Daily report

20190519 Daily report

Some people are unhappy with the idea of keeping a food journal and weighing yourself for the rest of their life.  I see it on Reddit /loseit often.  Dieting, in their minds, is temporary.  After reaching the goal weight, people just want to believe things will work out.  It’s an attitude that says, “my body should maintain its weight all by itself.”  I think it’s a moral attitude.  But “should” doesn’t do the job.  Keeping your weight under control is one of those things that must be maintained, or else it is lost.  It’s like going to the dentist every year.  If teeth need care and attention, so does our weight.  Thin people absolutely pay attention to their weight and 99.9% of people who stay thin throughout their lives must keep working at it all the time.  We have to accept that this work takes time and attention.  You are no different.  You too can be thin and under control, but there is that price. 

Is it worth it?  The Doctor argues that the struggle to refine your goals and aims, and hold yourself to them, adds a lot of meaning to your life.   

Cabbage has about zero calories but makes part of a great sandwich

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – 80 grams of Ukrainian Paska bread with butter (360)

  • 360 calories

Lunch – 5 x pizza slices (100); chicken wrap (180)

  • 680 calories 

Dinner – corned beef and cabbage, potatoes and carrots (500)

  • 500 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); 3 x Jaffa cakes (50)

  • 230 calories

Total for the day: 1770 calories (limit 1800)

Food security while dieting

The way the Doctor keeps himself happy, while eating less food and eating under a system of control, is to make the foods that are most satisfying and worthwhile.  My eating goal is to be hungry and to anticipate my next meal.  It’s no good to get ravenously hungry and run to the kitchen and realize there is nothing there I really want to eat.  I call this food security: I cook ahead of time and make sure there is food around that I am very interested in.  When I get hungry, I can find a food I really crave and put it together quickly.  If I had to eat something I was indifferent to, I wouldn’t be interested in making myself hungry for that.  

I’ve also talked about the problem of a meal not working out.  Pre cooked bacon was a good example – it’s not nearly as good and not nearly as satisfying.  Anyway, when I’ve gotten my hunger revved up and I eat and the meal is unexpectedly disappointing, it is demoralizing.  My body says, why did you get me all excited for????  My old values said – eat it anyway, don’t waste.  But my new values are supposed trump the old.  It is a struggle, but my ideal now is to throw away the disappointing bacon and eat something else.  

Someone asked how much advanced planning I do for my meals.  Unfortunately, it’s complicated and while some of it is planned (usually while shopping) some is opportunistic.  There is no hard and fast rule, except I have to really be looking forward to eating it.  I don’t mind eating less, since it will be so good.  Living this way really heightens my enjoyment in eating, and I lose weight at the same time.  That is nice.

-The Doctor

20190517 Daily report

My daily posts have a main purpose – to help me control my food intake.  I do this by keeping a food journal every day.  I enter what I eat, right after I eat it.  I don’t remember everything if I try to do it all late at night.  Another part of entering food into the journal is to pay attention how much I am eating.  If I only wrote in the journal at night, I might find out I had overeaten during the day.  (I am actually writing a post now about how to recover from a bad diet day.)  Then it’s too late! 

Don’t play the game of trying to force yourself to eat less tomorrow to make up for today, either.  That day is done and you can’t get it back.  Look towards the future and try again tomorrow.  Tomorrow, be aware of how much you are eating and enter it into your journal right away. 

100 calories per slice!

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – leftover sesame chicken (150); mini apple pie (210); 26 grams Sarris chocolate (140)

  • 500 calories

Lunch – 6 x pizza slices (100)

  • 600 calories 

Dinner – BLT wrap (200); Moroccan lamb ragout (350)

  • 550 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80)

  • 80 calories

Total for the day: 1730 calories (limit 1800 + 500 bonus from swimming, total 2300)

The limits of calorie cutting

It’s not too hard to  reduce your total calories to a certain point, but then it gets to be more and more work for less and less reward.   No matter what you do, it takes 3500 calories per week to lose a pound of weight.  After a while, there just aren’t many left to cut.  

