Autumn. A month that many love due to the changing colours of the season, the promise of cosy evenings and, dare I say, Christmas. For others the cooler, shorter days and dark evenings are not so welcome and can mean a drop in mood and even depression. I use to be fairly ambivalent about the change of the season but it now reminds me of recovery. Three years ago I spend the summer waiting to have open heart surgery. When I left hospital Autumn had arrived. And from day one, as instructed, I walked and walked through the falling leaves. And when I got the ok from the physiotherapist I started running. It felt wonderful. No pain, no breathlessness. I was cured. It was an ideal time of the year to recover. The weather was cool and running in the park was beautiful.

Autumn is increasing being identified as the time to reassess goals and resolutions. We are a few months from Christmas and the party season and for many it is the start of a new year, the academic year. With my son returning to University for his second year I’m a step closer to my encore career. I need to do some serious planning.

What I have been addressing through the Summer is my fat loss with a slow, consistent approach working for me. In the last three months I have lost 3 kg (6 lb in old money). Most weight loss programmes aim at .5kg (1-2 lbs) per week but the risk with rapid weight loss is that lean body mass is lost as well as fat. My weight loss has been all fat plus I’ve actually increased my lean body mass by a tiny amount (fat and lean body weight can be calculated by inputting weight and body fat measurements into a on-line calculator). Quite difficult to do when in a calorie deficit.

So far so good but is there anything that I can be doing to get to a healthy body fat percentage?

The Obesity Code is a book recommended by a nutritionist I follow on Instagram. I’m only half way through it but one of the main themes is that obesity isn’t just about what you eat but when you eat. Our grazing culture has led to our bodies being continuously flooded by insulin and to much of anything results in resistance. The author (a Canadian doctor) argues that allowing our bodies to be continually exposed to insulin results in obesity and ultimately Type II diabetes.

Being someone of a certain age who grew up in a time when ‘the snack’ and obesity were virtually unheard of his claims (backed with credible research) do ring true. Our access to easy food has resulted in us never being hungry. And the snack industry is huge. As he states ‘nobody makes any money when you eat less’ But being hungry is a good place to be as it is during this time that our bodies are using the glucose that would otherwise be turned to fat and our insulin levels are allowed to return to a low level reducing the risk of insulin resistance.

Certainly something to think about.

I’m now half way through my 60th year. The first celebration in my class of 1975 is in two weeks. It still feels surreal that we have got to this grand old age. But we are here and it is to be celebrated. Some of us weren’t so lucky.