War On Fat: Part III – Good Habits

So, about a week after going to war… how are things?

Well… I nixed jogging. At least in the everyday way. With some advice from friends who seem to have an uncanny amount of knowledge about this stuff, I’ve decided to take things a bit slower than I initially intended.

I was all gungho about the war going in, but realized that if my body didn’t understand what was going on, I’d have mass anti-war protests, led mainly by the H. S. Thompson in me. So, what I’ve been doing with the war effort is developing good habits, or at least better habits. I figure if I can maintain good habits for a month or so, these habits will become just part of my routine.

The habits include: drinking more water (check, now drink about my required amount in water and/or green tea a day), eating healthy (check, no more fried foods,and a lot more vegetables, seafood and chicken), moderate exercise (check, check out my soon-to-be posted review of Da Hei Shan), and no more beer (check…). That last one has been a challenge, as I didn’t realize how intigrated drinking beer was in my life. I go out for drinks, I have a beer with dinner (most men do here), I come home and have a beer on a Saturday afternoon… but it all adds up… a lot.

The other habit that actually started a while back, is that I get up early. This one has helped a lot in peripheral ways. It gives me more daylight and starts my day off -ummm- earlier. And well that might sound stupid, I just tend to be a lot more motivated to do things, and do the right things, when I haven’t slept until 9 or 10. So, 6:30 a.m., every day. I find that by the end of the day I am much more tired, but it’s a good tired and in turn a good sleep.

May 9rd, 2006: 107 kg
but it has fluxuated between about 106 and 108… so… until things really start moving and the new habits are really changed, I doubt this number will matter much.

4 Responses

  1. Good luck on your War On Fat. I’ve been reading your blog for quite a while and enjoy it. In return I might be able to you out with the jogging part.
    If you are still considering jogging in the future I can provide you with a schedule that I’ve used myself. I’m also in the middle of my War on Fat and started jogging about four months ago weighing 105kg. By just jogging I have dropped my weight to 97kg, which is still a long way from the desired 85kg.

  2. Hey Peter… yeah if you could share that, it would be great… I’m not fantastic with sticking to schedules – but I’d certainly love to have a look.

    You can e-mail me, or if you don’t mind, share it here for all to see. Well, ‘all’ in the sense of the people who read my blog, and then also read my comments. 🙂

  3. Isn’t it amazing to see how fast the calories add up when you start keeping track? oy…

    as someone who started the WOF two years ago and has managed to keep it off, I offer the following:

    –follow your eating plan 6 days a week. on day 7 eat whatever the hell you want. at first you will be all about that day 7. but then, after awhile, the “bad” stuff doesn’t taste good anymore.

    –there was a recent study (i’ll see if i can dig it up) that showed that brisk walking and jogging burned the same amount of calories. being consistent was the key.

    –don’t bring the “bad stuff” home, then you won’t have it there to get you off track. for me, this meant no ice cream…it was awful at first, and I broke a couple times. that’s gunna happen. just do better the next day.

    –i don’t know if it’s in the food system there in China, but avoid high fructose corn syrup. it’s really bad and there is a direct tie to obesity and the introduction of that junk into the food system in the USA.

    most important: don’t beat yer self up if you “fall off” the WOF wagon! just do better the next day!

    cheers ryan,

    derek

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