weight loss

Your natural body
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You Never Need to Worry About Your Weight Again

Focus only on your health and trust nature to take care of the rest.

There’s plenty of space for your natural body between an unhealthy weight and the unrealistic beauty standards portrayed in the media. 
Created by Janet Cloete using Wikimedia Commons images from Muffintopmaria and Cedward Brice.

Are you happy with your weight? If you are, congratulations! You’re part of an elite group. According to this survey, only 2 in 10 Americans are happy with their bodies.

But have you ever wondered why we experience such large social pressures to appear slim and athletic? After all, there are several periods in history where plump bodies were desired, especially for women. Why are these same well-rounded figures stigmatized today?

Keeping Each Other Accountable

My best theory about today’s obesity stigma is that it’s our instinctive attempt to keep each other accountable for contributing to a better society. The societal costs of obesity are enormous, and our world would undoubtedly be a better place if it could be controlled more effectively.

But this way of thinking creates severe problems. For starters, we’ve managed to push the social body standard all the way to the opposite extreme. This unrealistic expectation completely neglects the large space between fitness model standards and obesity that is both healthy and attainable.

We also need to acknowledge that genetics have plenty to say about the shape of our bodies. This article puts the genetic influence on obesity at about 25%, rising to as much as 70–80% for people who really struggle to lose weight.

But our genes have not changed over the past two generations when the obesity epidemic started running rampant. No, the primary driving force behind this epidemic is the ubiquitous availability of addictive empty calories — foods purpose-built to short-circuit the body’s natural satiety response and make us overeat. The omnipresence of these slow poisons is capitalism’s greatest failure and our costliest societal burden.

Hence, we’re stuck in a society that’s obsessed with athletic physiques but surrounds itself with foods designed for overeating. If there was ever a recipe for terrible body-image (and all the associated mental health problems), this is it.

A New Standard

It’s a good thing that we instinctively want to keep each other accountable for reducing the massive societal burden of obesity, but we’re focussing on the wrong issue. Instead of pressuring each other to be thin, we should be actively encouraging each other to maintain a lifelong healthy diet. Bodies should be shaped for health, not for social media.

In this article, I want to give you permission to feel at home in whatever body arises from a genuinely healthy diet. This is your natural weight that you never need to apologize for.

Fueling your body with all the right foods despite society’s constant attempts to addict you to empty calories is a great achievement that should be celebrated, regardless of the number on your scale.

How to Find Your Natural Weight

Your natural weight is the number that arises when you eat as much as you naturally feel like from a varied diet dominated by whole foods.

In other words, you allow your body’s natural satiety response to regulate your calorie intake by 1) removing toxic foods designed to make you overeat and 2) ensuring that all your nutritional needs are met (naturally).

There are three simple guidelines that define such a diet:

  1. Consume more than 80% of your calories from whole foods. Regularly eat from each of these four categories: 1) nuts, seeds, and berries, 2) cooked and raw veggies, 3) avocado and other fruit, and 4) non-meat proteins (here, mildly processed foods are also OK).
  2. Eat at least 30 different types of whole foods every day. This is much easier than it sounds.
  3. Commit to always pay the true cost of the foods you buy. The best way is to use charitable donations for offsetting the societal damages caused by any empty calorie purchases. A good starting point is to give $7 for every 1000 calories of unhealthy food.

Regularly moving your body is important too, but diet comes first. As you approach your natural weight and start noticing much-improved vitality from your healthy, whole-food diet, exercise will follow naturally.

If you stick to these guidelines, you can eat as much as you feel like and be 100% comfortable with the result. Whatever the scale says, you would have given your body every chance to stay healthy and contribute to society.

But be prepared: Transitioning from the Standard American Diet (SAD) to a healthy, whole-food diet can be tough. Empty calories are drugs, and they can be just as hard to quit as smoking. This empty-calorie detox plan can help you through this challenging transition period, one step at a time.

What is Your Natural Weight?

