Wellness, weight loss – the 20 percent plan.

Can wellness be as simple as a lifestyle change?

Wellness is defined as – “The quality or state of being healthy in body and mind, especially as the result of deliberate effort.” This means it’s more about feeling well for yourself.

There is no simple way to undo multiple years of misuse of our bodies.  Failure to adopt a lifestyle change results in returning to your old habits!

Wellness, which is more expensive, healthy eating or diet related health issues?

Generally, healthy eating tends to be more cost-effective in the long run compared to dealing with health issues that arise from poor nutrition.

Here’s a breakdown:

The 20 percent plan.

Can wellness be as simple as a lifestyle change?

First you should know This is a true story. My husband is 72 years old. He started this journey 2022. There was no weight loss goal.  He simply elected to eat less. He has some serious health issues that we must pay attention to including; high blood pressure. hypoglycemia, rheumatoid arthritis and osteo of the knees. The one most affected by food intake is hypoglycemia. When his blood sugars drop he becomes angry very easily. I nicknamed this state “HANGRY”.

What my husband did was simply fill his plate as usual and put 20% back.  He uses these left overs in future meals.  Over time his servings started to shrink and he continued to put 20% back. His average serving size is now about 60% of what it was in 2022.  Two years later he had lost 30 kg dropping from his weight from 100 kg to  70 kg and holding.

He says: “Thailand made it easy for me as most franchise foods except Burger King have altered their ingredients to please Thai’ palates. 80% of Asians are lactose intolerant so pizza gets mayo instead of cheese, chicken burgers are shot up with hot sauce, add to this  my allergy to fish and was and still is safer for me to eat at home than to eat out in Thailand as fish sauce is in many Thai cuisines. Thailand offers year round outdoor activity access to parks.  Your daily exercise does not necessarily require the same level of activity as my daily exercise now includes the following: the 9 exercises for bad backs while in bed (See Video), making the morning power drink smoothie, riding bicycle 2 km through the street market to the park,  1 km walking with 1kg weight on each arm and 2 kg weights on each ankle, I move my arms in many different ways while walking (strengthen back muscles) while my wife, Chef Lee, teaches Tai Chi, ride bike back to the market and purchase out of this or that food, then bike to residence where 1- 2 hours of gardening are required to maintain the home garden and residence before relaxing indoors for air conditioning and working on chefleez.com website before relaxing for the remainder of the day. I make a point of getting up out of my chair every 15 – 20 minutes and walk about including up and down the stairs to the 2nd floor an average of 5 times daily which is equal to 150 or more steps daily. 2025 I am 73 years old!”

Remember to make small changes and expand your lifestyle changes slowly.

Over time you will reduce your serving sizes to healthy portions and you will eliminate poor nutrition foods and drinks from your diet and you will see weight loss that stays off because you changed your lifestyle!

Here’s a link to our short list of super foods.

Taking some healthy cooking classes will teach you how to make healthy foods at home?   Perhaps a Chef LeeZ cooking class.

The 20% plan also includes regular exercise!

See our related  chefleez.com/wellness-exercise blog page.

 FREE Tai Chi class in the park with Chef Lee!

You can see our related videos and blogs by the following links.

Our related YouTube shorts,

Our related YouTube Videos

You can see all our wellness related blogs here.