I hope this message helps someone interested in health and wellness. To put things into perspective I weighed close to 250 pounds in January 2024. Back then I was suffering aches and pains. There were a series of visits to the doctor. One day a medical test required a 24 hour fast, and I was blown away by how great I felt after the fast. Having two young children and an unfulfilled desire of seeing my abs for at least once in my life, I committed seriously to losing weight. Without knowing why I gave myself a target of hitting 210 pounds by the middle of November.

It’s October 2024. I’m down to 208. Still no abs. But I feel good; and, for some strange reason, a lot of the aches and pains I suffered have either subsided or disappeared. I’m no fitness coach, but I’ll share what I do when it comes to food and exercise. As you read, please note that I was always mindful to start small and gradually increase.

Walking. In February 2024 I aimed to walk 15 minutes at least three times per week. Once I hit the road I usually ended up walking for more than 15 minutes. At first I walked on afternoons but I felt like I was losing time with my family so I switched to mornings. I was hitting the road by 0530. In one hour I would clock 7,000 steps or 6 KM, back home by the time the children were rising to start their day. On Saturdays, if I woke early enough, I went for a long walk somewhere in Trinidad, met a lot of new people, saw a lot of interesting things, even dodged a bottle in Couva. By August I was walking with weights in a bag, sometimes six pounds, sometimes fifteen. Fast forward to October. As you’ve read I’ve hit a couple of my goals but life and responsibility has gotten in the way so I don’t have time to go for walks. Fortunately I’m working on projects around the house that involve walking so I usually hit 8,0000 to 12,000 steps daily. If I was just getting started, full of zeal and motivation, I’d aim for 3,000 steps to 5,000 steps from a dedicated walking routine, not fast, just walking and gaping, gradually increasing to 7,000 steps. Throughout the day from other activities like walking to kitchen for snacks I’d probably hit 10,000 steps.

Strength training. I have weights at home but I joined a gym. I’m just one of those people who don’t stick to working out at home. I aim to go to the gym at least 3 times a week. I usually make it 5 times, from Monday to Friday. Based on my routine I’m in and out in forty five minutes to an hour. I don’t lift HEAVY. I lift heavy enough for me. I usually skip squats on leg day because of an injury I suffered in my twenties; I was lifting HEAVY. I ignore the cardio machines… for now. My goal is consistency. In the last week I’ve taken a sudden interest in stretching because of something I read: “a body under tension requires more energy to move”.

Nutrition. I love hamburgers and chocolate. At first I paid little attention to diets and nutrition. Gradually I lessened processed snacks and soft drinks then quit. Then I quit alcohol. Thinking about quitting was harder than actually quitting. It’s not that I’ve quit drinking, it’s that right now I’m on a mission and if I have soft drinks and alcohol I usually eat junk and can’t stop eating junk. By June 2024 I had eliminated flour from my diet (I know, I know: roti is life) and was having minimal rice. I’m into sweet potatoes and cassava, and I love dasheen although I disliked dasheen as a child. If I’m having provisions with a meal I aim for 4 to 6 ounces. Black coffee sucks but I drink black coffee or green tea with honey.

I’m not rigid. In July when we vacationed I let go and eat whatever I wanted but continued walking and strength training. Interestingly I lost weight. In August when we returned home I returned with more zest to eat clean. I experimented with intermittent fasting, gradually climbing to 20 hours of fasting with a 4 hour eating window. Eating between noon and 4 o’clock suits me and for the most part I ate whatever the heck I wanted but somehow I ate “clean” for the most part. During the fasting window I didn’t miss food and contrary to what I thought, my energy levels never tanked, not even in the gym. In fact I made small gains!

