Yesterday, someone asked me what my system I was using to control my weight. Well, I am not using any famous (yet) system, like low carb, keto, paleo, South Beach, Atkins, low fat, or seefood. (Seefood, you know: you see food, and then you eat it.) What others? Weight watchers and Jenny Craig are popular too. Those are probably closest to my system in because they involve calorie counting and portion control. But for me the essential part isn’t the mechanism, it’s getting your mind right. If you get your mind right, then your body follows.
Mark Twain had a system that he liked to call starvation. In his day people complained they had no appetite and he advised starving yourself until you were good and hungry for dinner. I’ve used that one a lot on my weight control system.
My food intake and calorie count
Breakfast – Last of the veal cannelloni (200)
- 200 calories
Lunch – 7oz pulled pork (340); Ole wrap (60);
- 400 calories
Dinner – 10oz nachos (450); 1.5oz chips (200); sour cream (60);
- 710 calories
Snacking – Snickers ice cream bar (180);
- 180 calories
Total for the day: 1490 calories (limit 1700)
It's been a lean week
By keeping my mind on work and away from food – which has taken a lot of concentration – I have not felt hungry enough to eat as much as usual. That’s part of getting your mind right. But it starts with something else.
It starts with figuring out what is your reason for eating. Are you eating in order to feel different emotionally? Boredom, tiredness, frustration – those are not the right reasons to eat. It’s hard to be honest about that. If you are overweight, first look to your reason for eating. Maybe you are avoiding problems in your life. Maybe you are using food for comfort. That’s a terrible trap. Then every time you try to eat less, it’s like you are withholding comfort and happiness from yourself….but not in a healthy way. By eating food.
You must learn to reconnect to simple physical reasons for eating. You should be eating because you are hungry and that hunger is starting to dominate your thoughts and keep you from doing your work. As Twain wrote, there’s nothing wrong with regularity in your meals as long as your appetite is calling the shots. OK, maybe he said it using different words. Look up his short story “At the Appetite-Cure.”
Another part of getting your mind right early on is to relearn the truth: that hunger is a good thing you can use to your benefit. I never enjoy a meal so much as when I am very hungry for it. Twain said your stomach should call with a shout! So you can get to a place where you are not punishing yourself by withholding food, but rewarding yourself for getting properly hungry. Then you can learn to be careful about not eating too much, so you are hungry for the next meal. See how that works?
Let’s see if it worked for me, tomorrow.
-The Doctor