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Want to lose weight: find your happy place and simplify your life

This post is part of my series about losing weight. I’m choosing to focus on explaining the benefits of activity through it’s part in helping you lose weight.

Focus on the real reason most weight loss approaches don’t work. They aren’t fun and don’t fit in with normal life. The only reliable way to be in control of your weight for the rest of your life is to have a life that brings weight under control  through fun.

I ask the most important question. “What do you want to do with your time in life?” It’s a philosophical point but also a practical one. “Does each day you live make you happy?” “How will losing weight make you happier?” or maybe it’s even better to ask “How can making you happier help you lose weight?”

Learning what makes you happy and fulfilled cannot be a waste of time. If losing weight becomes part of this path to happiness then it’s more likely to happen. If doing the things that make you happy helps you lose weight then this seems the best chance you have for losing weight because you won’t make excuses not to do them. YOu’ll be drawn to them and enjoy them for the rest of your life.

This brings my whole fit2thrive concept together. You tackle a big challenge using read, risk recover and solve everything with fun. Play becomes the solution to one of lifes problems. The goal you have is to achieve a bucket list item. By doing this you lose a little weight. Weight loss becomes the side effect. Your addictions take centre stage because they are the thing you can rely on. Unhealthy addictions like smoking obviously aren’t the focus but healthy or moderate ones like food, activity, sleep and resting are. You might be addicted to horror movies or an adrenaline rush or high fashion. That is your route to weight loss because it will make you move and get you up in the morning. Just like playing tennis ensures I never miss a day off work. It gets me up on cold snowy days and leaves me with a smile.

My life is increasingly an example of my principle. I am happier each year. More active than ever and healtheir because of it. Most importantly I can do anything I want and I can play with my son. My health an fitness enables play. Though we’re living on a tight budget and we want to imrpve our house have more fun as a family.I’m using this to enhancw my health and learn. It’s all about having a sustainable life. Using the things I love like cooking, walking, music and tennis to get healthy.these are my passions.Getting helthy is bout chasing these passions. Embracing them.

Personal Challenges

Work through my personal challenges each month. See how they contribute to this article. I get things done while getting healthy.

Losing weight is just about the biggest topic in health for men or women when you consider it as body sculpting. Men are more likely to use weights, women more likely to do classes.

Everywhere I look I see confusion in how to lose weight. Or I see approaches that only fit certain people. Weight loss programs that don’t cater for food addicts. Activity programs that preach to the converted. Everything is for fanatics. Doing a little and often is ignored and often ridiculed and looked down on.

This is the path I have been on in life. How to live your life in a way that fixes you.

The end goal is also something unreliable and ineffectual like weight lost or calories burned. Isn’t this more about how you look and feel than what you weigh and what your eat or do.

At the core of simplifying your life is picking the right things to measure and achieving your goals in due course. The idea is that if you do things we all agree on but in a way that makes you happy and fits you like a glove then you’re going to succeed. How long it takes may vary but you are guaranteed to be happier and healthier.

What I need to do is make this a no brainer, quick and easy. I already have plenty of sources. Great teachers like fyb and essential tennis, lots of great apps, recipes and all sorts. The problem right now is the complexity in putting it all together.

I feel the tai chi course is something that can pull it all together. Maybe I say pick your battles. What is the one thing that could make a difference to you? sleep, activity, food.

Tai chi helps you find your balance and neutral. Not push too hard and feel effortless

Having fun makes you happy and centres things around you. The activity and food then become the route to the fun like going to alton towers or london but also they become part of daily life like shopping, DIY, gardening, washing and all the things we do. You just get your daily steps and challenge your whole body by living your life. The advantage is that you automatically become fit for the life you want to lead. Being happy and doing the things you love no longer breaks you it makes you.

The general topics are:

  1. simplify your life by combining things. having fun, being active, sleeping and eating right should not be separate activities. That’s what makes them so hard to fit in. If you learn to combine them then you can achieve your goals with time to spare.
  2. activity and eating right are no brainers. Everyone accepts they need to do it. Few know how to do it right and fit it in with ease.
  3. Sleep, not many appreciate the importance of good sleep and less know how to get it.
  4. health: doing these things is the most guaranteed road to health there just isn’t a debate but they all need to be done. Achieving each one is fantastic and each has a cumulative benefit.
  5. Happiness: The benefit isn’t only health. Think of the fun you can have when you tackle each problem. If you can sleep well how much better will you feel, lose weight and what more can you do etc.
  6. investing: Losing weight requires investment. Like paying off a loan. This is an investment in you and the knowledge of how you work. Unlike a car or tv or holiday the knowledge and experience you gain let alone the results are with you for life. They don’t depreciate in value instead the appreciate. It’s also an investment in your body. Learning how to make your bones, muscles, heart mind and liver strong. The way you live becomes and investment in tomorrow.
  7. Ageing well: Ageing well is tightly linked to these core principles. Move it or lose it, early to be early to rise, you are what you eat, all work and no play
  8. Resistance to illness: The evidence is pretty clear do these things and your resistance to disease goes through the roof. It’s not a gamble. It’s the clearest and most reliable health solution known to man. Everyone benefits and there is no downside.

the concept here is that Being fit makes life easier and happier

Everyone seems to want to be fit simply so they can lose weight or live longer. Fair enough but I feel there are better things you can get from being fit.

