And so here, I present my perspective(s). over the last ten years. Not necessarily confined to nutrition, but broadly and I argue more importantly – the wider fabric to “wellness” as I see it.
TLDR. Health and fitness is not always about moving forward. I’d argue it’s about looking at yourself backwards first. I hope others can relate to this.
Live-It-Forward,
AW.
1/10
Happiness is inflationary. How do we re-sensitize? Be a responsible gatekeeper. Revise. Reflect. Repeat
As soon as something good happens. Something bad is just around the corner.
There is a reason why desensitisation occur. One may argue it’s for protective reason. An analogy one may refer here is the temporal or the Physiological -insulin resistance upon short-term re-feeds.
In my view, inflation indicates an excess of perceived rewards. The only logic here is to preserve the functioning of that perception. So that in turn, we remain flexible in our perception of happiness, amidst times of scarcity (less calories / less food) as well as abundance.
My ten years in the past through cyclical keto, then fasting up to 22 hours (almost daily this year of 2025) gave me just that. A new baseline experience each time I surpass my prior patience. Each time respecting food for what they are. I no longer gorge. But I no longer deprive myself either.
This takes deliberate and conscious exclusions and reinclusions. Years. Not days. If you find yourself overeating carbohydrates during your first month or even year – of cyclical keto – it is likely because you are yet to fully adjust to each unique ~ baseline experience(s).
With one recommendation, I shall implore. You should NEVER “dull” yourself with bland foods to deliberately restrict calories. Such ~ is an extremely demotivating way to live after passing through your first 16, 20, or 40 hour of fasting.
The more you invest in the patience, that is habitually adjusting all your surrounding lifestyle to your new way of eating – the more you collate together days of success. Thus serving readily as prior recall(s) to motivate you for the next day. Month, And soon – year.
You will reach a new reference or checkpoint of control – that you will learn to downregulate. What was once hyperpalatable in mere moments into days, weeks months and years of gratitude.
I could stop right there.
However I empathise that that, may not be enough. Everyone wants everything explained to them in a silver plate.
So here are three lesson(s) I’d share, taking place not months, but years for all to hopefully learn something especially when you are at a stage of incorporating refeed day(s). Do note ~ there are many other subjectivities that remains not mine, but your’s responsibility to reconcile based on your’s prior ~ health, lifestyle, education, fitness new or not new – concerns, before then the externalities – your surroundings, social obligations, culture… so on. And so forth.
- Survey your own repercussions. Feel it.
- Eliminate all proxies to trigger foods. Sense it.
- Make refeed days worth of meals or cheat meals whatever you wish to call it – from scratch. Make it.
Feel it. Own It. Refeed days are moments to savour. This might be the easiest to (physiologically) action. But hardest to accept psychologically. Anyone who has been through early months and/or even early years cyclical keto can attest (or admit depending how honest you are) how tough it is to stay sensible within their choice of refeed foods; mostly Saturday and Sundays. Certainly had my own guilty pleasure on these ~ the adrenaline, and excitement rush, only left feeling miserable and bloated by Monday. But come to think of it – thank goodness for side effects ~ sleepiness on Monday training, gut distentions all day, and (depending on the refeed calories + starches) the six to eight times visit to the toilet – I have learned what enough means, based on these responses. Feeling these response(s) therefore, is pivotal.
Survey it. Sense it. Here I’m talking about your own surroundings. Take note what / which foods are most trigger-prone. Then consciously – seek replacement.
It is not uncommon among dieticians and/or food coaches to encourage clients putting any trigger foods as far away from (finished or not, or better discarded – though I see that wasting food) as far away from pain sight. To the point one literally forget such food remains in the pantry. But the next real work, comes from the trial and erroring of substitutes.
Explore and make it. Spare yourself a few weeks to several month(s) journalling your satiation with between highly processed, cheat foods you can get ~ versus that ~ with “cheat foods” that you make from scratch. Buying cheap processed cheat foods are, quite literally in a sense of the word – cheating. On the other hand, fetching your own ingredients, taking time to bake that weekly jam refeed cake or rice pudding is quite different.
Downing family-size pizzas and mudcakes no longer appeals to me, except sporadic few times a year family outings. In fact, the simplest “refeed meals” I had on occasion – happily consisted of yoghurts, honey and (lactase-added) full cream milk. Quite literally, just that inbetween meals ~on top of my solid features – usually involving starches, with fluid (stocks/meaty broths) to make up for satiety.
If there is one proxy I find pivotal to satiety – is the level of water and fluids in your foods. Dryer foods tend to just “sit” there in the gut, and not so satiating.
