My weight loss program involves a hedonism strategy: I eat just enough of foods I really want to eat, and avoid other foods. My brain and body are willing to give up being full of food, in trade for eating just enough of my favorite foods, foods that I am anticipating and excited about. There are flaws in this approach, though it works about 97.44% of the time.
My food intake and calorie count
Miscellaneous foods, heavy on carbohydrates
- 2500 calories
Total for the day: 2500 calories (ill today; no real limits)
The illness flaw
My diet depends on me anticipating and looking forward to eating my next meal. I want to be hungry, and never be full. Food always tastes best when you are hungry, always. So to get the maximum enjoyment from the food, I get hungry at mealtime and then eat a food that I like a lot. I get excited about it, and prepare it with care and attention. Then I eat the food, which only has 60% of the calories I need to maintain my weight.
There are calculators you can find on the internet that help you work out this number. Based on the experience you have dieting, you can refine the number and get the true figure. That’s one reason it’s really important to maintain a food journal, where you record everything you eat, the calories, and how you felt about it.
Anyway, since I am sick, my weight is all over the place (fluid retention?) and my appetite has devolved. My taste right now is for really simple and easy carbohydrate rich foods. That is, bread, cookies, ice cream, crackers, noodles….meat just doesn’t have a lot of appeal for me right now. So my usual approach of preparing delicious meaty food and using that to reward myself for eating less food overall – doesn’t work. I can’t anticipate and enjoy those foods when I am sick, they have little appeal. If they are not appealing, I can’t reward myself with them. Could I reward myself with carbs during this time? Maybe.
My concentration and willpower are also at a low ebb when I am sick, so I am having trouble with portion control. That is all out the window. Luckily, it is temporary. I probably won’t lose any weight during this illness.
In the past six months of weight loss, when I have been sick, this has happened. I am used to it now and always find it easy to get back to my weight control program once my old tastes return. IT is self reinforcing, and very successful at losing weight. I hate the delay though. I get so impatient watching the scale crawl down over weeks and weeks. But it has been steady, at least. I didn’t gain all the extra weight that quickly, either. So my goal now is to get better. Then make my life better. People are starting to remark to me that they are noticing I am losing weight. It only took 60 pounds! I wonder what the next 60 will be like. Stay well!
-The Doctor.