The researcher in me is very curious about the variation in natural weight within the human population. I’m lucky enough that my natural weight is at the optimal point according to the Smart BMI calculator. That means I’m blessed with genes that align my natural weight with societal expectations.

Not everyone will be this lucky, but I would like to believe it’s impossible to become obese on a varied, whole-food diet. When you cut out almost all empty calories, it might even be difficult to become overweight. I could not find any studies that directly test this hypothesis, so I’m very curious to learn more about different people’s natural weights.

If you maintain the kind of diet described above, please share your Smart BMI in the comments below. Also, if you’re currently overweight and commit to a varied, whole-food diet with almost no empty calories, I would love to hear about your progress after a few months!

But whatever the result may be, know that society cannot expect you to change your genetic makeup. To be honest, it can’t even expect you to maintain a perfect diet when it constantly tries to addict you to empty-calorie drugs. Anyone who maintains a varied, whole-food diet under these circumstances is doing society a massive service, regardless of their bodyweight.

For that, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. 😊

Thanks to Alta Cloete.

Empty calorie detox
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The 5 Levels of Empty-Calorie Detox

Awakening, Upgrading, Governing, Designing, and, for the truly committed among us, Abstaining

Created by Janet Cloete using images by artistlike and Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.

If you live in the Western World, your likelihood to be addicted to illicit drugs is about 2%. Softer addictions like alcohol and nicotine are more common at around 20%.

But there is another category of addictive substances that affects most of the population: all those irresistible, nutrient-free treats rich in refined carbs, saturated fats, and salt, collectively known as empty calories. The science is now becoming clearer on how these substances lead to consumption disorders and addiction, especially sugar.

Basically, these hyper-palatable foods stimulate the reward centers in the brain (like all other drugs), encouraging more consumption even when safe limits have long since been crossed.

This response comes from our evolutionary history where food was scarce, and binging was important for survival. In today’s world of caloric abundance, this outdated survival instinct has quite the opposite effect.

“Food addiction” remains a contentious term, mainly because empty calories are obviously much less addictive and harmful than illicit drugs like heroin or cocaine. However, while less than 2000 tons of cocaine are produced each year (most of which is successfully seized by authorities), the world uses 172 million tons of sugar.

Thus, even if sugar is 1000 times less harmful than cocaine, its effect on society is much larger simply because we use 100000 times more of it. In fact, empty calories are the single costliest burden humanity faces today.

Lightening this terrible societal burden is the primary motivation behind this article. If you’re prone to empty-calorie impulse buying or even if you just know you’re eating more sugary treats than is good for you, please read on.

The Five Levels of Empty-Calorie Detox

Below, you’ll find five detox levels, arranged from basic to complete. When considering these levels, remember that empty calories are not nearly as harmful pound-for-pound as illicit drugs, so total abstinence is not required. Even Level 1 can help you make a sizable dent in your empty-calorie intake to the benefit of yourself, your loved ones, and your society.

If I had to recommend a level to aim for, it would be Level 3. This is the Pareto-level where you can avoid 80% of the problems with only 20% of the effort.

I’ve been at Level 4 for several months now, and it’s been a positive experience that I will happily recommend to anyone who is serious about their health. However, I think the total empty-calorie abstinence of Level 5 could be a step too far.

So, don’t rush it! Empty calories are soft drugs and, unless you lock yourself away in empty-calorie rehab (no joke, society could use such institutions), pushing too hard too early will only end in a hard relapse. Thus, take it one step at a time and only level-up once you feel strong and motivated enough to commit 100%.

And when you reach a level you’re comfortable with for the long-run, that’s totally fine. Anything above Level 0 is a win for yourself and your world.

Level 1: Awakening

We all know that certain foods are good for us and others less so. But few people understand the true cost of our massive indulgence in nutrient-poor foods designed to make us overeat. In fact, the word “food” shouldn’t even be used to describe these slow poisons.

Simply taking a bit of time to learn just how bad they truly are will give you ample motivation to start your detox journey.

So, please take 5 minutes to scan through this article on the social costs of empty calories. That’s it. Five minutes is all you need to do to reach Level 1.

