Exercise – My Permission to Overeat

There is just no going around it. I still LOVE to eat. I am stuck at a point in my weight loss journey that I’ve plateaued and unable to lose that “last ten pounds.” I’m still okay. But if I don’t watch what and how much I eat, the pounds would creep back in just like that, like a sneaky monster that is cackling secretly when I am not looking, while constantly supplying me with sweets, carbs and all kinds of junk foods.

I said I will be kind to myself and allow myself some treats from time to time. But the “time to time” has become regular. I’d go to the grocery store and make sure I have snacks, like my life depended on it – at least my mental life. I don’t feel like going back home without anything “exciting” to look forward to as far as food is concerned, especially when you spend 8 hours daily working in front of a computer. So I have to have some treats for when my mouth gets bored.

Problem is, I feel bloated afterwards, and I can feel the sugar spike sometimes. My goal of losing more weight is also not happening. So how do I combat the weight gain? How do I balance physical health and emotional well-being? The solution I found is (drum-roll…): Exercise. Surprise, surprise, surprise.

So I work from home as I’ve mentioned somewhere here before, and I have exercise equipment in my (finished) basement that I can conveniently jump into during my work breaks. Emphasizing “finished” because the unfinished ones are uninviting and depressing to go down to.

The thing about exercising, you have to have some type of motivation or incentive to do it because it is hard work. And doing it in a cold and ugly environment saps your drive to work out. But as they say, where there’s a will, there’s a way.

No “finished” basement? No problem. Buy an elliptical or treadmill (they cost less than your iPhone). Place it in front of a TV or a computer on the main floor of your house or in your apartment so you are unable to say it’s boring to exercise. You have to have some type of mental distraction to not mind huffing and puffing on an exercise equipment. While your mind is jammed with your favorite tunes or simply litening to a motivational talk, you will not notice the minutes passing by – and the calories burning while you’re at it. So I don’t want to hear any of your lame alibi like you “don’t have any space” because I know you do. And worse, that you have “no time” – the lamest cop out excuse in my opinion. And don’t tell me you’d enroll at the gym ‘coz even with good intentions, I know you won’t regularly go.

The point I am trying to drill in your head is we should do our best to make physical fitness a priority in our lives and therefore make it happen as easily and as conveniently as we possibly can. No excuses for able-bodied people. And for you to use your machine without coming up with all sorts of alibis why you are unable to exercise.

You may ask, “what do you care?” Yes, why do I even care? It’s coz I want you to be a healthy, happy version of yourself because you’d be a nicer person to live or work with, instead of being a curmudgeon. I want you to spread love and happiness because who knows, I may even end up working with you someday. And even if you are far away, I believe in the positive version of the butterfly effect that can ripple its way to other parts of the world and affect strangers in distant lands in ways that you may never know. And unless you are deliberately terrorizing other humans, it’s safe to say that just like me, you want and hope to make the world a better place.

Anyway, so I broke the elliptical back in March 2023 because I was abusing it and using it a lot. It helped me lose 30 pounds. Well, if you ask me how much I lost as of today, I’d still say 30 pounds. So there is no improvement for many months now. The only thing that gives me comfort is that I am at least maintaining the weight. It’s still not ideal but at least it’s staying the same. My BMI is currently 23.3 which falls in the Normal Weight range, so I am fairly happy about that.

BMI Categories:
Underweight = <18.5
Normal weight = 18.5–24.9
Overweight = 25–29.9
Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater

Source: https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/lose_wt/BMI/bmicalc.htm

Thing is, IF I don’t continue to exercise, even if just 20-30 minutes on the treadmill, I’d gain weight so fast with these giving in to daily cravings. To gain a whopping 3-7 pounds, all it takes is a gathering one weekend or a few days of an out-of-town trip to see relatives and friends. And you know what happens when you visit people. They eat. You eat.

And eat I do. I’ve given myself permission to do that, ONLY because I continue to exercise. Every time I indulge, my mantra is “I gotta run to the treadmill, I gotta run to the treadmill…” and if there is no available treadmill, like I’m away from home, I simply have to find creative ways to perspire. There’s no justifiable reason not to. An equipment is not necessary to exercise. I know that if I sweat (especially if I can feel the salty fluid dripping from my head), it helps speed up my metabolism. And I got some catching up to do.

Working in increasing older adults’ metabolism is in fact the main principle in the reversal of aging. We know that children and youths have faster metabolism than older people. Young people’s metabolic rate demands for higher energy levels due to growth. They burn calories faster than older folks would. The solution to duplicating this is through exercise. You know it works because even at rest, you can feel the heat inside your body still blazing in there, which tells you that you continue to burn calories in between workout sessions.

