My body’s weight is walking down, slowly, slowly. And I am walking every day, 7-8 miles, if you can believe my pedometer. The two are probably connected.
When I was living my past life, I didn’t pay any attention to my body’s weight at all. I couldn’t have told you how much I weighed or how much I was eating. I had no system and no plan. I ate when I felt like it, and I didn’t pay any attention to the consequences. The result: uncontrolled weight gain.
Don’t let yourself believe that there are people who are naturally thin. Thin people who have stayed thin throughout their lives have to work at it. They might not think of it as work, but it is. It doesn’t have to take a lot of willpower, but it does take work.
My food intake and calorie count
Breakfast – toast (120); ham 200);
- 320 calories
Lunch – Reuben sandwich, with bread (200); Swiss cheese (70); 2oz corned beef (70); Thousand island dressing (50); sauerkraut (25);
- 415 calories
Dinner – tortellini (200); Braciole (300); gravy (50);
- 550 calories
Snacking – chocolate (150);
- 150 calories
Total for the day: 1435 calories (limit 1700, Fitbit predicts I burned 3625 calories today while walking 7.2 miles.)
You can do it
It is very important to celebrate your achievements and to set up your tasks so that you achieve results regularly, or at least have the chance to. Part of that is measuring. I measure how many calories I eat per day. I measure how many calories I eat per week. I know that it takes 3500 calories of deficit to lose one pound of weight. So if I lose 2 pounds, I was down 7000 calories on the week.
You know, I have never tried to correlate my weekly calorie count with my weekly weight loss? I need to fix that! I have nearly 2 years of data.
But anyway, if I lose 1 pound, that means I was down 3500 calories on the week, an average of 500 calories per day. You can do that and never feel deprived, if you are careful and listen to your body. Yes, if I lose 2 pounds it does mean I was down 1000 calories per day!
(Does that mean that when I want to stay at a weight, I need to eat 1000 MORE calories per day than I am now? I bet it’s not that simple.)
I like to reward every 10 pounds lost. That’s about one reward every month or so. What is my reward? Food! What else? Don’t be worried, I don’t destroy my diet. I make something special or have a special meal out, and I work it into my calorie plan. It usually doesn’t cost me even one day of weight control to celebrate my achievement. I have also toyed with celebrating other milestones, like losing 50 pounds, 100 pounds, 111 pounds, or 125 pounds. I went into this weight control attempt with the target of 125 pounds lost, isn’t that worth celebrating? I may not even stay there, I am guessing I will want to try being thinner as well. Celebrations are important, it’s like a promise you are making to yourself and then keeping it. It’s part of a system of responsibility and reward.
They go together! And it works.
-The Doctor