Week 3
As week three of the “Back to Health” program concludes, I was asked to provide three answers to a series of questions around how turning to a plant based whole food lifestyle has effected my life.
Three biggest achievements:
1. Weight loss
2. Removed any dependancy on processed food, caffeine, sugars, alcohol and tobacco
3. Set my goal for how I want to look and feel, gave up wondering what anyone else thought about it
Three triggers and how I deal with them:
1. Parties/Dining with other people
2. Cooking (meat) for my family
3. Self sabotage
Three biggest lessons learned:
1. I don’t need vices to enjoy life
2. This shit really works
3. Bad information is being pushed constantly through media, social media and marketing
Let me dig into the middle set a little deeper, triggers and how I deal with them.
At the half way point of this program, I’m feeling Fitter, Faster and Stronger. It’s impacting many areas of my life for the better and the results don’t lie. Blood pressure: now in the optimal range. Weight: 110kg.
There has been a negative aspect to this week, I’ve been overthinking things. As my body is adjusting to the good produce consumed, my mind is wanting more results, it’s second guessing what shows on the scales, it tells me I’m eating too much. All of which is nonsense. If nothing but plant based whole foods going in, whose choleric density sits well within the health range, I simply cannot overeat. This is the challenge I will be overcoming in the next few weeks, to retrain my brain.
Looking at the triggers:
Parties and dining. This has been a challenge, more so because I’m in the midst of the program, after the six weeks there are going to be more options available. On occasion, I’ve sat with friends while they tucked into a hearty meal and my choice was not to. Prior preparation helped greatly with this.
Cooking for the family. Preparing a full dinner for Samantha and the children their partners and grandchildren is still enjoyable. Because of prior habits and muscle memory there is the trigger of carving the meat and moving in to sample it. The crazy part here is that I don’t even want the meat, seriously, 28 days without meat and I am not missing it.
Self sabotage, this one is a little tricky. I spoke with Benny today at our training session. It’s that whole overthinking thing. I have to just trust the process. I look at the scales and think … “oh, you’ve stopped losing weight, maybe it is as good as it’s going to get?”. That little voice kicks in to remind me … “Dude! no, look at how far you’ve come already, trust the process, stick to the process!”
This weeks results
I did title this post “Fitter, Faster, Stronger” – and it’s a fact. Part of my training with Benny, I do an adaptation from exercises known as the “Murph Challenge”, this week I was able to do more repetitions that last week with considerably less strain. There is no doubt that my body is becoming healthier and stronger.
Results from measurements taken before Day 1 (not on) and then measured on day 18.
I’m also going to be posting some of my achievements on my Instagram account _Paul_Usher_
Wrap up
The big take-away for week 3 has been “Mindset”, with great support from the Garden of Vegan team, Dr Simon Ooi and Robyn Chuter. There are some great resources for understanding the “Why” around this journey. If you’re just a little curious, watch this very short TEDX talk on “The pleasure trap“, a small window into an amazing book.