What is the key to happiness? I have no idea. If you do, leave a comment below.
Over the years I have looked for greater happiness in my day to day life. I'll admit it, I've read my share of self help literature. Some are more helpful than others. On my first trip to Thailand with my, then girlfriend (now my wife), I bought a book with a catchy title, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma. It was an easy read with plenty of tips on adding structure to your life to remove the daily stress and stop chasing the almighty dollar and start creating time to live. So, as a result I started to add little daily study sessions to my weekly schedule. One of my biggest problems is that I want to work on too many things, so make little progress in any direction. My current schedule includes 30 minute sessions on Blogging, food, Thai language, cricket umpiring, Spirituality, work/finance, and motivation or personal renewal. Added to this are my compulsory sessions on Meditation, exercise (4 different 30 minute sessions a week), and recreational reading (500 pages into Lord of the Rings).
Each morning my alarm goes off at 4.00. I try to do either push ups, sit ups, light dumbbell curls, weightless squats or a 5 minute exercise bike ride. The objective is to get the blood pumping without taking much time. The goal is to do 100 reps of the mornings activity. Currently up to 26 push-ups this morning.After that I get ready for work and then eat breakfast and begin my 30 minutes of recreational reading before saying goodbye to my beautiful wife and heading off to work.
Over the last couple of months my wife and I have begun a healthy eating plan. Inspired by the idea of clean food eating for health we have designed the plan based on 3 / 500 calorie meals a day. I like to to stick to a particular breakfast for about a week and then change for the next week to stop it getting boring. Examples have been 2 poached eggs on an English muffin topped with baby spinach and store bought Hollandaise sauce. I am about to switch to 3 Weetbix with a cup and a half of light white milk. For Lunch when at work I usually have a salad from the work sandwich bar made up of Mixed lettuce, tomato, cucumber, carrot, Jalapeno chilli, chickpeas, and balsamic dressing. If I ate that whilst hanging around the house of the weekend I think I would be hungry again but the distraction of being busy at work doesn't allow that to happen.
For dinner, the 500 calorie meal can be a bit of a challenge some days. Basically though, it is about increasing the vegetables and decreasing everything else. Usually 200 g or less of lean chicken breast, Pork loin, prawns, mussels or white fleshed fish fillet with 200 to 300 grams of vegetables and occasionally 50 grams of rice (that is the raw weight of the rice). I have lost just under 12 kg and my wife Pinkie 7 kg.
There are other things I do which I think make a difference. I eat 20 g of Dark Chocolate a day. It took some self control in the early days not to eat the whole bar in one sitting. I think it is important not to leave the chocolate bar in plain site. For example, don't break off the 20 g whilst sitting in front of the TV and then leave the rest sitting there calling out to you whilst you watch your favourite program. Unless you are stronger willed than me you will have some more if it sits there in your line of site. Most of us have heard that dark chocolate is good for your health. It contains antioxidants. Not all dark chocolates are created equal. If looking for the healthy option turn the packet over and read your ingredient list. The ingredients are listed in order of quantity. If the first item on your chocolate is sugar, then this is not the one for a healthier you. Usually, I have found that the 70% and higher list cocoa mass as the top ingredient. This is the bar of choice.
The other cheat I have is red wine. Again, there are whispers that red wine is good for you. I haven't read the literature but like most things, in moderation won't do much harm. What do I mean by moderation? I buy 1 bottle of red wine a week. I drink no more than 200 ml of wine in a day. I put the wine glass on my digital thermometer, press tare (to zero the scale) and pour until I get to 200. I usually use a small glass and fill it twice to 100 ml. Somehow, returning to refill the glass makes it seem like I am drinking more.
I have also become a big tea drinker of late. I think it makes a huge difference to my results on the scales. Not scientifically proven, just observed. I rotate through 6 different teas with differing claims as to there effects on the human body. I don't know that they work, but I have generally had bigger loses of weight after days where I have drunk 3 or more cups of tea.All the tea is drunk black, i.e. not with milk.The 6 teas at the moment are Oolong Tea which I picked up at the Choui Fong Tea Plantation in ChiangRai in Thailand, China Green Tea (loose leaf), Aged Puerh tea, diet tea (from an Asian grocery shop) and camomile tea. Green tea is linked to weight loss, Puerh tea is said to burn fat and Diet tea claims to burn off waste products. They seem to work in conjunction with the reduced calorie diet.
The other part of the diet that I am attached to is the record keeping element. There are plenty of apps on your phone and computer or even the ancient technique of pen and paper could get it done. I record my daily weight, take blood pressure readings and exercise sessions as well as which teas I drink each day. It was through this record keeping that I was able to see that my biggest weight loss days occurred usually after drinking at least 3 cups of tea in a day.
Below are some links to the resources mentioned throughout. Remember it is through failing that we learn our most important lessons.
http://www.robinsharma.com/
http://fourhourworkweek.com/
http://www.bupa.com.au/health-and-wellness/tools-and-apps/tools-and-calculators/calorie-converter
http://www.calorieking.com.au/
http://www.chouifongtea.com/
http://www.highmountaintea.com.au/collections/buy-puer-pu-erh-chinese-tea-online-australia-weight-loss
https://internationalgroceries.com.au/image/cache/data/Tea/img_0053-600x600.jpg
https://www.strava.com (health app)
https://runkeeper.com/
