I am talking about the struggle to get the mind right. Once you have your mind right, you can transform yourself. But what does that mean? Your mind is in the wrong place if you can’t get yourself to lose weight. I couldn’t do that for years. I found it difficult and punishing. It required attention and discipline and energy I preferred using elsewhere. During that time, when I couldn’t lose wight, I would sometimes say that I must want to lose weight, or it must not be that important to me. That’s also a sign that your mind is wrong; it’s passive. If you aren’t in charge of your body, then who?
It’s not enough to WANT to. You have to imagine a world where you are eating, and behaving, like a thin person whose weight is under control. Your body will catch up. What would that world be like? It has to be attractive and worth the struggle.
My food intake and calorie count
Breakfast – bagel (330): ham (50): olive tapenade (20);
- 400 calories
Lunch – 7.5oz ziti sausage and cheese bake (300); 5oz slow cooker tortilla (280);
- 580 calories
Dinner – taco salad, with 90g meat (220); 110g beans (85); 30g cheese (110); tortilla (130); sour cream (60);
- 605 calories
Snacking – tea with half and half (80); 80g ice cream (200)
- 280 calories
Total for the day: 1865 calories (limit 1850)
Pitfalls in your head
I am working on getting my head right. Recently it’s been hard to get excited about the fantastic new world I created for myself. You know, the one where I am in control of my body’s weight and keep rewarding myself for doing that by creating and eating portioned but fantastic meals.
There are so many competing thoughts and wishes and desires and interests in someone’s head. One of my strongly held values is …well, value – getting my money’s worth. It’s made it hard to throw away food , even if I don’t want it. Today, when I went for breakfast I was very interested in a ham bagel. When I saw the jar of tapenade I was pretty excited! Then I saw there were leftover pancakes in the fridge that need to be eaten. I picked them up and was about to have them. But then, I remembered how excited I was about the sandwich. To each their own. I put down the pancakes and made my sandwich. This was not the provident course, but if your lodestone is weight control, then good value and providence are #2.
For lunch, I thought I should eat up the slow cooker Spanish tortilla, even though I don’t like it very much (not compared to the regular Spanish tortilla). But this time I was wiser and had ziti sausage and cheese bake instead, which I really, really wanted. Those were two very satisfying meals. My created world was looking better and more exciting and rewarding.
At dinnertime I made a very well balanced taco salad. By themselves lettuce and tomato are not rewarding for me, but when combined with meat, cheese, beans, sour cream, olives, jalapeno slices, and salsa, it was perfect. It felt so good I had no need for seconds. Three fantastic meals in one day!
That’s how you get your mind right. Reprioritize your values and get #1 straight. Enact that in your life and you can enjoy the results. Now that’s a world you want to live in.
-The Doctor