Mr Steve, it's not working

I was nearing 50. Obese. Unhealthy. I was in Wamba, a remote part of Kenya, working with my charity.

One morning, I laced up my trainers for a jog. My Maasai friend Phillip warned me not to go. A herd of elephants was circling our camp.

I went anyway. I survived. Just.

That afternoon, Phillip cooked a goat us. I did what I always did. I carefully trimmed the fat off my portion and pushed it to the side of my plate.

Phillip watched me and looked puzzled.

"Mr Steve, you run, and you cut the fat off the goat, so you can be big fat Western man"

"No, no, no, I'm trying to get lean, Phillip. A warrior-like physique. Just like you and your tribe."

Phillip glanced at my belly, then at my plate. He smiled, kindly. "Mr Steve, it's not working."

Bloody hell. He was right.

I'd been doing the same thing for years. Cutting calories while still eating rubbish. Running harder while still inflamed. Chasing the body of people who were doing the complete opposite of what I was doing.

Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Phillip had that wisdom without ever hearing the word Einstein.

Lao Tzu put it even better, 2,500 years ago.

"If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading."

Science moves one funeral at a time. Old beliefs only really die when the people who hold them do. You don't have to wait for that. A Maasai warrior with a bit of goat fat on his plate can get you there faster.

Real food, fat and all, keeps a body lean. Ultra-processed food doesn't. That was the direction change I needed.

Ten years on, I'm 60. Leaner than I was at 40 and the animal fat goes on my plate these days.