Hello, Aivar! First, introduce yourself. In five sentences or less - who are you?
I am an ordinary person who grew up in a small town. I went to school, then I moved to a slightly bigger city to study and gain knowledge. After successfully completing my studies, I am moving on to life.
I realised during my studies that the knowledge provided by the education system is not enough and that I need to learn on my own in order to live a good life. So, after acquiring a lot of knowledge, but not yet what I would like to have, and noticing that I like to pass it on to others, I founded Self-help academy.
Do you often challenge yourself? Where would you place yourself on a ten-point scale from the cowardly Nuobodila to the superhero Batman?
Yes, often. It's just that some of my challenges or goals are simpler and quickly become habits, while others are more complex and require a long journey every day to get started.
I am self-critical, so I'll give it a five. I don't sit in front of the TV, but I'm not yet the kind of person who spins around like a caterpillar. It would be enough to go up to 8 or 9 on your scale, because you need to leave time for peace and quiet, which is when the golden thoughts come.
Tell us what challenge you took on and what were the rules?
Improvement is not just about learning more about a field and accumulating theoretical knowledge. To change, you need to put knowledge into practice. One of my more interesting challenges and ways to apply my knowledge is to live a healthy lifestyle.
I took up this challenge 7 years ago, and by then I had already gathered a lot of information that a vegetarian lifestyle is much healthier than the one most of us have.
And, despite being a die-hard carnivore, I firmly decided to give up animal products. To make things even more interesting, I have also decided to give up alcohol.
At the beginning, the rules were quite strict - I didn't eat any animal products at all, but after about six months, I relaxed my rules and allowed myself to eat dairy products and eggs, because I was losing a lot of weight, and I couldn't find a logical solution to get enough protein.
And why did you choose this challenge?
The whole story started 6-7 years ago, when I was in my second year. Like any young maximalist, I wanted to be able to do everything: study, earn and study well. And that takes a lot of time and energy.
So when I found enough information that vegetarians have more energy, I decided to become one.
As I have studied and explored many areas, I have come to realise that health is the foundation of everything. Without good health and the right level of energy, it is much harder to achieve the goals you want.
And in 110-120 years of vigorous and healthy life (the life expectancy of healthy Caucasians, Tibetans, Japanese and Scandinavians), it is possible to get a lot more done than in the standard 70 years, the last of which are more often than not more like existence than a full life.
By the way: Life expectancy in Lithuania is 67 years.
Overall, how did you achieve your goal? And what was the biggest obstacle in your way?
I overcome most challenges through sheer willpower - I do it until I get it right. I have used the same method for giving up alcohol and meat. With alcohol, it was simple enough - I told myself that I would not drink from the first of December, and that's pretty much what happened.
However, a silly habit led me to order a glass of wine when I went to a club one day, which I drank, of course.
It was 15 December and the last glass I drank. Many friends persuaded and tempted me afterwards, but I did not give in. And now I have been sober for 7 years. I am very happy about that, because it does more harm than good - at least for the time being, I think so .
Meat was more difficult. When I decided to stop eating meat, I made a conscientious effort to do so, but after a month, the urge to eat meat became so strong that I couldn't resist.
This went on for about half a year - I stopped eating meat and started again, until I came up with the idea of doing a body cleanse and I drank only water for a couple of weeks.
After the cleanse, I no longer craved any meat and for a successful six months I ate only plant-based food. My energy really increased, I forgot about fatigue, and my body needed less sleep.
But it took a lot of effort to keep up the weight and physical strength. To do this, I added eggs and dairy products to my diet.
I did this for about 4 years, and although I didn't lack energy, I felt worse, and I felt that something was missing. Of course, I continued to be interested in healthy eating.
It was difficult to dig deeper because there are so many conflicting studies, countless health organisations and institutes whose data cannot be trusted. Some of them are difficult to find confirmation or logical explanations for one proposal or another, while others raise doubts as to whether these organisations are really trying to help people become healthier.
In the end, I realised that the best people to learn from are those who have lived the longest and healthiest lives, and they are definitely not vegans. So, in the end, I went back to eating meat. Of course, I try to eat organic meat most of the time.
As I have studied and explored many areas, I have come to realise that health is the foundation of everything. Without good health and the right level of energy, it is much harder to achieve the goals you want.
How did you feel after completing the challenge? Did you achieve what you initially hoped for?
I feel good because it has helped me to learn and learn a lot. I may have achieved even more than I expected, but I don't think this is the end.
This is a non-exhaustive goal, healthy living is something that can be pursued all the time, and I think I will continue to do so as my knowledge improves. I am confident that this will grow into many lectures and at least one book on nutrition.
I look forward to the book! And what new things did you learn during your challenge?
I don't regret taking up this challenge, because I have learnt a lot. First of all, I have learnt about nutrition and its principles in a way that most people don't learn in their whole life.
Eating well helps me feel great every day. I have experienced it all first-hand, and no amount of theoretical knowledge will change that.
I have also seen once again that there can be a lot of evidence, a lot of studies, that are not necessarily correct.
And even if you think you have discovered the truth, you cannot stop digging, checking, exploring, because you will only discover something resembling the truth when you have gone from "I understand" to "I don't understand" at least 5 times. But even then you cannot be sure that you are right.
Do you have any advice for people who want to repeat or surpass your adventure?
I would advise anyone who is interested in a healthy lifestyle, or who wants to start living healthier, to give up alcohol. I managed to do it very easily. I think strong willpower and having my own opinion played a key role in this.
For most, the main obstacle at this point will be an environment which no change necessarybut getting used to the "new" you is essential. It requires you to realise that you live for yourself, not for others, and to do what you want.
When it comes to giving up meat, the first thing to think about is whether you really need it.
If you are a very big pet lover and therefore don't want to eat meat, then you can try it, but be aware that it is not for everyone.
We live in great times, where science is sufficiently advanced that, by combining foods and supplementing the missing nutrients with food supplements, you can eat well. It is just that this way of life requires a great deal of knowledge, which needs to be acquired before we can switch to this way of eating.
And for everyone else who eats meat - eat it right. That is, don't eat it the way most people like it - with carbohydrates. Don't be afraid of fatty food, it does not make your belly grow, again, it grows from carbohydrates.
Oh, and don't forget to replenish the vitamins and minerals in your body. Dig deeper into your diet, as this will help in all areas of your life.
Soooooo… What challenge will you take on now? Already have ideas or secret desires?
The next challenge is to prepare and deliver a motivational seminar for the employees of the company that hired me. A challenge, as I have never delivered a training of this format before. And anyway, the challenges and goals are increasing, the most important thing is not to run out of energy.
Thank you very much for the conversation, Aivars!
So, it turns out that if you want to lose weight to the point where you start to miss it, the best thing to do is to start eating vegan. And who says you only need to exercise to lose weight, but you can have bacon butties for breakfast and dinner?
(Yes, there's an attitude that eating and drinking is not important - it's about moving. But I haven't heard more about it. However, it seems that you can also just watch what you put in your stomach!)
And Aivaras is right - when you take on a challenge, it's important to know why you're doing it, because your inner motivation will drive everything later. I still wouldn't recommend eating piglets. Because look at a photo from my youth - don't I look delicious!?
Well, I hope I don't look it.
I hope this will help you, the reader, on your journey towards a healthier and happier life.
And as always, the Feisbuk share button at the bottom is still open and the comments section is open for comments and questions! I look forward to hearing from you!
yours,
Pig Antanas