I spend a lot of time and effort on my hobby – weight control. That means I obsessively keep my food journal, and plan to do that for the rest of my life. Or at least as long as I plan to maintain control over my weight. Part of controlling my weight is controlling intake. That’s the food journal, but it is also a lot of planning, and a system of small and large rewards. Today was a reward day.
My food intake and calorie count
Breakfast – ham (90); cheese (100); toasted sandwich bread (160) with pickles and horseradish and mustard.
- 350 calories
Lunch – Commonwealth Indian Restaurant buffet (1400);
- 1400 calories
Dinner – none!
- 0 calories
Snacking – tea with half and half (80); ddd (00)
- 80 calories
Total for the day: 1830 calories (limit 1800)
Once in a while it works
Today I rewarded myself for getting my weight below 250 pounds. That’s a big achievement to reward. So I went to an Indian restaurant near me with a lunch buffet. “All you can eat” is a tricky thing for me now. Being full isn’t my focus since I started controlling my intake. But I had two plates at the buffet, and I have very little idea how many calories I actually had. So the figure above is a guess. But I enjoyed it, even though my body is totally full, even now, 10 hours later. Will I ever be hungry again? Yes, I will.
Anyway, it was very rewarding. I was careful to prepare for the meal as I said yesterday, to maximize the reward experience. I’ve put some arrows and description of what I had. The second plate had a stew made from goat meat, and some lentils (dal), plus some of my favorites from the first round. I am no longer sure I will lose weight this week, though. It seems I have some travel ahead, and that always throws my metabolism off. But eventually, I will have other milestones to reward!
Try to find a way to reward yourself for your accomplishments. It works.
-The Doctor