January 2024

January. That dreaded time of year when everyone decides to think about doing something different without ever really taking any true initiative, myself included!

This January, I'm motivated to get back on track with some health goals. I'm turning fucking 30 in August and damn would it be nice to not be fat. For sure, I've made some progress, but there are a lot of things I still want to do with my life that I don't feel comfortable doing now.

I want to do more sports. I miss running around and playing soccer. Table tennis has been a great fill in with my limited running abilities, and I often do work up a sweat when playing against others (even if I never win), but there's something about playing a team sport that I'm missing out on.

My other major motivation is kids! No, my wife is not pregnant, but something in my bones is telling me that it's just a matter of time. Might be a month, might be six, but I think it's gonna happen this year. I want to run around with them and schlep them around on a bicycle. Sure, it will probably be electric because we live in 2024, but you still have to pedal a bit. Even today I can feel myself getting winded after only a couple of kilometers on my omafiets. I can't do that if I'm overweight without hurting myself. Not cool!

I did think of a potential solution. I'm going to propose to a friend that I drive to his house and weigh in once a month. If I don't lose the agreed upon amount of weight that month, I pay him €50. Easy money for him, right? Plus, I'm such a freaking tight wad, that it should be good motivation. Just enough to make me think twice before opening that bag of chips outside of my eating window.

I don't want to commit to huge concrete goals, but I think 3kg a month is likely doable for at least the next six months. That is roughly 6.5lbs for my American readers. Assuming I can lose 1 pound per 48 hour fast and not overeat the other days of the week, I should clock in closer to 8 pounds a month minimum! Baby steps first though. After all, I don't want to pay out! Two kilos per month is good progress by most dieting/nutrition standards anyway. If it takes 2 years to reach a healthy weight, so be it, but of course I'd rather short circuit that time as much as I can.

I'm actually a bit excited to "start". I haven't even asked my friend yet and I'm giddy! Perhaps it's the ketones talking since I haven't slept and I need to drive to work in about 30 minutes? Whoops. I'm almost tempted to do it with two friends, but I don't know if there is that much room in my budget! 😜

You can go back in time on this blog to see my schedule, but essentially I'm going back to the tried and true. Monday and Thursday, no food at all. The other 5 days of the week, just dinner. Try to stop eating before 10PM to give my body time to digest before going to bed around midnight or 1AM. Diet is fairly clean, though I haven't decided on how many carbs to incorporate. I'm leaning towards fewer rather than more, but you can't argue with the cost of rice compared to meat. A lot of people are suggesting eating eggs in bulk, something that I've not had success with in the past, mostly due to the cost. There is an asian grocer in the city that sells big cartons of them (48?) but getting there around traffic is a bit of a pain. We shall see. Macros on eggs are really good but I'm worried about satiety.

Something I heard on a podcast once to control eating, was to sit at the table, focus only on the food (no tv/radio/etc) and put the fork down in between each bite. That literally sounds like torture to me. However, if it works, I think it could really do a lot to help control my tendency to overeat. I think this evening when I eat dinner, I'm going to try it. Fingers crossed that it works! I've got some eggs and bacon in the fridge that would make a good candidate. 😁

I'll check back in a few weeks (lol maybe) and let you know how it goes!

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