Following this exercise, you might notice some interesting changes in your mindset. Be mindful of this the next time you walk into a carefully designed empty-calorie ambush. Your newfound understanding of how much damage those brightly decorated packets of instant pleasure do to society should make it much easier to resist their charm.

Over time, this creates a powerful empty-calorie deterrent. For example, after all the hours I’ve spent researching this topic, I’m now more disappointed than tempted by the empty calories that lurk around every corner of the supermarket. Thus, I just sigh and walk past the temptation without wasting any willpower (which feels pretty good, to be honest).

Level 2: Upgrading

Unfortunately, the addictive allure of empty calories is so strong that most of us will need more than a simple intellectual understanding to break our addiction. Some gradual replacement therapy is a great tool to further increase our awareness. That’s why the next step is to become more selective about the sugary and fatty treats you allow into your body.

On this level, you strike a bargain with yourself to only indulge in top-quality culinary treats that contain at least some nutritional value.

Examples include premium dark chocolate, quality ice cream with berries, yogurt-covered nuts, and gourmet cheeses or cured meats.

Still allowing yourself access to these luxurious “somewhat empty calories” makes it considerably easier to permanently abandon all those cheap and dangerous “totally empty calories” like candy, cake and cookies, cheap chocolate and ice cream, potato chips, and soda.

The high cost of such “somewhat empty calories” will also naturally temper your consumption. You could start by working out how much money you previously wasted on cheap “totally empty calories” and set that as your budget for enjoying these premium treats.

Level 3: Governing

The third level is where you do for yourself what governments should have started doing for society long ago: make sure that you always pay the full societal cost when you buy empty calories.

The best way to reach this level is to draw up your very own charitable donations contract to govern your empty-calorie intake.

This contract specifies the amount you will pay to your favorite charity whenever you engage in any clearly defined act of self-sabotage. Purchases of empty calories should be the very first item on your charitable donations contract. My best estimate of the social cost of empty calories is $7 per 1000 kcal — a good foundation for these donations.

Give it a go! It works like a charm. Not only will this arrangement give a big boost to your health; it will also help you support some great causes. Helping others by improving yourself is an awesome feeling.

And don’t be put off by the word “contract.” It could be as simple as writing a quick note about how much you will pay which charity, signing it, and sticking it on the fridge.

Level 4: Designing

After you’ve spent some time at Level 3, you may realize something peculiar: Although your empty calorie intake has greatly reduced, your life has not gotten any worse. You might even have to admit that things are better now that you’ve shed a few pounds without even trying, enjoy higher energy levels, and no longer suffer from empty-calorie guilt.

When you reach this point, you could consider upgrading to Level 4.

At this level, you commit to designing your life so that almost all of it happens in environments free from empty calories (including common table sugar).

Your home is the first and most important of these environments, with your workplace second.

Implementing such no-empty-calorie zones involves some interesting psychology. If you do it too early, your mind might rebel and lead you on an empty calorie binge out of pure spite. But if you time it just right, your mind might accept. This is a surprisingly liberating state where you no longer need to engage in that annoying empty-calorie debate every time you pass the chocolate aisle in the supermarket. Instead, the decision is made beforehand and your mind quickly learns that there will be no debate.

You’ll also notice that your healthy, whole-food diet starts tasting better as your sugar and saturated fat tolerance reduces. In addition, the occasional quality treat at a special event suddenly becomes genuine bliss. Just like any drug, excess sugar numbs your experience of sweetness, making you crave even more sugar. Reversing this process is a deeply rewarding experience.

Level 5: Abstaining

The final level is to ban all empty calories from your life. If you’ve already reached Level 4, the small additional gains you can make from taking things to this final level may not be worth it. To be honest, I don’t know because I’ve never tried it, but as mentioned earlier, I’m skeptical.

