Every day, I dedicate significant time to paying attention. When I was gaining weight (for about the last 20 years) I didn’t pay attention to how much I was eating, or when I ate, or what I ate. But it took time for that to go really bad. Eventually, I reached a bad place: having a full stomach was good, and eating to be full was good, and eating to be full at every meal was the best and highest good. By that point, I was almost paying negative attention. I paid attention to the cheap and easy comfort of feeling full.
How did I escape that kind of thinking? I realized that my goal was to be full. When I dieted, I was working against myself, feeling empty, unfulfilled (and unfilled), outraged, resentful, and just waiting to quit. The author Scott Adams said in one of his books that his way out of that trap was to realize this and adopt a different view. He decided that when he ate, his goal and highest good was to feel healthy. Mine is to cultivate maximum enjoyment from food and eating. But we both talk about the willpower problem. What’s the problem? Willpower runs out. On our diet systems, we both eat whatever we want.
My food intake and calorie count
Breakfast – 2oz Carando brown sugar ham (100); Swiss cheese (90); toasted bread (160); sandwich with pickles and mustard and horseradish (negligible calories)
- 350 calories
Lunch – 2x Johnsonville bratwurst (260); 1/2 whole wheat wrap (55); fried onions and mustard (25);
- 600 calories
Dinner – Costco chicken strips (100); last of the homemade sausage chili (100); 2 pancakes (100); a little kale and beans (50); pretzels, hummus,and cheese (250);
- 600 calories
Snacking – tea with half and half (120); cookies (190)
- 310 calories
Total for the day: 1860 calories (limit 1800 + 500 bonus from swimming, total 2300)
And now, a word from our Sponsor
I don’t actually have a sponsor, but I do have something to say about sausages. Johnsonville’s bratwursts (the original ones) are the best bratwursts that you don’t make yourself. (Kirkland makes a really good one also, but it’s not the winner.) However, this is a blog about maximum enjoyment of food leading to thinner people. So I will tell you that boiling them or even cooking them in a skillet on the stovetop just doesn’t bring out their best qualities. It’s the grill that does that. And my grill is closed for the fall.
It’s been sad losing them from my summer food rotation. They are so flame broiled and juicy! Having two of those for lunch is a fulfilling shot of delicious protein. I don’t feel hungry again for hours, and they are very satisfying. Two of them on wraps, with caramelized onions, are only 600 calories. And now I figured out that I can cook them in my oven at 425F in a cast iron skillet on the top oven shelf for 12 minutes per side and get almost perfect results! I am so happy about that. Be careful when you put in the onions! Do that only when the sausages are already as brown as you would like. The onions exude enough water to prevent any further browning.
Part of my system is using rewards to keep myself happy about eating measured amounts of food. One of the rewards is the food – it has to be exactly what I want, cooked exactly the way that I find most satisfying. If you build up a meal in your mind with anticipation, and you are looking forward to it, and it turns out badly, that is very, very disappointing. You feel like you have sacrificed for nothing. Why eat less food if the food is terrible? You are giving up something (feeling comfortable and full) to get something (delicious and well prepared food served exactly when you would most appreciate it). You must, must keep up that bargain to stay on the Doctor of Things weight control lifestyle. That means you do have to put some effort into preparing food, thinking about it, and preparing yourself.
This is all part of the realization that thin people work hard to stay thin. To believe that some people are naturally thin is to believe in magic. Sure, some people have higher metabolisms than others. I myself burn about 3000 calories per day. My mother burns 1500. But it takes work to be thin, for both of us. Of course, I am not thin yet.
But I enjoy controlling my weight, and eating controlled portions of my favorite foods. I like learning about myself and taking care of myself. Nobody will do it for you (if you are an adult, anyway). I even enjoy the anticipation of getting a little hungry just before a meal, since I know that first bite or two will be so satisfying. It’s much more worthwhile than what I used to do.
-The Doctor