Why finality? You shall see. Today was a mixed day. Part of my job is to pay attention to my body, like when I am hungry, and I missed the cues for that, twice. Luckily the consequences were small. Another part of my job is to make sure I am creating a lifestyle I want to live with. The third job? It’s become a hobby now, it’s to track my food intake every day – write it down in my food journal. Part of the job is to keep a record, but the other part is to plan ahead. That ties back to creating a lifestyle I am eager to be part of. Last, and this is a bit subtle, I have to consider the long term, or the rest of my life. It’s like creating a lifestyle I can live with, but it is more sustaining. The lifestyle has to be self-reinforcing, in case I have a bad day, week, or month. How can I keep coming back?
My food intake and calorie count
Breakfast – Slow-cooker spanish tortilla, 4 oz. (250); half a wheat wrap (55); 1 tsp mayonnaise (35);
- 340 calories
Lunch – bagel (330) ham (100) salami (90) cheese (50) olive tapenade (30);
- 600 calories
Dinner – half Aldi pizza (585);
- 585 calories
Snacking – chicken (100); pretzels (170); cheese (100);
- 370 calories
Total for the day: 1870 calories (limit 1850)
The finality
I will explain. It’s the end of the week and I have eaten my last for the day and the week. So it’s the end of the food week, too. It’s also finals in the sense that the final exam is tomorrow – the weighing. This week has been a bit hard because I was coming off a bad week (probably illness-related) and started the week off wrong, with a 2400+ calorie day. Even maintaining discipline the rest of the week, my average calories per day were about 1871. So it’s drawing the line under a hard week. Final.
It was also hard because I found myself without any energy or enthusiasm last weekend to do anything creative in the kitchen. OK, it was also a bit hot outside. But still.
One last thing. It’s been hard because I am getting impatient to break out of my current weight decade and get moving again. I don’t enjoy thinking that way, because it’s not productive. The goal is to make a lifestyle I enjoy living so that I will do anything to stay there. If instead I am focused on weight loss, it seems like the wrong life goal, it’s less rewarding. Weight loss should be a side effect of the improved lifestyle, not its main feature. So it means my head is in the wrong place. That’s no good.
Create a world you want to live in. Then live there.
-The Doctor.