It would be easy to go overboard and list every factor and measure of optimum health and personal finance here, but there’s time for that later. As I discussed in the first post you don’t want to sacrifice the perfect for the good.

Recapping the first post I noted that I weight 274.4 lbs with a BMI of 38.3, which is essentially way out of fucking control. Based on my past experience and how I feel at different weights, my long-term goal is to be a fit and muscular 200 lbs. I figure once I’m at that point I can worry about optimizing from there. Losing 74 pounds represents a weight loss of 27% of my bodyweight. Taken at this level it’s easy for a goal like this to be overwhelming, and not even to want to start. But let’s do some math:

• The normal standard that any fat or weight loss institutions put forward is to aim to lose 1-2 lbs a week;
• 74 lbs / 2 lbs a week = 37 weeks, or roughly 8-9 months;
  • My reaction to this is ok great, the goal seems more achievable and also, damn I don’t want this to take 9 months.
  • I’m reminding myself that the process between now and my end goal is one where I’m going to feel better every single day
• Today is January 5, 2019, therefore my goal is that on Nov 1, 2019 I will weigh 200 lbs!

To make sure I achieve this long-term goal, I’ve decided to break it down into smaller monthly goals, and then translate those to weekly/daily goals.

For the first monthly goal I’ve decided to set my check in for February 2, 2019, 4 weeks from today. I’m going to set the goal for me to be down 10 lbs by then, or roughly 2.5lbs a week, and weigh 264.4 lbs as 2/2/2019. This gives me a bit more than the 2lbs a week standard to shoot for but I believe it is still achievable, especially in the beginning.

To track my goal I’m going analog and simple. I took a piece of graph paper, and labeled the x-axis as days, and the y-axis as weight. Starting on the left I marked where I am currently, and on 2/2/2019 I marked my goal weight of 264.4. Each morning I can markdown my weight and as long as I’m below the line I drew between today and the goal date, I’m on track. If I find I’m above, it means I’m behind. Here is the graph:

I shaded in the portion of the graph below the line as green – as long as the daily tick marks are in that zone I’m on track. After I took the picture I also signed my goal statement at the bottom to ensure I felt accountable to this goal. I feel that writing out goals with affirmative statements committing to a course of action is one of the best ways to ensure you’ll achieve them.

You could of course use an app or computer program to help track this, but this is easy for me and removes any effort on a daily basis. I’ve put this in a drawer in my bathroom with a pen. It’s possible this is enough of an obstacle that I won’t look at it, but I’m hoping that isn’t the case. I could of course tape it to the wall in my bathroom, but I don’t want that information posted for whoever happens to be in our house – although I have no issue posting this on the internet apparently 🙂

So, that’s my goal and I’ll follow up in February to see how I’ve done achieving it. Of course, results don’t just materialize with no action. I need a detailed plan and I need to put it into practice.

In thinking about how to reach this goal, I’m reminded of a Charlie Munger (Warren Buffet’s friend and right hand man at Berkshire Hathaway) who said:

“The great algebraist, Jacobi, … was known for his constant repetition of one phrase: “Invert, always invert.” It is in the nature of things, as Jacobi knew, that many hard problems are best solved only when they are addressed backward.”

Inverting problems, that is, looking at them backwards or upside down, is an incredibly useful skill. Munger recommends that “Instead of looking for success, make a list of how to fail instead…” and then avoid this list of how to fail, and you will succeed. Let’s try this. If I didn’t want to lose weight, and actually wanted to add lots of pounds and become less healthy, what would I do? My list is:

• Make sure I don’t get enough sleep. This will keep my cortisol levels high, and increase my hunger the next day along with lowering my willpower;
• Drink soda, juice, and other sugary drinks to spike my blood sugar;
• Avoid exercise at all costs so as to not burn off those precious calories and avoid lifting weights especially as if I build muscle as that will burn more calories throughout the day;
• Let stress from work and other things build up and not address them, to make sure I eat and drink as a way to cope;
• Eat heavily processed foods including things with MSG, artificial ingredients;
• Eat sugar, which includes bread, pasta, crackers, and other things that are quickly metabolized (note: I have a pretty broad definition of sugar);
• Eat beyond the point of no longer being hungry, and to help with this make sure that I’m stressed or distracted when I eat so I don’t pay attention to my body’s signals.
• Avoid salads and vegetables, healthy fats, eggs, avocados, and olive oil as that will prevent me from having room for the processed foods.
• Practice self-pity and negative self-talk to ensure I don’t get motivated to exercise or eat healthy;
• Drink alcohol and calorie heavy drinks at that such as beer;

