Eat this, no this, no this!

Diets!

I hate diets. Yeah, I said it!

The Atkins Diet, the Zone Diet, If It Fits Your Macros diet, low carbohydrate diet, low fat diet, high protein diet, Paleo Diet and the ever rampant See-food Diet. How the on Earth are you supposed choose, right? Which one is the best for me to achieve my goals? I would say the “best” one if the one that you feel comfortable staying on and sticking to. But that is the exact reason why I hate diets. Diet implies it is only temporary, and if it is only temporary then so will be the results you gained on that diet. You can go on and off a diet. It seems like a bandaid approach in order to quick fix a problem. It seems like a cure, when ultimately we should be striving for prevention.

He sees food, and eats it. He also apologises for nothing!

Diets, in one way or another restrict a certain thing. In a low fat diet, fat is restricted. In a low carbohydrate diet, carbohydrates are restricted. The problem here is that the body is built to work optimally by using all three of these macronutrients (proteins, carbohydrates, and fats) together. When you take one away, the body begins to cease functioning the way it should. For example with low carbohydrate you will start to feel tired, lethargic and you will have trouble concentrating. Why? Because the body’s primary energy source comes from carbohydrates. The brain itself is fuelled by glucose, a sugar that has been broken down from carbohydrates. Let’s take fat as another example because low fat diets are a very popular topic. There is even a whole market dedicated to selling “low fat” foods. Amongst other things, fat carries certain vitamins that can only be absorbed by the body via fat. Fat also affects your hormone levels. I have been through a low fat diet stage and I can tell you when your hormones are out of whack, and your libido is affected in a negative way, it isn’t the most pleasant way to go through the day (although some guys would benefit from a reduced libido). So as a rule of thumb, if a diet restricts one of these macronutrients to a very low level, approach with caution.

MOVING ON!

Another reason why I hate diets is because people are expected to fit the mould of the diet. Therefore some people are going to struggle more than others to stay on the diet. And remember a diet is only as effective as the length of time you commit to it. You may see progress at the start, but you will find when you “go off” the diet, you end up going back to square one, and sometimes end up in a worse place than you started. Everyone is different and have different tastes. Some foods that a diet requires you to eat might not sit well in your belly. I for one cannot devour too many navy beans or lentils. This is because my body has a difficult time digesting them. Therefore going on a high bean/lentil diet (I’m sure there is one of those out there too) would not make much sense for me. That is not a “diet” I could stick to.

A peanut butter diet however…..

So what the hell do I do now? If all diets are ultimately ineffective then where do I go now? How about creating your own? And how about not labelling it a diet? How about calling it your eating habit? A habit is a hard thing to break once you have established some ground rules. That’s all diets are. Diets are just plans, with rules that you stick to. So why not create your own rules? Why not structure it in a way that you find easy to do, and that can accomplish your goals at the same time? When you are eating the foods you like, abiding by your own rules and structure you won’t even be on a diet. You will just be living your own food lifestyle.

So create some rules for yourself that you can abide to today, and everyday here on after. It’s all well and good to lose the weight, but then keeping it off is the next thing. For me some basic rules that I follow everyday are: Drink two to three litres of water a day, minimum. Eat some kind of vegetable in three of my five meals a day. Eat like a king during the day and a peasant at night. In otherwords eat most of my food during the day, and reduce it the closer to bed time it is. Eat protein in every meal. Allow myself a “bad meal” once a week, or a one small treat each day.

Those are my personal basic rules that I follow every day. Those are my absolute minimums. I don’t feel like I’m on a diet, because I’m not on one. I don’t just go on and off these eating habits. I will adjust some things if my goals change, but the basic structure remains the same.  If I want to gain weight, I will eat  a little more at each meal. If I want to lose weight, I will eat a little less at each meal. It’s not rocket surgery and I think these diets over complicate things, even when they are attempting to do the opposite. I won’t neglect the foods I like to eat. I really like peanut butter (if you had not noticed), so I will eat it, whether I’m gaining weight or losing weight. I drink alcohol at celebrations. I will eat dessert. I will not deny myself these luxuries of life and I won’t feel guilty eating them. If my goal is to lose weight I will just reduce the portion sizes or when I choose to eat them. But I won’t deny myself what I like completely. The food will fit my mold, not the other way round.

I think people like being told what to do, especially when it comes to this whole diet craze. If someone tells you about this diet, and you do it, and you fail, you can easily shift your blame to the other person. “It wasn’t my fault, the diet didn’t work.” It is so easy to blame someone else. We often don’t take accountability for our own actions. It’s not the diet’s fault that it didn’t work because you didn’t stick to it. You controlled what you threw into your mouth, not the person writing the diet. Take some responsibility for your actions and take some responsibility for what you throw into your mouth. We are all adults and if we can’t even control what we throw into our mouths we have a dire future ahead.

“THE CLAW MADE ME EAT IT. I SWEAR IT!”

So create your own eating lifestyle, filled with the foods that you like to eat. Give yourself some structure, and make your own rules. Adjust accordingly depending on your goals. And the most important thing is to be consistent. Don’t chop and change everything at once. Change one thing at a time and see how it affects you. If it works, keep it. If it doesn’t, get rid of it.  See what works for you and find what helps you remain consistent because remember we want to keep those delicious results.