If you are new to all this~ you will find all this completely nonsensical. Because either you haven’t got in touch with your own obsessions, or that you just haven’t invested enough interest in your own way of eating. That’s fine.
Think how much one can change in ten years ~ the experiments, research, exclusions and reinclusions. You will never see food the same way ever again.
TLDR; Get to know yourself first. Self surveillance. Stay conscious throughout exclusions and reinclusions. Revise, reflect, repeat. Build your own “temple”. Be your own gatekeeper for self-licensing. Your own obsession, is your business.
2/10
“Healthy” is ambiguous.
Because it’s Utopian. Reciting from Thomas Moore, it literally means “Nowhere“. Beautifully elegant, yet frightening at the same time. Beautiful ~ because we wish for it. Frightening ~ we don’t know what it takes to get there.
Similarly, “Healthy” is preached like some sort of a goal post. People often yearn for simplicity. But nobody knows what simple is. Hint: probably because they confuse outcome with logistic.
The turbulent journey IS the meaning. The outcome is simply just that, the present.
“Everything in moderation” narrative suffers the same problem by ignoring individualisation. Telling everyone to just eat “everything all at once”, not too much of this not too much of that, leaves absolutely nothing new for learning. The moment we exclude anything – dieticians and “general” practitioners are all up in arms ~ frightened perhaps, because they think it is too “extreme”.
What is “extreme“, ironically, in my view ~ is the authority’s likewise extreme belittling or undermining these very pursuits for self-learning or patient autonomy. This is called Medical Paternalism.
FODMAPs, Oxalates, auto-immunity, MTHFR and COMT mutations to name a few ~ they are part of life. Self-research and experimentation therefore should be a given right.
So, how do we get to our own happy and/or self-aware place? Research (obviously). Intermittent fasts / exclusions and reinclusions on suspected food groups, and journalling. Invest in nutrigenomics if you can afford.
I am beginning to have less faith on meta-analysis, if that is all I can find as research. I would look into case studies / case vs control, and also mechanism studies. Broaden your inputs, where possible – before synthesising your output.
I am not a food coach. But if I were, my aim is not to “win-over” or worse – “hand-hold”.
I once looked at various nutrition coaching course sites. Chris Kresser himself admitted that clients don’t actually like to be coached at all. They merely wish to be affirmed in their decision. What I gathered, during that time, was that everyone may very well already know exactly what to do. Perhaps all they need is the acknowledgment, alongside obviously – knowledge resources adjunct to their’s own to execute their plan or “new year’s resolution”.
TLDR replace the word “healthy” with individual-relevance, and give people the means to navigate their own nuances. In other words, let people be their own disciples. Get rid of universalised definitions. It just doesn’t work.
3/10
Habits first, bickering second.
As a minor spoiler this is, in actuality~ one of the tenets for the upcoming book rewriting & rebrand.
Before I get to explain what this lesson is, perhaps it’s better for me to step back and provide contextual backdrop.
First thing is to wrap our head around the concept or willingness to “Change”. Firstly, why change? if at all? If one is happy and be merry then arguably – one need not changing anything. But if there is some inclination, anxiety or provocation there could be something “wrong” or could have done”better” or something to “look forward to” – then surveillance is in order. Look back at our own selves first and foremost.
“Habits first, bickering second” therefore is what I posit as the beginning conduit, towards that “change”. But any “change” is never going to be a zero to one outcome. Biology is not digital. It is gradual.
- “Habits first” – newly (or soon to be) acquired rituals. Conscious adjustments, and remediations. This is arguably the most important first step for anyone to make changes to their way of eating.
- “Bickering second” – over time you may then get obsessed with the details. Yes, there is going to be a lot of details.
Let’s re-pack the above as actionable(s), if I were to “start over”. Ten years ago.
- Goal setting define, define and define more.
- “Be a better version of myself. Find what “enough” means for me.”
- “Better” = conscientious, unpredictable-by-others, mindful, introspective, resolute but not brute, and fore-sighted but not short-sighted.
- “Enough” = contentment, without contempt.
- “Be a better version of myself. Find what “enough” means for me.”
- Habits First.
Establish and experience a rough “baseline”.- Survey all surrounds.
- Survey all consumption. Calorie intakes and food choices.
- DO NOT USE online calculators. Your aim is to acquaint what “enough” means to you by way of feeling, not speculating by “numbers”.
- Do not restrict calories. Track everything consumed no matter how big or small.
- Self journalling. Assess overall satiety levels from dusk to dawn. Take note on supplements and also fitness training journal.
