How do you stay on a diet? I don’t.
Call it what you want, I associate dieting with temporary changes. It can be effective if you are someone who just has a few pounds to lose (less than 10) and generally have a system that works at keeping your weight under control.
When your eating and weight are out of control – say you are 120 pounds overweight – you don’t have a situation that can be controlled with temporary changes or dieting. You need a new lifestyle, a system you can live out, a new set of values to live by.
It doesn’t necessarily mean that you stop eating things you like, either. But it does mean that you limit yourself as to quantity. That means measurement.
My food intake and calorie count
Breakfast – 1C mango Kefir (200)
- 200 calories
Lunch – 1/12 slice pumpkin pie (340); whipped cream (25); 4oz turkey (120); 1T cranberries (25); 1T gravy (25);
- 535 calories
Dinner – 1/3 Aldi pizza (340); with extra cheese (105); and pepperoni (40); broccoli casserole (230);
- 715 calories
Snacking – tea with half and half (80); chocolates (240); beef jerky (90);
- 410 calories
Total for the day: 1860 calories (limit 1800 + 500 bonus from swimming, total 2300)
After Thanksgiving
When I went to the pool today, it was full. Everybody wanted to work off their holiday meals! At home, I have plenty of holiday left. Look at all the pie! When I was living my old life, which involved a lot of weight gain, I would have thought nothing about eating a huge hot turkey sandwich and a big (unmeasured) piece of pie the day after Thanksgiving. Maybe two pieces.
A hot turkey sandwich, if you don’t know, is all the Thanksgiving leftovers warmed and placed on a piece of bread. Then you pour reheated gravy all over the top (and cranberry sauce perhaps) and eat it up. It’s almost as good as Thanksgiving in the first place. I had an abridged version today, with just 4oz turkey and a small measured amount of gravy and cranberries. Tomorrow I will create an experimental sandwich – the hot turkey wrap! I had a great success adapting Reuben sandwiches to the wrap format and I don’t see why this would be different. My mother would sometimes reheat the turkey in gravy on the stovetop, I need to try it. I can hardly wait for tomorrow so I can enjoy it properly!
Today I managed to get back under control calorie wise. I don’t feel hungry or deprived at all, since I had pumpkin pie, pizza, and leftover turkey and broccoli casserole with cheese sauce. It’s the end of a week, a week full of out-of-control eating, so I expect the scale to be very judgmental tomorrow. I mean, accurate, tomorrow. But I am full of hope for the week to come. No matter how bad my number is tomorrow, the next week will be lower.
Have a good weekend!
-The Doctor
Hi Doc, you haven’t posted in a while – I look forward to new posts through the holidays!