What Are You Willing to Invest in Your Health?

When we hear the phrase invest in your health, most of us immediately think about money.

A gym membership.

A coach.

Supplements.

Meal delivery.

A new fitness program.

But investing in your health is actually much bigger than what comes out of your bank account.

Because meaningful change almost always costs us something.

Maybe it costs money.

Maybe it costs time.

Maybe it costs energy.

Maybe it requires changing your schedule, asking for help, planning ahead, or doing something that feels uncomfortable at first.

The question isn’t necessarily:

“How much money am I willing to spend?”

The better question might be:

“What am I actually willing to invest in the health I say I want?”

Getting Healthier Does Not Have to Cost a Fortune

Let me be really clear about this first.

You absolutely do not have to hire a coach to improve your health.

You don’t need an expensive gym membership.

You don’t need hundreds of dollars in supplements.

You don’t need fancy workout clothes.

You don’t need a meal delivery service.

Walking outside can be free.

You can strength train in your living room.

There are more recipes online than any of us could make in a lifetime.

You can listen to podcasts, read books from the library, follow educational accounts online, and learn an incredible amount without spending much money at all.

So this is not me saying:

If you care about your health, you should spend money on it.

That’s not the point.

But there is something important that we sometimes miss:

Free does not always mean it costs you nothing.

If You Don’t Spend Money, You May Spend Time

Let’s say you decide you want to figure everything out on your own.

That can absolutely work.

But now you are probably investing your time.

You have to research.

You have to figure out which information is actually useful.

You have to sort through all the conflicting advice.

One person tells you carbohydrates are the problem.

Another tells you fat is the problem.

Someone says you should fast until noon.

Someone else says you absolutely need breakfast.

Someone tells you cardio is the answer.

The next person tells you cardio is ruining your hormones.

And you’re sitting there thinking:

Can somebody please just tell me what to do?

Then once you create a plan, you still have to figure out what to do when it doesn’t work exactly the way you expected.

Was the plan wrong?

Were you inconsistent?

Do you need more time?

Should you change something?

Should you stay the course?

All of that takes energy.

And maybe you enjoy doing that.

Great.

But that is still an investment.

You are choosing to invest more of your own time instead of paying someone else for theirs.

So What Are You Actually Paying for When You Hire Help?

This is where I think coaching sometimes gets misunderstood.

Because here’s the truth:

Most of the information I teach is not a secret.

I don’t have some locked vault in my office containing the hidden truth about protein.

I talk about this stuff all the time.

I tell you to eat protein.

Eat fiber.

Walk.

Strength train.

Get sleep.

Build habits that fit your life.

There is no magic sentence that I refuse to tell you until you pay me.

So why would anyone hire a coach?

Because information is often not what you’re paying for.

You’re paying for someone’s time.

Their experience.

Their attention.

Their ability to look at your situation and help you figure out what actually applies to you.

Think About It Like Hiring a Mechanic

If my car suddenly starts making a horrible noise, technically I could figure out how to fix it myself.

There’s YouTube.

There’s Google.

There’s probably a 47-minute video somewhere explaining exactly what that terrible sound means.

But do I want to spend the next three weekends becoming a mechanic?

Absolutely not.

So I take my car to someone who already knows what they’re doing.

And when I pay them, I’m not just paying for the part they put in the car.

I’m paying for the years they spent learning how cars work.

I’m paying for the fact that they can hear a sound and know what it probably means.

I’m paying for their tools.

Their time.

Their experience.

And their ability to solve the problem faster than I could.

We understand this in so many other areas of life.

We hire accountants because we don’t want to learn tax law.

We pay people to cut our hair even though scissors are available for purchase.

We hire professionals because their skill, experience, or time makes something easier for us.

Health coaching isn’t really that different.

“But I Already Know What to Do”

I hear this one all the time.

And usually?

I believe her.

She probably does know a lot.

She knows vegetables are good for her.

She knows protein matters.

She knows walking is helpful.

She knows sleep matters.

