OK, I have ruined my experiment! This week I was going to try eating fewer calories to see if it made up for the lack of exercise. Well, I had a walk yesterday and two today, so combined with me eating fewer calories it’s muddied the waters a lot. However my weight goes this weekend, there will be a lot of guessing involved. Well, the direction won’t be much of a surprise. My calorie count is far down for some reason, and I am going to walk every day.
And the weather has changed. Now it is pleasant to sit outside and have dinner.
My food intake and calorie count
Breakfast – 4.5oz ham (200) 1.5 hot dog buns (120)
- 380 calories
Lunch – bratwurst (280); 1/4 wrap (35)
- 315 calories
Dinner – chicken (100); mac and cheese (330); baked beans (80); tomato (25);
- 535 calories
Snacking – 110g ice cream (220); chocolate syrup (20)
- 240 calories
Total for the day: 1470 calories (limit 1700)
Eating less food
Scott Adams had a joke about losing weight by eating less food. While that does describe most of the ugly reality, you can’t force yourself to eat less food unless you have incredible willpower and can sustain that over a long time. Even then, it’s using force which is can make you feel quite unhappy. Yesterday and today I had a total of less than 1500 calories per day which is very light for me and I haven’t felt at all deprived. I wasn’t even trying, because my mind was all focused on work (crunch time there).
Anyway, I wasn’t forcing myself to eat less food. I was letting my brain be busy with other things and trusting my stomach to let me know when it was time to eat. That’s tricky; I have found regular mealtimes are best in the long run. If you let yourself get too hungry there might be a price to pay later – I have found myself feeling unhappy and resentful in that situation and then watch out: I have had that part of myself take over and eat too much. You don’t want that.
But even then, it’s just one bad day or one bad week. You can still have a lot of days and weeks when things go right. That’s what I mean when I say every day is a new day. Don’t bring yesterday’s baggage with you into today. Let it go.
I don’t have incredible willpower. But I have developed ways around that. I don’t eat less food! No, no. I just try to enjoy life more. I just enjoy food more when I am hungry for it. That’s just logical, right? I can’t get hungry for my next meal if I am still full from the last one. And after the first portion, food doesn’t taste as nice. Try it! Amazingly you can control your weight that way.
-The Doctor