There are several cases when “somewhat empty calories” are certainly worth their full societal cost. For instance, if you’re at a memorable celebration where the point is to eat, drink, and make merry, you might spoil the mood if you demand to be served exclusively whole foods. Similarly, if a friend invites you over and goes through the effort of preparing a delicious dessert, letting yourself freely enjoy it brings great social benefits. A delicious treat can also help soothe the pain when life has dealt you a serious low-blow (although you should be careful that this does not trigger a relapse).

If you truly commit to Level 5, your friends will learn that you don’t do any unhealthy food. You’ll just need to make sure that people know of your principles beforehand, almost like a vegan or someone who’s gluten intolerant. Thus, it’s certainly possible. I’m just not sure it’s worth it.

Be Clear About What Qualifies as Empty Calories

If you plan to progress through the levels outlined above, I strongly recommend sitting down and making some firm decisions on where you draw the empty-calorie line. As mentioned earlier, there are many “totally empty calories” that are open-and-shut cases. But there are also those “somewhat empty calories” that at least offer some nutritional value.

The most general empty-calorie definition I can come up with goes like this: A food rich in refined carbs, saturated fats, or salt you mostly eat for emotional reasons. And here’s an even shorter version:

Listen to your conscience. Deep down, you know which foods do you more harm than good.

Drawing a hard and firm line is crucial to avoid wasting energy and willpower on endless empty-calorie rationalizations. Trust me, an addicted mind can come up with extremely creative rationalizations to keep using. Don’t fall into that trap.

Other than that, I can only wish you hearty good luck! Although it might not feel so initially, life gets much better once you break your empty-calorie dependence. I sincerely hope you get to experience this for yourself 😊

Thanks to Alta Cloete.

Fruit Candy
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How to Eat as Much as You Want and Never Get Fat

Feast on the right foods and your body will know when to stop.

Compiled from images by Pixabay and Dmitry Mishin

Let’s start with an unusual statement: Western culture has weaponized food for psychological torture.

This is no hyperbole. On the one hand, our culture idealizes overly thin bodies and, on the other, it surrounds us with foods purpose-built to make us overeat — the perfect recipe for food-induced misery.

Now, don’t get me wrong; we should certainly keep each other accountable to avoid obesity (which costs society a mind-boggling $2 trillion every year), but social pressures to be excessively thin have long been out of hand. Ironically, these pressures only make us gain more weight.

It’s high time we straighten out this twisted system. First, let’s ignore social conventions and define “fat” as the point where health risks become serious. That would be the “high” or “very high” risk bands in this calculator (orange and red areas in the figure below).

My Smart BMI positioning from eating as much whole food as I feel like.

Second, let’s replace all those sugary, fatty, and salty addictions with a healthy and varied whole-food diet. I’m confident that getting “fat” on such a diet will be very difficult, even if you give yourself complete freedom to eat as much as you feel like (sounds nice, doesn’t it?).

When diligently adhering to the following steps, you might even find it impossible to break out of that pretty green band in the figure above 🙂

  1. Stock your kitchen with all the right foods.
  2. Make sure you always pay the true cost of empty calories.
  3. Drink plenty of water and use it as an intelligent snack moderator.
  4. Use your toothbrush to help you stop when 80% full (Hara Hachi Bu).
  5. Find good reasons outside yourself to maintain your healthy diet.

So, if you’re currently at an unhealthy weight (or spending a huge amount of time, money, and energy maintaining your healthy weight), I challenge you to stay (or get) fat on this eat-as-much-as-you-want diet. Let me know if you manage to do it. I sure couldn’t!

Step 1: A Home Stocked with the Right Foods

The best weight-loss tool out there is not a gym membership or a smoothie maker; it’s a home that contains only filling, whole foods. By extension, this also means that you need to make almost all your food at home (which doesn’t need to cost you more than 15 minutes per day).

Below, you’ll find the four categories of whole foods you need to invite into your home. For optimal results, make sure that more than 80% of your calories come from these four categories, with at least 10% from each. Here are some handy links to calculate your calorie requirement and the calorie content of different foods. In addition, maximize variety by regularly eating from each item mentioned in the four titles below.

