The Body

My physical condition. Eating habits, diet, fitness exercise habits, and activity levels. My resiliency to sickness. Major health issues and susceptibilities.

Status

What I’ve come to realize this year is that my physical condition can lead to a lot of emotional stress. A good example is injury, which creates so much pain, inconvenience and frustration for everyday activities. A less obvious one is diet experimentation, where adherence to certain regimens actually create more problems than benefits. Given the many experiments I’ve done in food and fitness in the last year, I think it’s time to consolidate learnings and lock down something that is physically and mentally sustainable for me.

The Good Stuff

Food

• Outsourced food protocol to Noom — significantly reduced stress from over-thinking. It’s helped a lot in tracking foods, understanding eating habits and psychology, and having access to a specialist / coach.
• Shifted diet to even higher proportion plant-based (for moral reasons, but supposedly should be getting health benefits as well). Very minimal fish/seafood intake now. Still eating eggs and yogurt… and the milk tea (that’s a tough one to cut!)
• Pre-cooking veggies in the morning so that I have accessible healthy options throughout the day, which I can either just reheat or quickly toss into a pan. Prevents eating poorly when tired.

Fitness

• Physio has seen marked improvement in core strength
• Ankle recovery has exceeded physio expectations — I guess I’m still young!

Other health

• Almost never sick
• Dealt with pesky things, e.g. skin issues, problem teeth and pap smear

Analysis

Insights

• I think tracking what I’m eating really helps me
• I’m definitely a moderator, not an abstainer.
• When I follow “extreme” protocols for experimentation, I can do it for months actually, but I gradually lose touch with how I actually feel, as I’ve overridden feelings in order to stick to the rules (e.g. overriding hunger cues to test fasting, and then losing my sense of hunger/satiety)
• I generally find it much easier to abstain from foods for moral reasons, than anything else (health, performance, aesthetics).
• When it’s super easy to eat vegan (e.g EA events), I’m totally fine with it.
• I don’t really enjoy alcohol (and generally make poor food choices when I have it)— I think I can just cut it, even in social settings
• I think the primary roadblock is sustaining my efforts at ankle rehab. I’ve identified a few reasons for this:
• Very difficult if it is purely self-driven — using classes is a solution
• I have skepticism as to whether it actually works, given that I still keep getting injured
• Hard to know whether progress is actually being made (besides testing in game?)

Mistakes & Plan Changes

• I tried so many eating protocols (including some before 2018, but I never really analyzed them), and most of them just don’t work. I’ve always had the intent on finding something that works as a lifestyle, not a temporary fix), but I’ve discovered that most “diets” are unsustainable and stressful for me (mentally, but sometimes even physically).

Pains

• Continue to have ankle injuries (though fewer and lighter) despite rehab work
• Arm injury sustained for over 3 months (can’t throw!)
• Bouts of fatigue, possibly from nutrient deficiencies
• Strong grazing / snacking tendencies

What I’m excited about in 2019

1. No more injuries

• Reduce emotional stress / worry (emotionally draining both on and off the field)
• Enable physical performance goals, e.g. better sprinting and frisbee playing (ankle sprains are now my most frequent injury)
• #product: get a bosu ball to use at home (maybe while at standing desk?) — more interesting than plain exercises
• #protocol: set up TAP to do balance exercises while bored / anxious (replace nail biting!)
• #protocol: yoga classes with standing balances
• #protocol: weekly session with physio
• Improve lower body and core strength (see priority #3)
• Core strength
• Lower body strength
• pull up bar
• Wear ankle braces — but this doesn’t solve fundamental problems (possibly unsolvable?) and may also cause damage to other areas (e.g. knee — already happening)
• Track progress

2. Learning to cook

• Making to deliciously nutritious food
• Save time and mindspace by locking down a repeatable routine and grocery list
• Align with moral values — design a plant-based protocol that works for my lifestyle
• Make sure I get all my nutrients, given that I’m predominantly plant-based these days (nutrient deficiency could be leading to fatigue)
• Set up fridge / kitchen / pantry