Hello, dear Reader! You are reading the ravings of a changed man. Not one year ago, I weighed 325 pounds, with no end in sight. Then, I discovered a rather successful way to lose weight. And all I had to do was change my thinking! Well, not all. I did some other things, too (and I write about them in this blog). But it all started with changing my mind about food, eating, and my life.
My food intake and calorie count
Breakfast – Jimmy Dean sausage, egg, and cheese croissantwich (400)
- 400 calories
Lunch – 1/2 pizza from Aldi (550);
- 550 calories
Dinner – 13oz homemade beef stew (530);
- 530 calories
Snacking – tea with half and half (80); Kirkland euro cookies (250)
- 330 calories
Total for the day: 1810 calories (limit 1800)
The trade
I have lost over 80 pounds so far. It has been the best year of my life, and that has very little to do with being thinner! You see, I am still 40 pounds overweight. All I have to do to remind myself I am still rather overweight is look in the mirror, or try on pants. Anyway, who else can say that losing 80 pounds has been fun and enjoyable?
One of my insights was that normal diets are built around willpower and forcing yourself to eat less. I can’t do that, not for long. My new diet is a lifestyle change that I can keep up forever, because it is great. I don’t usually feel deprived (though there can be moments). But in exchange for eating measured amounts of food, I can eat whatever I crave. And I prepare most of my meals myself, often from scratch. Chocolate cookies? Beef stew? BLT? Pizza? Gyros? Red beans and rice? Curry??? Yes, those are all diet foods for me.
The key to making this transformation is learn from your food experiences. What you learn about yourself can be revolutionary. I found, for example, that eating a measured amount of food, which I was craving, and had built up anticipation for, could be much more satisfying than eating a lot of food, when I wasn’t really hungry for it. I realized that I had allowed “being full” to become my food goal. Even if I wasn’t hungry, I wanted to be full, which took a lot of food. All the time. You can see where that led.
Instead, I find that a little hunger, at the right time, makes my food experience very satisfying. The trade-off is that I do spend a lot of time and attention thinking about food, hunger, and eating. I have made a decision that it is a price I am willing to pay, in exchange for the improved quality of life, fulfillment, and satisfaction. Plus, I believe that my weight is under control now. I do weigh 82 pounds less than before, though I still have 38 to go. That’s good progress.
I met a lady who told me she was trying to lose weight by eating salads instead of meals. It wasn’t going well, since she had to force herself to do it. Half jokingly I told her to make a BLT out of her salad and enjoy it! Amazingly, every time I have seen her since then, she has brought up her BLT and how much she enjoys it. Her weight loss is going better, too.
What can you learn about yourself? What are you trying to tell yourself?
-The Doctor