Dieting Is Rocket Science

Dieting is supposed to be a solution to being over-weight by helping you to lose weight. However, the real problem is not losing weight at all! The real problem is being, and feeling healthy. I am trying to develop a health strategy, and losing weight has probably been a by-product of that and not the main goal.

First some background. I was putting on weight, albeit a small amount each month, so becoming over-weight came at me so slowly I didn't pay enough attention to it. The main issue I had was feeling tired and unhealthy all the time. I rushed in head first because I thought OK, this is not rocket science and even if it is, heck I really am a rocket scientist so I can ace this. I just need to eat better and do more exercise. All great in theory but there are some very important problems and how these geniuses from top universities are overlooking these issues is just as interesting as the issues themselves.

Firstly, if someone else is watching and caring about your weight, that pushes you to make it a priority. Isn't that obvious? So, these studies do not take into account the effect of just doing the study itself. Also, lets see how many of them keep the weight off and how does that compare with people who did something else.

The next thing is determining what should be the goal. Is it to be healthy or to lose weight? There are tons of diet books and websites and videos and magazines and TV shows and argggh! out there. I know, probably like you, I tried to read them all. If you have ever dieted you know the vast array I am talking about. Some of them purportedly help you lose weight fast but don't clearly mention that they could severely damage your health. I really wonder if you would not be better off just going to a surgeon and asking them to cut your leg off. 30 pounds lost in a day! Boom shackalakalaka! You get the idea. Just losing weight is not the goal. Also between you and me I think we all find healthy people attractive no matter what they weigh.

I think you can not expect people to be robots. I am sorry but I am going to fall off the wagon regularly because of things that happen in my life. I can only promise I will do what I can do and when I can do it. temet nosce. I am sure there are people out there with cast iron wills that can just set their mind to it and lose weight. I don't think those people have a weight problem in the first place!

I also do not think you can separate health from time and cooking. I do not have a lot of time to waste. Who does? I want to eat good food but I do not want to spend ages on it. Eating out every day is not a solution. Cooking looks so fast on TV. Just a few ounces of this washed and chopped stuff, and two table spoons of this other thing I never had to measure or shop for, and blah blah blah. For the rest of us mortals lets see them go find and buy the ingredients then wash and clean and chop and weigh and cook them and then wash and clean up afterwards and then say how long it really takes. So the real key for me is being able to eat things that don't take a lot of time end-to-end and keep for a long time in the fridge or freezer so I don't have to throw out food or go shopping every day. Also, shocker, I hate washing and cleaning!

So now you understand why what I want really is tougher than rocket science. However, I am trying to solve the actual problems. I am not just applying some solution that works on something else and assuming it should work here too. That is because fools rush in and solve the problem where angels feared to thread :-)

Goals and Requirements

What is my over-riding goal? Simply put, I want to look and feel healthy. The next thing is what are the requirements for any health strategy such that it is realistic and workable:

1. It has to be an over-riding principle that I can easily understand and apply. Something like what the law of conservation of energy is to physics.

2. I should be able to do this on my own.

3. I want to eat tasty food that I actually want to eat enough of it so I feel totally satisfied. I do not want to feel hungry.

4. It has to be healthy for my brain and heart and other organs. It's no good looking healthy if my kidneys are turning to mush.

5. It must not be overly sensitive to my actions. I mean, if I fall off the wagon for a few days in a month it should not mean I am back to square one.

6. It must not take a lot of time to implement. Cooking, shopping etc.

7. I want to stop putting on weight and ideally lose weight slowly until my weight stabilizes.

After much research I finally developed a strategy last year but my problem now was I needed to conduct an experiment to see if it really worked. The only person I could experiment on was myself. OK, so I could go out and find some volunteers at that point but I felt stupid asking someone else to try something I had not tried myself. I weighed myself at my doctor's office last year. I had all my clothes on so it was not accurate to the gram. I also knew that if I weighed myself regularly and I found I was losing weight I would start "thanking" myself for doing well by treating myself to chocolate ice cream etc. That temet nosce thing again. Hence I have not weighed myself since but plan to at the end of this month after my birthday so given Christmas and the new year were also in this period I think it will be a good worst-case scenario.

Also I have not done any exercise bar dancing to pop music every now and then for a few minutes at home with my daughter. I did buy a treadmill and pointed it at the TV and promised to only watch TV while I was walking on it. Then I decided this would taint the experiment since I just wanted to know the effect of my strategy without doing any exercise. Thank you. I know. I am full of sh*t. The real reason is I just haven't really wanted to. Honestly, I will do this when I really want to :-) temet nosce again at the risk of being even more pretentious by quoting Latin phrases I picked up watching The Matrix.

What has happened so far?

The result of executing my health strategy thus far is that I look and feel healthier. I sleep better. I am nicer to other people in general. My muscles feel harder. I look thinner although this last part may just be in my imagination. My trousers are however falling off all the time now so I've had to tighten my belt and I am pretty sure that is not because I am fooling myself.

Whats Next?

That is a good question. I would like some volunteers to try it out in a real scientific trial. Back in the real world that is very expensive. The next best thing is to find at least a hundred random people in the same boat as me who do not know me at all and are willing to volunteer to try it out for a month or two and not going to sue me for anything.

Meanwhile, any tips, ideas, or help would be greatly appreciated.