There are two essential parts to the mechanism for controlling your weight. (This is after you have given up on your old life and your old ways of thinking about food. If you haven’t changed your mind, then this approach won’t help you either.) 1. Regulate your food intake and 2. Weigh yourself regularly. I thought about calling it the Well Regulated Diet, but the name lacks drama. And it’s only the mechanism. What’s truly important is your mental transformation.
Having transformed, you need a mechanism to control your weight, though. Ultimately it’s all about the scale. Weigh yourself periodically and regularly. Some people weigh themselves every day. I prefer once a week, at this time. It may change. I think the thinner you want to be, the more effort (attention) it takes.
I started in January 2019 at 325 pounds. Alas, I didn’t take a picture at that time. I just have a spreadsheet entry.But this is an improvement from last week of nearly three pounds! My original goal was 205 pounds, and now I am less than 40 pounds away from that. And that means since starting in January I have lost:
Reward, reward, reward. Put the duty on your conscious will.
The conscious ego “I” is very good at issuing orders. If you have ever been on a diet (and you know you have), you know that you can tell yourself to eat less, lose weight, eat different foods, stop drinking, exercise more, stop smoking, and (my favorite) stop procrastinating, if you get around to it. None of that works. Your body and your subconscious parts might try to play along for a while, but you can’t even order yourself around successfully, not for more than a few days or weeks. You will build up resentment against even yourself. Soon you will be looking for excuses, reasons, rationalizations, to explain breaking your diet, just this one time. Game over. Then you will be disappointed in yourself. Welcome to competing resentments in one body, where each part of your being is angry and resentful against the other parts! Good luck getting anything done.
A more successful approach is to treat yourself respectfully, as someone you should negotiate with, to benefit all. That means give and take. That means figuring yourself out. It means paying attention to what your body wants. That means satisfying many different parts or layers of yourself, with their competing desires, priorities, and interests, and harmonizing those wants and needs with your conscious desire to be in control of your body’s weight.
You can profitably invert the system I described above. Your conscious will can do the work, for a change, instead of just issuing futile orders. Use your will to serve yourself with care and attention. You will love it. For that kind of love, your mind and body will do anything for you. Use your willpower to reward yourself for a job well done. Don’t use your willpower to force yourself to go against your nature. Each meal can be a reward, and you can use your willpower to make sure your body and soul get exactly what they want to eat, just when it will be most fulfilling. In return, they will be willing to eat less food.
The rewards exist any many levels. Each meal is a reward. I only eat things I love. When I reach a weigh milestone, I get a reward. Every 10 pounds I have lost, so far, has resulted in a new reward. You’d think I would run out of rewards, but apparently I have a limitless appetite for reward. And I use my willpower to figure all that out, plan meals ahead, shop, and prepare food ahead of time. I cater to myself and reward myself using willpower. I will always have enough will for that.
I’ve enjoyed this lifestyle (so fulfilling and satisfying) more than I have enjoyed any part of my post-childhood. And I only started living it in January, 2019. On top of that, I have lost 82 pounds. It’s almost been a side benefit of enjoying life more.
If you can’t say that, maybe you should allow yourself to think about what that would be like.
-The Doctor