My daily task is to make sure I am happy with eating less food. That is done by figuring out what foods I would really look forward to, enjoy eating, and would stick around in my stomach until the next meal. The diet advice is to eat protein, but I have found that other things work too – like steel cut oats. Also, sandwiches work well. I have never taken to the keto type diet, even though people have achieved remarkable success doing it. There is no way around it: even keto people have to count calories and watch how much they eat. On top of that, they can’t eat very many carbohydrates: ice cream, chocolate, homemade cookies, pie, bread, rice, etc. It’s hard enough eating less food without also giving up foods I really like and appreciate!
My food intake and calorie count
Breakfast – tortilla chips (200) and salsa (basically 0); pretzels and cheese (200)
- 400 calories
Lunch – 2x bratwurst wraps (315)
- 630 calories
Dinner – coconut cauliflower curry (360); 7.5 ounces cooked rice (240)
- 600 calories
Snacking – tea with half and half (80)
- 80 calories
Total for the day: 1670 calories (limit 1800)
Hedonistic dieting
The weight control system seems contradictory because you are simultaneously going without and seeking to maximize your pleasure and fulfillment. First you must honestly analyze how you see food and eating. My insight was that the goal of my former eating behavior was to feel full. If your eating goal is to be full, then dieting is 100% against your goal. Every moment of dieting would be stressful. You are not full, and you never will be, while dieting. Your willpower is never active ALL the time, and you will eventually give in as your resentment builds. Yes, part of your unconscious mind resents you (the conscious part of your will) going on a diet! So you are fighting against yourself in multiple levels the whole time. Is it any wonder dieting is so hard? Of course we all fail. It’s against the way we see the world.
Being full, I believe, is a cheap and easy way to satisfy yourself. What is better? Layering the feelings of contentment and satisfaction is better.
- Anticipate what you are going to eat – plan it, be looking forward to it.
- Prepare yourself. That means you will need to be hungry at mealtime. Don’t wreck your hungry feeling by overeating at the last meal, or snacking, or having appetizers.
- Eat the meal, exactly when you are hungry for it. Enjoy the sensation of eating the first few bites – they are the best. (It is possible to wait too long and get TOO hungry. Then all bets are off and it is hard to control your eating then.)
- Take a moment to enjoy how you feel. You won’t want to eat another helping – it wouldn’t taste as good. It would ruin the moment.
This sequence has worked well for me – for the last 73 pounds, anyway. It makes you very happy and satisfied to enjoy life this way. It feels weird now to eat without measuring, or to get close to being full. The goal of my eating has changed. My goal, following from those four steps, is to maximally enjoy the sensory pleasure of eating, and layer it with a higher sense of anticipation and fulfillment. In other words, refine my tastes and improve my quality of life. And I get thin as well, as thin as I want to be, anyway.
It is almost impossible to make this change and then go back to the old way. It’s just too exciting and rewarding. The old way, the old goal, seems wrong. The weight control lifestyle reinforces itself this way. I can have a bad day, but then it is easy to have a good day afterwards.
Which sounds better?
- “I had a good food day. I completely filled myself.”
- “I had a good day. I really enjoyed what I ate.”
Think about it.
-The Doctor