In the last few years I continuously battled to keep my weight under control. All the work, stress and deadlines pushed me out of balance and I had to fight it back each time. Inside I always known it’s a question of speed and volume but I could never formulate in such an applicable way.
Not until a few weeks ago and I waited for so long until I would reach one of the otherwise impossible targets in order to try to write it down.
And it all started with someone which does not eat or sleep in quantities which are measurable from my perspective and with an “all you eat” buffet in my hotel in Athens after some long, neurons consuming hours.
First the speed. It’s the life I have which runs faster than it should. And by life I mean work, and by work I mean software development related. Everything changes, moves in a rhythm which is too fast. And I do not have the capacity not to apply this rhythm to my eating moments. This is the first step, do not apply the rhythm of work to the eating habits. For me, as there is no real separation between the time and place I work and the time and place I eat it was harder as there was no clear separation. Crammed in the flow of work, with no clear delimitation, the time of eating was driven by the same speed as the rest of my life thus forcing, by the shear force of inertia, to ingest more than needed for someone sitting in a chair for the best part of his life.
So the first attitude is to slow down the speed of eating to avoid the inertia effect.
Then it’s the volume. Of course we are talking about volume of work here as I have noticed that if the amount of work exceeds a certain amount for a certain period (I would say 12h/day for a week in my case) then I loose the ability to control the speed. At this volume the flow is so strong it just takes me along as I am powerless trying to hold to anything.
So the second attitude is to stop working to be able to apply the first attitude.
Then … It’s more complicated as you find yourself with a lot of time you usually did not had as you where working. And for 1, 2 days it’s ok but then you realize you have absolutely no idea how to spend it and it could be a great idea to prepare something to eat and then, driven by the sadness of this empty time you end up eating for other reasons.
This is the third and most difficult attitude. For now, I spend all this time cycling and it works somehow but I am a bit worried about what it will happen when it will be cold outside.