This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure for more information.
Last Friday, I patted myself on the back and shared some confirmation bias regarding America’s declining competency, particularly as it relates to weight control. Today, I want to discuss how I reversed course mid-life and went from overweight and bordering on obesity to fit and bordering on scrumptious. I think it might help a lot of people struggling with their weight.
Obesity and FIRE
Obesity is a major contributor to poor health. Poor health is a major contributor to excessive engagement with our healthcare system. Excessive engagement with our healthcare system is a major contributor to wealth-destroying bills.
Quick aside. For an eye-opening glimpse of the predatory nature of our healthcare system, check out the following book.
In order to build wealth and keep it, you do yourself a tremendous favor by mitigating your contact with our healthcare system. Of course, this isn’t always possible. Nature and fate are fickle beasts. Every year tens of thousands of innocents are upended by cancer, heart disease, workplace accidents, stray bullets, and drunk drivers.
But obesity is something you have agency over. It doesn’t rear-end you while you’re sitting at a red light minding your own business. With a doable amount of mindfulness—and a doable amount of discipline—you can win the “battle of the bulge” and mitigate your engagement with our healthcare system.
With that said, here is the groovy guide to avoiding obesity.
The Groovy Guide to Avoiding Obesity
I’m not an expert on the science of obesity, but I’ve read a lot about it, and I’ve watched a lot of YouTube videos about it. And what I’ve garnered from all this curiosity is three very counterintuitive propositions:
- Exercise is good for a whole host of things but weight loss isn’t one of them.
- The source of calories you ingest is just as important as the number of calories you ingest.
- Eat fat and eschew carbs and sugar, especially refined carbs and sugar.
Yes, I know this sounds insane. But by following these counterintuitive propositions, I went from 215 lbs. to 180 lbs. in a couple of months over four years ago, and I’ve kept those 35 lbs. off ever since.
Again, I have a very tenuous grasp of the science, but it appears that insulin is the primary culprit when it comes to fat accumulation. The more insulin you have coursing through your blood, the more your body will store fat and block its usage. Carbs and sugar cause your insulin levels to spike. Fat doesn’t. Get most of your calories from fat—and ingest fewer calories than your current weight requires—and your body will begin to munch on your accumulated fat for the additional fuel it needs. You will lose weight.
Here are two fellows that explain the science much better than I can.
Quick aside. Don’t just watch part one of the documentary Fathead. Watch all eight parts. You’ll learn a lot and laugh a lot. Here’s the link.
I walk three miles every day with Mrs. Groovy. That seems like a fairly rigorous exercise regimen, but it’s not. The number of calories I burn walking three miles is barely more than the number of calories in one tiny sausage burrito from McDonald’s (300 calories versus 290 calories).
No, my fitness renaissance is almost entirely due to diet. I simply began abiding by counterintuitive propositions two and three above. I consume fewer calories than I did pre-renaissance, and most of my calories come from fat and protein.
Let’s now do a deep-dive on the groovy diet.
The Groovy Diet
The groovy diet can be summed up with one pithy adage:
If every meal and snack you eat brings rapture to your taste buds, you’re eating wrong.
Refined carbs and refined sugar bring rapture to your taste buds. Everything else doesn’t. This is why you prefer Peanut M&Ms to apples, pancakes slathered in syrup to scrambled eggs, and a sizzling hamburger wrapped in a bun and dripping with ketchup and mayonnaise to an unadorned hamburger just sizzling on a plate by its lonesome. The trick to losing weight and keeping it off is to have more boring meals than rapturous meals.
Think of dieting as a game. You have a total of 21 meals per week (three meals a day times seven days). If you can be disciplined enough to have 15 or more boring meals a week, you will lose weight.
To show what I mean by boring, here is the diet I follow Monday through Friday. You’ll notice that there’s a lot of fat and protein and no refined carbs or refined sugar.
Breakfast
For breakfast, I have a concoction I call my “fat bomb.” It consists of the following:
- Green tea
- A tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
- A dollop of coconut oil
- A dash of pumpkin spice
This concoction tastes horrible. But it’s amazingly satisfying. Once I get it down my gullet, I rarely have any desire to eat until noon or 1 pm.
Lunch
For lunch, I bump up the flavor dramatically but still avoid rapture.
- Water
- Egg omelet with cheese
- Anchovies or sardines on occasion
- No bread or condiments
Snack
If I want a little something before dinner, I’ll grab an apple or a banana.
Dinner
Dinner is much like lunch. Plenty of flavor but no rapture. The one key difference, though, is calories. I will be a little piglet and eat till I’m full.
- Water
- Protein and vegetable (e.g., hamburger and broccoli)
- Salad with feta cheese and olive oil
- No bread or condiments
Snack
If I eat anything after dinner, it will be a small bowl of fruit—usually comprised of grapes, blueberries, and strawberries.