- Live and attend to daily motions as usual.
- Bickering Second
- Invest / save for Nutrigenomics.
- Research, reflect, repeat – on the findings.
- Research, reflect, repeat ~ on the dieting / nutrition strategies.
- Execute – commence adoption.
As for how long each of the above takes and as for the “rest” of the timeline…..that is where my next Book will unfold. What good is it for me to spoil everything?
Now, what if, when things get too intense, compels you to pause or divert? I think, it’d be best to firstly reframe the question as how should I deal with this to move on? Reflect and survey once again, your own past. Irrespective however minute personal milestones.
Much depends on your prior investments deposited. “Investments” here is what I analogously refer to as recalling your own prior (Habits) that you’ve practiced before all along; towards a principal you’ve envisioned and/or planned earlier. “A better, mindful, conscientious version of yourself”.
Hence you are building alongside this experience/s – “equity” . That which you can redraw partially if you need to as temporary, personal respite.
In the self-health / coaching realm, people often boast about the importance “recalling exceptional events”. Exceptional events here being your own prior experience(s). That as you can guess – personal events you can readily infer from. Hence “redraw”.
What if you don’t have enough “deposit”? Well, everyone started from somewhere. Hence, “change” or “healthy” is never a zero to one digital “happening”. Remember the old saying “Money don’t grow on trees”.
TLDR; Build your temple. You are your own gatekeeper to say yes or no. Be prepared to spend not mere months but years changing how you view nutrition (as way of eating) to how it impacts and governs – your way of life, overtime.
4/10
“Comparison is the thief of joy” – be skeptical of this.
From my own deconstruct: don’t let anyone steal your joy by being true to yourself, and do not feel compared to others.
I do agree it is wise to remain skeptical against any successful ‘influencers’.
Foregoing comparisons altogether however, is oxymoronic.
Do you make decision based a whim, by chance or through calculated, informed desire or insight? I know which one makes more sense to me. I’d pick the latter.
I’d even wager – making decisions without comparisons is straight up impossible.
Especially if a moral dilemma is brought to the table.
Let us recite ~ Trolley Problem / Dillemma. You are a driver inside train with faulty emergency brakes. In less than a minute you will arrive at an intersection between two (2) paths and there are innocent bystanders tied up, and helpless. You have to choose which route to take. One kills five people, and the other kills only one. What would you do? A sane person would calculate, evaluate, and of all things COMPARE – whose lives worth protecting (as well as sadly – sacrifice)….then execute that decision.
“Andrew I would never, ever place myself in that situation!”. Hmmm….let’s consider a workplace setting.
- Would you save others frustration ~ by doing the extra mile resolving a project’s loose-ends to minimise future Technical or Design Debt(s)? Even though you have been caught multiple times beforehand for not staying in your remit. You are just one Slack® message away from being handed a “PIP” or Performance Improvement Plan.
- Or ~ would you stay entirely in your remit, never does the extra mile. Let everyone else remain frustrated by your’s (involuntary) mess? No remorse? No regret?
You are free to ignore duties and/or obligations. But you cannot ignore the repercussions and future states. Even if neither our actions “matter”, we’d still compare anyhow, by pure impulse, to see if there is even remotely a minute difference.
Cost vs benefit, Risk vs rewards, SWOT analysis ~ we conduct these autonomously in the background. “I wanted to be not as extreme as “this”. But somewhere along “those”. I wanted to be as “XYZ”, but somewhere along the spectrum of “ABC”.”
TLDR comparison is inevitable. Subconsciously more so than our own denials. Even if you go all out alone. You – your own past, is what you’d use as comparison.
5/10
Economics: Income governs outcome. Many expired foods are safer than others.
Contending with expired foods may not seem appetising. But redeeming on how you can live and get by for less.
The only time I felt unsafe surrounding expired foods, were attributed to very few select suspects. Lamb livers and Chicken gizzards for instance, are prone to rancidity.
Otherwise, consuming very moldy (already mouldy blue cheese), to already browning beef mince – I cannot recall how or when was the last time I actually experienced serious case of food poisoning.
The worst of expired foods would be Leaching fruits and/or vegetables largely composed of water. The more water and more vitamin C content there is, I’d avoid. And avoid anything that is “green” in their discolouration ~ particularly potatoes.
Surrounding money (one of the main overarching themes of this channel since beginnings in 2014) I remain both objectivist and realist. “Money”, is the largest approval factor at dictating your co-existence in society. Without it, you are not able to access:
- Security (and stability).