– Sash

P.S. If anyone has any further questions, needs me to elaborate, or anything else regarding the information here, please feel free to ask.

Grab your umbrella: Brain explosion imminent!

Warning: This is going be to a non linear piece of thinking where there might be no conclusion or final questions. It’s going to be pure mental mush that is plaguing my brain and I feel if I do not let it out, my brain will literally explode with such force that it will burst out of my cranium in all directions. The result being  nothing but a fleshy heap of brain, blood and fluids painted over the walls and saturating house hold items which are not covered by brain explosion insurance.  If you don’t wish to expand your way of thinking, and are content in the comforts of the familiar then I urge you to flee.

Quite possibly your brain after reading this!

These are the usual thoughts of myself during the time I spend in the workplace. You have been warned!

Have you ever just stopped what you were doing, and just looked into blank space? You just space out, time seems to slow down. You notice things you never noticed before. You become aware of your limbs. You become aware of your breathing. The way your chest expands, and if you hold it, the pressure in your lungs, and then you exhale and your body relaxes. You may even hunch over a little because you are so relaxed. And then you focus on things that are moving. People, carrying things. Wearing things. Moving their bodies in a direction, in a way that is unique to their body shape. You feel the air of the person that just walked by your still body. That THING just moved past me. And then let’s hypothetically say you are somewhere you don’t want to be, like your job for instance (because I assume most dislike their jobs, and if you don’t then I am both happy and envious of you).

Now you are still in the state of enhanced consciousness. Things are moving slowly. You are becoming aware of everything. It seems the whole world is just on auto pilot. Now you question things. Why am I here? Not “here” as in this shopping centre, packing bags for other things, or monitoring these people things so they properly use these self service things and don’t steal these consumable things and pay for these things with this money thing! But why am I here? Why do I exist? Why am I here? And I’m not talking about your life’s purpose. I’m talking about why are we physically here? HOW, are we physically here?

“Well you see we are made up of molecular structures, and they form the physical being that is you.”

YES, I KNOW THAT PROFESSOR SCIENCE, BUT WHY? HOW?

How am I alive right now? How is my body functioning? How is it that my heart is beating? How is it that I am seeing things, that are moving, that see me too? How am I moving my arms? My brain? How the hell is my brain telling me to do these things? Electrical impulses? How is it that my brain is controlling these impulses, so that I may move my body? How does it THINK to move it in that certain way? What creates that thought? That pure, unique thought. How is it that a mushy piece of tissue is able to create this thought? Does it even create the thought? Where does the thought come from? Is the thought already there? Is this idea just laying dormant in all peoples brain mush and the right stimulus needs to applied so that thought can be manifested into physical action?

What is causing the thought, that is moving my fingers in such a way, with such speed and purpose as to push certain keys on this slab of keys so that I create these words. Why am I even creating these words? To communicate? HOW DO YOU EVEN UNDERSTAND THESE WORDS? This string of oddly shaped lines that are put next to each other in a particular fashion or pattern so that you “know” or “understand” what meaning I am trying to communicate. DOES THIS BLOW ANYONE ELSE’S MIND? And what about communicating in general? How is it that the thoughts that happen in the brain (I assume that’s where it happens) move the muscles of your mouth, in such a way that the mouth opens, and then emits a sound in different tones and frequencies, and then you are able to hear that, and then some how decipher meaning from it? And then act or react in a particular way depending on how I moved my mouth, to emit a sound (with meaning) that came from a pattern of electrical impulses in the brain to manifest an idea from pure imagination into physical being.

Imagination: Get it in you!

*gasps for air*

Much needed intermission: So how about peanut butter and banana on toast? Pretty radical and delicious, right? Damn it tastes so good it should be illegal.

*takes a deep breath in…..*

AND WHERE DID THAT IMAGINATION COME FROM TO DETERMINE THAT PATTERN OF ELECTRICAL IMPULSES? What is imagination? It’s not this physical thing you can touch. It’s just…..WHAT IS IT? NOTHING, BUT IT EXISTS! How amazing is that? How is it that you are able to create something, from literally nothing? Imagination, sparks the thought, thought manifests into action, action makes things happen. ISN’T THAT……GAH! Where is the location of this imagination? What is motivating that imagination? Who or what is driving it to think what it thinks? GAH, MY BRAIN HURTS!

Isn’t it amazing though? We know so much, and yet so little about everything. We can’t even explain the things that we do. Or why they are there, or how they came to be. And people can go about their day and not even worry about it.

“Oh that’s just a light bulb. That’s just a mobile phone. That’s just a computer.” ARE YOU KIDDING ME? JUST A LIGHT BU…..?..RRRRRRRRRRRRRR! *flips the metaphorical table*. Do you know how amazing the whole concept behind those inventions are? It’s mind boggling. The science behind it. THE IMAGINATION BEHIND IT! Like, what caused Thomas Edison’s mind to think in such a way that constructed that invention? Go and search how a light bulb works, and it will blow your mind at how complex  the science behind it is. Someone’s imagination conjured up that invention……from nothing. From pure nothing (that we assume takes place within the brain, our big, ugly, mushy, fleshy brain that swims in brain juices) something amazing has been brought to the physical realm that we can see, and touch, and hear, and smell. AND WE CAN’T EVEN EXPLAIN WHERE IMAGINATION COMES FROM!