Cheat Days
Saturdays and holidays are my designated cheat days. But I don’t go nuts. I still avoid sugary drinks like the plague, and for the most part, I still avoid bread. My morning “fat bomb,” however, is out the window. And so are wholesome snacks. For breakfast, I’ll typically have oatmeal with honey and raisins. If I’m feeling particularly naughty, I’ll have pancakes slathered in syrup. For snacks, I’ll grant myself license to indulge in evil refined sugar. Peanut M&Ms and ice cream are my typical go-to indulgences.
The Results
During the typical week, my boring-meal tally usually hits 18 or 19. And all save two or three of my snacks are boring too. This diet strikes a nice balance. It’s boring enough to keep obesity at bay and libertine enough to keep dreariness at bay. And I can’t argue with the results.
- Minimum engagement with our healthcare system (if it weren’t for my annual wellness exam, I wouldn’t have seen a doctor in the past ten years)
- Minimum exertion (no jogging, spinning classes, or Crossfit WODs—just 45 minutes of walking daily)
- No calorie counting
- Weight 180 lbs. (very reasonable for someone who is six feet tall)
- Almost 60 and medication-free (cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar numbers are all good)
- Look great naked
Final Thoughts
My favorite FI-related quote is from Jocko Willink: “Discipline equals freedom.” Well, a corollary to this quote is a quote I’ve coined: “Permissiveness equals slavery.”
It’s one thing to be at the mercy of our dismal healthcare system because nature or fate has frowned upon you. You can hardly be blamed for being held hostage by our healthcare system if you were born with a devastating ailment or got mangled in a freak accident. But what if you were delivered to the ravenous maw of our healthcare system by your own hand? Your inability to deny your taste buds rapture has compromised your health, and now you have to beg doctors, politicians, and drug company CEOs to take pity on you and your finances. I can think of few things sadder and more demeaning than that.
Okay, groovy freedomist, that’s all I got. Let me know what you think when you get a chance. Peace.
Hi
I was searching for some content this morning. And I came across your excellent website
Anyway, Everyone should visit. Your ambition is really good. Keep it up.
Surely I will refer you in my article in future.
Either way, I hope this helps you, and have a great day!
Thanks,
ketodietcenter
Dipak sarangi recently posted…Nutrition alert: Why calcium is a must for women runners
When I read these two sentences, “You have a total of 21 meals per week (three meals a day times seven days). If you can be disciplined enough to have 15 or more boring meals a week, you will lose weight.”…
I literally said “Holy crap, that’s genius.” out loud haha
That is one of the most simplistic, yet TRUE ways to think about weight loss. Nailed it. Awesome post.
Kyle recently posted…5 Amazing Convict Conditioning Results (Before & After)
Hilarious – you’re eating wrong!
I don’t think we can get onboard the boring meal plan. It sounds pretty bad. Luckily, I’m doing okay with intermittent fasting so I’ll stick with it. I eat lunch and dinner normally. A mix of stuff. We might have to eat a lot more healthy when we get older. For now, it’s okay.
Great job with your diet.
Thanks, Joe. And, holy crap, I forgot all about intermittent fasting. A few years ago, I used to go one day a week without eating anything. And I really enjoyed it. What kind of intermittent fasting do you do? The compressed eating window? Or a whole day without eating? I don’t know why I stopped, but I got to pick it up again. Thanks for reminding me, my friend. Cheers.
Can I ask if you drink alcohol? Your typical meals sound a lot like our approach – boring is easy to cook and keeps us healthy. Congrats on the weight loss and minimal engagement with the healthcare system 🙂
Occasionally. On card night, which happens every other week or so, I’ll have one or two beers. If we go out to dinner, I might have a beer as well. And if I really want to go wild when we have movie night at home, I’ll have a big glass of blackberry merlot. So, yeah, I drink a little. And this oddly enough wasn’t always the case. Up until my mid-30s, I drank like an out of control frat boy. Thanks for stopping by, Kim. Cheers.
