It's been about six months since I started this program, which seems like a good time to be discussing the impact that it's had on me, because it's all pretty fresh in my mind and I can still remember what it felt like before I started down this road. There have been a lot of benefits from changing the way that I think about food and eating, and not all of them came directly from having lost weight.
The most obvious is that I look better and feel better, and that's probably in order of importance.
Being physically lighter makes everything easier. It's literally as if I took a 25 pound bowling ball from around my waist, and everything I do reflects that feeling, from how easy it is to get out of bed in the morning to how easy it is get around in a tight space.
I'm also more energetic throughout the entire day. That's partially because I'm eating better, and it's partially because I'm lighter. But also, it's because I'm not constantly full. Digestion is one of the most intense biological processes our bodies go through, which is why you feel so sluggish after a meal. I still get that feeling after I eat, but it lasts for a relatively short period of time. And since I'm not going to stuff myself again, it's not going to come back until my next meal. I'm thinking faster and more clearly, and everything that I do, I do with more energy and attention.
And having all that energy, and generally feeling better about myself, has made every other aspect of my life slightly better too.
I don't want to paint this like losing 25 pounds has made every day into a wonderland of sunshine, rainbows and puppies. But what it has done is given me a slightly more stable foundation from which to approach every other aspect of my life. Dealing with this one issue has made every other issue in my life seem like slightly less of a burden, and slightly more solveable.
And it has given me a philosophy that I've found useful for making other changes in my life. Summarized in a sentence, I would say "Small, gradual changes are what create the most gain for the least effort."
And I am ALL about least effort.
I was obsessed with taekwondo, but other than that I've always hated working out, and I have no patience for spending an hour in the gym. But I've gotten too out-of-shape to ignore now, so I had to do something. So I came up with a plan for working out where I would start by doing just five minutes of exercise four days a week. I wanted to do more, but I found that if I tried to do more than 5 minutes, I wouldn't do it at all, and I figured five was better than nothing.
And the idea was that eventually that five minutes would start to get easier, then I would advance it to ten. Then when ten felt too easy, I'd push to 15, and so on, until it became a real workout, hopefully almost without my even noticing. And so far it has worked pretty well. I went to ten pretty quickly, but I got overconfident in my own discipline and I tried pushing myself to fifteen minutes a little too soon and found myself blowing it off, so I dialed it back to ten for a while longer, and now I'm comfortably at fifteen.
I'm in no hurry, because I know that the progress will come. I turn 40 in six months and I should be in pretty good shape by then. I think I've left "the best shape of my life" behind me forever along with the martial arts, but I can live with the second best shape of my life
So that's how I lost 25 pounds in six months without trying, and I can't emphasize enough for the people who might be reading this and looking for inspiration, just how easy it really was. You just have to keep your goals reasonable and your expectations low, and respect the fact that it takes a long time to untangle a problem that took a long time to create.
Jeff
The most obvious is that I look better and feel better, and that's probably in order of importance.
Being physically lighter makes everything easier. It's literally as if I took a 25 pound bowling ball from around my waist, and everything I do reflects that feeling, from how easy it is to get out of bed in the morning to how easy it is get around in a tight space. I'm also more energetic throughout the entire day. That's partially because I'm eating better, and it's partially because I'm lighter. But also, it's because I'm not constantly full. Digestion is one of the most intense biological processes our bodies go through, which is why you feel so sluggish after a meal. I still get that feeling after I eat, but it lasts for a relatively short period of time. And since I'm not going to stuff myself again, it's not going to come back until my next meal. I'm thinking faster and more clearly, and everything that I do, I do with more energy and attention.
And having all that energy, and generally feeling better about myself, has made every other aspect of my life slightly better too.
I don't want to paint this like losing 25 pounds has made every day into a wonderland of sunshine, rainbows and puppies. But what it has done is given me a slightly more stable foundation from which to approach every other aspect of my life. Dealing with this one issue has made every other issue in my life seem like slightly less of a burden, and slightly more solveable.
And it has given me a philosophy that I've found useful for making other changes in my life. Summarized in a sentence, I would say "Small, gradual changes are what create the most gain for the least effort."
And I am ALL about least effort.
I was obsessed with taekwondo, but other than that I've always hated working out, and I have no patience for spending an hour in the gym. But I've gotten too out-of-shape to ignore now, so I had to do something. So I came up with a plan for working out where I would start by doing just five minutes of exercise four days a week. I wanted to do more, but I found that if I tried to do more than 5 minutes, I wouldn't do it at all, and I figured five was better than nothing.
And the idea was that eventually that five minutes would start to get easier, then I would advance it to ten. Then when ten felt too easy, I'd push to 15, and so on, until it became a real workout, hopefully almost without my even noticing. And so far it has worked pretty well. I went to ten pretty quickly, but I got overconfident in my own discipline and I tried pushing myself to fifteen minutes a little too soon and found myself blowing it off, so I dialed it back to ten for a while longer, and now I'm comfortably at fifteen.
I'm in no hurry, because I know that the progress will come. I turn 40 in six months and I should be in pretty good shape by then. I think I've left "the best shape of my life" behind me forever along with the martial arts, but I can live with the second best shape of my life
So that's how I lost 25 pounds in six months without trying, and I can't emphasize enough for the people who might be reading this and looking for inspiration, just how easy it really was. You just have to keep your goals reasonable and your expectations low, and respect the fact that it takes a long time to untangle a problem that took a long time to create.
Jeff
