Yesterday evening we celebrated my first Book launch for Blind Spot Vol.2 which gave me the opportunity to write a chapter about my life, growing up as an architect before discovering my real passion for software development and the creation of digital products.
Before the event, I met our good friend Tracy J. Reid, who is best selling Author, and a very inspiring Lifestyle & Business coach. She asked me "what I got out of writing my chapter in the book?" and "what's next for me after the book?".
I hesitated for some time and answered "I love writing, but so far I wrote mostly for myself, without publishing. I would actually love to write more...", which turned into a promise to her, that I would write my first post the next day and here we are...
Once that was said, we went then into clarity and consistency of writing, audience and other topics that I haven't really payed any attention to so far, as I haven't seen myself as a writer, but having written my story in Blind Spot Vol.2 and being part of this amazing and inspiring group of writers, I am actually a published writer.
My story published in the book was titled Do what you love & Love what you do, which tells my story of growing up in a profession that was my father's dream, rather than mine, and how I discovered my own passion, moved abroad and started all over to build my own life from scratch. Part of this journey is my beloved wife who has been a key for me in discovering what's important in life.
One of those important areas was of course loving what I do, but another area that she helped me to discover recently was my health and well-being, which was for me all but important. I heavily abused my body for the majority of my life with unhealthy food, stress, little, or at best inconsistent sleep and no physical activity. Eating was for me a necessity and the importance was the brief moment of enjoyment while eating rather than the long term effect of how I would feel afterwards. As a result of this lifestyle I have been the majority of my life (about the last 40 years or so) obese, which effects me of course more and more the older I get.
About 5 month ago, I felt so tired and exhausted, that I asked my wife for help. As long as I know her, she has been the absolute opposite from me with regards to eating. She has always been focusing on how the food would impact her afterwards rather than just the pure enjoyment of the meal itself. Don't get me wrong, she knows how to enjoy a good and tasty meal, however she has that internal responsibility for her body & health that I was missing for my entire life.
The goal was to not do any short lived diet or program, but just change my lifestyle in a long lasting, sustainable and joyful way. Long story short, as you can see in the following chart, my weight started to consistently drop from the day I made the conscious decision that my well being is really important to me.
I achieved that result by simply drinking more water, sleeping more, eating more vegetables and less sugar. I quit the gym and replaced it with regular walks through nature and don't cut out any particular food, but reduce portion sizes so that I still enjoy the moment but know that I still feel good afterwards.
We started from day one a daily journal, writing down everything we ate as well as the weight in the morning and evening, which helped us quite quickly to learn what food works and what we better avoid. This became invaluable in learning about our body and how we react to certain food.
I don't really have a clear end goal in mind as I don't do a diet, but I believe that my body will level out at a certain weight which is probably the one that is healthy and natural, so for now I believe that will be around 70kg, but I will see. However the quality of my life has dramatically improved, it's easier to focus, outdoor activities become more enjoyable and so far there hasn't been a single downside or anything that I would miss.
This new lifestyle has become the new norm, which proves that it has been a lasting lifestyle change rather than a short lived diet. I'm by far just scratching the surface of discovering what I can do for my body & mind in order to be healthy & happy, however it's the crucial foundation that allows me to focus on the next area that I want to transform, the creation of a healthy and sustainable business ...