I have been ill and not restricting my caloric intake.  I have had an appetite for simple carbohydrates and I have been indulging it.  Today, I was feeling a bit better.  My appetite for carbohydrates was more muted, and my usual cravings (for meat) were returning.  Meat was starting to sound good again.  

My new lifestyle is very attractive and I like it a lot.  I am very motivated to get back there, even though I have spent several days off my diet.  Are you wondering, can I really get back on my weight control program so easily?  On a regular diet, having a bad meal (overeating) or a few bad days is terribly demoralizing.  Sometimes people quit their diets over it.  You might be disgusted with yourself.  But using my new system, a bad day or a few bad days can be shrugged off.  The lifestyle is that attractive!  

First, I spend a lot of time thinking about what foods would be rewarding to me.  I have never paid so much attention to my own needs and desires before.  That is rewarding.  Second, it also makes my tastes more refined, as I have more detail about what I really want and pursue that through cooking and buying special foods.  That’s from my food log.  Third, I am focused on maximum enjoyment of the food.  I am only eating 60% of what I need.  My mind and body are willing to do that, if the food is worth the effort.  It has to be exactly what I want, and it has to be eaten right when I am most hungry for it.

Food just tastes better when you are hungry.  You can add on to that, and say that your favorite food tastes best when you are hungry.  That makes it even more exciting.  

My goal for eating is to be hungry just in time to eat my favorite meal.  With that kind of anticipation, I am able to stop eating when I have eaten just enough to satisfy myself.   Yes, I am thinking about being hungry for the next meal.  If I kept eating, had a second portion, the food wouldn’t taste as good.  Try it!  You will find the second serving is not as exciting and only serves one purpose: making you feel full.  Feeling full is to be avoided.  (You won’t be hungry for the next meal!  It won’t taste as good!)  Feeling hungry (just in time) is the goal.  

I have now guaranteed I will be hungry just in time for the next meal, since it was so rewarding and satisfying to be hungry for this meal.  The system reinforces itself.  

Yesterday, still feeling ill, I ate 3500 calories or more.  Nobody loses weight doing that.  Today, I had less than half of that, using my system of hunger and rewards.  Tomorrow, I have been careful to plan out all my meals so that I can anticipate them properly and use them as rewards.  I think I am back on my weight control lifestyle.  That’s where I want to be!  Where do you want to be?  

-The Doctor