- Options: to wants and needs. Not just “options” but “contingents”. More stability beforehand? Even better.
- Privacy: to keep what I want and need. More options beforehand? Even better.
- And finally four Scientific autonomy: for me to keep learning what I can uncover, about myself.
Notice how one leads to another.
The only rebuttal I have against those who’d counter this, is probably because they are confident, secure and safe enough at that point to suggest money does not matter to them. Until it doesn’t.
TLDR; expired foods are not what you think they are. If millions of tonnes of food go to waste every year without question, spare yourself a moment – not to gaslight but ponder what can I do, for my own humility, to survive conscientiously? Be poor from the outside. Rich in the inside.
6/10
Keep “Science” to yourself.
There are many rule zero(s) in life. Mine? Be quiet when others are loud. Be vigilant, when others are quiet.
Nutrition can very easily turn to a divisive conversation, blurring the lines between “picking-my-brain” to “just jokes!” .
“Science” is hardly “small talk”. I happen to be “the one” predisposed towards the more (unintended that is) amusement ride. Before I even get to fully (and succinctly) explain a concept or reasoning, another question followed by another overlaps in mere seconds.
If you find yourself “carpet-bombed” and/or constantly “skipped” in-between sentences, may I advise – craft a polite exit as soon as possible.
Observe the audience first. Get to know what you’re signing up for. Before – signing up to the conversation.
TLDR; don’t provoke but listen. Observe, before you react. Stay quiet when you’re in a loud environment. Take in as much information as you can, before you respond or participate.
7/10
Metabolic slowdown is arguably more of blessing than a curse.
There are still paradoxes in nutrition and wellness science we are not able to understand how or why. There’s the famous “Spanish Paradox” – where fried foods apparently, is not associated with cardiovascular mortality. Slower body temperature is correlated with longevity. Higher ROS / reactive oxygen species might actually be protective. Higher histamine (at least in brain level) appears to be helpful for memory recall. And, as ode to (our very strange obsession) topic on “cholesterol” – high LDL-C is apparently not associated with higher mortality among old seniority (see here and here).
When I was young it’s easy to only focus on the objectives. I was fixated only speculating on what the future holds. Arguably just as important – are the subjective quality of life criterias. Once again surveying past and present life.
- Can I train (4 to 5 days per week, out of 52 per year) without food in my stomach? Yes.
- Am I able to live with less calorie footprint consumption? Yes.
- Can I put food on hold until, or at least the coast is clear all around me – dealing with all manners of stress(ors) so that I can relax? Yes.
- Am I able to stay composed, regardless 20 or even 22 hours per day fasting, without ever being “bothered” with Food? Yes.
TLDR; Science should not be “Final”. I have argued as an undertone throughout my channel for while – that anecdotes / N=1 experience should be just as valid as any other “scientific data”. Case vs control study in particular is in my humble opinion, the most fascinating because it examines case (N=1) relative to controls.
8/10
Don’t lie to yourself – aesthetics does matter.
“Anatomy is destiny”
~ Sigmund Freud
Hormones and senses are windows to honesty. Deep inside, we are attracted to our own selfish ideals.
No matter if you are a nun, priest or a monk, what you say is only half of your statement. The other half? Walk the talk.
Looks is the irrefutable, final judgment to evaluate one’s presence and/or evidence for ability. Does this mean you should be a body-builder? No. Be a mind builder. Build your own agency. And preserve it.
If you are among the political conservatives condemning all the above as overtly “sexual” – you need not reminding that life, that which we celebrated, among pictures of new born(s) – all stem from our own primal impulses. Argue all you want with politics, but newborn infants prefer to look at attractive faces longer ([1] and [2]). You can try blaming “hormones”, or men for simply “being men”. But you cannot and shall not win ~ against what brought you here in the first place.
So what can we do? If you are just starting out the gym, do not sign or sell yourself short by doing very few or nothing at all.
Here is some good news. It’s probably not about how good you look in the mirror right now. Or how much you “lift”. Do not underestimate the power of making incremental yet compounded habits. You will look back and think about how good you will “live” the next ten or perhaps twenty years from now.
Presuming you are a sane, “normal” reader ~ you are most likely not a “roidhead” on Growth Hormone, Clenbuterol, Trenbolone, SARMs, Anavars or other “things” anyway. If you do, then you’d have to pay the full price, more “side-effects” so to speak.
Another (somewhat) good news? Nobody, absolutely nobody ~ save perhaps your biological parents – care to atone, nor care how much you “lift”.
