As certified financial coaches, we teach folks to a budget and then use cash with certain purchases like food, gas and spending money. That cash is taken out of their accounts on payday and put in envelopes according to the budget.

For example, you might get out $400 for groceries, $200 for gas and $100 for spending money. We’d put $400 in the grocery envelope, $200 in the gas envelop and whatever portion of the $100 you want to keep in your wallet in your wallet!

Digital Envelope System

Once those habits are established, we like to help our clients set up a digital envelope system for the other important money categories they have. These accounts act just like the envelopes do at home, but they are storing large amounts of money that are usable when the situation arises. This stage of financial coaching can’t really be adopted until clients are really good at budgeting and telling their money where to go.

Emergency Fund

The first “digital” envelope we set up is the emergency fund. This particular account is one that we like to keep far away, hidden and hard to get to. That being said, by the time we get clients along to a 3-6 month emergency fund, they can usually trust themselves with that large amount of money. That’s because they’ve really seen the fruits of their labor, they’ve had a lot of success and they want to see their savings grow because it just excites them THAT much. *Bonus is to name this account something fun. Our clients have chosen names like *My Name Is No* and *O-S&!% fund.

Auto-Bills

Next, we help our clients set up a bills-only digital envelope so that they can put the money in there and then bills are drafted automatically. This is the best, most amazing digital envelope account. That’s because once we’ve gone through the five steps to do this, the bills are paid automatically and all you have to do is watch your money work for you. No more stressing about due dates, amounts or anything!

Sinking Funds

Finally, we have clients set up accounts for every sinking fund we’ve established. Most often, they set them set up for Christmas, for a travel fund, a pet fund, a home repair fund, a car repair fund and/or whatever other category they are saving for sinking funds. Within a clients’ budget, we establish the type of sinking funds they’ll need and how much they can afford to put toward them each month. By the time they need the money, they’ve set aside just what they’ll need and it’s right there, available for them, to use as necessary!

Ideal Balance is The Life Coaching Facility in Navarre, Florida focused on Fitness, Family and Finance. They offer 1-on-1 coaching sessions in person and virtually as well as group coaching, small group personal training and workshops each month. We exist to inject hope and empower people to live the life God created them to live. If you’d like to find out more about working with us, please fill out the contact form below!

Portion-Control Containers: 1 Green, 1 Red, 1 Yellow, 1 tsp.

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp. oil
• 8 oz. ground turkey
• 2 tsp. salt-free Mexican seasoning blend
• 4 corn tortillas
• 1 cup shredded lettuce
• 1 cup pico de gallo

Preparation (for two servings):

1. Heat a pan over medium heat. Add oil, ground turkey, and Mexican seasoning. Cook, stirring frequently, until turkey is no longer pink.
2. Divide evenly between two meal-prep containers. Serve each portion with 2 corn tortillas topped with ½ cup shredded lettuce and ½ cup pico de gallo.

Tip: To avoid soggy tortillas, keep all ingredients separate until ready to eat.

Spicy Feta Burger

Portion-Control Containers: 1 Green, 1 Purple, 1 Red, 1 Blue

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. ground beef
• Sea salt (or Himalayan salt) and ground black pepper (to taste; optional)
• Nonstick cooking spray
• 4 lettuce leaves
• 1 jalapeño, sliced (optional)
• ½ cup pico de gallo
• ½ cup feta (or avocado)
• 2 small apples, sliced

Preparation (for two servings):

1. Shape ground beef into two patties; season with salt and pepper (if desired).
2. Heat medium pan over high heat; when hot, coat with nonstick spray. Place patties in pan and cook 4 to 5 minutes on each side, or until done to your liking. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
3. In each meal-prep container, place two lettuce leaves, and top with one patty, jalapeño slices (if desired), ¼ cup pico de gallo, and ¼ cup feta. Serve each evenly with sliced apple.

Tip: You may add finely chopped jalapeño and feta to ground beef before you shape burger patties.

Makes 4 servings and extra dressing!! The color coded portion control container count is 2 green, 1 red, 1/2 purple, 1/2 blue and 1/2 orange.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups chopped rotisserie chicken breast (boneless / skinless)
• 1/2 cup chopped green apple
• 1/2 cup seedless red grapes, cut in half
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds
• 2 green onions, sliced
• 2 Tbsp chopped fresh tarragon
• 1/4 cup Honey Mustard Dressing (see below)
• 8 cups shredded romaine lettuce

Directions:

Combine chicken, apple, grapes, almonds, green onions, tarragon, and Honey Mustard Salad Dressing in a large bowl. Mix well, cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Serve 1 1/4 cup Creamy Chicken Salad over 2 cups of romaine lettuce per serving.

Honey Mustard Dressing:

** Serves 8 with 2 Tbsp per serving

** 1 Orange Container

• 1/2 cup reduced fat plain Greek yogurt
• 3 Tbsp Dijon mustard, gluten-free
• 3 Tbsp raw honey
• 3 Tbsp rice vinegar
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• Sea Salt to taste (optional)

Directions: Combine yogurt, mustard, honey, and vinegar in a medium bowl and mix well. Slowly add the oil, whisking constantly until well blended.