The truth is that life gets easier when you are fit and at the same time you have more opportunities to be happy.

Of course that’s quite a statement so let me explain what I mean.

I considered the concept of being fit as a holistic thing about being fit for life. Being able to run a marathon is fantastic but few of us do that in real life. Though it would make the experience of travelling to london or walking round big theme parks or experiencing the countryside much more comfortable because you would fine the walking required quite easy.

Fitness for life is about finding general things like DIY, carrying heavy things, or awkward things like the shopping. Holding you hand up high for longer periods like painting the ceiling or drilling holes up high. The wax on wax off type moltions we see in Karate kid are also relevant.

At the same time it’s mental fitness, not being tired at the end of the day or the start. Not ending up with headaches because your mind tires out too soon.

Emotional fitness. Some days are just trying,. Sometimes you learn to pace yourself. Other times you have to build up your tolerance.

Get fit in each of these areas and you can see how life is going to get easier. You can do the things you need to do in life and still have energy and time for fun. You’re also more likely to find these things fun because they don’t feel so hard. Though I feel you have to start by incorporating fun into them.

At the same time being fit can make it easier to be happy because just about everything that makes people happy

What do I know about losing weight? Why listen to me?
I  can eat a lot

I am a seasoned eater. Can put weight on like any one else. Left an all you can eat hungry. Ate a pizza, hungry 15 mins later. At one point eating 4000 calories a day.

Key reason don’t get bigger. I keep Fit and move. Talked about moving in obesity post. Ignored eating because it’s the most important thing. Didn’t have time to say more. Now I can elaborate on food. It’s your attitude to and relationship with food that matters. We eat as though we are about to starve. We teach our bodies to ignore the signs of being full. I was taught early on to do this. I won’t encourage this in my son.

What works for me is focus on quality, taste and texture over quantity. Fruit and Veg are flavoured water, protein, fats and carbs. They make stuff exciting. So now I eat the way that tastes best. I let my belly get used to a smaller diet so I feel full sooner so taste and fullness work together. Occasionally I overeat for my soul. So i prove it’s not off limits. Every day I feast and famine. Have a celebration of food and also abstinence. I am never too far from an exciting meal. That fits me.

Have a weight loss campaign over January about building it into your life. Not as a luxury like a gym but a necessary staple. The activity in cooking, shopping, the school run, lunch time, work. Scour the web for examples and share. Find a meme and hash tag. Link to my articles. Organise them. Feed into my main article. Build it over the month. Update regularly on changes made

I think you can tackle the main health problems with this approach. Basically the best way to tackle major disease is to have more fun. That’s the paradox I’m proposing. That’s what my training and research has been about. That’s where I’m going.

All the articles I’m working on back this up

  • cancer
  • heart disease
  • osteoporosis
  • obesity
  • migraine
  • stress and anxiety

The point is to have sustainable fun. Financially we got into problems because our fun wasn’t sustainable. Health is exactly the same. Too many mcdonalds. Too much of anything. NOt enough balance. Not knowing how to enjoy a sustainable lifestyle. Not knowing how and when to say no.

So this approach cuts across the whole of life.nd includes work, rest and play. This is a list of stuff you do. Some activities are already active, some are already fun. Some are both, some are neither. Just understanding this gets you somewhere. Then learning how to add the fun and the activity makes everything easier. It means that everything in your day has a purpose and you can just get on with your day. Your activity is built in and so is your fun.

Instead of trying to fit too much in your just get stuff done. So you reduce your guilt. Doing chores gets you fit and gives you a chance for fun. Maybe you just stand up while doing the ironing but this keeps you mobile and helps your bones and joints. Plus you’re unlikely to get injured doing it

Cooking is similar. It’s generally done while standing up and requires regular moving. Popping out to the garage and reaching up high is a chance to move and get your steps. Shopping for the food is another chance to move.

  • highlights and bucketlists: stuff you really want to do like visit wimbledon, holidays and trips, conferences and trips
  • normal stuff:  meals out, cinema,
  • chores cleaning, tidying, paperwork, Making your home nice: gardening and DIY, shopping, commute, morning routine, cooking

Each of these items has activity and fun if you look for it. Many chores may not be fun but they allow fun. listening to music or watching stuff. Many lend themselves to being more active. You just need to be more active than you were. You chores often get you standing up

Then you get to plan your days, week and month. Make sure there is some fun throughout. Then figure out how fit you’re going to need to be to really enjoy them and also how fit they will make you. These become goals and training. A night out dancing can be its own work out. The drinking is the fun but equally you need to be strong enough to handle it. So your fitness is based around going out.