Nuts, Seeds, and Berries

Nuts and seeds have a bad reputation due to their high-fat content and energy density. But if you ensure they’re not doctored by those mad addictive food scientists (using all their refined sugar, saturated fat, and excessive salt), your body’s natural satiety response will keep you safe. Here’s an ideal breakfast to help get you started.

Cooked and Raw Veggies (at Least a Third Non-Starchy)

Vegetables, especially the non-starchy variety, are the best filling foods at our disposal simply because they contain so few calories per volume of food. That’s why this category will be your biggest challenge in meeting the “10% of calories” guideline. To pass this test, you’ll have to rely heavily on both cooked and raw non-starchy veggies, given that they only contain about 30 calories per 100 g of food.

Cooked veggies can be rather bland, but it doesn’t have to be that way. There are plenty of ways to spice up your cooked veggies. My favorite is to use a little meat as a vegetable dressing.

Raw veggies make surprisingly good snacks. Always have some carrots, cherry tomatoes, or peas readily available in places you’ll frequently see them. These guys can be surprisingly tasty, so snack away with reckless abandon! Also, turn the green salad (or just a few cucumber slices) into a staple next to your warm meals. Last but not least, establish a green smoothie habit.

Avocado and Other Fruit

If you experience withdrawal symptoms from kicking your refined sugar addiction, fruit is a great way to ease the pain. Its natural sweetness will see you safely through to the other side. Whole, pressed fruit juices are also allowed as long as they don’t contain any added sugar.

One special (and not particularly sweet) fruit deserves its own paragraph: the avocado. You’ll frequently see this unique fruit in lists of the world’s healthiest foods. Given its high-fat content in contrast to the high carbohydrate content in most other fruits, it’s perfect for balancing your macronutrient intake.

Non-Meat Proteins from Animals and Plants

Among animal products, this category puts the threshold at 7 g of protein per 100 calories. Eggs, fish, and some dairy products meet this criterion. Most cheeses do not due to their high saturated fat content. Also, for environmental reasons, please keep your total animal product intake (including meat) below 20% of your total calories.

From the plant-world, the threshold is lowered slightly to 5 g of protein per 100 calories. Many legumes qualify for this prestigious category (those that don’t can go to the vegetable category). You can also try protein-stacked algae like spirulina and chlorella. Although not counted in this category, the nuts and seeds we discussed earlier will also make sizable contributions to your plant protein intake.

Step 2: Pay the True Cost of Empty Calories

Getting at least 80% of your calories from the above-mentioned foods offers excellent protection against all those dangerous empty calories purpose-built for addiction. But you can go a step further: fix capitalism’s worst failure by ensuring you always pay the true cost of these junk foods.

The best way to do this is to include any purchase of empty calories in your charitable donations contract — a formal contract listing the unhealthy actions that will increase the amount you give to charity. A good place to start is to donate one hour’s wages every time you buy empty calories.

What qualifies as empty calories? Anything with lots of calories and few nutrients that you buy in pursuit of an addictive dopamine hit. Some are obvious, while others, like dark chocolate and cheese, are more debatable. Your conscience will tell you where to draw the line. Listen to it.

Another dangerous element deserving a prime spot on your charity contract is your main binge trigger(s). For me, this is eating in front of the TV. Such triggers can very easily corrupt your mind and your natural satiety responses, driving you to unnecessary self-destruction.

Step 3: Water and Snacking

Staying hydrated is an excellent way to control cravings. This dieting challenge has three water guidelines:

  1. Drink two glasses of water directly after waking up.
  2. Drink a glass of water before every snack.
  3. Always have a bottle of water within arm’s length.

Point 2 is an especially effective way of controlling excessive snacking. Often, mild dehydration is a contributor to unhelpful cravings, and snacking is something we do out of impulse. This rule automatically takes care of both these issues.

Step 4: Hara Hachi Bu

This age-old practice of stopping when you’re 80% full is one reason why Japanese people, particularly the residents of Okinawa, live such long lives. Make sure you control your portion sizes to meet this guideline, and if you still feel serious cravings when your plate is empty, go and brush your teeth. Getting the food taste out of your mouth is often all that’s needed to kill those pesky cravings.

