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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.
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