Another day is another chance to have a daily report! This is a lifelong endeavor lived one day at a time. The price of being thin and staying thin, is working at being thin and staying thin. Where do you get the willpower to do that? You don’t. You transform yourself morally into someone whose highest good is their personal and professional appearance. At least, being thin should be in the top three of their moral hierarchy.
My food intake and calorie count
Breakfast – Boar’s Head bratwurst (300); most of a yogurt (120)
- 420 calories
Lunch – rice pudding (240); yogurt (140); potato chips (160)
- 540 calories
Dinner – 4 ounces cooked rice (120); 9 ounces of Circassian chicken (450); steamed mixed vegetables with butter (40)
- 610 calories
Snacking – pretzels (170); hummus (80)
- 250 calories
Total for the day: 1800 calories (limit 1800)
Summer complaint
I was ill a few weeks ago, which played merry hell with my diet. For example: I ate more than usual, the types of foods I ate changed (my appetite ran to carbohydrate rich foods) and things were generally unpleasantly intestinal, mostly fluid retention and feeling bloated and full. Recently, I threw that off and had a couple of good weeks. Now, it seems like being ill is back in (low level intestinal things). Take today for example. I didn’t get hungry for breakfast until 11AM. I had lunch at 2.30. Then I was ravenous by 5PM. My lunch in particular ran to carbohydrate rich foods. There is some blockage in my system and things don’t feel normal. Grrrr.
It’s possible that I am not really ill and I am just trying to rationalize a reduction in my weight loss progress. If things don’t clear up soon, I may try a new strategy: increasing my daily calorie count. Nothing drastic – up to 2000 per day instead of my standard 1800. It could be that my body isn’t happy with 1800 and somehow that is impeding my progress. I’m not quite ready to go there yet, but I am open to the idea. I’ve talked about it before, in the context of reaching my goal weight. What then? Do I just go from eating 1800 calories per day to 3200 per day? That’s almost double, what would that be like?
On the good side, having a lot more calories to play with will mean having cookies with my tea, eating bread, cereal, and peanut butter and jelly again. And donuts. (I could eat these things now, in extreme moderation, but I have chosen to cut them out of my weight loss diet planning as non-priorities.) French fries. Sandwiches on bread, toast with butter and jelly, pancakes and waffles. There is a lot to look forward to! And I am getting there, however with a few pauses for illness.
I do enjoy 1800 calories per day. It is so challenging to get the balance right, and I like a challenge. The balance of course is between hunger and the sating of hunger. If I get too hungry I lose control. Not hungry enough and the incentive to eat less is gone (I console myself for eating less by figuring out exactly what is most appetizing for me to eat).
So, I enjoy where I am now, and I have things to look forward to in the future. That’s a great place to be, isn’t it? Illness is temporary and I have a system that has worked until now. It probably will keep on working. I will find out, and so will you, just keep reading.
-The Doctor