Build your roads not just the shoes?

Whilst I love a ramble through the woods and over the hills, I can not deny that a walk on pavement is a lot easier on the feet. Even if you get the most tactical, self-stabilising boots you can buy, having a smooth path just makes life less exhausting, you can get further with less effort, and sometimes that is good enough, not everything has to be a struggle, you do not have to do everything in the most difficult way possible just to toughen you up and make you stronger for the journey ahead. It does not have to be about peak performance all the time, you can just cruise for awhile and enjoy a little freewheeling for a bit, if only as a rewards for getting up the hill in the first place.

There are somethings that just take a long time and can not be fixed by a mad dash of extreme short lived effort. If you have put on eighty pounds over a decade, it is not undone by an extreme seven day water fast, it is one way to go but it does not even in the best of circumstance solve the problem of marginal overeating that was your habit that lead to the weight gain in the first place. I would not even recommend diets of any sort, short term denial leads to worst bounce back. I understand the desire to take dramatic action, you want the solution to be fast rather than bothering with the foundations that work.

If you have been accidentally putting on weight without meaning to, that means the first problem is not losing weight it is maintaining your weight, that is the underlying problem that caused the weight gain. The second part of actually losing weight arises from solving the first thing, and the problem is that the days you are not on a diet is far greater than those days spent dieting. I do not like specific advice as everyone is different, however there is no getting away from the fact that it is a question of balancing intake and outtake, just the same as achieving financial independence is about spending less than you earn, you need to find your area of control and then exercise it.

This is not necessarily a matter of concentration or willpower, they fail especially late at night, that is why I have a no eating after ten o'clock rule, no willpower needed, it is just the rule and if I am hungry tough, wait until the next day. For some people the idea of rules feel oppressive and they want to rebel, they do not like the idea of being dictated to, though it is worth pointing out that it is your rule if you want it to be, you can try experimenting with a lifestyle change without being committed for life. However to live always in the moment is tiring and requires constant awareness of what has happened, what you have ate and what you are doing later. A rule is whatever works for you means that you do not have to think you just obey.

That is what changing your lifestyle looks like, you change what you do and rules works because it requires no thought, what your rules look like is up to you, though they should be simple, preferably daily and unbreakable except with a great deal of thought, which makes them easier to follow rather than having to go through the process of breaking them. Rules are what you make them, creating a eating window is a simple daily rule or routine that can be followed for as long as you like (a lifetime if you like,) and they are natural our ancestors had eating windows, if only because they had no food in the morning and had to go and find it. As modern people we have to make them up as food is always there, it does not matter if it is a twelve, ten, eight or two hours eating window, the point is that they suit you and you can live with them, that is what the experiments are for to find what works for you not what you should be doing.

Which is very important, the rules are not what you should do rather what you can happily live with, a hour a day walk is incredibly good for you, but it is the moving about which is important, if you prefer to dance around the kitchen that is fine as long as it is everyday and not just when you are drunk on a Friday night. Rules should suit you, I do not really drink but when I do, I drink vodka rather than beer to avoid bloating as well as the calories (note to Americans only having a single drink is not drinking in UK terms), it is about finding what works for your lifestyle not about being perfect, that ship sailed for all of us apart from Instagram people of course. we are not perfect, good enough is fine with me.

Which turns us to the hungry hippo in the room, and that is finding your comfort with hungry, hunger is just information, it might feel similar to pain but anyone who is in long term pain will tell you that it is not pain, you are not going to die for at least ninety days that is not an immediate disaster, it is a long term problem that you are never going to have to face. If you are having an emotional response to that statement you need to spend sometimes with those feeling and find out where they are coming from, because it is not a rational response to being a little hungry, it can be a response to a drug withdrawal such as a sudden reduction in the amount of sugar you are eating, but it is not hunger (you deal with sugar withdrawal by replacing sugar with vegetables and protein not reducing calories at the same time).

You can absolutely cope with being hungry, for virtually the whole of history, human have dealt with being hungry, your great-mother could and all the mothers before her, and they coped with involuntary starving, so you can cope with the voluntary kind. Get a taste for it by skipping breakfast or supper whichever is easier for you, you do not have to go big, just like walking for the first time, start small, a short ten minute walk or stop eating when you have had enough instead of being full. Observe your hungry, notice how it comes and goes, if you have never experienced it before it will amaze you, how emotional it can be and yet passes with the same intensity, make friends and understand it. Then find ways to cheat, black coffee, late night decaff tea, plain pop corn, tactical bowls of porridge, it is your adventure and you will find your unique solutions and skills that creates your own special story.

And once you solve one big problem you will have the skills and confidence to tack the next one, whether that is financial, emotional, relationship with others and yourself. That is what a being of consciousness does it solves the biggest problem and issue first then moves on to the next, that is what is beautiful about human beings, they rest but not forever, they find satisfying solutions and execute them, they remember and learn to build experience and the foundations of a better tomorrow. They create the structure that create a better world for all of us, who are not grateful for the Victorians building the sewers, bridges and building that we enjoy today, and what are we build for our future generations. That is why we must care for ourselves, so that we can take on the projects that benefit everyone in the long run, so build the roads of tomorrow, be part of our future.