Fast forward to October 2024. Over the last week I’m trying a little experiment that hopefully lasts until Christmas Eve. I’m eating whenever I want but not whatever I want (without trying my last meal is usually at six in the evening). Here’s the catch. I’m focusing on foods like fruits, vegetables, almonds, cashews, eggs, rice, grilled chicken and grilled fish, zero alcohol, no sugar except of course my wife cooks stewed chicken. Right now I’m motivated to go until Christmas Eve although Diwali is just around the corner and roti is life. Honestly I’m amazed and a little bit perplexed at how good I feel. I don’t miss anything in particular, I look forward to fruits, vegetables, the gym, I feel more alert, more at peace with myself. As I said I’m down to 208 pounds. But still: no abs.

If you want to learn how to program here’s a quick suggestion. As a new programming student there are two things you simultaneously have to learn: a programming language like Pascal, C or Java; the second thing is program design concepts. The bad news is that students often prioritize learning the language, paying little to no attention to program design concepts.  The student eventually hits a brick wall, gives up, maybe they jump across to a new language where they hit a brick wall again and finally give up, declaring that “programming is too hard”. Learning a programming language without first understanding program design concepts is like learning a foreign language without knowing the rules of grammar and punctuation. Without knowing the rules you can’t write a paragraph because you can’t write a sentence.

Instead focus on program design concepts, the fundamentals, the nuts and bolts. Learn them. Learn them well for these concepts will serve you regardless of the programming language you learn. I’m not at all saying that every programming language suddenly becomes easy. That’s not what I’m saying.

Without ever talking about a programming language, let’s define a program or algorithm (I’m not sure why but I dislike the word algorithm). A program is a series of steps that solve a problem. Exactly how many steps there are depends on the problem. You can put together any programming solution (or algorithm) using three programming constructs: Sequence; Selection; and Iteration/Loops.

A construct is a building block. Like a Lego block. Arrange these blocks in a sensible way and you will build a sensible solution. A quick note before we get to each of the three constructs. I’ve attached diagrams with simple examples of each construct: Sequence, Selection and Iteration/Loops. These diagrams are visual representations of each construct. In each diagram a circle represents: Begin/End; a rectangle represents a single programming instruction like “Ask the user for their name”; and a diamond represents a logical expression (for now let’s pretend a logical expression is a simple question like “Is the age the user entered less than 18?”.

Sequence

The sequence construct is a series of instructions that happen one after the other: bam-bam-bam! The instructions flow uninterrupted. There is no obstacle. For example, a program begins, the program asks a user for their name and age and the user enters their name and age. Then the program ends.

Selection

The selection construct. Programs wouldn’t be very useful if they could only perform sequence steps. In life we often have to choose a path: watch a funny video or read a boring programming tutorial. Work out our arms or legs? Arms win! Consider a program that allows a user to vote only if the user is 18 years or older. Else if the user is less than 18, they are NOT allowed to vote. Regardless of the programming language (at least the ones I’m familiar with) the selection construct always asks for a logical expression (we’ll talk about logical expressions another day).

Iteration/Loop

Iteration/Loop construct. Programs or algorithms often have to repeat instructions a certain number of times. The exact number of times is either known or unknown. Consider a real world example where a teacher is in a class with ten students. It’s the first class. The teacher points to the first student, asks for their name, age and hobbies. The first student answers. The teacher points to the second student, repeats the exact instructions, and the second student complies. This happens until the tenth student has said their name, age and hobbies. There isn’t an eleventh student so the introductions end.

Here’s another example of iteration. A grocery cashier is scanning items a customer is placing on a conveyor belt. The cashier isn’t sure how many items are in the cart but each time the cashier scans an item the customer’s bill increases by the cost of the scanned item. This activity continues until there are no more items in the cart. Once the cart is empty, the system displays the total, the customer pays, the transaction ends.

Conclusion

Notice we haven’t talked about any ONE programming language. These three programming constructs are the building blocks of any solution. There are other building blocks like variables, relational operators and expressions that will clarify exactly how sequence, selection and iteration/loops work. Those are lessons for another day. In the meantime, rest assured that, depending on the problem you need to solve, you can write an algorithm/program by stacking these three constructs in different ways. The best part is that you can take your intimate knowledge of these constructs to any programming language.

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