Someone asked me yesterday (Saturday) how I was losing weight. We had met before, but I weighed 87 more pounds then. Really, he asked what I was doing differently. Like other people who ask me about my weight loss, he had a theory: was I cutting carbohydrates out of my diet?
I have been thinking about what to tell people when they ask me about weight loss. I decided to tell him about paying attention. The biggest change I made in my mind was to make weight control one of the top values I live by. I don’t eat a thing without considering what effect it will have on the day’s calorie count. So I told him about that. When it is at the top of your mind, and you see everything through that interpretation, the act of paying attention by, for example, recording all the calories you eat, results in controlling your food intake. Even if all you are doing is recording your calorie count, you are in fact controlling it just by knowing what it is.
It doesn’t mean you have to give up any food in particular.
My food intake and calorie count
Breakfast – one-skillet chicken breast (210) and 6 oz. rice and peas (140)
- 350 calories
Lunch – 5 oz. white rice (160); 12oz chicken curry with cauliflower (340)
- 500 calories
Dinner – pretzels and hummus (200); chicken fajitas with peppers and onions cooked in cream (150) in a flour tortilla (150)
- 500 calories
Snacking – tea with half and half (80); 5x Kirkland tea cookies (210); 2x Reese’s peanut butter cups (160) graham crackers (100)
- 550calories
Total for the day: 1900 calories (limit 1800)
A rich vein: willpower
I have been searching for what to tell people when they ask me about how I lost weight. I have tried telling people about keeping a food journal. That has not been well received. I have tried telling people about rewarding myself with foods I like, but I think that can sound flippant. Talking about paying attention seemed to work well as a narrative, though.
Yesterday, when I was asked, I started out talking about promoting weight control, as something I value, to the top value I live by, and seeing everything I eat through the question: how will this affect weight control? When you come to it, all diets are about restricting calories, in various ways and disguises. Talking about what I value led easily to a calorie count. At that point, he asked if I was using willpower to do this. So this approach may not be the best after all.
I am now thinking about willpower. If I start out answering this question by admitting I don’t have the willpower to force myself to eat less, then I can talk about persuading myself to eat less, by adopting a lifestyle I like, and finding the deeper meaning that I have been telling you about on this blog. Also, I think it is disarming to say your willpower is inadequate. Many people feel that way about themselves, too. Hearing you say (having dramatically lost 87 pounds) that willpower wasn’t a big factor will intrigue people.
Only then can you bring up the idea of paying attention, values, rewards, and persuasion. So much of my new lifestyle is finding ways to please myself that aren’t about having a full stomach. There are a lot of substitutes for that. Finding the ones you like is self-knowledge you can’t do without.
Should I call it the Persuasion Diet?
-The Doctor