Parents need fitness to lift kids and get through the night and do all the shopping. But playing with your kids can keep you fit. taking them places and walking round with them makes you strong.

The point of this artilcle is about us now. How we live this year have fun, get healthy and build our lives together. Each year getting better than the next as we learn how to have more fun and get fitter.

Levels of activity

  • sleeping
  • lying
  • sitting
  • Standing
  • walking
  • running
  • sprinting

These are the main types of activity. There are many more but this describes the main intensity. Each burns that more calories and stresses the body more. So just figure out how much you already do. Use a pedometer to help. Then just try to increase to certain targets. The biggest change is in the first few levels. Lying, sitting standing and walking. Move as much to standing and walking.

I need to find out the calorie values of each. If you can get 50-100 calories extra per day just froim this change then you get half a stone a year. It could also explain your weight gain. The point is that this won’t injure you and is easy to make part of life. Just do it for an hour or two more and see what you get.

Needs to feel achievable

Right now I’m doing housework. By measuring my activity through steps it also inadvertently measures how much I’m standing. By doing housework and other things like day while watching TV or having fun. It’s become a lot easier to reach the steps

related articles

super better resilience resilience is certainly the personal quality I want to build up. The start is with resilience to achieving your goals in the face of challenges. It is why happiness and your addictions are what will get you through.

There is no scientific equation for human metabolism. Which is why weight loss is still treated like a dark art.

Not only is she thinner than you, her muscles work better, too: Role of muscle function in maintaining weight A study I want to critique. The way it is reported is leading and I feel incorrect. An example of bad reporting. The evidence for heredity is implied not proven. Most people become large. They didn’t start out that way and had a more average body composition. Others are large and become average. At the route muscles are not determined by heredity. That’s an assumption. Most research shows muscle is just a type of cell structure.

Mitochondria and thus how you handle energy is inherited but still no evidence you’re stuck with bad metabolism. The evidence could easily be interpreted as a metabolism acting one way when it thinks energy is restricted in the larger inactive person and in the leaner person the metabolism acts as if energy is abundant and thus it can become wasteful. It could be that the excess heat generated is great for keeping the person warm. It could be that the larger person lost this ability, perhaps because their greater insulation reduced the need.

The point is that this article specifically makes people feel their genes are all they are. There is no solid proof for this. It’s just an assumption but it is presented as clear fact. Most people take this as a given scientific answer from a trusted source when it’s just lazy journalism and potentially lazy science.

contrast this with the actual study and title Leanness and heightened nonresting energy expenditure: role of skeletal muscle activity thermogenesis The abstract is much clearer and less confusing. I have a bunch of questions but feel the authors have used common sense. Though I need to read both to form a proper opinion

‘Biggest Loser’ study finds modest diet and exercise can sustain weight loss A rehash of what is already known but it brings a bunch of useful things together and considers why exercise is relevant in weight loss. I just want to explain more about it and highlight the need for eating less and padding out the food in different ways. e.g. veg is full of water and less fat. So is pasta.

How to Go Out, Eat What You Want, and Still Lose Weight just a nice simple plan. Exactly how I do it. I kind of just use my sports science training and see a night out as the challenge I’m training for. The fun becomes the centre of my focus and my goal. We are now living in a world of leisure so we just need to train for it properly. Which means a pre and post routine that sorts things out. It’s essentially about losing weight in a world of leisure. Having your cake and eating it.

Bring my whole degree to bear in this. It is now possible for all in the west to live a life of leisure. We just need to know how to play the game. I studied, humans, learning, business and leisure plus other stuff. So I know about the leisure industry and I see how it’s growing no matter what. I see how it is changing the world we live in and becoming the foundation of society and thus our ecosystem. Thus understanding and thriving in this new ecosystem where every want is easily fulfilled is something you need to train for. Every day you need to train like an athlete or a primal hunter. The more you do it the easier it gets because it becomes your life. Then the fun really begins. So each day is a study along the path to being a ninja of fun.

50-Year-Old Identical Twins Show How Differently We Age despite being brought up the same way. You determine where you end up, your genes are not your fate. They are simply a set of possibilities.

From hating PE to loving to run just a simple story from a blog I follow. It echoes the common experience of many. Being put off for various reasons and finding out what she missed out on later in life.

the weight loss formula you need to know just in time for summer 5 useful basic guidelines. I would prefer to explain the need for weight training, particularly body weight exercises as preparing you for the higher levels of exercise you need to have more fun. Pacing yourself is key to developing your body. The right ratio of read, risk and recover.

Listen to Olympian Gabby Douglas: Sometimes You Need to Take a Break ultimately a generic article but Gabby Douglas is a serious athlete. Words and examples from her are very important.

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