On the rare occasion that your craving persists even when your mouth is minty fresh, feel free to enjoy a healthy snack preceded by a glass of water.

Step 5: Find Your External Motivation

The last rule in this eat-as-much-as-you-want diet challenge is to find some motivation outside of yourself for eating all the right foods. This article discusses a range of options, including correcting grave social injustices, saving the environment, protecting animal welfare, and securing the health of your loved ones.

To put this into action, print out a large picture representing your chosen external motivation and put it on your fridge door.

The Challenge in a Nutshell

So, are you up for it? Here’s a short rundown of the rules:

  1. Get 80% or more of your calories from the following food categories, at least 10% from each: nuts, seeds, and berries; cooked and raw veggies (at least a third non-starchy); avocado and other fruit; non-meat protein from animals and plants.
  2. For variety, consume foods from each of the food sub-categories mentioned above at least twice per week (vegans can skip the animal protein and use a threshold of 4 g per 100 calories).
  3. Include the purchase of any empty calories and engagement in any of your binge triggers in your charitable donations contract.
  4. Follow the water guidelines: 2 glasses first thing in the morning, 1 glass before any snack, and a water bottle always within reach.
  5. Once you reach 80% fullness, you can only eat more after you’ve brushed your teeth.
  6. Decorate your fridge door with a big picture symbolizing your chosen external motivation for healthy eating.

As long as you stick to these rules, you can eat as much as you feel like!

I’m really curious whether anyone can stay (or become) “fat” while adhering to these rules. Please let me know how you got on with this challenge!

Thanks to Alta Cloete.

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Recap: Making the Classic “Healthy Living” New Year’s Resolution Work

It’s hard to believe there’s only five days left of this decade! Such a major milestone often brings with it some very useful motivation for driving positive change. This week’s posts were all about channeling this motivation into creating permanent healthy eating habits. 

So, let’s wrap this up with the traditional checklist…

The checklist

Here’s the 1-2-3 to a nutritional New Year’s resolution that might actually work 🙂

  1. Understand why diets have such a high failure rate.
  2. Intelligently shape your environment.
  3. Intelligently shape your habits.

So, if the classic health and weight loss resolutions are running through your head as we approach the new decade, why not give this a try?

As a reward, you’ll get to enjoy the next decade (and many more after that) in optimal health at your ideal weight 🙂

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Permanent Healthy Eating Habits: The Perfect New Year’s Resolution

Yes, we’ve made it to the last full week of the decade! It’s certainly been an interesting one, and the next one promises to be even more so 🙂

It’s usually around this time of the year that people start coming up with some grandiose New Year’s resolutions. Mostly, these resolutions are linked to diet and/or exercise. And sadly, they rarely make it past January. 

This week, we’ll talk about three great resolutions for the new decade, paying particularly close attention to one key detail: actually making it happen. 

The key to a successful New Year’s resolution

If you promise yourself you’ll go on a diet from the 1st of January, let me save you the trouble. It ain’t gonna happen, at least not for the long run. 

The one and only way to successfully achieve a New Year’s resolution is to change your environment so that actions consistent with your goal happen automatically. It’s well worth reading this long sentence a couple of times. 

If you commit yourself to the latest fad diet inspired by access to a fresh new decade, you’ll soon end up relying on willpower alone. And, over time, willpower always runs out. 

Diet vs. lifestyle change

The weight loss industry is one of the most fascinating constructs of our affluent modern society. In the United States, for example, this industry is worth $72 billion, significantly more than the clean energy industry. 

Yet, the long-term success rate of diets and other weight loss schemes hovers around 5%. This means that almost all of those 72 billion dollars might as well have been burned. 

The rather obvious reason for this great failure has been discussed earlier: the powerful cravings that kept us alive through millennia of extreme scarcity are still just as strong in today’s world of great affluence.

We’ve evolved to eat for our very survival and, in today’s world with hyper-palatable nutrient-free treats around every corner, an obesity epidemic is a pretty obvious result. 

