Once you have placed “weight control” firmly at the top of your moral hierarchy, you see the world differently.
When I was gaining weight, my weight was not a thought that occurred to me while eating. My weight was way down the list of things I was worried about. I was much more immediate – what do I want right now? – and took no thought of consequences on my body’s weight. Food was for eating, whenever I felt like it, for whatever immediate pleasure I could get out of it. More food generally equaled more pleasure. It was kind of a carefree existence. I enjoyed it for a while. But I trapped myself there.
Now I live in a world where everything I eat is considered through the lens: how will this affect my body’s weight? As a strategy for creating a sustainable and enjoyable lifestyle, it has worked wonders so far. And I can eat whatever I want, so long as I pay attention to how much, and make sure I treat every meal as a reward I have earned.
My food intake and calorie count
Breakfast – Costco half pepperoni pizza slice (355);
- 355 calories
Lunch – Costco half pepperoni pizza slice (355);
- 355 calories
Dinner – Uncle Julio’s Mexican restaurant dinner party. Chips and salsa (300); Pork carnitas fajitas (600); a few bites of cake (100);
- 1000 calories
Snacking – 4 cups of tea with 8 Tbsp half and half (160);
- 160 calories
Total for the day: 1870 calories (limit 1800 + 500 bonus from swimming, total 2300)
Prepare ye
I knew I had a dinner party tonight at a restaurant, but I had slacked off a bit today. I went to bed late; I woke up later than I wanted, and I had no time to prepare food for the day. So I had leftover pizza for breakfast and took another 710 calories of pizza with me for lunch. I was going to swim and figured I would need it. My plan was to just have a small dinner at the restaurant. (That plan was a mistake – I know from past experience that my body likes a larger dinner. A small dinner would make me feel deprived and resentful. That could lead to late night snacking! See have you have to plan to make weight control work!?)
Amazingly, once I had eaten half of my lunch, I decided I was satisfied and put away the rest. (That reminds me – I should rescue it and put the rest in the refrigerator now that I am home. Done.) It’s important to point out that I didn’t deprive myself of lunch just to have a bigger dinner – I really felt satisfied and decided not to have more pizza. I went swimming and headed out to the restaurant, a stylish Mexican place. Unfortunately the kitchen was a bit slow, and you could predict what happened next: I decided to eat some chips and salsa. An entire bowl of chips later, I managed to stop. Man, those were good-tasting chips, mostly because I was so hungry. Swimming does that to your appetite. And it was cool outside – that also makes me hungry.
Dinner finally came. In a way, the fajitas failed the first test of fajitas – sell the sizzle. Mine were not sizzling, probably because they were pork-carnitas based and heavy on barbecue sauce. But again, they tasted really good at first. The menu had all the calorie counts for the dish, and the fajitas were 1000 calories. I considered eating all of them. But really, after the third tortilla I had enough and it wouldn’t have been enjoyable to eat more. I quit and got a doggie bag.
Interestingly, I was the only male adult in our party who quit with food still on the plate and the only person to take any leftovers home. That’s right – I pay attention to that kind of thing now. Nobody drank alcohol in our group. I had a diet cola. But I calculate that I had 1000 calories for dinner. That’s a lot to have at one time – I usually get about half of that for a meal. We shall see what effect it has on weighing, tomorrow morning.
It’s been a good week for weight control, I feel. I hope yours was likewise.
-The Doctor