Thread by @DaveKeto

1/ An aside -- I'm working on a diet protocol of sorts. In a sense, I'm combining a number of techniques I've picked up from my experiments and seeing if it "works" for me. So far, it definitely has been. I'm nearly to the weight I was right before the Weight Gain Experiment

2/ As a little background, I was usually around 185-ish lb before that experiment, then after completing it and going back to keto, I started to average around 195 (I'm 6'3, btw, so BMI would be 24.4 at that level)

3/ I've chatted about this many times on the MMM (our member stream) with @siobhan_huggins, and have wondered if this was simply a new set point of sorts. Maybe it's the added stress, long hours, and not-so-great sleep schedule.

4/ Regardless, I've had a new interest in prioritizing better work/life balance, including not taking my health for granted -- so this became an experiment of its own.

I'm not going to go into great detail on what I'm doing here (yet), but I will emphasize a crucial component...

5/ ... It's *momentum*.

I know this sounds cliche, but this concept doesn't get nearly as much attention as it deserves. When approaching key habit changes in the beginning (particularly with diet) it's hard to imagine things will improve and get easier with repetition.

6/ A lot of our struggles aren't with raw willpower, it's our natural urge to quantify the struggle for the moments we're in and extrapolate that into the future.

Take exercise -- ie "Oh man, I can't do this workout 3 days a week!" trainer: "Give it time. It gets easier..."

7/ The issue with eating habits is that they are actually very complicated and multifaceted. There isn't just one moment of reward ("moment on lips, lifetimes on the hips"), rather, there are several stages, including both anticipation of and the aftermath to a desired meal.

8/ So the techniques I'm working on have more to do with programming my mind, applying some structure in key ways, and generally focusing on the habits much more so than the diet itself.

All that said, for me personally, #keto seems to help me accomplish this the easiest.

9/ Anyway, I'll post on what I'm doing at some point when I see if it maintains long term.

Thus far I'm now down 9lbs putting me back to where I was pre-Weight Gain Experiment. But it's still early, there could be placebo effect, etc, etc.

To be continued...