Why did I lost four pounds in one week, recorded last week, and only 0.2 pounds this week, recorded today?  If anything, my calorie intake was less this week than last week!  I have had this happen before, and it usually straightens itself out in a week or two, at the most.  My guess is that the 4-pound loss was a fluke, and this week’s weight is real.  But we will find out next week.  

This is strange, though, because my weight does fluctuate.  And you hear stories about people, like Mr. Rogers, who weighed himself daily and apparently weighed the same amount every day.  I wonder if truly thin people don’t fluctuate much (he weighed something like 143 pounds).  Maybe it just means “most of the time”.   I plan to find out, but I recognize it will take some time.  No, I am not trying to achieve 143 pounds!  More like 180-190.  Even that will take time.  

Looking at the diet news stories, I see that one woman attributed her loss of 80 pounds to low calorie foods and 0 calorie soda.  We’ve talked about zero calorie drinks before, so I’m glad to see that it doesn’t keep people from losing weight!  The important part of her story, though, is what she said: “food became my refuge.”  Apparently she had a rough year or two and she started gaining weight around that time.  I have been looking for quotes involving this insight.  If you are completely honest, and examine your reasons for eating, you may find, like me, that your reasons are not always physical, but emotional.  You can get to a place where you eat until you feel completely full, for every meal, and do that as a kind of emotional fulfillment.  Then you might lose the connection to physical hunger entirely.  Once that happens, you are eating because it’s mealtime and because you are not completely full.  

A person who stays thin and keeps control over their body’s weight keeps that connection simple.  You eat because you are empty, and eat just enough so you are no longer physically hungry.  To a person who stays thin, that is their whole reason for eating – to stay thin.  

For a person who is gaining weight (out of control), the point of eating is to feel full, for comfort, or for “refuge” as the lady above put it.  With that mindset, stopping eating before you are completely full feels like abuse!  Think about it, you are basically denying yourself comfort and refuge by stopping.  

Once you have your mind straight, eating less doesn’t feel like deprivation.  Then, you can do it.

-The Doctor