Young people could care less. It is still physically innate with them. But with us older adults, it’s a never ending chasing game because if we snooze, we lose. That is, when it comes to amping up that metabolism speed. We eat and the calories are five steps ahead of us. Gotta run to the treadmill, gotta run to the gym. Gotta overtake it.

In my case, after a workout, the bloating disappears after several hours or perhaps overnight. Then I eat again, get bloated again, then exercise again. And so the cycle continues. It’s a tug-of-war between two opposing forces that is happening inside my body. Like my way of fighting for the youthful Helen of Troy – the face that launched a thousand… steps. And with adults, food is more skillful and way faster in catching up to our bodies than our effort in changing these foods into energy. Exercise then is our tool and our weapon.

Now we’ve seen senior folks lose weight because they no longer eat as much, and that’s better than being old and overweight. However, it’s sad to see them getting weaker and wasting away due to muscular atrophy, affecting their sense of balance that almost always leads to accidents and falling. This can be prevented by proper nutrition and physical activity. And starting early or as soon as we can is a wise course to follow.

At this time in my life, this is the state of my fitness journey. Occasional weight-lifting, some cardio (crunches, squats, planks, push-ups – every little bit helps) and most of the time, aerobics by using someone else’s elliptical or walking and running on my treadmill. And of course, the regular treats, which my mind permits to do because I exercise.

I’m not particularly ecstatic of my physical development these days. My progress is not Instagram-worthy. However, even if my treadmill sessions may last for only 10 minutes in a given day (20-40 most days a week), it’s sustainable. The idea is to not break the habit, because there is danger in falling off track. Lifestyles can dramatically change when we stop doing what we’ve become accustomed to doing on a regular basis.

But life happens to many of us and we must accept what’s thrown our way. Being kind to ourselves is as equally important as achieving the lofty goals we set for ourselves. What’s crucial is to still have personal accountability and bounce back from life’s challenges. When we do, it develops self-confidence and we soldier on without the need for validation from others. It helps in making us feel proud of ourselves, with whatever little successes we may achieve. We develop trust in our own abilities which gives us a sense of control in our lives. In an oppressive world that can easily weigh us down, this matters.

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Related Posts:
The Body is Responding [link]
The True Power of Exercise [link]
Quote # 31 – On The True Power of Exercise [link]
Quote # 38 – On Exercising To Live Life Fully [link]

See also this inspiring article of a 93 year old Irishman with the vitality of a 40 year old:
https://apple.news/Ad-6gzipvTiOtze-PgmTAbg
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2024/01/16/fitness-aging-richard-morgan/

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Discipline is the integration into a higher form of freedom. You’re a lot freer if when you’re 50, you basically have the physique of someone who’s 30. If the price you pay for that is that you have to give up gluttony, and eating whatever you want to eat whenever you want to eat ….that’s not freedom. That means you’re completely subordinate to your hunger… unless you think you’re your hunger.

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Video Source: The Reason Why the Most Disciplined Have the Most Freedom – Jordan Peterson (YouTube – @logosuniversity)
Image Sources: https://www.gleneagles.com.sg/health-plus/article/stress-eating and jokes passed on via Messenger

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Quote # 38 – On Exercising To Live Life Fully

Find people who can come up with all kinds of excuses and you will find them among able-bodied persons who don’t exercise. Those whose alibis usually extend to other areas in their lives. In contrast, people who prioritize their health know that there really is no reason to not look after one’s well-being. Because it’s the push they need to get motivated to show up for life and for the people and causes they care about.
– Anna Rocamora

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I used to belong to the first group. Sometimes, it can still be a struggle to belong to the second one. But making health a priority gets easier the more you focus on it. Eventually, you remove the decision fatigue of whether you will exercise today or not. Because the more you do it, it simply becomes second nature to you as time goes by.

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Feel like slacking? If you like to dance like me, here’s something from Evelyn “Champagne” King to get your body pumping. One of my favorite disco songs. “Shame” on you if you don’t feel like grooving to this.

Can’t get enough? Here’s one more. C’mon, show ’em how to do it!!

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Video Credits:
Shame – DavidEmme (YouTube)
Shake Your Groove Thing – Peaches & Herb – Topic (YouTube)

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The Body Is Responding

I can create an entire blog about my weight-loss journey, short of selling products on weight loss, vitamins, and supplements. But really, all I do is exercise regularly and eat less than the big portions I used to have. It’s really a very simple process that requires a little time and a small amount of discipline. You work out, you don’t gorge yourself with food (which I used to do) and you see results (barring any other health issues). I can see the body responding when I step on the weighing scale and see the pounds melting away.

This tells me that the body is a machine with many moving parts. Pretty much like any other machine like a car that needs oil change and other types of maintenance and repair. We know that if you take care of your car, it will take care of you for many years. I know that because there was a vehicle I did not take care of years ago and eventually it gave me so many problems (not to mention the danger it puts us through) that I had to trade it in to get a new one.

