Everyday Systems

I found an article titled The Anti-Fast Food Diet over at Zen Habits.

Also one titled A Single Principle to Declutter Your Health which makes some valid points:

1. When it comes to reaching our goals we fail ALL THE TIME. But this is perfectly all right because this is the only way we learn.

2. Successfully losing weight seems to be one of the most difficult life-problems to solve. Yet it can be solved with one of the easiest solutions: Eating less.

3. Herein lies the big picture that we end up missing: Health is a lifestyle. It is a process. It is not a reward. You should enjoy the process. It should be easy and sustainable. And in the best of situations, it should be mindless.

Enjoying the process means finding a simple and manageable way to enjoy eating less, and then eliminating the mind-clutter and the obsessive attachment to the insignificant little things. By doing this you eliminate the need to control the future, because you are enjoying the process.

Thank you, wosnes, for sharing the articles.
I enjoyed reading them.

Very good
Thanks Wosnes.
Debs x

Thanks, wosnes. You find lots of interesting, relevant material. I loved the "Single Principle to Declutter..." article. Aside from the portion you quoted, I also liked:

Spending too much of your time concentrating on the insignificant parts in an attempt to control the future will cause you to lose sight of the big picture – In this case the big picture is that your body is perfectly capable of burning fat and losing weight without you needing to obsess and stress over learning how this happens.

I remember reading this article or maybe something similar to it on Zen Habits. All of these points are great, but I think #3 is the most important.

People get so caught up in crazy diets or ways of eating, and ridiculous exercise regimens and it's so incredibly unappealing. And---as a former health food nut and exercise junkie---I can say from firsthand experience that living like that is not at all fun. Plus, it takes a lot of work---not just the actual exercising and making the healthiest food choices possible, but all of the thinking and rationalizing that goes on behind it. ("If I skip the last half mile of my run I'll just run further tomorrow. Or I could put less peanut butter on my apple slice this afternoon." Seriously, WHO CARES?)

And enjoying the process. I really don't think you can enjoy a process like the one I mentioned above. Sure, you might enjoy the results it yields, but you get those results through frantic, unpleasurable eating and time spent doing exercises that you probably don't enjoy all that much. We all know one of the reasons people are overweight is because they eat too much (the other being that they move too little). Why do they eat too much? Why are there overweight people who live on smoothies, salads, and meal replacement bars? Because that food isn't pleasurable, and they are compensating (I'm sure without even realizing it) or attempting to satiate their appetite by simply eating more and more. (Sure, smoothies and salads are fine sometimes, but when you get into the mindset of "I can't eat X food, I can only eat salad, or grilled chicken and steamed veggies", that'll hurt you.) On the other side, if you develop a healthy relationship with food that includes a little bit of everything and consists of modest portions, the journey towards a healthy weight will be infinitely more enjoyable (not to mention relaxing). And you won't even have to kill yourself at the gym.

marygrace wrote:... All of these points are great, but I think #3 is the most important.

People get so caught up in crazy diets or ways of eating, and ridiculous exercise regimens and it's so incredibly unappealing. .... And you won't even have to kill yourself at the gym.

I could agree with you more. Number 3 really stood out to me. I see so many trying sooo hard to quickly lose weight (900 calorie diets, hours at the gym...) no pain, no gain mentality. Too bad for all their effort the results i(if they can stick with it long enough to even see any) generally don't stick. I love Zen Habits, by the way. Nice post W.

marygrace wrote: Why are there overweight people who live on smoothies, salads, and meal replacement bars? Because that food isn't pleasurable, and they are compensating (I'm sure without even realizing it) or attempting to satiate their appetite by simply eating more and more. (Sure, smoothies and salads are fine sometimes, but when you get into the mindset of "I can't eat X food, I can only eat salad, or grilled chicken and steamed veggies", that'll hurt you.) On the other side, if you develop a healthy relationship with food that includes a little bit of everything and consists of modest portions, the journey towards a healthy weight will be infinitely more enjoyable (not to mention relaxing). And you won't even have to kill yourself at the gym.

There isn't much that makes me crazier than someone saying, "I can't have that; it's not on my diet."