‘You Can’t Cure Obesity With Bigger Pants’

Sometimes we shove problems aside because we don’t have time to deal with them. We’ve all been there. Or we come up with a change — like buying bigger pants — that makes a problem like sneaky weight gain less uncomfortable, but as Mr Money Mustache reminds us, this is really no cure.

Photo remixed from an original by Nickolay Vinokurov

A better solution, he suggests, is to actually stare your problems in the face and not mask them:

My solution is the opposite: put those damned tight pants on and keep wearing them. When they bite at you, it’s a reminder to take the stairs instead of the elevator, eat a piece of grilled salmon instead of a chocolate bar and bologna sandwich, and to start walking and biking more. Those tight pants are your biggest ally in addressing the underlying problem — if you give them up, you’ll be allowed to forget what the real problem is: your lifestyle has become unhealthy and you’re doing everything with a dull saw!

Weight gain is only one example. There are many others. If you find yourself with less and less sleep every day and you’re a walking zombie, you could take caffeine pills and other stimulants or you could find out why you’re overextended. If you keep running out of money, borrowing won’t help. Mr Money Mustache’s personal example is of his house being an enormous mess and almost considering a housekeeper — but the problem was really that his family had just overcommitted themselves.

It’s a simple idea, but it’s also a good reminder not to sweep problems under the rug and instead see them as challenges to improve ourselves.

You Can’t Cure Obesity with Bigger Pants [Mr Money Mustache]