I am an expert at starting a diet. I have been on a lot of them! I am also an expert on quitting a diet. That’s happened almost as many times. I didn’t learn much from my earlier diets, though. I kept running into the same problems over and over, and I had no answer. I’m sure you know the problems too.
Now I have found a way around those problems. I’m not the only one, and if you have read this blog before I will sometimes look at other people’s successful diet strategies. They have a lot in common, but not everything is the same.
My food intake and calorie count
Breakfast – coconut cream pie (400); 2 slices Canadian bacon (20);
- 440 calories
Lunch – lasagna (400);
- 400 calories
Dinner – 5oz pulled pork (250); bread (70); mac and cheese (100); Brussels sprouts (20)
- 440 calories
Snacking – nada (0);
- 0 calories
Total for the day: 1280 calories (limit 1700)
Why so low?
I don’t know why some days I want to eat more and some days less. It isn’t related to exercise, or the size of breakfast, because those were very different each time. But I am paying attention to (1) physical hunger and (2) the effect that has on how much I enjoy the food. That means I don’t eat if I’m not hungry. If my favorite apple pie (Mother’s homemade!) is calling me, that’s ok. It will be there tomorrow and I will be hungry enough to really enjoy it. It’s no good eating when you’re not hungry. But sometimes it is hard to be honest with yourself about hunger.
When I was dieting in the past, I had the same problems come up again and again. Dieting was hard and I failed a lot. Where do you begin? Do you try to eat “less”, whatever that means? I found that if I tried to eat less, it was hard to sustain the effort. Eating until I was full was the goal and I learned to associate being full with being satisfied and happy. What was “less”? Giving up my eating goal required a big sacrifice. What did I have to replace it? Nothing. Giving up your source of comfort and happiness for nothing is a hard sell. You are just making yourself miserable on purpose and working against all your mental goals (of being full and that making you happy).
The same with keeping a food journal and counting calories. Why would you do such a thing? It’s against your eating goals: being full and associating that with comfort and happiness. Keeping track of calories would be at best a waste of time. At worst, you might start eating less and become unhappy! It’s a terrible trap, associating fullness with happiness. It can get to a point where anything less than being full is making yourself unhappy, or withholding happiness from yourself. You can’t do that for long! So that mindset is very destructive.
Everyone is going to be different. I wonder what portion of people who are gaining weight have fallen into my mental trap? At least I have learned how to get out. But do my lessons apply to anyone else?
-The Doctor