“We spend the first 3/4 of our lives using our health to gain wealth, and the last 1/4 using our wealth to preserve our health.” — Author Unknown

A few years ago I lost forty pounds and have kept it off except for the 8 lbs that slowly crept back over time. When I started blogging, I thought about writing about weight loss and eating issues instead of personal finance but I figured I would be setting myself up for failure. I have a much better grasp on finances. Good financial habits come naturally to me: food on the other hand continues to be a struggle each and every day.

To lose the 8 lbs, Jeanine put me back on the “write it down” method of weight loss. I write down everything that I eat during the day and the log is place alongside her mail. She reviews it each night when she gets home from the office. Daily accountability is key. Dinner is monitored in real time because we eat together most evenings and she is always the voice of reason.

Gosh, there is so much pressure to be thin. And recently there have been studies that demonstrate the correlation between being thin and wealth. Now you’re speaking my language… perhaps this is the kick-start needed to get back to my ideal weight.

In the March 9 issue of Smart Money, Anne Kadet wrote an article about How to Make a Million. She used a married couple as an example and created a guide that covered five areas: Health, Spending, Savings, Investing and Career.

Kadet writes about Health: “We’ll start with a strategy that may come as a surprise — taking good care of your body. You’ve been hearing for years that your physical well-being depends on your wealth: Poor folks are more likely to smoke, get fat and get sick because they can’t afford a good education, gym membership, health insurance or a super miracle organic-spinach smoothie from the local macrobiotic cafe. But recently, economists have found that the health-wealth connection also works in reverse: Getting healthy appears to help make you rich.”

“But here’s where the health-wealth connection gets really interesting: Not only does your physical well-being influence how much you spend, it plays a role in determining how much you earn. Take two men of the same age, race, education and marital status who work in the same industry, and the thin guy will earn, on average, 3% more than Joe Doublegut. The fat penalty for ladies is even higher: Slim women earn nearly 6% more than their overweight sisters.”

Medical News Today cites a similar study, “Overweight Americans who lose a lot of weight also tend to build more wealth as they drop the pounds.” “The study found that the link between weight loss and wealth gains was particularly strong among white women. Black women and white men also gained wealth as they lost weight, but not as much as did white women. The wealth of Black men was basically unaffected by their weight.”

However, if weight does affect wealth, there is also the question of how it does so. One possible explanation would be that overweight and obese people are discriminated against in the workforce, and don’t earn as much money as normal weight people. Women, particularly white women, may be held to particularly high standards for beauty, which could explain why they gained more wealth compared to men as they lost more weight.”

There is no way to tell for sure but I’m inspired… at least today. One day at a time.