Suppose, dear reader, that you wanted to gain control over your body’s weight. There are many, many successful tools to use. However, none of them seem to work. It might be useful to consider: why are you eating? What is the goal? This has an obvious answer: to stay alive. But it only takes a small amount of food to keep you alive. How much is hard to say – if you look it up online, you only get lots of opinions that you shouldn’t do it, and few hard figures. Someone on a survival site mentioned 1300 calories a day would be enough to stay alive for a few months, if you don’t have to do a lot of physical activity.
So why eat any amount above that minimum? What is the goal of that? Well, you can eat more because you are physically hungry, or because you are growing, or want to gain weight. (Being physically hungry can result from increased physical work – just look at how much the armed forces members have to eat!) You can eat more food just for pleasure. You can eat more because it fills an emotional need. Or it can be some combination.
Do you know how many calories your own body needs to stay the same weight? To gain or lose weight? It does vary from person to person.
Personally, I am eating for pleasure, but a productive and rarefied kind of pleasure that is consistent with weight control.
My food intake and calorie count
Breakfast – Bratwurst (260); and 1/4 wheat wrap (25); with fried onions and mustard (15); a homemade chocolate chip cookie (215);
- 515 calories
Lunch – Big Greek Cafe Famous $5 Gyro Wednesday!!!!!! (600);
- 600 calories
Dinner – 1/6 Spanish tortilla (333); 1Tbsp mayonnaise (100); 1 homemade chocolate chip cookie (215)
- 648 calories
Snacking – tea with half and half (80);
- 80 calories
Total for the day: 1843 calories (limit 1800)
Walking
I am having a hard time getting an exercise routine going. Before Coronavirus quarantine, I exercised 2x per week at the pool, and I made time for it in my workday schedule (flexible). I also did a fair amount of going up and downstairs for car trips to various stores, which I didn’t appreciate until they all closed and we were encouraged to stay home. Swimming uses arms and legs, and my main exercise at the moment is walking (including steps). I hate to think about the lack of exercise, which I enjoyed. I always liked swimming and I make sacrifices to do it. It’s not like forcing yourself to do situps and pushups, though I guess there must be people who actually like doing those too.
Anyway, I read that George Washington used to walk 7 miles per day for exercise, after he had retired from the Presidency. People back then also rode horses and generally had more physically active lives, but even so 7 miles is a lot, nearly 2 hours. I am doing 20-30 minutes, so only a quarter as fit as George in his 70s. I’ll have to think about this some more. I always liked cycling a bit, but was never the kind of person who buys bike gear and spends big bucks on a bike. I was also never interested in going 100 miles per day or anything. I was happy to be able to cycle to and from work, usually well under 10 miles each way. But I am definitely not loving walking to the point where I will sacrifice and move around my day to do it. But a routine would be nice. Fifteen minutes walking in the morning and at lunchtime, and some more after work or after dinner, might be acceptable.
What activities are you missing?
-The Doctor
I walk 3 miles, 3 x per week. Believe it or not, I notice that on the days I walk, I am ready for bed at night and fall asleep quickly. So, it’s not a lot (my yoga class is on hold, but I could practice at home — what is my excuse?) but I appreciate my little walking routine.
To answer the posted question – I miss weigh lifting, cardio exercise on the Elliptical trainer (easy on the joints, built in television) and the ability to sweat outside of my own home! I tried jogging at the local High School track, but my knees were getting sore. So I bought a Schwinn 270 exercise bike for the basement. In addition we have been going on sporadic long walks around our town 4-8 miles. I do look forward to the routine getting back to normal at some point in time.
I also wanted to mention, being at home all day also increases boredom and emotional eating for me. The challenge is working from home, I get stressed and want to eat. If I want to forget about eating I need to go for a walk, or ride the exercise bike. But, if I am doing those activities I am not working from home. It is a very disruptive routine for me that I need to figure out.