We are 76 days into 2026 and I have made it to the gym 62 times so far, which is over eighty percent of the days. I am pretty happy with that, considering that there have been a few weeks recently where I haven't been able to go due to family responsibilities and another handful of where I was a bit too ill. Going to the gym is good but isn't enough for me to get into a decent shape (decent being very relative) as I have several sweet teeth and I struggle with my diet.
I wish it was easier.
My daughter is thankfully much more like my wife, where foods are often "too sweet" (as if that is a thing) for her to eat. And then she is far more sensible than me, where she will happily eat healthy food, even when she has the opportunity to eat unhealthily. The other day we went for a daddy-daughter date to a coffee place and she had a savoury pie and a yoghurt, while I had a sweet bun.
Who is meant to be setting the example?
I am pretty certain my issues date back to childhood, where sweet foods were hard to come by in our household so when they were there, the lizard brain went into hyperdrive and said EAT IT ALL NOW. Most of my friends seemed to have a bit of a different experience, where one would essentially get a "candy day" each week and then it was up to them how they ate it - and I was always in awe that my friend would normally have something left all week. Another had candy available all the time, so it was nothing special, so he barely ate it.
Prohibition doesn't work.
It irks me that I haven't been able to build the skills needed to maintain a healthy diet easily. And it is skills. Willpower is a skill too, and some people are born naturally with more or less of it, but I assume we can all improve our base. Diet is core to our health though, which makes it pretty surprising how little effort is put into helping us build and keep a good one. For the most part, we are left to the outcome of our genetics combined with our environment, and then whatever goes wrong, we have to try and fix ourselves. Sure, there is plenty of advice out there and most of us know what we should be eating and doing, but the fact is that obviously knowing isn't doing, because we are getting fatter, slower, and with less control over our selves physically, emotionally and mentally.
I don't even like sweet stuff that much.
Yet I crave it.
What is up with that?
Addiction.
Like most addictions, once an addict, always an addict. However, if I could just go a few weeks without breaking the sugar rules, I think it would help me keep it going. And I reckon that the best way to do this for me, would to be locked away somewhere for that time, with no access to anything other than healthy food.
I want to go to a fat camp!
Even though many people my age around here would consider me to be in okay shape (looks wise at least), I feel the pressure on my body. Not body image, but actual pressure. At over 90kg and short, even though it is mostly muscle, the extra fat kilos make a difference to my daily life.
A fat camp would be awesome.
When it comes to dealing with the obesity epidemic, what I think should perhaps happen is stop focusing on obese people. Instead, focus on the people who are a struggling to stop themselves becoming obese. Stem the flow of transition from a little overweight to obese, by nipping obesity in the bud before it happens. And one of the ways to do this is to support people to reverse their bad habits through training and conditioning, while surrounded by people also improving themselves. And if the government was really serious about improving the obesity epidemic, they would be sponsoring people to learn and train together for free.
The entire health system around exercise and physical activity should be subsidised with tax rebates for going to the gym consistently, for personal trainers, for dance classes, or being active in sports leagues. There should be financial benefits for staying healthy, because sick people are a massive expense. And not only that, incentivising group activities will improve social health also.
So far, whatever the governments have tried to make an impact on the trend direction has failed miserably and we keep rolling down the hill into illness. Pills are not the solution either (though they might help some people) because ultimately they too are going to have a lot of unintended side-effects and the majority of pharmaceutical interaction side-effects, Are negative. People might lose some weight, but at what cost?
While there are differences amongst individuals, there aren't that many differences that a general guideline can be established. They already have the guidelines of moderation and depending on country, some kind of food recommendation, but where the theory falls down, is that it is up to people who are already struggling with a multitude of daily struggles to implement them. So while we might want to change our diet or amount of movement, most of us need help to do so. But it is impossible to help everyone as an individual, so there has to be some level of standardisation at the base, and then individuals can build upon it to be more tailored to their needs.
Ultimately, I would love a world where we could focus our resources on improving human wellbeing, including across all the health sectors. I think we could and would all do better as a society if we felt better physically and mentally, and we would be far less volatile emotionally also. I reckon it would be great if there was opt-in health development support where people who don't want to get healthier don't have to, but those that do will get benefits for doing so, and not just improved feelings.
I have tried many different things personally, but I am yet to find one that I am able to maintain long-term, so I will keep experimenting. I think that at the moment, the thing that would help me the most is having my wife be part of the process too, but she is not interested in it at all and will likely not get interested, until she is forced by life. But since I can't rely on her to help me in this, I will have to find something else that keeps me aligned with the kind of person I want to be daily.
If only I could strand myself on a deserted island for a month or two....
Taraz
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