4 Surprisingly Easy Steps.
1. Get Honest
2. Get Educated 3. Explore 4. Commit I struggled with weight and body image all my life. I had started to identify to myself as the "overweight" guy. It stuck! Until a turning point. Through a moment in life, a critical turning point I made the realisation that I wasn't being honest to myself. When my children arrived into this world I promised them I would always be 100% honest to them. To do it properly I needed to be honest with myself too. To realise I created that image of myself and that I had the power to change it. Being a parent, a leader, and a guide to my children changed everything. Holding the weight and justifying myself as overweight was complete self sabotage. When I really got honest, when I started owning the position I had gotten myself into, everything started to change. The First Step - Honesty and a little naughtiness. To be deeply honest with myself, challenge my actions against my values. It was a huge step, so I decided to break it down. Firstly I trialled a few of the core notions. Going vegan and completely strict seemed too big a jump that might backfire. I still wanted my occasional beer, scotch and shiraz breakout session, even if those had some element of animal use ingredients. So what did I cut out in this initial trial? Meat, Seafood, Dairy, and all refined sugar. I started to feel amazing, my insides started to feel great, things were working better, I became more alert and alive and a more noticeable bounce in my step. The Second Step - Education But check, I wasn't losing weight. The first step was re-educating myself about food, reading and trialling different things. This led me to going back to basics. Simple healthy food. I love fruit and vegetables that was easy. My fall backs though were beer, bread, pastries, pasta, and milk and ice cream. Then through exploring movies and writing movies a mate and I stumbled across a host of movies. That Sugar Film, Cowspiracy, Earthlings, Forks Over Knives. It really challenged my view of the world. I had grown up with farming in the family, killing animals was seen as normal. Then something hit me. I realised as human children we are essentially completely gullible to the environment we are born into and we learn to validate what is socially acceptable. The Third Step. Explore Time to explore. I knew inside I had swapped all the things I had taken out of my diet with carbohydrate heavy foods. Bread, pasta, rice., and even nuts. For me carbs had always been something which I craved but felt full, bloated, and heavy after eating them. I had had enough, was it worth cutting the carbs to see if the weight would drop? I was 130kgs. The "Yes" realisation in my heart (as if i was my own child) was an immense awakening. From here I was going to be determined to get healthy and challenge every notion or belief I hadn't cross checked with facts or a trial based approach. The steps
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I got my bloods checked with the doctor. Dr confirmed my health was great and I set about the trial for 3 months. I still wasnt convinced as I had never been able to lose the weight before. I just held out in the notion of hope and that my honest approach may just may set me free from the fat identity I had created for myself.
The key to me was changing my environment at the early stages to help with the massive change. It was heading into the summer holidays. 6 weeks of bliss. Three weeks alone time to explore the world followed by another three weeks with my angels. It was the best summer I can remember, and it all started at 2am on Christmas morning with an idea to go camping. In the dark of the early morning I set off to camp for 2 weeks down the South coast's' beautiful beaches. I had time to find peace of mind, eat clean and remove a lot of the pressures and enticements of our food culture. The Fourth Step. Commit. Commit to living healthy. A question I started to challenge myself with is - "Am I eating for emotional reasons or for hunger". Whenever the emotional answer was there I didn't eat. No more midday snacks. I replaced snacks with drinking water, long nature walks and beach swims. Those idle boring moments that I used to snack in were now enriched with activities and exploration. When I transitioned more into a feeling rather than a thinking human being I wasn't so needy of replacing idle brain time with munching food. Just going for a relaxing walk in new scenery was so good for my soul. Swimming and exploring all the amazing places in nature. After two weeks away I came back to greet my children a new man. In just those two weeks I lost 10kg. My belief and self confidence shot through the roof. The following month I lost another 10kg. And now I'm down 40kgs since the start. Still eating vegan, feeling amazing, clear, bouncy and full of life. I hope this helps anyone out there struggling with weight. Be kind, be honest and you will be inspired. |