I’ve conducted a rather extensive series of experiments on myself over the years.
Different diets. Different training programs. Sleep tracking. Activity tracking. Macros. Calories.
I had spreadsheets.
Of course I had spreadsheets.
I was extremely thorough.
Unfortunately, after more than a decade of research, my body appears to have reached a rather disappointing conclusion.
It likes routine.
Regular sleep. Predictable meals. Walking. Less stress.
Boring.
Absolutely devastating news for the research department. 😂
A Very Ambitious Research Program#
This all started because I’ve always been curious about how things work.
And I figured my own body was a pretty interesting system to investigate.
So I started experimenting.
High protein. Extremely high protein. Keto. Paleo. Carnivore. Vegan. Raw vegan. High-carb raw vegan. High-fat raw vegan.
Intermittent fasting. Calorie tracking. Macro tracking.
I tried different training programs, strength training and powerlifting.
Powerlifting was something I genuinely enjoyed.
Unfortunately, my enthusiasm exceeded my body’s willingness to cooperate, and I injured myself.
I tracked sleep, steps, food, and progress.
I tested each approach for at least three months.
I was essentially running a one-person research institution.
With a surprisingly uncooperative research subject.
The Experiment I Wasn’t Conducting#
Eventually, I got tired of thinking about food all the time.
So I stopped.
Not eating, obviously.
That would have been a rather unfortunate research decision.
I stopped trying to optimise every aspect of it.
I made my meals predictable, became more consistent with sleep, reduced a lot of stress in my life, and walked. A lot.
Sometimes to the beach, which was considerably more enjoyable than updating another spreadsheet.
And something rather interesting happened.
I felt better.
Life became simpler.
And, almost as an incidental result, I lost 20 kilos over six months without deliberately trying to.
After years of complicated experiments, the most useful change wasn’t another intervention.
It was allowing things to settle into a routine that suited me.
My body, apparently, had been requesting a boring operating environment for years.
And I’d been responding with another dietary intervention.
Letting the System Speak#
What I find interesting isn’t which diet worked.
In fact, I changed so many things at once that I couldn’t tell you which particular factor made the difference.
It’s that I’d spent years trying to optimise a system without always giving it much opportunity to simply operate.
I was so busy adjusting variables, measuring outcomes, and looking for improvements that I’d almost forgotten to ask what happened when I stopped interfering.
And that’s an interesting question beyond food and exercise.
Sometimes we become so focused on improving something that we assume it must constantly be changed.
Another process.
Another adjustment.
Another intervention.
Perhaps Olympus wasn’t the only place with a micromanaging governance board.
😂
But not everything needs optimising.
Sometimes you need to observe.
Understand.
And let the system show you what it actually does.
After all, you don’t need to optimise gravity.
You just need to understand that it’s there.
Preferably before you drop something expensive. 😂
The Deeply Inconvenient Conclusion#
I still love experimenting.
I still love collecting information, testing ideas, and understanding how things work.
But I’ve become more comfortable with the idea that understanding a system doesn’t always mean changing it.
Observation is part of understanding a system. And sometimes observation requires leaving it alone.
After more than a decade of experimentation, my body’s preferred operating conditions turned out to be regular sleep, predictable meals, less stress, and a decent walk.
Final research finding: Complexity isn’t always improvement.
Researcher’s response: Deeply disappointed.
Research subject: Finally getting some peace and quiet. 😂
Originally published on LinkedIn.