One you are focused on your new goal of eating, it can be very rewarding. You have no idea how exciting it is to be physically hungry for every meal until you try. Not hungry in a deprived sense. If you are feeling deprived and unhappy you have waited way too long. I am talking about a narrow window where you are looking at the clock anticipating your next meal. The combination of anticipation and fulfillment in the first few bites is very dramatic. Today, I really made that work for me because I was looking forward to one of my favorite lunches. Don’t judge me, to each his own!
My food intake and calorie count
Breakfast – half slice Costco pepperoni pizza (355)
- 355 calories
Lunch – Big Greek Cafe $5 Famous Gyro Wednesdays!!! (600);
- 600 calories
Dinner – 5oz cooked rice (160); 12oz vegetable curry (330)
- 490 calories
Snacking – tea with half and half (80); hummus (70); chipwich ice cream and cookie sandwich (240);
- 390 calories
Total for the day: 1835 calories (limit 1800)
What is this Gyro and why is it so important to you?
When you are paying attention, you will notice favorites and start to anticipate them. Years ago when I was gaining weight, a gyro was just another sandwich I had infrequently, but it came with Greek fries (basically a whole lot of fries, Greek servings are very generous that way) and that doubled the calorie count. Don’t believe me? 1 large fries at McDonalds has 500 calories! Greek fries were larger, say 600 calories, and the Gyro sandwich another 600. Add a soda and two other equally large meals per day and you will gain weight. Anybody would. My goal at that point was fullness; if eating some was good, eating more would be better.
Once I changed my mind about why I was eating and picked a new set of values for living my life, it was time for a rethink. I was paying attention. Now, I think that if a few bites are good, you should make those few bites the best they can be. That means enhancing the experience and eating foods you really like a lot.
Enhancing the experience is often just looking forward to what you know is coming. If it’s Wednesday, I don’t pack a lunch. And I eat a light breakfast, just to make sure I am hungry for the sandwich, which makes it even better. That’s another enhancement! And it is a great sandwich, prepared by the Big Greek Cafe restaurant. By contrast, on Mondays I often have a steak and cheese sub from the short order grill in my office building. It’s good, but not great. I don’t spend the day planning around it. It’s nice.
As long as I am going to all this trouble to control my food intake and lose weight, I need to reward myself very highly. This works for me, as a trade. But it all starts with “why are you eating”? It’s a question with many layers of answer.
-The Doctor