What I did to change. A year in review.

First of all, I’m not telling you to change who you are. You are perfectly fine.

When people read the word change, they immediately think, “But I don’t wanna! I just want to lose weight, tell me what to do!”.

Our system is designed to avoid change as much as it can. Change is unpredictable, it comes with energy costs and triggers fight or flight systems.

Yet I did change a lot physically and mentally this last year. Someone in our program asked me how I did it. We both have a similar genetic profile, and the same variants of a gene called the FTO gene that is linked to our appetite.

In our case we’re always hungry, we can always eat. A lot of people have that genetic variance and it leads them to overeat. Both Morgane and I have it and our kid has it too. It’s frightening at times to see how much he eats.

Our favourite pizza place in Lanzarote

By the way, you actually don’t need a genetics test to figure out what variance you have. This simple test will predict it pretty accurate.

When you’re at work, and someone brings in a cake, there are four types of people:

1. The first one goes down on it immediately.
2. The second one will be distracted and only able to think about the cake.
3. The third one doesn’t really care but will grab a small bite.
4. The fourth one didn’t even notice the cake was there.

Which one are you? In the first two cases, you are like us.

So how did I change? What did I do? What’s the secret?

I can tell you, it took years and years before I found out what to do. At first, I tried reading as much as I could, but it appears that reading doesn’t affect your health that much. I used every app and piece of technology, but it never really worked for long-term change.

Typically I changed a couple of weeks, and when the results were nowhere near, I slid back into old habits. You need positive rewards to close the habit feedback loop to turn habits into automatic behaviour. But that’s another e-mail.

To show our client what I changed in the last couple of months, I mailed a non-exhaustive list of things I did, that I wanted to share here too. It’s personal and in no way a recipe for success.

• In January, I stopped drinking alcohol. It was definitely the biggest trigger for eating crap in my case. Recently I reintroduced it, but only occasionally and way below the general advice of ten units per week.
• I quit my job and stopped working in an office with daily birthday cakes and snacks in abundance.
• Stopped driving to clients in traffic. This reduced my internal stress severely (easier said than done, I know).
• I took up new sports like surfing and tennis and discovered I was not equipped at all to do these sports decently.
• That triggered me to work out more regularly.
• I started practising yoga more often to become more flexible. I’m still stiff, btw but we’re getting there.
• We created a routine of going to bed before 11.
• We limited processed foods close to zero.
• I upped my fibre intake by eating smoothie bowls made up of green veggies and fruits as breakfast.
• I added fermented foods like Kefir and Kombucha to my diet.
• I fumble with Meditation apps, but I’m still not great at it. Qigong a Chinese variation that includes movement, I do love. Yet not a habit though.

I’m not here to brag about what I was able to accomplish, there’s still a lot of work to do. But you can see there’s been compounding interests going from one habit to another.

I’ve been able to maintain a BMI that is considered healthy and lost 10 kgs after 6 months. I make better food choices, I drink rarely, and when I do, I’m in control. And the best thing? I still eat out at restaurants, I still go to parties, I don’t feel like I had to give up anything.

When I started studying my habits, and calling them out, or better, have them called out by my wife, I grasped which ones worked for me and which ones against.

I am very grateful to have Morgane as my partner. She held up that mirror and nudged me to become who I am today. She made some of the choices for me. I know I still have to do the work, but when you have someone who supports you, that makes all the difference.

We realise not everyone has that same support setup. That’s why we created Guut.

Our coaches don’t judge. They’re here to ask the difficult questions and hold up the mirror. And they’re real humans like you. They recognise change comes with trial and error.

We’ve developed a package specifically for you to discover how you operate.

Do you know what habits are benefiting you and which ones are actually limiting you?

Let me know if I can help in any way. I’m just a reply button away!

Have a great week!

Jan

Co-Founder Guut

We’re looking for pioneers and trailblazers.

We’re looking for pioneers and trailblazers who will get a free 3-month energy program valued at € 750. You will help to propel a new approach to health and wellbeing. One that takes into account our busy lives and acknowledges that we need to have fun and joy to be able to grow.

Talking about energy…

I’m not big on meditation, but I was introduced to Qigong by the amazing Lee Holden. If you feel like sitting still is not your thing, try this 30-day challenge. To me and many of my friends, it was really a refreshing and energising form of meditation.