She knows eating half the pantry every night probably isn’t helping her feel the way she wants to feel.

The information isn’t always what’s missing.

What may be missing is:

Why do I keep doing this even though I know what to do?

Or:

What should I actually work on first?

Or:

How do I make this fit my real life instead of some imaginary life where nobody needs anything from me?

That is where support can become valuable.

Sometimes you need someone to look at your life and say:

“I don’t think breakfast is your problem. Let’s stop trying to fix breakfast.”

Or:

“You’re trying to change twelve things at once. This one pattern is probably having the biggest impact.”

Or:

“You aren’t failing the plan. The plan doesn’t fit your life.”

That is not secret information.

That is personalized help.

And those are two very different things.

“I Can’t Afford It” and “I Don’t Want to Spend Money on It” Are Different

I also want to be careful here.

There are absolutely people who genuinely cannot afford coaching, a gym membership, or certain foods.

That is real.

Sometimes the money simply is not there.

And I would never want someone to hear this and think:

“If I really cared about my health, I would find the money somehow.”

No.

That is not what I’m saying.

There is a difference between:

“I can’t afford this.”

and

“I haven’t decided this is worth spending money on.”

Neither one makes you a bad person.

We all decide where our money goes.

I spend money on things someone else would never spend money on, and someone else spends money on things I couldn’t care less about.

That’s normal.

The better question is:

Does the way I’m spending my resources match what I keep saying matters to me?

And remember, your resources include more than money.

They include your time.

Your attention.

Your energy.

Every Goal Has a Cost

If you want to get stronger, it will cost some time.

If you want to eat at home more often, it may cost a little planning.

If you want to work on emotional eating, it may require some uncomfortable awareness.

If you want to improve your sleep, you may have to change part of your evening routine.

That doesn’t mean health needs to become your entire life.

Please don’t make it your entire life.

But we also can’t expect meaningful change while giving it absolutely nothing.

Strength training costs me time and energy.

Sometimes it costs me sore legs when I would really like to sit down on the toilet like a normal person.

But I’ve decided the return is worth the investment.

Spending time with my kids costs time I could spend somewhere else.

Building a business costs energy.

Everything we say yes to means we are choosing to invest something.

Our health is no different.

3 Questions to Ask Yourself About Your Health

1. What Do I Actually Want?

Be specific.

Maybe you want to lose 20 pounds.

Maybe you want to get stronger.

Maybe you want more energy.

Maybe you want to be able to get up off the floor easily when you’re 70.

Maybe you want to stop thinking about food all the time.

What do you actually want?

Because it’s hard to know what something is worth investing in when you haven’t clearly defined what you’re trying to build.

2. What Am I Willing to Invest to Get There?

Think bigger than money.

Are you willing to invest time?

Energy?

Attention?

A change in your schedule?

Some discomfort?

Maybe money?

Maybe your answer is:

“I don’t have money for coaching right now, but I can give myself three hours a week.”

Great.

That is an investment.

Maybe your answer is:

“I don’t have much extra time, but I do have the financial ability to pay someone to help me make this easier.”

Great.

Maybe you have plenty of both.

Maybe you have very little of either right now because you are in a genuinely hard season.

That is useful information too.

There isn’t one correct answer.

3. Is What I’m Willing to Invest Realistic for the Result I’m Asking For?

This one may sting a little.

Not because we need to judge ourselves.

But because sometimes the math just isn’t mathing.

If I say:

“I really want to get stronger.”

But I’m willing to strength train zero times per week?

There’s a mismatch.

If I say:

“I desperately want dinner to feel less stressful.”

But I’m unwilling to spend even ten minutes planning ahead?

There’s a mismatch.

If I say:

“I really need help.”

But I’m unwilling to invest either the time to figure it out myself or the money to get support?

There may be a mismatch.

That doesn’t mean you’re lazy.

It means something needs to change.

Maybe the goal needs to change.

Maybe the timeline needs to change.

Maybe your expectations need to change.

Or maybe what you’re willing to invest needs to change.

But at least now you’re being honest about it.

Why Do We Think We Should Be Able to Do Everything Ourselves?

There’s another belief I hear from women all the time:

“I should be able to do this myself.”

Why?

Seriously.

Where did we decide that needing help with weight loss, food, exercise, or strength means we somehow failed?

We get help in practically every other area of life.

But with our health, somehow we’re supposed to:

Know exactly what to do.

Know how to do it.

Motivate ourselves.

Troubleshoot everything.

Hold ourselves accountable forever.

And if that doesn’t work?

We say:

“I just need to try harder.”

Maybe.

Or maybe help would actually be useful.

Getting support does not make you incapable.

Sometimes paying someone is simply saying:

“I don’t want to spend another two years figuring this out through trial and error.”

You want feedback.

You want accountability.

You want someone to help you see what you can’t see because you’re standing right in the middle of it.

That can be a perfectly reasonable investment.

Information and Application Are Not the Same Thing

You can probably Google “beginner strength workout” right now and have thousands of workouts show up.

You can search “how to stop eating at night” and get a giant list.

Information is everywhere.

But knowing what to do and actually doing it in your life are two very different things.

That is where coaching comes in.

Maybe you’re struggling with evening eating and you tell me:

“Michelle, here’s what happened Tuesday night.”

Okay.

Let’s look at Tuesday night.

What did you eat during the day?

Were you hungry?

Were you stressed?

Was it habit?

What was happening when you started eating?

What could we try differently next time?

Or maybe you’ve been saying:

“I know I need to strength train.”

For a year.

Maybe you even have the gym membership.

You just aren’t actually doing it.

It isn’t because you don’t know strength training matters.

Maybe you walk into the gym and feel like everybody else knows exactly what they’re doing.

Maybe you don’t know what weights to pick up.

Maybe you used to strength train, but you’ve been away from it so long that starting again feels overwhelming.

So we look at that.

What is actually stopping you?

What’s the smallest place you could start?

What would make going into the gym feel a little less intimidating?

Then you try something.

You come back.

We look at what worked.

What didn’t.

What needs to change.

That is the investment.

Not secret information.

Application.

Support.

Feedback.

Accountability.

Someone helping you take all the things you already know you “should” be doing and figure out how to actually put them into your life.

Maybe Your Health Deserves More Than the Leftovers

I think this is ultimately what I took away from the conversation that started this whole thought.

Your health is worth something.

I don’t mean it is worth a specific dollar amount.

I mean it deserves some of your resources.

Some of your time.

Some of your attention.

Some of your energy.

And yes, sometimes some of your money.

We don’t have unlimited amounts of any of those things.

We’re constantly choosing where they go.

So it might be worth asking:

Does my health get anything?

Or does it always get what’s left over?

Whatever time is left after everybody else.

Whatever energy is left after work.

Whatever attention is left after the kids.

Whatever resources are left after everything else.

And then we wonder why taking care of ourselves never seems to happen.

Your health doesn’t need everything.

It shouldn’t.

But maybe it deserves more than your leftovers.

What Are You Willing to Invest?

Your assignment is not to go buy something after reading this.

That’s not the point.

Instead, sit with this question:

What am I willing to invest in the health I say that I want?

Maybe it’s money.

Maybe it isn’t.

Maybe it’s waking up 30 minutes earlier twice a week.

Maybe it’s strength training three times a week.

Maybe it’s going for a walk.

Maybe it’s planning dinner before 5:30.

Maybe it’s scheduling an appointment you’ve been putting off.

Maybe it’s finally asking someone for help.

Whatever it is, make the investment intentional.

Meaningful change usually isn’t free.

But that doesn’t mean it has to cost everything either.

You get to decide:

What is this goal worth to me?

What am I willing to give it?

And does that match the result I’m asking for?

No guilt.

No judgment.

Just an honest look.

Because your health is something you live in every single day.

And I think it’s worth giving it something.