Hey Friends, welcome to the 1st edition of what I’m calling the Changelog series. A series where I hope to get all my thoughts and musings down on to paper (so to say).
Since this the first in the series, this post is a high level summary of some the highlights roughly between 2021-08 and 2022-09.
Shedding a quarter
Around August last year (2021), while playing in the garden with the first born, I found myself completely out of breath just two minutes in.
I, who had recently just completed 30 revolutions around the Sun.
At the time, I weighed approximately 112 kg. With a height of 175 cm, this put me at a BMI of 36, deep in obesity territory1.
I knew my health was an issue for a long while. I can’t tell you why I never attempted to fix this before. Sheer laziness I suspect. But the mind is a silly thing. Sometimes the simplest of thoughts kick us into high gear.
I knew I wanted to play with my first born in the garden for many, many more revolutions around the Sun to come.
Fixing your BMI
Your BMI is expressed as follows:
def calculate_bmi(weight, height_in_meters):
return weight / (height_in_meters ** 2)
Simplest solution is increase your height right?
Unfortunately, I think you know the answer to this without me trying to find a suitable citation.
How to lose weight
Simply put.
The calories you consume should be less than the calories your body expends.
Sounds simple? It is. But the execution, not so much.
I wouldn’t make the mistake of calling myself an incredibly active person. I work a desk job and majority of my waking hours is quite sedentary.
Not to get into too much detail, after about a year in, this is what I found works for me.
- Skipping breakfast (Some might call this Intermittent Fasting 2).
- Strength training about 4 times a week. 3
- Try to eat between 120g to 150g of protein a day. 4
Making it a lifestyle
The trick, I found, is make small atomic changes to your lifestyle. This is well described in James Clear’s book Atomic Habbits (well worth a read!).
Again, it’s not rocket science here, simple stuff really. Implement small habits to build a sustainable lifestyle.
A picture is worth a thousand words. Well, two pictures.
Figure 1: It’s a long journey, with many ups and downs but a downward trend in the end.
Figure 2: Current weight. Nearly 25% (a quarter).
Post lockdown travel
Sorry in advance for the photo dump.
Mauritius
We were fortunate to travel as a family in March to the beautiful island of Mauritius. We ate far too much and got incredibly tanned. It was the firstborn’s first international plane trip but she took it like a champ!
Figure 3: Crystal clear waters of Mauritius.
Figure 4: Jaw-dropping sunsets in Mauritius.
Munich, Germany
Work travel also started up again, with Munich looking as beautiful as ever in May.
Figure 5: Marienplatz in the evening in May.
Figure 6: Restaurant on a street in Munich
Figure 7: The future of travel. I had too much fun on these scooters. My colleagues would agree.
Thanks for reading and I wish you all the best!