I walk into the closet and over to the safe. I punch in the numbers on the keypad, turn down the handle, and open the door. The heavy stuff at the bottom is the gold. On top of it is a wad of cash. These are mostly small bills and are not neatly stacked. On the top shelf is a few scratch-off lottery tickets.
The gold is the long-term currency that I won’t touch. This is the foundation upon which I build.
The paper money is nice to have, but in time I will burn through it. It is the fluff in the safe. It takes up more space than necessary.
The lottery tickets are even more volatile than the cash. Most likely, they will end up in the trash. But they also provide a nice rush of dopamine. Though the chances are slim, there is always the possibility of the hitting the big winner.
[Note: The above is only an illustration. There is no safe in my closet. It is not currently in my budget.]
Every meal is… A short-term investment in how you feel and perform, a mid-term investment in how you look, and a long-term investment in your freedom from disease.
Alan Aragon
Every meal and snack you eat is the currency in which we operate. Our bodies are the safes.
The short-term investment is the calorie-dense, nutrition deficient food we consume. This is the fast food, processed foods, desserts, and high calorie beverages. They are designed to be visually appealing, exceptionally tasty, and engineered to keep us coming back for more. Like the old Lay’s commercial, “No one can eat just one.” These short-term investments are the culinary roller coasters taking us through the metabolic highs and the inevitable lows. They are the lottery tickets in the safe.
Our mid-term investments are the foods that can help us get to where we want to go. They provide a stable fuel source. This is the cash in the safe. We can trade the cash for more lottery tickets or exchange it for gold. As we go, the fuel gets burned. If it doesn’t get burned (action), the body will find a way to store it (fat). If we only hold onto the cash, it will be like the fluff in the safe taking up more real estate than we desire.
The long-term investments are the well-balanced and nutrient dense foods we consume. They will be used by the body to improve the foundation and infrastructure. The body will not waste this but use it to its advantage. There is no roller coaster and no burn through with this. This is our gold.
Buying lottery tickets is a risky investment. Maybe during the high, we will hit on something big. But remember, most lottery winners will eventually end up where they began if they don’t end up worse off. The cash is nice but holding onto it forever does us no good. What we want to do is resist the urge to buy the lottery tickets and trade our cash for gold. Acquiring gold requires discipline. It means we must forego the urge to invest in the short-term and minimize our mid-term holdings. The gold is a precious metal that will hold its value and give us a stable foundation for the future.
Every meal is an investment. How much we get on our returns is up to us.
TonyFine.blog 