Folks, great conversation here, I started trying to catch up but can’t keep up with the pace. However, I love it! So much great information being written here.
Unrelated to the topic of the moment, an update on my journey this year.
My eating habits have been getting cleaner and cleaner, to the point where I’m downright monkish. Yet the past couple weeks I’m feeling very disgusted with myself. My dad-bod belly feels (subjectively) like I’ve grown, and I’m 195lbs. I’ve only really been that heavy when deliberately eating huge and trying to grow my powerlifts, so how the hell did it sneak up on me?
Some observations:
I used to walk daily. 2-3 miles in a day was typical, and I likely averaged 10-14mi per week. Now? I don’t. The family doesn’t walk as much any more for a variety of reasons that I won’t belabor at the moment.
I do walk at times but I don’t have a lot of surplus time.
I used to engage in 20-minute saturday conditioning sessions. I don’t do that any more. I don’t have the garage setup, and haven’t filled my sandbag. I can clearly improve on this.
Lifting at the gym… I’m realizing it’s different than it used to be for me. There used to be times I’d do 60 minutes EMOM - 20 might be cleans, 20 might be snatches, and 20 might be clean-and-press. THAT is a good session. My sessions now aren’t giving me that cardiovascular hit.
At the beach when I first moved here, I used to bring a sled, fill it with kids or sand and drag it. Now I don’t. I can improve on that.
(I AM active at the beach, but sled drags are a special kind of work)
Anyway, there’s still time for me to look good by the end of this challenge. The next stage in my nutrition journey is going to be portion control, since I’m not looking to further restrict ingredients at this point.
It absolutely is! One of the teachings in stoicism is the ability to delight in simple joys. When I go to Texas de Brazil, my friends get a chuckle out of how every bite I take just absolutely brings me joy. Or like when I tackled that eating challenge and spent the whole time saying “Oh these burgers are great, ooh the cheese is fantastic, or the bacon is delightful, oh my goodness PEANUT BUTTER!”
And it’s funny too: there this prestige about having a sophisticated palate, and I get that but man…what a burden to carry. Much like how I can appreciate some high brow humor, but I’ll still watch the Three Stooges and have a wonderful time.
I’m a big fan of Stan Efferding and Mark Bell’s idea of a 10 minute walk post meals. At 3 meals a day, that’s 30 minutes of walking a day, and the walk post meal has a TON of metabolic benefits. May be a small way to get some results working.
Good to hear the eating habits have turned in a positive direction!
It sounds trite, but for me, reminding myself “I don’t have to, I get to” really goes a long way. The times it doesn’t… then I eat/ do whatever I wanted in the first place because my why obviously wasn’t real strong anyway!
To that note, and maybe a slightly different use case, I also like the 10 minutes walk lately (or sub any activity: pushups, whatever) before a meal… especially to combat boredom eating. It gives me something to do, reduces my appetite, and, if I eat anyway, at least I wasn’t totally sedentary on the way in.
I’ve always tried to remain unaware in certain areas, because awareness minimizes the amount of things that can bring enjoyment.
For example, I’ve had great bourbon, great steaks and driven rare cars. So not much is impressive. Whereas, I’m tone deaf and have no rhythm, so just about all music can sound good to me.
I chalk a lot of the eating and hunger up to sensory perception and stimulus, very similar to pain. Some people hate being hungry because of what it represents to them. Others just shrug it off like its not even there, because for all intents and purposes, it isn’t.
I don’t know if I believe this is something we develop as much as it is something we’re born with, unless by “develop” we mean “enhance,” as in muscle. Not all people are able to develop this mindset from scratch. It’s like they don’t understand what you’re saying when you speak of feeling delight or other very positive emotions only partially related to external factors. If you’re given a beautiful Ritz Carlton breakfast you of course feel delighted or joyful, but how would you ever feel this about no-fats scrambled eggs and a dry whole wheat english muffin?
How can you feel excited over any sort of weather? Rain or snow or heat or something is bad, and the other thing is good. They wouldn’t understand being happy about any of it.
A nature that leans toward enthusiasm is another of the blessings.
