There are two parts to controlling your weight – no, not diet and exercise! I mean, of course, (1) monitoring your weight at least weekly, and (2) regulating your food intake. This daily post represents #2 – an online food journal and an expression of my thoughts as I go through this quest to lose 120 pounds. Part of regulating your intake is to keep a total and honest accounting of everything you eat.
My own take on this was to change my thinking and my food goals. Instead the typical food goal – eating until I was full – I have decided that my goal is to wait until I am hungry, then eat just enough of a food that I am really looking forward to. It really raises the eating experience to a new level. Your food gets really exciting when you are hungry for it.
My food intake and calorie count
Breakfast – Jimmy Dean sausage egg and cheese croissantwich (400);
mid morning waffle pieces and ham (150)
- 550 calories
Lunch – BLT wraps (400)
- 400 calories
Dinner – sesame chicken with broccoli and peppers (400); rice (160)
- 560 calories
Snacking – tea with half and half (80); 1 ounce of Sarris peanut butter meltaway egg (110)
- 190 calories
Total for the day: 1700 calories (limit 1800 + 500 bonus from swimming, total 2300)
The importance of hunger when it is your goal
Today was a swimming day. I was pleasantly surprised that my swim times were excellent. I’m not sure why, but the pool was crowded today. I shared a lane with an elderly but spry man wearing flippers, and he was pretty fast in them. He had a cane up at the end of the lane, so I thought he was going to be slow. Wrong! But I didn’t do badly either. Tuesday seems like a strange day for a crowded pool. I can’t figure that one out.
I am rediscovering the importance of hunger as a goal, and food as a reward for hunger. This last few weeks, I have noticed that I have started grazing around and eating between meals. It’s all within the calorie limits, I think (it’s hard to keep track of grazing a few pretzels or chips, so I estimate). But it means I am not really hungry for meals, and my mealtimes drift around a bit. It’s all very unsatisfying. Today, even though I was being more careful, I was hungry around 10AM and snacked. Lunchtime (11.30) came and went, and I wasn’t hungry. I was determined to wait, and around 12.30 I got hungry after all. Then my BLT tasted great!
After swimming, I was sure I would be hungry, but I wasn’t. I finished my work and made dinner. I only really got hungry just before eating at 5.30 – perfect. I enjoyed my stir-fry a lot. Later that evening, dessert started to sound good, so I rewarded myself with some peanut butter egg from Easter. Just the right amount – one ounce. I am sure I will be hungry for breakfast. What will it be? What will be worth waking up for?
It is so important to keep your food goal in focus. If your goal is to be hungry before you eat, you must make sure you are hungry before you eat. That means not spoiling your hunger with shacks or appetizers. That means eating just enough. Those first few bites when you are seriously hungry are wonderful and soon you look forward to that experience. It’s a much more fulfilling way to live. Eating until you are full becomes boring, pale, unexciting, by comparison. But if you are going to use hunger as your goal – and it has a lot of benefits for weight control – you must keep your hunger sharp!
-The Doctor