Enjoy the light, you filthy animals!

Gah! Amazing!

I leave you there, with hopefully enough of your brain and sanity intact so that you may go about the rest of your day, doing the things that you do, with your delicious brains.

But I do hope this opens your mind a little. To see the world of unexplained things behind the world that you can only physically see. Appreciate the mystery behind it all but also be more weary that there is more going on behind the curtains than you think. But don’t be afraid to explore that mysterious world. Be that annoying child again who doesn’t stop asking “BUT WHY?”

But don’t be that annoying kid right now, as my brain is the consistency of sloppy porridge right now and any question you ask me would responded by a blank face, porridge foaming from my half opened mouth.

– Sash

Paralysis by analysis!

One big problem I have is I think too much.

How can that be bad? If you think about things you would make great decisions. You wouldn’t just dive into something blind. You would be prepared for anything. That sounds magnificent! DOES IT? DOES IT REALLY? Maybe that does sound good, to a certain degree. But when you combine this with a perfectionist attitude, thinking is all you are doing, literally.

Here in lies my problem. There are so many thoughts, so many ideas, that I get stuck. My mind is like an old computer, running on a processor made of wood and is powered by a hamster wheel. It can’t process every single thing on my mind, let alone at the same time. The moment 2 or 3 things pop into may head summons the blue screen of death and I shut down, literally. I will go stun silent, blank faced and cold. Upon mental reboot I succumb to basic habits such as eating, sleeping, video gaming or movie watching. Running away from the problem. Procrastinating. And then what makes it worse is my awareness and then failure to act upon it. Anxiety and depression kick in and then I shut down. Reboot, and the whole process starts again. This will happen four times a day. Geez, wouldn’t be great if I could just my brain off for good?

Enter inner monologue: “NO, BECAUSE THEN YOU ARE RUNNING AWAY FROM THE PROBLEM AGAIN YOU COWARD!”

Shut down, reboot, devouring of food, procrastinate.

Let’s say I recover from a reboot semi-well, and by semi-well I mean that I decide not to eat, and procrastinate. Let’s say I have an idea, for example making a Youtube channel where I post videos. Or I read a book. Or write something. Let’s say I have these ideas and I go through preliminary steps to get things rolling. Great! That’s awesome!

Enter inner monologue: “Don’t forget this, this is really important to make this thing you are working on be good. It’s not really as good as this persons one. Oh that’s the same idea as this person, and they do it well. You don’t even know how to do this, and that!”

Well………SHIT!

Shut down, reboot, devouring of food, procrastinate.

Defeated by my own mind before it even gets started. I convince myself that it is not good enough to start, so I don’t end up starting. I just think, and think, and think, and (disclaimer; I swear a lot when I’m angry/frustrated/anxious. I’m working on it) FUCKING THINK ABOUT IT. And then I’ll retire to some easy task that won’t contribute to me being a better or more successful person, just to make myself feel better. WHAT A BRAVE MAN! COURAGE JUST OOZES FROM MY BODY! WATCH YOUR STEP BECAUSE YOU MIGHT SLIP FROM ALL THE COURAGE OOZE!

Intra-self reflection moment: “Boy I bitch and moan a lot.”

I feel this is part of the process. There is just so much built up energy and frustration that I need to get it out some how. And I suppose this is a good exercise for me to combat my perfectionist ways. The problem with being an overthinking perfectionist is that nothing gets done……..ever. PARALYSIS BY ANALYSIS (solid title tie in).

So this piece of crap, raw, unedited wall of brain vomit and irrational emotion is probably the best thing to combat my perfectionist ways. I suppose it shows courage in a way. The courage to just put it out there regardless of how good (OR insufferably bad) it is and just work from there. Just start SOMETHING and work from there instead of waiting to start with the perfect foundation because the perfect foundation might never come, and you would just be stuck there, thinking about it and not being about it.

Intra-typing idea: A blog post every day……for a year……(fuck). Nope, I typed it now I have to make it come to pass. So starting today that is 360 blog posts MINIMUM! It doesn’t matter if I don’t feel like, as long as I post SOMETHING. Get in the habit, get it done.

Exit inner monologue.

In conclusion (HO, how academic and articulate did that sound?), “Just do it!” (Nike, circa 19whenever). I pose this challenge to myself, and invite the overthinking perfectionists, or anyone for that matter to just do it. Just start SOMETHING, and have the courage to follow through with it. Don’t be paralysed by your thoughts. Don’t worry if it’s not perfect. Don’t worry if it isn’t polished. Worry that all your ideas won’t come to pass because you thought they were not good enough. Have some faith in your idea and stick by it and see where it takes you.

This is what I am doing right now!

See you tomorrow, Mr Less Perfectionist than yesterday.

– Sash