Obesity prevention needs to start in childhood because many diseases manifest over a period of years or decades. By the time you realize your weight has impacted your health, it is a lot harder to fix things. As for eating, I disagree that healthful eating needs to be as dull and awful as some of the things that you describe. As someone on Weight Watchers for the last year, here’s my typical eating for a day. Breakfast is usually at 9am and is a 2 egg omelette loaded with scallions, spinach, tomato, mushrooms and brussels sprouts well seasoned. I sometimes add in a TB of fat free cheese or a laughing cow spicy cheese wedge. I usually have a small naan round and a piece of fruit. This lasts me until 1 when I have lunch. Lunch is a 60 calorie low carb Flatout with mustard and no or low salt added turkey/chicken or tuna, a side of cherry tomatoes or carrots and 8 or 9 “Poppables” for an indulgence in salty crunch. Dinner is 3 or 4 oz of lean meat, 1/2 cup of a carb, lots more veggies or a big salad. Every night I allow for up to 100 calories for a dessert. I only cook with olive oil and have learned to use a number of spices to add interest. I love everything I eat and have lost 65 pounds over the last year. Kids and most adults won’t eat healthy if they can’t stand the food. Kudos for the approach working for you. Everyone needs to find what works for them and just do it. Our national health care usage will dramatically decrease if we had a healthier population and people will be happier living their lives doing fun things rather than sitting in a doctor’s office.
Awesome comment, Pat. You and Abby (see below) are absolutely right. Healthy eating need not be dull and awful. Your two-egg omelet sounds divine. And, yes, it’s all about education and culture. If we can impress upon Americans that food is medicine, we’ll eat better and spend a lot less time sitting in a doctor’s office. Love the way your mind works. Cheers.
I really enjoyed this post. And such sensible advice in an area that is so faddy!
Thank you.
I like my plan better, I eat three balanced meals a day until I’m full, whatever I want. I rarely eat anything boring, life is too short to do boring. I run 15 hard miles a week, play eight hours of tough singles tennis and three hours of pickle ball and haven’t gained an ounce in the last 20 years. Actually I’ve lost a few pounds over that time but not on purpose. I do want to stay healthy but that’s kind of boring too , I much more want to stay fast and strong as long as I can. I have to just to keep up with my fast and strong 64 year old wife. She eats whatever she wants and stays skinny too, I really think we just burn it off with all the running and tennis. I agree moderate exercise won’t control weight gain, but extreme exercise will. We have run a lot of marathons and while I have seen some hefty people at the starting line I’ve rarely seen any at the finish.
Steveark recently posted…Volunteering is Meh
“I agree moderate exercise won’t control weight gain, but extreme exercise will.”
Great point, my friend. My only concern with extreme exercise, however, is sustainability. Not many 60-somethings can handle 15 miles of running, eight hours of tennis, and three hours of pickleball. But maybe they could if they were just as active in their 40s and 50s. Hmmmm. You got me thinking again.
As someone who has also recused myself from the medical world and at age 61 am pharma free (always a point of amazement to the medical people) please let me add that your taste buds CAN be tantalized, you just have to retrain them. The “boring diet” you described above IS, and will drive most people nuts unnecessarily. Preparing food and eating well doesn’t have to out of a monk’s playbook. There are plenty of good resources on the web for recipes based on lean proteins, healthy fats and complex carbohydrates (vegetables and fruit). The problem is that most Americans are told ALL carbs and sugars are bad, and that’s simply not true (or smart). Your body need both. The problem is food and nutrition literacy is a real problem in this country – our “education” comes from the marketers of big Agra via the grocery store shelves. We are sheep to the slaughter(in this case the ER and cancer wards).
The carbs from a fresh carrot are NOT the same as carbs from a processed potato chip. The sugar in a plum is not the same as in a donut, but the USA is a country that classifies cafeteria ketchup as a “vegetable”, for God’s sake! I eat a very luscious, ever changing , colorful and delicious diet and have been able to maintain my weight at a healthy level for decades (135lbs, 5.7 tall). And cooking together with friends and family is a wonderful source of camaraderie and builds relationships and community. Four words about taking your own health back: Educate yourself, Experiment, Enjoy.
“Preparing food and eating well doesn’t have to be out of a monk’s playbook.”
Excellent point, Abby. Healthy food need not be “boring” and devoid of taste. By “boring,” I just meant an absence of refined carbs and sugar. I should have made that clear. No one ever said this blogging stuff was going to be easy. But as long as you “educate yourself, experiment, and enjoy,” there’s no reason why “boring” food can’t delight your taste buds as well. Great freakin’ comment.
1. Mr Groovy is a svelte specimen of manhood. I’ve seen him in real life so I can attest that maybe… just maybe… we should lend an ear to what he’s saying.
2. Mrs Groovy? Not an ounce of fat on that woman.
3. Pumpkin spice is American. What’s in it??? The rest of the world waits with bated breath.
4. I’m the fattest I’ve ever been. I could do far worse than to follow these guidelines.
🙂
You are my new BEST friend!
Mrs Groovy recently posted…Obesity and FIRE
Haha!
You’re too kind, FDJ. I’m blushing and my heart is going pitta-patta! But at this stage of the game, I accept all superlatives. And don’t be too hard on yourself. You’re pretty scrumptious too.
P.S. Pumpkin spice is a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice.