Study Yourself.... Know Yourself.... It's the Circle of Life Simba!

Aaaaahhhh.... the Circle of Life..... the Cycle of Life..... Lion King stuff.... my absolute favorite animated movie of all time..... seen it 20 times with my daughter growing up and will see it another 20 times.

So many Life Lessons.... So many things to think about and apply in Life....

So how we doing this Hump Day morning?

Been doing a lot of thinking lately..... cause I'm older.... and I got more time to think.... I've removed myself from the rat race of corporate life, reduced and simplified my lifestyle and focused on the few things that are important to me.

Family, Food, Working Out, Working Part Time, Being Healthy and Fit.

One of the things I've been contemplating is my history.... my lifecycle.... especially in terms of my health and fitness and resulting happiness.... .direct correlation.... the healthier and fitter I am, the happier I am....

Hmmmm..... Interesting.

So what is the best and simplest measure of my Health and Happiness?

MY WEIGHT!!!

I took the time to sit down and figure out and record my Weight Cycles aka Life Cycles for the last 34 years.... from Age 18 to 52 (I'll be 52 in July so close enough).

Simple yet Effective Graphic....

Wow! Pretty big cycle....

High is 216 - Low is 168.

About 50 lbs.

That's not good.

So what else can I learn about myself from this simple data set?

Well - I have the ability to gain and lose weight pretty quickly.

And my average is about 190 and if I ever break above or below that value I seem to extend the movement in that direction at least 15 - 25 lbs....

So that's a takeaway....

A really important takeaway.... A Red Flag or Green Flag of sorts depending on whether the movement is weight gain or loss.

Right now I'm sitting at about 175 in May 2014.

The bottom right part of the chart shows a dotted line for the projected path of my weight.

Interesting... Very interesting

A potential full circle from age 18 - 52.

Wow!

Back to the Future!

Hell I don't need a flux capacitor and 1.21 gigawatts of power.... I'm headed back to the weight I was when I was 18.

So that's another takeaway.

I was there once before so it is a likely target or resting zone for the future.

The right part of the graphic also has a green dotted line rectangle.

That condensed timeline is depicted below.

Hmmmm.... An almost equal 3 wave movement.... Very common in the physical world. It's called Elliot Wave.

A thrust down.... A retracement (about 38% of the prior move - known as a Fibonnaci retracement) and then a 3rd wave of equal length of the first wave down.

Here's info on these 2 mathematically based concepts / phenomena:

Elliott Wave theory:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_wave_principle

Fibonnaci theory:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci

So I went from 216 to 183 which is about 33 lbs and then back to 196 so if this 3rd wave down is the same magnitude as the 1st wave down, I should bottom out at 163.

That's pretty light, but it kinda matches up with my weight just before I turned 18...

I was 155 lbs till my senior year in high school when I started lifting weights and put on 13 lbs of muscle to get to the beginning weight of 168 depicted in the first graphic.

So what can the average person take away from all this.... the charts, the mathematical mumbo jumbo and the intangible yet credible and incredible correlation of the many cycles within the Cycle of Life?

Well....

Past is Prologue -

Study your history, your tendencies, your cycles and use that information to your future advantage.

Identify "danger zones" or inflection or pivot points - critical levels - that will mark quick movement when breached - movement in a positive or negative direction.

Use this information to get "ahead of the curve".

Knowing what happened the last time you arrived at a point you may be facing can guide you to making changes and adjustments to prevent future negative events.

For example for me, with the data depicted above, it's obvious that if I ever get back above 183 lbs, I will likely go straight back up to 195 and if I bust 195, I'll likely top out at 215.....

And I don't wanna do that.... Ever again.

So if I start approaching 183, I'm gonna cut back on my eating or increase my activity or both.

Life is a Cycle of Cycles....

Life is a Circle...

Discover Your Circle of Life.