Weight control in the time of Corona! Does weight control really matter at this time, Doctor? Why yes, I believe it does. Many of us are stuck inside with only trips to the grocery stores and pharmacies allowed. Sitting at home, it is very tempting to eat. Eating can be emotionally satisfying, bringing comfort when you feel full, helping you wake up, it’s something to do with your hands, and keeps boredom and loneliness away. There are many reasons to eat, and very few reasons to stop or limit it. So, during this time of general lockdowns and quarantines during Coronvirus, it is important to keep yourself fixed on your highest goals for living including controlling your body’s weight.
My food intake and calorie count
Breakfast – 9oz baked beans (400); 2 ounces Ukrainian Christmas bread (200);
- 600 calories
Lunch – 2x bratwurst (260); wraps (55); with fried onions (25)
- 600 calories
Dinner – 3oz roasted pork loin with apples and white wine sauce (150); macaroni (150); and green peas (40);
- 340 calories
Snacking – tea with half and half (80); chocolate almonds (160); pretzel (100);
- 340 calories
Total for the day: 1880 calories (limit 1800)
Sunday Dinner on Monday
This is usually a Sunday roast, but I was tied up Sunday and couldn’t make this. I was also planning something grander, including buttered egg noodles and oven-roasted Brussels sprouts, but it being Monday and working on the computer all day, I couldn’t pull that off. As it was I ate dinner at 7PM and had to have a snack around 5PM. This is one of my favorite pork loin recipes because the meat is butterflied and seasoned all the way through with butter, roasted garlic, sugar, and salt. It is cooked in a sauce of onions, apples, thyme, herbs, and white wine (why yes, it is a French recipe!). Almost as good as the roast, is the outcome that I have several days worth of sandwiches and wraps available from the leftovers. The rest of the family don’t like a lot of leftovers, but it works for me.
I will make my sour cream and dill cucumber salad recipe and use that to garnish future pork sandwiches. Yum! Meals like this are worth the wait, worth getting hungry for, and are very, very satisfying even if you have only a controlled portion. Notice I am not counting the beer in my daily total. I don’t drink very often, that’s my excuse. But if you keep yourself fixed on the goal of satisfying physical hunger, and do the work, you can find portioned food very satisfying and you will not feel deprived. Feeling deprived is the death of so many good impulses. Don’t let that happen to you.
Aim high! Control your weight and your body, and see what that does for your life. Don’t worry about being thin, that will take care of itself.
-The Doctor
You are absolutely correct about the first bite of food being the best bite, especially when it’s something you really enjoy. Tonight I had a slice of totally home made pizza and then a piece of home made coconut cream pie. I waited all day for those treats — and I could have (should have) made my servings half sized because I was totally satisfied at that point. Lesson learned. Smaller amounts of really good food are savored; excess is indulgent and not as enjoyable. (But I will send you the pie recipe to see if you can limit the size of your piece!)