Keep you aim high! My aim is to have and achieve a proper and worthwhile goal of eating. To the question of “why do you eat?” I want to answer that I am preparing for the next meal. That means I can’t eat too much at this meal. I am thinking ahead while eating a controlled portion now.
Eating an excess of food will ruin the next meal. It will ruin it because (a) eating too many calories means I won’t be in control of my body’s weight and (b) food tastes best when you are getting physically hungry. If I’m not getting properly hungry for dinner, it’s not enjoyable or rewarding. It’s no good getting too hungry, you won’t enjoy what you’re eating then, either. There is a balance of hunger. When you are just hungry enough, then your favorite food will be most rewarding.
My food intake and calorie count
Breakfast – red lentil stew with rice (300)
- 300 calories
Lunch – ham (150); and Swiss cheese (100); on toast (150); with pickles, mustard, and horseradish (25);
- 425 calories
Dinner – 16 ounces red beans and andouille (500); 5oz cooked rice (160); black bread and butter (200); salami (110);
- 970 calories
Snacking – tea with half and half (120);
- 120 calories
Total for the day: 1815 calories (limit 1800)
Today worked
Keeping my eating goal in mind, I set myself up for a larger dinner today. I had a frugal breakfast and lunch, and I was very, very ready to eat dinner. The red beans and rice wasn’t quite ready at dinnertime either, so I had some black bread and butter and some salami I keep around for this exact reason. But it was bad planning, since I was a bit too hungry by the time dinner was finally ready, snack or no snack. When I am living close to the margin of hunger, I find I have to pay a lot attention to eating on time.
Getting my head right is still my main focus. While I liked the way I felt while my food intake was under control and I was losing weight, that’s not enough to keep me going. What keeps me going is my life values. My top value isn’t to be thin. It’s to achieve weight control. Once I am in control, I can pick the weight I like. One of Terry Pratchett’s characters (a policeman) said that while no policeman was the law, the law was the policeman’s alarm clock. That’s exactly right, it’s what animates you and gets you out of bed in the morning. One of my grandfathers was famous for his top value – not being cheated. When he got out of bed in the morning, you could imagine him saying “who’s going to try to cheat me today?” And he spent a lot of his time and energy coming up with ways to keep people from taking advantage of him.
Weight control won’t be my top value forever, but it will have to be in the top 3 to be effective.
-The Doctor