Fad diets and exercise gizmos are powerless against millennia of evolution. Indeed, the only way to victory is to gradually implement permanent lifestyle changes that automatically control our primitive cravings. 

This is what we’ll be doing over the next three days. So, stay tuned… These strategies could help create a New Year’s resolution that actually happens, making the 2020’s your best decade ever 🙂

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Craving and Inspiration

This week we’ll delve into the interesting topic of intelligent environment design: the practice of making good actions easy and bad actions hard. 

In general, the Big Five primitive emotions drive us to take bad actions, while the Great Five positive emotions drive us to take good actions. 

Thus, we’ll construct intelligent environments for each pairing of the Big Five and the Great Five, starting with Craving and Inspiration. 

Craving

Craving comes in many different shapes and sizes, but its most challenging form is the one responsible for the global obesity epidemic. 

The core action we want to prevent is the act of stuffing our faces with hyper-palatable nutrient-free foods. So, let’s start with a simple question: how can I maximize the friction involved in this self-destructive action?

The simplest solution is to never allow these foods into your home. Thus, if Craving hits, you’ll have to go all the way to the store just for one little calorie bomb. This puts Craving up against Sloth in a fight it will often lose. 

Another fight that Craving will often lose is one against Ego. Try making a deal with your accountability buddy that you can only buy something unhealthy after you have let them know why you need to do this. The “justification” for spending money on self-destruct foods is often so stupid and embarrassing that Ego sends Craving packing then and there.  

A similar philosophy can be followed to add friction to other varieties of Craving. For example, it’s best to avoid signing up to dedicated binge-watching platforms like Netflix. 

But I think you get the idea. The next time you get a self-destructive Craving, think of ways to maximize friction and take action right away. 

Inspiration

Minimizing negative actions is all about adding friction. So, naturally, maximizing positive actions is all about removing friction.  

As we discussed earlier, getting more inspiration in your life requires a healthy blend of knowledge and passion. Thus, your mission here is to remove any friction involved in gaining knowledge and doing things you’re passionate about. 

Making some kind of commitment to knowledge is a good place to start. Maybe you can sign up for a course or, if you’ve cemented your morning reading habit, invest in a couple of books. 

Getting yourself to actually practice your passion can be trickier, but the same principles apply. For example, I was losing touch with my music until I decided to move my piano and guitar into my living room. Following this friction-reducing move, I’ve played every day for the past 5 months! 

So, how can you tweak your environment to lure more Inspiration into your life? Systematically remove all friction from learning and practice and I guarantee you Inspiration will come 🙂

That’s it for today. Join me again tomorrow when we put Ego and Altruism through their paces. 

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Health Tracker

Health has long been one of my top priorities. Ever since a couple of health scares many years ago, I’ve been on a real mission to optimize this area of my life (the full story is available here).

As a result, I’ve not been sick for over a decade 🙂

But despite my good health, I never managed to get down to my ideal weight. It was not until I finally cracked the consistency code nine months ago that the weight came off (see below). 

The graph also shows the narrow corridor of my ideal weight, which I define as a smart BMI of 34/70. 

Aside from my weight, I also track two less straightforward metrics: metabolic age and biological age (see below).

My body composition monitor tells me my metabolic age (mainly from measuring my body-fat percentage).  Things like heart rate and waist measurement are used to calculate my biological age with this calculator. 

All I can say about that is that it’s fun to have an (almost) 35-year-old’s experience in a 20-year-old body!

Finally, I have a funny little animation composed from four fortnightly pictures of me flexing. I hope it will provide a good laugh and a little inspiration 😀

The aim of this is not to show off my annoyingly asymmetric sixpack, but rather to visualize how my body changes over the years. Indeed, I plan to take such a picture once every two weeks for the rest of my life! 

It’s also a nice illustration of what consistency can do. No gym membership, no weight-loss diet, no drugs. Just consistently sticking to my healthy eating habits combined with moderate daily exercise. 

See you tomorrow!