The Doctor of Things has a mission: weight control. I also have a system for when I eat: measure everything, and write down what I ate in a food journal. My goal for eating food: anticipate what I’m going to eat, eat a measured amount, and enjoy it. What I avoid: getting full, because that ruins the anticipation and enjoyment of the next meal. I look forward to: my next meal, which will be wonderful and satisfying – no diet foods allowed. Diet portions are ok.
My food intake and calorie count
Breakfast – waffle sections (50); macaroni cheese (350)
- 400 calories
Lunch – 6 ounces meatloaf (300); cooked carrots and potatoes (100); wrap (110)
- 510 calories
Dinner – bbq pork ribs (100) 6oz sausage chili (240); Smith hot dog (140); bun (110)
- 590 calories
Snacking – tea with half and half (80); 1 serving each pretzels and cheese (250)
- 330 calories
Total for the day: 1830 calories (limit 1800 + 500 bonus from swimming, total 2300)
Building anticipation
Tomorrow is a reward lunch. The point is, I want to be ready to enjoy this reward. I have been working at getting below 250 pounds since July, when I weighed 259 pounds, and for a battle that protracted, the reward needs to be memorable. I prepare for reward meals with anticipation first – I have been planning this for two weeks. I want it! Second, I went swimming today, but only ate about 1800 calories. I will be very hungry for this reward meal! Third – I want to be able to enjoy every minute and eat slowly. So I will eat a good breakfast. Starvation feelings are no way to reward yourself!
Part of my strategy for eating “only” 1800 calories today was to make sure my food was mostly meat and protein – cheese for breakfast, meatloaf for lunch, and a chili dog for dinner. Really, my refrigerator is totally stocked with lots of things I like. That’s an important idea: the foods I like and the portions I plan out are all ready to go. There is no need to go browsing or grazing through the kitchen and maybe getting myself into trouble.
I have been doing a lot of talking about constructing the mindset of a person who stays thin. Out of curiosity, I did an internet search on “think like a thin person.” What a catastrophe, or at least what mixed messages! The top articles are all about how to be like people who are “naturally” thin, which gave me a good laugh. No such person exists. Any healthy thin person works hard at it. But let’s take a look.
WikiHow says that naturally thin people know that being thin doesn’t make you happy. Also, you shouldn’t obsess over being thin. Altogether, that’s just really bad advice. If you aren’t obsessed about getting thin and staying that way, you won’t succeed. Being in control of your weight just doesn’t come easily. As for being happy, well, I was fat and happy before and I am less fat, but still happy now. Actually, since I am just as happy but there is less of me, on average, there is more happiness per pound of me. So WikiHow is wrong, being thinner has made me happier. Just not in the way they were thinking.
WebMD has some interesting thoughts, though. I am paraphrasing, but:
- Build a fantasy of what your life would be like if you were thin. Maybe that would work for some people. I think it is related to the next point:
- Change your behavior so that you act like you imagine a thin person would. Good advice, if vague. How would this thin person act, then?
- Pay attention to how much you are eating. One scoop of ice cream should satisfy you. Interesting way of putting it, but that needs a bit more explaining.
- Change your goal to being healthy, avoid the goal of losing weight. That makes sense. Logically, if your goal is weight loss, everything you eat betrays the goal. Finding a different eating goal is a good idea, but I rejected this one in favor of embracing hunger as the goal.
That’s it, really, though there are some minor points. If this is a sample of diet advice, the Doctor is going to clean up in this world! Where would you look for advice? What has been effective for you?
-The Doctor