All Common Sense
December 8th, 2005 by Y.G.A comment I saw on a post on another diet-related blog (I can’t remember where, though) stuck in my mind and made me realize this… We’re worrying our heads about what’s, in the end, nothing but common sense.
Yes, when we think of it, there’s no “secret” to the whole diet thing. Don’t pig out? That’s only natural. Exercise more? Doesn’t take a genius to understand that. Don’t eat the artificial, sweetened, chemical-laden things? We should anyway be wary of anything that has ingredients impossible to pronounce in it. All common sense, indeed.
Yet in spite of knowing this, we don’t do it, or we take a long time to integrate the idea, and this is the most terrible aspect of it, in my opinion. There’s no miracle remedy, no express solution, no pill that will help us, unless we want short-term results only, which sure isn’t the goal here. There’s only the common sense, in the end, and the fact that we have to rely on it.
I think this had to be told, though. Just by writing it, it helped me placing it all in perspective and acknowledge this simple fact in a way I had never done before: yes, it’s all about coming back to the basics. We can log our daily food amount, count our calories and dutifully clock one hour of exercise every day, there comes a moment when we need to ’snap’ out of the ‘weight-loss mode’, and understand that we need to find a normal, regular, natural manner of doing that for the rest of our lives, else we’ll sooner or later revert back to the old, bad habits, perhaps not because we’ev stopped caring, but just because, let’s face it, logging our food amount is boring.
I know I won’t stand logging my food every day for years. Therefore, I need to accept that it can be done in a ‘natural’ way, instead of relying on the crutches provided by a diet method. However, am I able to learn this without having the crutches first? That’s the question. And the answer is different for everyone of us.
April 26th, 2006 at 8:49 pm
Losing weight, reducing your waistline and generally shaping up is easy, even for a 60-year-old “English gentleman” in Japan. First move into your own apartment, because clearly No.1 wife has not separated caring from affection. Namely, she is over-feeding to the extent you are digging your grave with your teeth. Then fill the dents and get a respray. Namely, get your hair dyed, your teeth scaled and polished and update your wardrobe. But don’t go over the top, because pretty soon most of your clothes will be too big. Braces (suspenders) work with a spare tyre figure. Get a quality set of digital bathroom scales and keep accurate records. One accurate measurement is worth 100 expert opinions, right George. Next find yourself a new girl friend or three. Say mid 20’s, tall, model girl looks, model girl figure. No problemo; literally 10-a-penny here in Tokyo. Once you can put yourself about with an attractive young woman, offers literally come out of the woodwork. Everyone’s so busy here that you need three girl friends to get two dates a week. Needs a little imagination to find an activity that doesn’t involve eating, or at least you eating. But no matter how much she begs, tell her you’re just too embarrassed to get your kit off and “consummate” the relationship until you’ve improved your figure; weight and waistline. “Do have a slice of chocolate cake. It really is so good” will be the likely response. Set some unrealistic goals, say reducing from 110 to 70. That applies to both weight in kilograms and waist measurement in centimetres. Oh God, you guys still use Imperial, or at least USCS. I just don’t know what that is in old money. Then it’s weight training in the gym for two hours everyday, which seriously dulls your appetite. But unfortunately does little to reduce the body mass (that’s weight to you). One thing to dull the hunger pains especially at first is to consume a bottle of whisky every four days. Somewhat counterproductive, however I recommend White Horse 12 for its really peaty taste, but to each his own. When you can no longer taste the peat you’ve had enough. And at around $16.50 for a 70cl a bottle here in Japan, it’s hardly an extravagance. Then take your mind off the eating habit, by for example, studying an academic subject. Physics was my bag. Then you can figure out why the official version of 9/11 is a total crock. And rather than some salad-based wimp diet, announce you are going on a hunger strike over some crank cause. For example, “Save whales” or “Tony Blair must resign”.
Motivation is what it’s all about. Consume less energy than you expend and your body will start to consume its own fat. The body mass has gone below 90kg (just) in seven weeks. And well Japanese gym equipment is for Japanese anyway, and they don’t have the same spare tyre problems as us gaijins. Nevertheless, the side elevation is showing visual improvement. And don’t be in too much of a hurry to patch things up with No.1 wife. After all even if it was kindness she was killing you with, you wind up just as dead. You knew I was having a laugh, right? Where’s your sense of humour, Infidels?