Week 27: It takes change to make Change
Let me paraphrase two pieces of advice that I have been hearing over and over again lately.
If you don’t like the Results you are getting, you have to Change Something that you are doing. Otherwise, you will never get different results.
If you want to change your life, you have to change something in your life.
Sounds fairly obvious, doesn’t it?
But like a lot of things in our daily life, especially the most important ones, the wisdom in the above advice is easy to overlook; it’s easy to miss. And like a lot of the simplest things in our life, actually putting the above advice to use, actually making even a small change to the multitudes of habits and behaviors that carry us through each day and produce results that compound over years of time is difficult.
And the reason why it’s difficult is because making a change doesn’t mean doing things differently just one time. Making a change to one’s life means making a decision to do something differently, and then making that decision over and over again with consistency (sometimes only once a day, sometimes every hour) until that decision begins being made on a subconscious level.
This Week’s Accountability Report
When I apply the above advice to myself, I see that I have, over the past six months, successfully made exercise a habitual part of my life. I no longer have to think about it anymore. I just do it. Yes, there are occasional days where things come up and I suddenly can’t find a way to fit even ten minutes of exercise into my schedule, but these days no longer pose a threat to my new lifestyle. The habit has been established, and because I am still pursuing a goal, the habit will continue.
When I look at my results, though, in relation to my weight-loss/fat-loss goals, I feel that there is more to be desired. I want to see better results. And if I want to get better results, that means that I have to make a change.
There are two possible changes that I can think of making. One is, I could buy a new scale and start measuring my body fat percentage. When I look in the mirror, I can see that changes are occurring in my body. However, since I only keep records of my body weight, it’s very difficult for me to know what exactly is changing. Am I burning fat or not? Am I continuing to make progress in this area, or am I reaching a plateau? I don’t know; and the reason I don’t know is because my measurements aren’t giving me information that shows me exactly what I want to know.
The other change that I can make is diet related. I can simply decide to eat less. While this has been difficult for me in the past, the reason it has been difficult is because it has meant challenging the cultural and familial expectations of the country I have decided to live in and the people I have decided to surround myself with.
Beginning next week, I will be spending a full month in a different environment, surrounded by different people, which means that I will be able to adjust my dinnertime habits as I see fit without encountering any friction or resistance from other family members. I am very much looking forward to this opportunity and am eager to see what the results of the following month will be.
Exercise:
Four out of seven days: It was a week full of unusual circumstances and many hours of time consuming phone calls.
Weight:
78.4 kg: I had two days of back to back drinking and eating over the weekend, which bumped my weight back up over 78 kg. Additionally, last night I had to eat a very big meal in front of my kids. (My wife and I are trying raise them to not be picky eaters, and to raise them so that they will eat all of the food on their plates. If I don’t eat all of my dinner, it provides a double standard for my children, and that is something that I didn’t want to provide.).
@boxcarblue you were flagged by a worthless gang of trolls, so, I gave you an upvote to counteract it! Enjoy!!
good content
Thanks
I like how you persisted in setting a good example for your kids and avoided double standards even though you had to sacrifice somewhat with your eating. And agree building healthy habits is so important and it's a good move doing so in a new environment. All the best with it mate.
Thanks. Yeah, setting good examples can be difficult. As adults, we get so used to freeing ourselves from inconvenient rules, and allowing ourselves wriggle room when we need it, it can be hard to see when we’re setting double standards. I do my best to be aware of it, but it isn’t easy.
Sometimes we need to sacrifice for our kids, but couldn't you spread the different foods out over several dinners and still finish everything on your plate without overeating? I'm looking forward to the next chapter.
There are some pretty easy solutions to this problem, but since the whole thing is so deeply rooted in the structure of my household, it’s a bit complicated (at least, I perceive it to be so).
My wife plans our meals one week in advance. She does all of the shopping on one day, then cuts all the vegetables, meat, etc. portions it all into small plastic bags, and has it ready to go for the week. This makes our eating schedule pretty inflexible. It also makes the point of change (maybe not in all ways, but in a lot) my wife, rather than myself. That’s hard. She decides the portions a week in advance. If there are leftovers, that means the next day’s meal, which is already mostly prepared, gets delayed, which could delay meals for two or three days.
It’s one of those things where it’s not my system. If it were my system, I would make it work. My flexibility isn’t generally looked upon by my wife as a good thing. It’s often considered a necessity of not being prepared to begin with.
I see. Enjoy your time back home. Safe travels my friend.
Thanks! I’m looking forward to it!!
This food thing is an area where I can’t tell if I’m making excuses or not. I feel like there is an easy answer that I’m just not seeing. Part of the problem has to do with my lack of confidence regarding language use in this area. Part of the problem is my tendency to just give in to my wife’s powerful arguments. Part of the problem, I think, is that the solution here involves changing someone else to a degree (although I’m not totally sure this is necessary). At any rate, I’m looking forward to seeing what time away does, and if it leads to weight loss results, I am thinking that I can use those to begin this conversation.
Buy smaller plates. Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results, apparently Einstein never said that and it was from an 80s Narcotics Anonymous pamphlet. The scales that do body fat are not that accurate in terms of an accurate body fat measurement but they will give you a relative number that you can look at to see if it goes up and down. I like to check mine when my weight has not changed much but I have been working out.
We need to buy shallower bowls. The plates are small and many, and the bowls are deep;-) I need to find a better line of approach to talk about it all with my wife. She hasn’t been very receptive yet.
I can’t believe Einstein didn’t say that quote. It seems to suit all the goofy pictures of him so well.
As for the scales, I’ve always wondered how they work but have never looked into them. It doesn’t seem like they could be very accurate, but if they are consistent, I imagine that would still be helpful.
The goddamned internet has ruined all the best quotes and ancient Chinese sayings with stupid facts. It seems fairly consistent and it was just a cheap one I got from Walmart.
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STOPI know, it's so hard to eat healthy and also be social! So much pressure to eat large portions of salty, sugary, and fatty foods. I'm not being sarcastic. I can't tell you when's the last time I felt comfortable going out to dinner and ordering salad.