Reduce my belly?

[Fritz58]

My project is to reduce my belly. The next action is to eat less That's obvious. Where should I put that next action in my system?

 

[TesTeq]

"Eat less" is not a valid GTD Next Action.

My project is to reduce my belly. The next action is to eat less That's obvious. Where should I put that next action in my system?

I do not think "Eat less" is a valid GTD Next Action.

Next Action = the next physical, visible activity that needs to be engaged in, in order to move the current reality toward completion.

Reducing a belly is not a project for me. It is a side effect (very positive and desired) of the "get fit and healthy" campaign/battle/attitude.

 

[Fritz58]

I fit and healthy except for my belly So THAT is my struggle!

Project = Reduce my belly
Next Action = ???

 

[vbampton]

I fit and healthy except for my belly So THAT is my struggle!

Project = Reduce my belly
Next Action = ???

Ok, so besides eating less, what are you intending to do to reduce your belly? It needs to be more specific than that, so your next actions might be "plan this week's meals", "prepare healthy snack for breaktime today", "go to the gym on X day and spend X time on X machine", "write reminder and place on fridge", "brainstorm triggers that make me eat too much".

Also don't forget to decide the successful outcome. At what point do you call this project finished? Is there a waist measurement or weight that you'll call done?

 

[TesTeq]

"Reduce my waist size by 5"" is measurable.

I fit and healthy except for my belly So THAT is my struggle!

What is your Cooper test result? (Very good / Good / Average / Bad / Very bad)

Running: what is your last 5K / 10K / half marathon / marathon result?

Swimming: what is your last 1500 m freestyle result?

Project = Reduce my belly
Next Action = ???

"Reduce my belly" is not a measurable outcome. It is not possible to determine if it was achieved.

"Reduce my waist size by 5"" is measurable.

 

[Oogiem]

My project is to reduce my belly. The next action is to eat less That's obvious. Where should I put that next action in my system?

Actually I wouldn't say that the action is either obvious or should be eating less.

A belly is fat, what you are really trying to do is reduce bodyfat percentage. Current research indicates that not eating enough (the standard 'diet'), pushing your body into the famine response and becoming insulin resistant is more likely to make you fatter and cause you to store more fat. Eating high amounts of processed foods, lots of grains and legumes, insufficient fats and not enough protein all will conspire to cause you to store fat rather than lose it.

So My next action for a reduce belly project would be to track my food intake for a week and see whether I am getting enough fat and protein and where my carbs are coming from.

Depending on those results I would stop all processed foods, sugary foods, sodas, grains and legumes, add more good healthy fats and increase the calories with additional protein. The goal would be to get my body to start using fat as an energy source and reduce its need for direct glucose from carbs and sugars.

That combined with testing my insulin response with blood tests and adding in weight bearing exercises (like weight lifting) would do more to get my chubby belly gone than eating less.

I would also ignore the scale, measurements are more important, do a quick google on scale lies and you will find some rather fascinating pictures of people who are actually much more fit and now weigh more than they did when they were fat. Weight and Fitness are not really correlated well, bodyfat percentages and fitness are.

 

[jesig]

Losing a belly to me is up there at least at 20,000 feet if it's not even higher--up at the level of life goals: to stay healthy and fit.

You probably have a lot of subprojects within that.

Like Oogie said, maybe one is to track your food intake for a week. This might spawn the NAs:

Make appointment with my doctor
Buy notebook for tracking food/ buy food tracking book/ buy food tracking app on phone
R&D (this is a small project) gyms and personal trainers
R&D good, sturdy running shoes

A project involved with "losing belly" might be something more like, "Develop habit of walking three nights a week." And your NA would be, "Schedule time to walk three times this week." Then you have three, time-bound next-actions, "take walk" and you do them.

Repeat each week until you have developed habit of walking.

Your project isn't a project, and your next action isn't a next action. You're operating at about 40,000 and 20,000 feet ("eat less" = more of an area of focus, if indeed, that's what you need to do) instead of 10,000 and runway.

 

[vic_lh]

Another thing to consider is the purpose and principles for reducing your belly. It is important because, in function of them, the road to take will be different. Examples:

*Purpose:

-"I'd look nicer with a smaller belly" -> Then maybe you only need to lose a few kilos to call the project done.

-"I'd like to reach my ideal weight (that number that is calculated I don't know exactly how, taking in consideration height) -> then maybe you need to lose more.

*Principles:

-"I'm not willing to suffer hunger" -> then your next actions will have to do with gym, sports, eating a different kind of food...

-"I'm not willing to do physical exercise because it bores me" -> Then you can try diet, fastings...

*Also, "by when?" -> The answer will determine the severity of the measures needed, etc...

 

[billjw]

What Oogie said ...

It's not how much you eat, it's what you eat ...

Reduce belly? Next step, to me, would be to

* look into what causes the fat to accumulate.
* Identify what you're doing in respect to that
* set out changes to diet/exercise
* review weekly

 

[TesTeq]

Just for the sake of my own accountability.

What is your Cooper test result? (Very good / Good / Average / Bad / Very bad)

Running: what is your last 5K / 10K / half marathon / marathon result?

Swimming: what is your last 1500 m freestyle result?

Just for the sake of my own accountability:

2012-08-01: 8K run. As part of the run I've measured my:

• Cooper test result. 12' (minutes) --> 2220m (Good for my age group)
• 5K time: 27'30" (5'30"/km)

2012-07-28: 30' swimming --> 1100m (mixed style: freestyle hands-only, freestyle legs, breaststroke).
Expected 1500m freestyle result: below 40'.

Measured --> done.

 

[Roger]

My project is to reduce my belly. The next action is to eat less. That's obvious. Where should I put that next action in my system?

Put it where you can do something about it. Write it on your plates, on the fridge, and in whatever contexts that provide you the opportunity to change your behaviours.

Cheers,
Roger

 

[enyonam]

My project is to reduce my belly. The next action is to eat less That's obvious. Where should I put that next action in my system?

This is the kind of thing I tag as a 'Habit - 0k' ... as opposed to 'Projects and Actions - 10k', and it goes on my habit checklist.

 

[dbawn]

You could play with this, and make it a bit of a project, for fun.

Being a kind of fitness nut myself, I'd say "reducing my belly" is a part of being fit, overall.

Probably there are at least four components to having a flat stomach.
1 reducing body fat%
2 reshaping muscle
3 overall fitness
4 diet

good luck, but I'd say it's more of a lifestyle choice, rather than a project with a start and end date