Dieting is a mug’s game. It’s a temporary change and comes with a severe danger: you may gain back all the weight you lose. Instead, change your mind and embrace a strategy of weight control. Once your thinking is under control, you can bring your eating under control. Then your body will follow. Weight control means you are paying a lot of attention to what you are eating, and the rest – why, and how much. You learn a lot about yourself. And having taken control of your life is very fulfilling, because you can use the process of self discovery to refine your tastes.
My food intake and calorie count
Breakfast – ham (150) and cheese (70) sandwich (140) with 1 Tablespoon of hummus (40)
- 400 calories
Lunch – 2x bratwurst wraps (300)
- 600 calories
Dinner – corned beef and cabbage wrap (250); 2 eggs, 0.5 oz cheese and toast (350)
- 600 calories
Snacking – 2x Reese’s peanut butter cups (80);
- 160 calories
Total for the day: 1760 calories (limit 1800 + 500 bonus from swimming, total 2300)
Lead with hunger
During my weight loss work, I am supposed to focus on on how I feel. I know when I have my food balance right because I feel hungry just in time for the next meal. I’m not supposed to feel hungry between meals, though there is sometimes a temptation to eat between meals anyway! But if you focus on being hungry as the signal for eating, then food eaten outside of meals interferes with your signal.
When you do it right, getting hungry and then satisfying the hunger with something you love to eat is very fulfilling and rewarding. When you corrupt the signal, it’s less of a reward and there’s less incentive to make it all work properly. I feel like I have lost this balance. Looking at my food record the last few weeks, I see a fair amount of grazing after dinner. Even though the calorie counts have not been that far off, it’s had a bad effect on my weight loss. Eating after dinner can throw off the whole next day.
Waking up with your stomach empty is a satisfying feeling. Isn’t that strange – being unsatisfied is satisfying? But I rarely wake up hungry. My stomach seems to take about an hour to wake up after I do. But the system just works better when I start the day off totally empty. So that’s a new rule (or newly rediscovered). Focus on being hungry for breakfast, and empty when you wake up. Don’t eat after dinner, make sure dinner is satisfying.
The last few days, I rediscovered this almost by accident, by going to bed on time! I had to concentrate on getting things done and there was no snacking after dinner. Immediately that set my days up perfectly for the cycle of hunger and satisfaction. Food tastes better when you are hungry for it and you can really rev up your anticipation by knowing what you are going to eat, and when. Satisfying that hunger, with the exact food you want, makes it worthwhile going to the trouble of getting hungry in the first place. Focus on hunger!
-The Doctor