My daily commitment has the two parts made famous by repetition: (1) weigh yourself weekly and (2) regulate your food intake. The difference between this weight loss scheme and most others is in how you spend your willpower. You can fight yourself to eat less, but I have found it more productive to use my willpower to focus on my eating goal – getting hungry so as to enjoy the next meal.
My food intake and calorie count
Breakfast – BLT wrap (200); leftover rice (160)
- 360 calories
Lunch – Big Greek Cafe Famous $5 Gyro (600)
- 600 calories
Dinner – Pretzels and hummus (200); hummus bread (150); chocolate almonds (200)
- 550 calories
Snacking – tea with half and half (80); Jaffa cakes (100); Hershey chocolate bar (220); ice cream (310)
- 710 calories
Total for the day: 2220 calories (limit 1800)
What to do when diet failure occurrs
Failure is a strong word, but I am using it to mean that I exceeded my calorie allowance by a fair amount (420 calories). On a regular diet, you might be mad at yourself or feel disgusted with yourself. There might even be an urge to punish yourself by skipping a meal the next day, or trying to make up for the difference. Don’t do that. Take the chance to learn about yourself and find out something about yourself, that you can use later. The point is to improve your life and you can’t do that without finding out what makes you happy and fulfilled. Where did that failure occur today?
My focus is on hunger. I spend my willpower making sure I will be hungry in time for meals. Today, I did the job a little too well. I didn’t make the most of breakfast, and had leftover rice for some of the meal. That was probably a mistake. Next, I waited to have lunch until 12.30 because I didn’t feel ravenously hungry at 11.30, my usual time. By the time I realized I was really hungry, it was too late and I was over hungry. I ate my sandwich way too fast and therefore didn’t enjoy most of it.
Now part of me took over that comes out when I get too hungry. It wants to feel full and doesn’t care about my wish to be hungry and in control. So I overate of carbohydrate-rich foods, and then my timing and calories for dinner were off. I didn’t want to punish myself by withholding dinner, because that would make the panic worse. I want to have the different parts of myself working together, and I can’t do that if I am punishing parts of myself. Those parts need to be understood and loved, not punished or hated. I caused the problem with some bad judgment. I can’t then get mad at myself for reacting like I know I want to. I have experienced this problem before.
Anyway, this is a chance to put my focus back on hunger. I want to be hungry tomorrow morning, and I will just have to make sure that I eat on time and have food ready that I really want to eat. Tomorrow is a new day and I can get my balance back. I am grateful that my body has predictable responses and I can learn from them. Eventually. Be patient with yourself.
-The Doctor