Every day is another day to get my balance right. Since I am losing weight and therefore counting everything I eat, the way I have found to make that work for me is to balance hunger and reward. I want to eat enough food to be happy (and it has to be very good food to do that), then let myself feel hunger just before it’s time for my next meal. Then I reward myself with another very tasty meal, small but enough. Satisfying hunger with something I really desire, makes up for the effort and stress of getting hungry. It’s a pleasant hunger, one that knows there will be food soon.
My food intake and calorie count
Breakfast – 10 ounces of jambalaya (350), 5 ounces of rice (160)
- 510 calories
Lunch – one Boar’s Head bratwurst (300); one Johnsonville bratwurst (260)
- 560 calories
Dinner – Mama Lucia’s restaurant Meat Mayhem with roasted chicken, sausage, meatball and roasted vegetables (650); garlic bread (100)
- 750 calories
Total for the day: 1820 calories (limit 1800 + 500 bonus from swimming, total 2300)
Push and Pull
Every day, I let myself get hungry just in time to eat a rewarding meal. Hunger is the push. It tells me whether I am eating too much or not enough. It pushes me to think about my next meal – what will it be? Will it be worth the wait? Shouldn’t I get it ready?
Reward is the pull. It pulls me into the future. I have small and large rewards. Small rewards are every day, every meal if possible. I really enjoyed breakfast and lunch, but dinner was an exceptional experience. It’s in the upper 90s of temperature and I wasn’t going to cook, so I went to a restaurant. I swam today, so I was extra motivated and hungry. The food was wonderful, and enormous. I ate about half, plus all the vegetables.
The calorie count is probably a good estimate. I know from my food journal that sausages are about 250 calories each, chicken breast about 250, and meatballs about 230 per five small ones. I had one large meatball, half a sausage, and an entire chicken breast. I feel so full and satisfied that I am a little worried about my calorie estimate! But the scale doesn’t lie and tomorrow I will find out.
I have an early day tomorrow, so it’s bedtime. How are you rewarding yourself for a job well done?
-The Doctor