your money away to paying credit card payments.  

I've read a little on what he teaches and it makes sense.  

I've also read the testimonials and one common thread you see is it isn't easy, but it's always worth it in the end.

Cutting out the special treats for a time so you can use that money to pay off debt is not easy.  We've somewhat done that, though we are still paying off student loans right now.  Some of his clients have cut back seriously and paid off some grand amounts of debt in the process.  

It's pretty amazing. 

The sticker I saw was on the car of my friend with whom I'd just been talking to about health.  I know her and her husband and they followed Dave Ramsey's teachings to pay off all their debt.  Now debt free they continue to live simply and are cautious about how they spend their money so that they can enjoy life, give to God and be a blessing to others, but without falling back into debt.  

She is also a woman who has lost some weight and is keeping it off.  

She has told me that I inspire her with my story and with my running, but watching her always inspires me.  She decided she was getting unhealthy and packing on too many pounds, so she set a goal to lose the excess weight over a year ago in time to attend her son's graduation from his military boot camp.  She did it and she maintains that loss to this day.

I've seen her eat and she is healthy.  Sometimes she partakes of the food around her, and sometimes she doesn't.  She's not extreme, but she is careful.  She also stays active whether it's with workouts she finds on YouTube, using her treadmill or staying busy with their carpet cleaning business.  

She's also super encouraging to me on a regular basis about my journey. 

That evening we'd been talking about my using the Body Media Fit armband to help me finish losing the weight and I showed her my stats for the day at that point.  She was concerned because my calories were so low at that point and I wasn't going to eat the meal being served, but I reassured her I was going to have a snack when I got home.  I'd eaten a small dinner and only had room for about 200-300 calories for a snack later.  I knew the shower meal would be way more than my calories left for a snack, so I chose to abstain.  She understood.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that as I left the shower and saw the Dave Ramsey sticker on her car I thought to myself, "Live like no one else now, so I can live like no one else later.  That's exactly what I am doing to finish losing this weight."  I know my friend understands, because she has done exactly that both financially and with regards to her food habits.  

She now maintains a healthy weight and a healthy financial state.  I am going to be like that too, because I know the sacrifices now will be worth it later.