Every day, I have committed to writing down my food intake in my food journal. This is for a simple reason: people who are thin and stay than constantly monitor their weight and regulate their food intake. I have chosen to do this very explicitly. Everything I eat is measured and written down in my food journal. My limit is 1800 calories per day. Sometimes I don’t know how many calories are in my food. Usually I make my own food, and that makes it easy to calculate. But today is Wednesday, and I buy my lunch on Wednesdays.
My food intake and calorie count
Breakfast – 2 x BLT wraps (200)
- 400 calories
Lunch – Big Greek Cafe $5 Gryos sandwich (600)
- 600 calories
Dinner – Reuben wrap (250); breaded chicken piece with cheese and lima beans (250)
- 500 calories
Snacking – tea with half and half (160); cherries (50)
- 210 calories
Total for the day: 1710 calories (limit 1800)
Wednesday meditation
The gyros sandwich is from a local chain, The Big Greek Cafe. The $5 Wednesday gyros is unbeatable! Calorie information is not available though, so I have had to guess. That is, about 200 for the bread, 200 for the meat, and 200 for the tzatziki sauce, tomatoes, and bit of Feta cheese on the side. I also Googled calories in a gyros sandwich, and 600 was a good consensus number. So far this kind of educated guessing has worked.
A lot of people probably would be worried about my regime, where you are about 1000 calories in deficit every day; they worry they would get hungry. I was worried about it when I started. And reading the weight loss forums, you see people advising others that they will just have to get used to being hungry. This is where the Doctor’s system shines.
When the point of eating is a full stomach, anything less goes against your nature and against your eating goals, and is a constant source of deprivation and resentment. You hate dieting and can’t wait for it to be over, and you are suffering and resentful all the time. Your goal of eating is still to be full, and on a diet you are never, ever full, until you have a bad day and binge. When you meet your eating goal (by overeating), you feel bad, you feel shame! With that mindset, when dieting you will feel hungry all the time, because hungry means you are not full. That’s a terrible situation to be in. When even a successful diet ends, any sane person would flee back to their old life…and gain the weight back!
No, dieting is too hard, and keeping the weight off is too hard. You have to maintain that the rest of your life; losing 120 pounds might take a year or more. Who would want to suffer for a year, and then suffer for the rest of their life? Nobody. Make it easier. Change your thinking. The goal is not to be full. Full belly is a caveman’s goal, a monkey’s goal. It is said that a dog will eat itself to death. Don’t be a dog.
Instead, change how you see the world. The Doctor’s goal is to be hungry…just in time. Eat just enough to last until the next meal. When your goal is hunger, your definition of “hungry” changes, from “not completely full” to “ravenous.” But the meal must be worth waiting for. I always look forward to Wednesdays, because lunch is worth it!
-The Doctor