Tag: personal

Losing Weight – how I lost nearly 25 kilograms in 6 months, doing intermittent fasting, low carb, more exercise

Writing that headline feels like I am writing something that is deliberately ‘click-bait’ content. But really, I did lose nearly 25 kilograms and yes, I lost it in a 6 month time period. And yes, I am still maintaining my weight to around the BMI 20-21 range.

The simplest thing I learned? Once you put your mind into a goal, you can achieve it.

I mean, 25 kilograms is a LOT of weight and I still can’t believe that it happened in a 6 month period.

The day I decided to change my life, I posted an update for help on ways to go about it. I took on board the advice and suggestions, and I went with it. I went with a low carb, low sugar diet. I did not watch calories and same with fats.

I changed my diet and I moved to something more healthier. More fruits, more vegetables. Less refined sugars, less refined carbohydrates. Yes, I ate potato chips, I had a burger, I had some cake. It was still OK, not punishing myself over this.

One of the big challenges I had was facing a working period from 6-7pm to 2 am due to timezone differences. I decided to do intermittent fasting where I stopped eating from 8pm and I would eat again at 1pm. It was a bit brutal, and each morning I felt lazy not being able to get up due to staying late. But my body adjusted – first meal by 1pm, exercise at around 3 or 4pm, a meal after that and final meal by 7 to 8pm.

Yes, I also had the plateau. In fact, I think I plateaued for about three months and seriously wondering how the heck I could move against it.

To top it off, I was on a five week holiday throughout Italy, and Croatia in the summer season. But, I still had pasta (the most delicious was one with raw shrimp near Lake Como) and I still ate SO much gelato (I have lost track of how many flavours of gelato I had, maybe more than 20). And still, during my holiday I kept eating salads and fruits, walked a lot and if available I would also go to the gym. Somehow that is how I moved from my plateau, lost several more kilograms while back in Paris.

One person even commented that while back in Paris, I would gain weight. Well to that person (who themselves is also overweight…) no, I have not gained weight, in fact I have not only lost but I am also maintaining it. All these even though I have been a bit more free eating fresh bread and cheese and enjoying croissants AND enjoying pastries.

It was not just the weight loss that had changed, but also my mindset around healthy eating in general. It was just so, so, so easy to do it now.

Bloating The ‘Digital’ in Digital Nomad

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That was a part of my setup about a year ago.  It also doesn’t include a small box I had with smaller electronics, two keyboards, three mobile phones, two Arduino kits, a Raspberry Pi kit, a soldering kit, a printer, Xbee wifi kits and a lot of cables.

A bit after that I have another 21″ monitor – I’ve moved houses since that photo was taken so my desk was a lot bigger.

Edit: I’ve since moved and have shed quiet a bit of gear including giving away a few laptops.  But the really light 19″ monitor is great for hauling around – if only it was foldable though..

Musings on Life Scripts and Lifelong Goals

I have moved in and out of so many social circles.

I feel like I play the part of an observer, and I observe these circles.  I observe what is socially acceptable, what is unacceptable, what is desired.

And it changes depending on where you are, how you grew up… basically the building blocks of constructing your social reality.

What’s really crazy is that due to many factors out of your control, your reality is already shaped.  If your ancestors decided to migrate to Scotland, rather than Wales, your parents decided to send you off to boarding school, or some other human-level decision made all have the ability to change your social reality.

I was thinking about the social construct of “The Dream” and how it differs yet still share commonalities.  For example, popular notions of what is thought to be The Australian Dream, The American Dream, and The Canadian Dream all lead to some level of real estate investment, consumerism and the focus on individualism.

And yet, these Dreams have subtle differences.  Take suburbs for example.  If you have never lived in Montreal you are not going to be familiar with the notability around Westmount.  If you have never lived in London, you are not going to have the awareness of the name “St John’s Wood” evokes. For South Africa, it is Sandhurst.  And so on.  And yet many individuals (and in turn, families) completely mold their entire life for the sheer psychological thrill of living in this areas.  Sure, maybe they will construct various artifacts to rationalise this.

The same goes for even the small decisions in life.  Eventually, everything adds up.  Eventually things decay.  Even a primarily home real estate decays … or depreciate in value hence why it is not considered to be an investment by asset managers.  And yet it’s one of the most powerful or at least common ‘scripts’ that can take over our lives.

And yet, I can’t bring myself to the reality of this.  Why? One of my long-term and lifelong dreams is to be able to live in at least four main geographical regions spanning the world. The desire to enact on this script is strong enough that it’s the every day driving force that helps pushes me to do what I do.  If today is not helping me get closer to that goal, then it’s a day wasted and a day lost.  If I ever find myself veering off this script, then I need to get back on that path and it needs to be ASAP.  If something is happening in my life that is negatively affecting my ability to reach this goal, I take that away from my life.

I think it’s very important to have these truly lifelong goals, otherwise it’s so easy to just give up when things get tough.

And on that note, once I have a taste of what it’s like to be on the road on these types of goals… then it gets easier and easier to add more lifelong goals.

Fintech.pw Updated With New Menu And Expat Section

I have recently updated one of the smaller sub-sites that I own, www.fintech.pw, with a better menu and a new section for expats.  You can visit the website at http://www.fintech.pw.

fintech.pw

I haven’t had the opportunity to add new content to this site since around November/December 2015.  However, I do have a new commitment in place and if I do publish my notes, it will be in this website.

You can also follow my #fintech tweets via @stellarfintech.

 

The Shard, keeping focus

The Shard taken near London Bridge station. Photo by Generation Y Expat.

 

Today was sunny with blue skies – a nice and welcome change after two to three weeks of constant rain.  I decided to go for a walk after meeting up with Clare Lancaster at the Department of Coffee and Social Affairs and make the most of the great weather.  I am slowly making my way around the surroundings (well, just central London) and have started using landmarks, buildings, and Tube stations as my ‘map’ rather than relying so much on Google Maps or even checking TFL.

The Shard is everywhere when one walks around central London.  It doesn’t matter if I just came out of a sidestrack, from under a bridge or around the corner.  It can be framed by an old 18th century church, stand above a brick wall or peep through an industrial lot. I always get a nice surprise when I see this unique building in view in the most unfamiliar of places and surroundings.

This observation today brings me back to my current situation now.  I don’t have directions and I don’t have a ‘Point A’ to go to a ‘Point B’.  I had a good conversation with someone who remarked that I was a very focused person – even if I didn’t have a list or a detailed plan of where or what I will do in terms of the absolute minute detail.  I have my own Shard – this one thing that will always remain or find its way into my focus regardless of where I am, my surroundings or the state of the environment.