Stop lifting heavy. Rest briefly. Exercise authentically – by training completely fasted. No food at all before hand. No pre workouts. No intra workouts. Put the phone away, unless journalling your sets.
TLDR: Replace “bodybuilding” with “mindbuilding”. Be skeptical (but still listen to them anyway) ~ influencers proclaiming they “had it” – on stage, validated, clapped, cheers etc only then turning around 180 degrees telling everyone “I have done XYZ, so you don’t have to”. Find your sanity, exercise your agency and preserve it.
9/10
If you are still young, do your worst.
So that whenever you feel old, you can try your best.
We were only young once. But we are old forever.
Do your worst. That is – find and experience – your absolute worst.
Then as you accumulate repercussions – take note. You might be so compelled to influence as many people possible.
Just give it time, until or whenever you feel old. The only person left worth to influence, is you.
Referring to exercise – make the funniest or egoistic moments of yourself. Here’s a challenge, what can you learn from this movement or that exercise? Humility paves maturity.
People may read the above erroneously as though one should be completely oblivious. “Ignorance is bliss!”. But so is ~ the other side. That is where self-help only helps if you help yourself. What this means – face your own harsh mistakes and carry yourself out of embarrasments.
As I have turned forty (40) in mid May, looking back at my former 20-year old self, I do not regret this tenet. I was glad to gave it “my all”. Nine or ten exercises, in a single training session, without interruption, 45 seconds of rest between sets. Even to the brink of injuries.
One is strongest when one is at the weakest. You won’t understand this until you get to try exercising (mindfully) – when you are at a compromised state. When I first remembered tearing my L4/5/S1 (“annulus fluid tear” as they’d call it) during a deadlift, then diagnosed with HLA-B27 (predictor for Ankylosing Spondylitis) ~ paved that much of a lesson.
So where am I now? I no longer lift heavy. In fact, I can no longer do 60kg standard back squats without compensating my lower back. I just do what I can elsewhere. I rest very briefly between sets (< 1 minute), totalling across six exercises per overall training session the moment I step into the gym then clock out on average precisely one (1) hour.
I could rewrite this lesson as “learn and taste your own medicine.” But that can be borderline patronising I’d wager. Hence I am sticking with the coming-of-age themed approach.
TLDR: exercise, fitness training and most importantly – injuries are perfect equaliser of our ego(s). No matter how embarrassing, don’t neglect your youth.
10/10
Every virtue spares a vice. And vice versa.
My own words I live by, circa 2014. Even if it does not make sense to the grammar police.
For every virtue or “good” deed, fuels another discretion elsewhere. I am not judging anyone. I am simply reciting human nature.
They say “nobody is perfect”. I lost count how many times these were preached and reciprocated so many times, by many different people I worked with.
Yet I could not help but realize no matter how much benevolence, or altruism ~ the inclination “You must always do more” remains. This led me to believe, that to maintain this equilibrium, something more has to give away in the background. Something else one must submit or resort to, for solitary respite within privacy.
Alas, I shall have to end this here.
Because, as I was drafting this writing (in my mind) on how this can be relate-able to many other aspects of life, at least from my own retrospective philosophic lens ~ all can easily be misconstrued for something else entirely unintended.
Hence I’m afraid – omitting them for now, is best for the sake of public impartiality & surveillance.
TLDR; look back at yourself first before looking down on others. Admitting to your own vices matter inwardly just as much as what you’d do outwardly for good. There is shadow behind every light, and dirt behind every clean “character”. I would never use “Religion” or “Faith” or any other external “icons”, “deities” at all here, as moral codex. We should encourage our own selves be the agencies for our rights to private respite(s), so to ably live another day, month or year ~ that much more tolerably.
Thank you.
However few you are stepping onto this blog, or my YouTube channel by accident either first or a dozen times – I appreciate your visitation.
There is one more, in a form of statement, I am guessing people might be curious about. And that is “Live-It-Forward”.
Do not simply pay yourself or others – the shortest route to instrumental gratification. Small talk, or a handful of coins can only do so much as just that, lip service. But ~ give a stranger a lesson or a saying they’d never forget. Easier said than done, but the experience and whatever repercussions leading afterwards, is hard to ignore.
Future speaks in past tensions. Your past speaks a lot about your pending wills of the future.
Be the one that changes, than letting yourself being changed.
Be the message, rather than the medium.
From the bottom of my heart ~ thank you for visiting the Internet’s least visited, independent thoughts on wellness and nutrition.
Live-It-Forward.
AW
Nutritional-humility.me
First draft beginnings (article writings) mid 2014
Circa 31st December 2015 ~ first test print copy order