Dusk and Dawn

Like pretty much everyone I know, I’ve done my fair share of diets and exercise plans. They always start out well. I’m excited, full of energy, ready to go. And then the next day rolls around and I’m maybe a little less enthusiastic. On day three, I’m in a rush and do the bare minimums necessary to keep in line with my new plan. By the fourth day, I realize that I’m just too busy right now to manage my diet/exercise plan and I’ll pick it up again later once things calm down. Give or take a few days to a week and this is the course all of my fitness plans seem to take. I guess I’m still waiting for things to “calm down.”

So, I've been on this new diet lately...

Right, sounds like the usual pattern, but there’s something different this time. What’s special about this diet is that I’ve been on it for over a month and show no signs of stopping. It’s not too complicated. Basically, I’ve been making sure to eat all of my meals before 7pm. In other words, I avoid eating within several hours of going to sleep. The results so far are pretty good though: I’ve dropped about 1.5 kg and lowered my body fat a couple percentage points. The real plus, however, is that I don’t feel like I’m on a diet.

This all started when Mutsumi and I heard that Japanese pop starlet Koda Kumi essentially eats whatever she feels like, but still manages to maintain her show-stopping figure. Her secret, of course, is that she doesn’t eat anything after 6pm. We decided to try it out for ourselves. Now, not feeling as intense as Ms. Koda (nor needing to maintain careers as sex symbols), we decided to push the daily deadline to 7pm and allow ourselves two days off for late-night meals and drinks with friends, Friday and Saturday night of course.

Koda Kumi, not eating after 6pm

Even with the extra leniences, the Koda Kumi Diet has had quite a respectable effect. Losing a kilogram in a month is not terribly dramatic, but considering how easy it was to do, it’s nothing to sneeze at. I’m not spending time checking nutrition labels and counting calories. Before 7pm, I feel free to indulge in my usually abysmal eating habits (fried food and chocolate; next stop: fried chocolate!) After seven, I just have to hold-out until the next morning, which makes breakfast taste great.

A diet is like a marathon and its all about pacing yourself. It doesn’t matter if you lose a lot of weight all at once if you can’t keep it off afterwards.　Being able to stay on a steady program is key and, at this rate, we should be able to stay on this one for a good long while. We’ve even got a little space to tighten up the diet to keep up with our ever slowing metabolisms. Now, if only exercise were this easy….