***PUBLIC LIVE DRAFT****

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 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, including binging and purging ~ gave me just that. A new baseline experience that respects 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 towards possibly your own unique baseline experience.

NOTE: This does NOT mean you should “dull” yourself with bland foods to deliberately restrict calories. I would not, under general circumstances – under  under-season/under-condiment your foods. Such ~ is an extremely demotivating way to live.

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. And the Next month, And next year. Repeat.

Overtime – you will reach a new reference or checkpoint of control – that you will learn to downregulate, what was once hyperpalatable into days, weeks months and years of more gratitude. That – is essentially, the 1,000 foot view on how to “re-sensitize”, what you’ve excluded.

I could stop right there.

However I empathise that that is not 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, awareness of you and your nutrition… so on. And so forth.

1. Survey your own  repercussions. Feel it.
2. Eliminate all proxies to trigger foods. Sense it. 
3. 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) experimenting and journalling your satiation with every highly processed, cheat foods you can get versus that ~ with 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 as 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 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“. That – is beautifully elegant and frightening at the same time. Beautiful ~ because we wish for it. Frightening ~ because we don’t know what this outcome involves.

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 the turbulent processes behind 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 own 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 ~ I’m willing to bet nobody is immune from any of these. 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” people. I direct and question them what their ideal future as well as present states, be it way of life ~ that they can self-console and self-license to permit themselves weekly breaks.

I once researched across 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 could gather, 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 contextualise how and when this becomes appropriate.

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 or anxiety or provocation, for there could be something wrong or there could have been done”better” or something to “look forward to” -then that more likely than not requires surveillance. 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” I shall warn, is not a 0:1 outcome. Biology is not digital.

Whatever we wish for ~ likely requires long list of “new” responsibilities.

“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 can 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.

1. Goal setting define, define and define more.
   1. “Be a better version of myself. Find what “enough” means for me.” 
      1. “Better” = conscientious, unpredictable, mindful, introspective, resolute but not brute, and fore-sighted but not short-sighted.
      2. “Enough” = contentment, without contempt.
2. Habits First.
   Establish and experience a rough “baseline”.
   1. Survey all surrounds.
   2. Survey all consumption. Calorie intakes and food choices.
   3. DO NOT USE online calculators. Your aim is to acquaint what “enough”  means to you by way of feeling, not speculating by “numbers”.
   4. Do not restrict calories. Track everything consumed no matter how big or small.
   5. Self journalling. Assess overall satiety levels from dusk to dawn. Take note on supplements and also fitness training journal.
   6. Live and attend to daily motions as usual.
3. Bickering Second
   1. Invest / save for Nutrigenomics.
   2. Research, reflect, repeat – on the findings.
   3. Research, reflect, repeat ~ on the dieting / nutrition strategies.
      
   4. 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,  provoking you to  pause or divert. Then what should you do? I think the best way is to reframe the question as how should I deal with this to move on?

This 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 – as “equity” . That which you can redraw partially if you need to as temporary, personal respite, to pick yourself up.

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 -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. Now – what would you do? Any sane person would calculate, evaluate, and of all things COMPARE – whose lives worth protecting (as well as sadly – sacrifice)….And execute.

“Andrew I would never, ever place myself in that situation!”.

Hmmm….let’s consider a workplace setting. See if it relates to you.

1. 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.
2. 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. Even if either route(s) carry the same impact or the same (negative) outcome , you’d still compare them 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 this. 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 its working beginnings in 2014) I remain both objectivist and realist. “Money”, is the largest deciding and approval factor at dictating your co-existence within society. Without you are not able to access:

1. Security (and stability).
2. Options: to what I want and need. Not just “options” but essential “contingents”. More stability beforehand? even better. 
3. Privacy: to keep what I want and need. More options beforehand? even better.
4. 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. Or until ~ all contingents are used up.

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, and then another, overlaps in mere seconds.

If you find yourself “carpet-bombed” with questions one after another, 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 the 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).

Beyond that – what is arguably just as important – are the subjective quality of life criterias.

1. Can I train (4 to 5 days per week, out of 52 per year) without food in my stomach? Yes.
2. Am I able to live with less calorie footprint consumption? Yes.
3. 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.
4. 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 account or “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

Vanity is a primal part (perhaps reword as “Art”) of humanity. Don’t lie to yourself. Deep inside, we are attracted to our own selfish ideals.

“Anatomy is destiny”
~ Sigmund Freud

Hormones and senses are windows to honesty.

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.

If you are among the political conservatives and condemn 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.

“Fitness” is the closest ever proxy and realm there is. After all, your ability to live, extend your lineage, prove your worth, is irrefutably tied to your health.

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”. Instead think about how good you will live, and therefore look back – ten or perhaps twenty years from now.  Do not underestimate the power of making small, incremental yet compounded habits.

Presuming you are “normal” reader ~ you are most likely not a “roidhead” on Growth Hormone, Clenbuterol, Trenbolone, SARMs, or other “things”.  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 – with less or 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” and there you go  ~ you have a more constructive setup in front of you for the next twenty years as checkpoint. Be skeptical (but still listen to them anyway) among influencers proclaiming they “had it” – on stage, validated, clapped, cheers 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 persevere – your own niche of identity. 

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 you’re older.  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 ~ each and every time it happens.

As I have turned forty (40) in mid May, looking back at my former self, I do not regret this tenet of mine. 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.

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 needed humility for understanding injuries in a different light.

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. Multi-joint stress coordination tests (think lots of supersets – Bulgarian splits, reverse lunges). 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). Every movement, exercise and rep from start to finish – reflects self-responsibility. On a more sombre note – who you were should not be shamed for they were after all, your stepping stone(s) to your present and future states. 

 

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 realized no matter how much I give, or share away the “good”, be it for 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. Do not immediately value-judge. Admitting to your own vices matter inwardly just as much as what you’d do outwardly for good.  There is shadow behind every light. There is dirt behind every clean “character”.  I do not use “Religion” or “Faith” or external “deities” at all here as moral codex, idol, “messenger” or “reference” here. Other than encourage our own selves as the agencies ~ for our rights on private respite(s) to ably live for 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 statement, that 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