**Notes: I don’t use rotisserie chicken, I just posh my own chicken breasts and hen shred them using my stand mixer. I also don’t use tarragon or that much yogurt. I’ve even tried it without yogurt and it’s yummy. I have served it in a wrap and it was great!!!

1. Move.

Start where you’re at. The first thing we want you to do is start moving your body. It doesn’t matter how much or how little “fit” you are, we’re going to get you moving. That may mean intense workouts or it may mean 10 minute walks. We’re going to get you moving, get you in touch with your body. This is key because the sooner you start, the sooner you’ll be sleeping better, your mood will be boosted, you’ll almost automatically start eating better and you’ll be on your way to building a body you’re proud of.

• Pick an activity with aligned with your current fitness level.
• Don’t be afraid to start small. (*Tip: Start so small even that it will almost be easier not to do it.)
• Schedule it on your calendar.
• Honor that commitment.

2. Reduce.

Right after we get moving, we want to do the work to reduce our temptations & bad habits. At this point, we’re going to eliminate all junk food from your home. This doesn’t mean you can never have it again or eat for fun again. It means we’re going to reduce the temptations in your home. If you have to put on clothes and drive to get the junk food, you’re far less likely to do so.

Some of you might be tempted to keep it for your family. Guess what? They don’t need it either. If it’s the kids we’re talking about, you’re the boss so it’s fine. In our experience kids never lack for junk food as it comes at almost every turn: school, friends’ houses, sports, church, etc. If it’s your significant other, try to keep stuff they enjoy that doesn’t tempt you. Also, try to keep it all together in a bin that you can’t see through and you can’t get to as easily.

• Clean out pantry, fridge & refrigerator of all junk food.

3. Track.

There’s a famous line we repeat over and over: you can’t measure what you don’t manage. We’re going to agree that this is just the starting point. We’re not going to even try to edit just yet. Instead, at this point, we’re just going to track everything on paper, on purpose. This will be a real eye opener and it will really let us know where we stand and what we have for improvement.

We will track weight and inches and body fat. Some programs do not focus on this, they focus on how you feel or how your clothes fit or some such other indicator. We certainly celebrate and concentrate on those aspects in our program too. But we also look at these numbers because they keep us accountable and they happen to translate to those other things quite nicely. Moreover, we specifically do the work to help you get over the emotions that come with measuring on the scale. Other programs have you avoid those emotions. We are going to work through them and get your mind right about what the scale actually means (*Hint: It has nothing to do with your self-worth).

We’re also going to track your food, water and movement. Again, at this point it’s not really about improving, we just want to get a baseline of where we’re starting. We also want to get all of out numbers out on the table: the calories we’re consuming, the calories we’re using, the gravitational pull we have on Earth.

• Measure weight, inches & body fat.
• Begin tracking your food each day.
• Track your water intake each day.
• Track how you moved each day.

4. Plan.

This step is where we’re going to really take it up a notch. NOw that you’re used to moving, you’ve reduced temptations and you’ve got a real gauge on your daily habits, we’ can begin to plan better. We will use that data to plan exactly how often and how much you should be exercising. We’ll also know by then more about your exercise habits so we can plan the type and time you should be doing it.

We will also look at what you tracked for your nutrition and go over the healthy foods and meals you love and plan your particular food protocol. We will also plan your water intake goal.

• Plan your meals.
• Plan your snacks.
• Plan your fun food.
• Plan your workouts.
• Plan your active life.
• Plug it all into your schedule.

5. Celebrate.

We are going to celebrate every silly little win along the way. We’re also going to celebrate all the big wins too!

Walked for 20 minutes? Celebrate!

Said no to the cake? Celebrate!

Did a real push-up? Celebrate!

Got all your water in? Celebrate!

Lost 5 pounds? Celebrate!

Worked out 5 times this week? Celebrate!

• Be mindful of victories & celebrate them intentionally.

6. Monitor. 7. Adjust.

Now that we’re planning / tracking, we’re going to monitor our progress. This is where we start to become really intentional. You see, we might notice the scale goes up for no good reason. Ah! But since you’ve been tracking, you know it actually went up because you ate spaghetti with beef the night before and that bloats you. Interesting.

You might notice that you’re drinking half your body weight in water, but you’re still feeling it’s not enough. We’re going to up the water intake and see if that makes a difference.

You might notice you’re not getting winded or sore as much from your workouts. Now we’ll step up the intensity of your workouts a bit.

All of these things come from intentional monitoring of your body. In fact, this is the concept of listening your body or intuition. Because all of this is truly about you being at your best, we need to be really in touch with your body as we go on. It will give us clues. Moreover, the reason most of us got into the bad shape we’re in is from not listening to our bodies-both physically and emotionally. So, this process is about fixing that.

That’s you’re 7 step process to getting to your Ideal Weight. We call this the fighting weight-similar to a professional wrestler. This is the weight you perform your best at. It’s the weight and fitness level you feel strong and confident, but you’re able to enjoy life (and pizza) too.

If you’re interested in getting help 1-on-1 with this, fill the form out below and we’ll be in touch.