Perfect Life Project

Going Low Carb Revisited

Back in February I posted about beginning a low-carb diet to quickly shed some weight and get back to my racing shape. Unfortunately that effort was unsuccessful due to several lifestyle interruptions and what in retrospect was a poorly designed program. In fact, I returned from my Malaysian holiday the heaviest weight of my life. It was time to take serious action.

Almost 4 weeks ago I began another low-carb diet, this time properly designed by a dietitian friend. Out went all the bread, pasta, rice, biscuits, and most simple sugars. All I could eat were 3 pieces of fruit per day, as much undressed salad or steamed vegetables, 100grams of lean protein and some dietary bars, or shakes. I did keep coffee and the occasional beer and wine on my list, because life is too short to miss out on some things.

The first few days were hellish. My body screamed at me and I almost gave up within 3 days. Then it started to get easier. By the end of week one a small weight loss was evident and I was feeling pretty good. I was encouraged to see out week two as thats when the results start to really show. Sure enough, I had shed a few kilos by then.

Simple advice on how to live

We have heard it all before, but there is one piece of advice that we really should take to heart:

Live every day as if it is your last.

Whatever you are doing today, ask yourself "is this what I would want to be doing if this was my last day on earth?" Its a very powerful reminder of what is truly important.

Unfortunately, the significance of such thoughts were abruptly brought to my attention once again yesterday when I discovered a friend had died. He was a champion athlete, loving father and great company. He had been battling a sinister disease for a long time and finally lost his battle.

Times like these put everything else into perspective. Don't waste a moment. Don't look back on your life and regret not chasing your dreams.

Live every day as if it is your last.

Plan to survive the wobblies

Business plans require constant revision, even when they have been successful. Everything changes. Your goals change, your circumstances change and so your plan must change. It's significant change that I am now contemplating for my business.

Almost 3 years ago I was about to purchase my (now) advertising agency from its founder. I had drawn up a plan of attack for the agency's operation, turnover goals, profit goals and finally the lifestyle goals I hoped it would deliver. As regular readers would know, the agency was built around delivering me the lifestyle I desired first and foremost.

275 authors band together for Age of Conversation 2

Following the success of our recent assault on the Amazon sales charts, the Age of Conversation team is now busy working towards a second book. The new one is tentatively titled, Age of Conversation, Why don't people get it? and this time it combines the talent and advice of 275 of the worlds best marketers, thinkers and advertising writers.

The only relevance to the book has to this blog is that I am once again honored to be one of the authors in this innovative publishing exercise.

Meet the rest of the authors here:

10 ways history's finest kept their focus at work

I just came across this post at a blog called LifeDev. It was actually written by Albert van Zyl from the blog HeadSpace. Anyway, its really great advice.

The lives of great people give us interesting clues about how to organise our days.

All of them attached great value to their daily routines. This is because they saw it as being part of ‘becoming who they are’, as Nietzsche puts it.

For the same reason they were also highly individual in their routines. They had the courage to go against popular opinion and work out often strange daily plans that suited them.

This is perhaps the first lesson that we can learn – that it takes courage and resolve to design and stick to a routine that suits you. But as Emerson reassures us: ‘The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going’.

There are at least 10 other lessons that the daily routines of the great can teach us: