Welcome to another daily post! The point of these is to keep focused on my eating goal, best expressed by Poor Richard in the 1700s – “Hunger is the best pickle.” There is so much meaning in that aphorism. When I started my new weight control system, this is what came to my mind. Hunger is the goal.
The Doctor is not saying you should be hungry all the time. Nobody wants to live like that. The point is that you create a lifestyle that is very attractive. You want to be there, so you don’t have to use willpower to stay. But it is very useful to embrace hunger as a goal, at the appropriate time. Be hungry for your meals nad let your meals be worth the wait.
My food intake and calorie count
Breakfast – 1/3 C Bush’s baked beans (100); grilled bratwurst wrap (300)
- 400 calories
Lunch – Big Greek Cafe Famous $5 Gyro Sandwich (600)
- 600 calories
Dinner – 12 ounces homemade sausage chili (480); Snickers ice cream bar (180)
- 660 calories
Snacking – tea with half and half (80); Perdue chicken strips (50)
- 130 calories
Total for the day: 1790 calories (limit 1800)
Something about Wednesdays
Who else do you know, who is restricting calories (on a diet), who looks forward to Wednesdays? Thanks to my food journal, I know that since January I have had 15 Wednesday gyros. And I have lost over 60 pounds during that time. Should we call it the Gyros diet? Ha, no. The point of this diet is that if done properly, you get to look forward to practically every meal you eat. In fact, its success relies on that being true.
One of the reasons my diets always failed in the past was the amount of force that was required to keep them going. I had to force myself to eat less (because my goal was to feel full), and I forced myself to eat things I didn’t want. That burns a lot of willpower. You are bound to break eventually. Then you might get into an unhealthy and unproductive set of feelings about your miserable and failed self.
Diets are made even harder by the fact that there is little to look forward to. I don’t know how people do it (some do, many fail like me). Under my current lifestyle change, I have a lot to look forward to, and lose very little. My willpower is applied to making sure I will enjoy what I’m eating. That does mean a lot of time spent planning, shopping, cooking, arranging, and keeping a food journal.
What do I look forward to now? I am officially out of pre-prepared food. The vegetable curry is gone, sausage chili is gone. The refrigerator is almost bare. I still have Jambalaya, for a short time. It’s time to start planning. I don’t want to disappoint myself. Isn’t it nice, that my main worry is how to keep being good to myself? It makes weight loss worthwhile, to feel this way.
-The Doctor
Keep it up! It sounds like you are still doing great and are motivated!