Holy shit, that’s a pretty scary list. But, let’s try and put in an action plan to try and avoid the pitfalls above. It’s important that I have some sort of approach or system to address habits as well. Thinking through this I’ve come up with the following:

• Ensure I’m getting enough sleep. To facilitate this I’m going to do a few things:
  • Try to go to bed when my wife does and read my book in bed rather than staying up to help me settle down;
  • I’ve added a recurring phone reminder to prod me with the message “Go to bed you deserve it!” set for 9:25pm each night;
  • Try to limit digital devices in the evening to limit blue light that will interfere with my sleep. However, trying and hoping I do isn’t a great system so I’ve also gone ahead and download an app that reduces blue light on my phone and computer and have it set on a timer for the evening.
• Don’t drink ANY sugary drinks in any portion. I’m solid on this as far as juices, soda, and other flavored drinks are. My drink of choice is seltzer water with lemon and lime.
• Start a regular exercise routine, especially with weights to build muscle and burn more calories.
  • Just start. This is the most important thing. I have a few kettlebells and can do body weight exercises. I’ve decided that the mornings are when I’m going to commit to doing this. I have the kettlebells in my home office, and am going to clear some space so there are no obstacles at all.
• Address work and other stress
  • Self-monitor work anxiety and emotions, and reflect on why I’m feeling that way;
  • Take action in the face of anxiety and stress. If I’m worried about something that may go wrong, communicate it directly to other stakeholders at work;
  • Take breaks during the day and go for walks and leave my desk. Don’t eat lunch at my computer.
  • If I can’t correct this, be open to finding a new job.
• Avoid processed foods by making time, creating space, to cook ourselves (we are mostly good about this already);
  • I’m going to set time aside each Sunday to do some food planning, meal prep, and ingredient prep. I already enjoy cooking and use the time to listen to podcasts or audio books, and feel good about ensuring success later in the week.
• Above even making our own food, ensure that I don’t eat sugar in any form including non-whole wheat bread, pasta, crackers, and similar items;
  • The simplest way to avoid eating these things is to not have them at the house, which means winning here is done at the grocery store. My wife currently does most of the grocery shopping so I’ve asked her to not have these things around for me;
• Add in even more salads and vegetables, healthy fats and proteins like olive oils, eggs, avocados that are filling and clean burning.
  • I think it’s important to go into this with a sense of abundance, not scarcity. I’m not going to put in place a system where I have to track individual calories and weigh food to the gram, because I don’t think a system like that will be sustainable. What I’m going to focus instead on is eating for nutrition: eating as much salads and vegetables as my body needs, and enough healthy fats and proteins until I’m satisfied. But in no way am I restricting myself, because it won’t work for the long-run.
• Say out loud to myself daily, positive affirmations, even if I don’t fully yet believe what I’m saying. This is a bit cute, silly and embarrassing and reminds of the SNL skit of Daily Affirmations with Stuart Smalley (“Doggone it people like me”), but I know I have a self-talk problem. I’m discouraged about my body and I say negative things about myself when I’m frustrated. So I’m going to over compensate for this by making a ritual out of positive self talk.
  • I’ve hand written this down on an index card and put it in the bathroom drawer with my weight tracker. This is how I will start my day.
  • My affirmation I’ve come up with is:

I [NAME], love myself;

I am in perfect health,

I am fit, healthy and loved;

I have no anxiety or worry,

My life is perfect, and I am safe and prosperous.

• Limit alcohol consumption, especially beer.
  • I think the answer to this is to only have beer or mixed drinks socially with my friends if we are hanging out, playing games, etc;
  • I’m committing now to only have a beer if I “pay” for it with physical exercise. For each beer I want to consume I’ll do a set of 10 squats with the kettlebell weights, and 10 pushups or overhead presses with kettlebells.
  • I’m still going to leave having wine with my wife at dinner occasionally as an option;
  • The other items on this list are going to be key to sticking to this one. For example, getting enough sleep, exercising and addressing work stress will enable better control here.

Let’s try and sum all of that up again so it’s a more manageable list:

• Go to bed when my wife goes to sleep;
• Take the time to cook for myself so I always have the right foods available and have as many healthy vegetables as possible, then clean burning fats and protein. As part of food planning, don’t have bread, crackers, and other sugars in the house;
• Remove obstacles to exercise and make it a daily occurance. Prioritize this time and do something even if I can’t or don’t want to do a full workout;
• Face stress and anxiety with action and walk away from my desk several times a day and above all do not eat at my desk.
• Daily positive affirmation each morning and night;
• Enjoy beer only socially, and “pay” for each drink with lifting weights.

That’s my plan – stay tuned and I’ll provide an update on the results in February – I already know it will be a success.