The performance of our bodies and our cars is dependent on how we look after these dynamic machines. When you maintain your own human machine, make repairs if necessary and give the respect it deserves, it will in turn serve you by allowing you to accomplish what needs to be done. It also gives some boost to the brain. When I see my body responding to the actions I take, it’s almost like my body has a mind of its own.

For privacy reasons, I am not posting the before and after pictures of myself. All I can tell you is I lost about 20 pounds since September and still counting. But I can show you what exercise does to my mind. Look to the right, under my Recent Posts and in the Archives. How many posts have I written? I’m not bragging but can you see the mental clarity? I have a lot more to write about. They are in Drafts, in my notebook of ideas and in my online files. I am starting to revisit manuscripts and hopefully get some published. The creative juices are just flowing.

I used to exercise here and there over the years, at home and in gyms. There are days, even a few weeks that I did exercise. But each time, I questioned in my mind how long it will last. I even tried to count calories and points before, signed up for some apps and seminars and later on abandoned the pursuits. But this time is different. I can positively say that it will stick this time because the simplicity of how I am doing things right now is sustainable. Jumping in to the elliptical 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the afternoon and still eating what I want (junk foods are rare) but eating less than what I used to consume. I am confident that physical fitness is now an integral part of my lifestyle.

I like the example that Dr. Benjamin Hardy used in one of his great TedX talks. In fact, what I personally consider to be one of the greatest TedX talks of all time. Ben Hardy is a proponent of “future self” (https://benjaminhardy.com/). In the next paragraph, I will try to capture some of the things that Ben said in the video. He talks about Elko from Amsterdam.

[Elko was 38 at the time. He’s always had a bad diet and always had a story in his head that was planted in there from his mom. His mom told him when he was a teenager that they are the kind of people who always are going to struggle with weight and with food. One night, while struggling to fall asleep (due to bad diet and health issues), a thought came to Elko. He said “What would happen if I went back to eating nature….and just ate clean?… What would happen if I did this for the rest of my life?” Rather than thinking “What if I did this for like 30 days? Or what if I did this for a year?” The question that really seized Elko was “What would happen if I did this for the rest of my life?”]

Check out below the video of Ben’s TedX talk. At approximately 6:30 minute mark, he started to talk about identity shift. That is what exactly happened to me, an “identity shift.” I start to ask myself, “What if I stop being overweight and become the slender, physically attractive and healthy self that, for all these years, I envision myself to be?

In my former mindset, I would just grow old and die from stroke or heart attack. It was because I was overweight, had high blood pressure and high cholesterol (which clogs the arteries and blocks the oxygen traveling to the heart). So in general, I wasn’t feeling good. And that negatively affected my thinking process. I thought that fitness and being put together are things that I couldn’t possibly maintain. That I won’t be able to keep it up. But I was wrong. Now it becomes as regular as brushing my teeth. It becomes very important for me, not just for survival but to also thrive.

I highly encourage you to start from the beginning of this short 17:24 minute video. I believe that watching Ben Hardy and other great TedX talks and various inspirational videos for many months now prepared me for this change of mindset. It’s just a matter of time and putting the ideas into action. And act I eventually did.

A mind stretched by a new experience can never go back to its former dimensions.
– Oliver Wendell Holmes

What I learned about weight loss is you should never worry about food intake. Fad diets are not even in the picture. The food intake part of your weight-loss journey will take care of itself and come in later – actually, sooner than you think. Do not worry that you can never discipline yourself with food. I will tell you why.

Once you exercise and start to see the results, the results meaning that you are losing weight, your sugar and blood pressure numbers go down, you start to look and feel good overall, and smaller clothes start to fit, then your mind will tell you that it’s senseless, even stupid to over-eat and eat unhealthy and processed foods. Not because you don’t want to waste the effort that you made working out for an hour, only to put back the calories. No, that is not the reason. The reason is, it makes your brain healthy which gives you the mental clarity to psychologize why you must stop disrespecting your body by over-indulging in food. You’ve become wiser.

You now realize that you can do it! That you’ve risen above the earthly desire for indiscriminate consumption. You’ve transcended. You’ve crossed the realm from simply being a physical person catering to the desires of the weak flesh to somebody whose focus has shifted to having elevated intentions in life. You may even become a spiritual person that is in contrast with the fleshly one you used to be. Why do you think Christ managed to fast for 40 days? I don’t believe Christ did intermittent fasting where he ate later on in the day. He was in the wilderness and there were no stores nearby to buy food from. Nor do I believe that he brought some provisions for himself that would last for 40 days. But it was necessary for him to make this sacrifice because he had a much higher calling than the rest of us will ever have. Christ’s self-denial was needed for him to accomplish the grandest purpose of all time.

What about us? Should we just continue to live our lives in mediocrity? Devoid of better purpose and meaning? What is our purpose? What is our calling? You see, when a change of mindset occurs, you also change your life course and your life sentence. When you realize the seriousness of developing hypertension and diabetes which can lead to blindness, kidney problems, stroke, and heart attack, you are confronted with the prospect of an early death. You know these diseases can kill you or at least kill some cells in your brain. Either you die or be at the mercy of those who will look after you. You don’t want that for yourself. You don’t want that to happen to the one and only life you will ever have. God gave us our lives and tasked us to be stewards of our bodies. Who are we to go against His will? You start to tell yourself, there is more to life than getting busy dying. There is more to life than catering to the physical senses, dealing with the mundane and leading a mediocre life.

In your journey, you will sometimes experience some setbacks, but those will be rare instances. When a person is generally healthy, they are able to manage obstacles thrown their way. Therefore, you will learn to handle disappointments and rise above the occasion. For instance, peer pressure brought me to the all-you-can-eat buffet a couple times recently, but I did not pig out on both times. I was proud to go out of the restaurant not feeling overly stuffed and not ask someone else to drive the car because I couldn’t breathe from over-eating (literally happened to me). If you find yourself experiencing setbacks, it’s very important to go back immediately to exercising so you don’t lose the momentum.

In general, you become disciplined with food because you like the idea that you no longer get headaches or body aches and pains. Because you also like the idea that you don’t get mental fog. Because you like the energy that exercise and not over-eating can give you. Because now you know you have the power to stop your diseases, stop your dependence on medications and heal yourself. You realize that YOU have the power and that it was simply lying dormant within you. And you know that from here on, you are out to accomplish things and conquer the world.

You realize there is more to life than food. You realize there are other things that can give you joy and satisfaction. Like meeting old and new friends, feeling confident about your appearance, looking and feeling younger, feeling proud of your accomplishments, travelling, developing hobbies, new skills and other interests (yes, a healthy mind will make you feel bold on trying new things), and not to mention the joy of dressing impeccably in really nice outfits that can make you look gorgeous – even if they are the old ones that used to not fit you, hand-me-downs from friends or even bought from Goodwill and other thrift shops because trust me, when you become fit and healthy, anything you put on will look fabulous on you. And it has nothing to do with vanity. It’s because you found again your lost self-esteem and self-respect that vanished so long ago. Dressing up and showing up for life circles back to self-esteem.

Sweatpants are a sign of defeat. You lost control of your life so you bought some sweatpants.
– Karl Lagerfeld (German fashion designer)

You know what self-esteem will do to you? It will make you stop being a people pleaser. It will make you let go of relationships that don’t serve you well. It will make you let go of a job that’s killing you and your soul and even exchange it for one with less pay because it gives you dignity and make you feel free. It will make you less fearful of the future and instead, be excited about it. In other words, it will make you feel good about yourself and less stressed! And you know what stress can do to you right? I know a slender and petite woman who endures years of stressful marriage that lacked mutual respect. She also had a high-paying but a demanding and stressful job. She ended up in a hospital in Philadelphia because of stroke. Stress. Enough said.

Now, once you start to keep in shape and master the art of eating properly and making healthy choices in food, it becomes your lifestyle. It’s good to start early in your younger years so you don’t suffer later in life. But it’s never too late to start now. Making good choices in life (food, relationships, jobs, etc.) becomes second nature to you. It’s something that cannot be taken easily by anything or anyone. A healthy lifestyle will keep you calm and grounded. It can give you resilience in the face of any adversity. It develops your fortitude.

You might say, “Are you telling me that I will have ALL of the above only because I decide to exercise.” YES, I am telling You that you can have all of the above, and much more when you exercise. There is no limit to what you can do. You’re only limit is the one that you impose on yourself.

So why not start now? Stuck inside the house or snowbound? Find any free Zumba or kickboxing video online and start moving along with the instructor. Dust and use that exercise equipment. Has access to a pool? Start swimming. Like the outdoors? Start walking, running or hiking. Your brain will thank you for it. So….. what are you waiting for? What is your excuse? Get up. What are you doing that couldn’t wait? It’s a rhetorical question. You don’t need to answer. You only need to answer – to yourself.

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Bodily (physical) training is beneficial. – 1 Timothy 4:8

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The 100 Percent Rule That Will Change Your Life – Benjamin Hardy – TEDxKlagenfurt

“….and he (Tom) realized at that moment that he no longer identifies as a person who is overweight. And at that moment, he realized that he was going to succeed…he‘s become far more spiritual. He’s changed in every area of his life. He’s a totally different person.”

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Video credit: TEDx Talks (YouTube)

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