As usual, this week I have been swimming twice.  Normally on those days I am extra hungry and feel free to reward that a bit.  This week I wasn’t really extra hungry so didn’t eat more – I stayed below 1800 calories per day all week.  Does this mean I will have lost an extra pound this week?  Ha, no.  My swim routine takes about 600 calories, so you could say I was down 1200 calories this week from my usual.  That’s only 1/3 pound!  I’m not sure I would even notice that on my scale.  Looked at another way, I have reduced my intake to 1800 calories per day.  If I tried to bring the total down to 1200 calories per day, I would probably be hungry all the time and would be down….a pound (600 x 7 days in the week = 4200) for the week.  One pound is not worth the price of being hungry all the time.  I don’t have that kind of willpower. 

Losing weight seems really slow.  But I am not going to complain about “only” losing 2-3 pounds per week.  That’s fantastic and will get me to my target weight.  Don’t get in the way of being fantastic.  

-The Doctor

 

20190516 Daily report

If you watch people who are thin, you will learn from them how they do it.  People who stay thin pay a lot of attention to their weight.  (Some will tell you that they don’t pay attention, but I think they are a bit embarrassed about it.  Who wants to admit they are obsessed with their weight?)  Compared to those of us who have lost control of our weight, thin people pay a lot of attention.  So, pay attention to your weight.  It is the price of keeping thin.  It’s like keeping your checkbook balanced.  Ignore it for a while and you will get in trouble.

 

This bread I did make, and bake, then take.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – 100 grams Ukrainian Paska bread and butter (450); banana (100)

  • 550 calories

Lunch – Moroccan lamb ragout with hard boiled egg and rice (450)

  • 450 calories 

Dinner – Homemade Sesame chicken (450); green beans with butter (50)

  • 500 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); 1.25 ounce of Sarris peanut butter meltaway egg (110)

  • 190 calories

Total for the day: 1690 calories

Anticipation

I have often said my food goal is to be hungry and anticipate the delicious food I have planned for the next meal.  That way I have an incentive to not eat between meals, and I find my body and mind are willing to eat less food at each meal.  It works, but there is a price.  Part of the price is that I find a lot of foods are not worth waiting for.  My mind and body are fine with getting hungry and then getting something delicious as a reward.  Nobody wants to get hungry and then be rewarded with salad (the ordinary kind), or some chips, or unappealing leftovers from last week.  Food can be fuel, but I am getting some extra work out of it.  

This week I have been concentrating on my food goal – I should be hungry for each meal!  Really hungry.  If you think about it, when most people say they are hungry they are saying they are not full.  Have you ever said, “I could eat something.”?  That’s proof that most of us have being full as our food goal.  Consider – the only time most of us would refuse food is if we are already completely full.  Our food goal has been met!  Otherwise, we could eat, and we do.  Result: calorie overload.  

If hunger is the goal, that is all turned upside down.  Such a hunger-focused person would refuse food unless they were empty and their stomach calling LOUDLY for food.  You might even recognize hunger in yourself as something to avoid.  But it works as a goal.  You don’t want to be hungry and unsatisfied between meals.  You want hunger at the right time.  The side benefit is that your food tastes really wonderful and exciting when you embrace hunger for it!  Make sure it is something worthwhile. 

-The Doctor  

20190515 Daily report

Welcome to my daily report!  It’s a new day in my new life.  And I have committed to keep a food journal for the rest of my new life.  Hear me out.  Everybody who stays thin has a system for keeping their weight under control.  Not everybody keeps a food log, there are other systems people use.  But I am keeping a food log.  The logic is simple.  I am trying to lose 120 pounds.  I am not going to go to all that trouble and gain it all back again.  I have transformed myself into a person who can control his weight.  I keep the food log.  And I will also weigh myself every week for the rest of my life.  These parts are essential for weight control. 

On the positive side, I will lose 120 pounds and be in control of my weight.  Also on the positive side, I can eat from an unlimited menu of exciting and delicious food.  I have lost 51 pounds so far eating like this.  

It's a cheesesteak, or as close as you can get outside Philadelphia

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – 100 grams Ukrainian Paska bread and butter (450)

  • 450 calories

Lunch – steak and cheese sandwich (500)

  • 500 calories 

Dinner – Moroccan lamb ragout and rice (350)

  • 350 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); chicken wraps (250); pretzels (100)

  • 430 calories

Total for the day: 1730 calories (limit 1800)

Rediscovering my eating goal

Astute readers will notice that today was a Wednesday, but I didn’t get a gyro sandwich.  The Doctor was too far away from the Big Greek Cafe for that today.  So I got this cheesesteak from a lunch counter.  It’s pretty good!  I made sure I was hungry for it, so it was as good as possible.  

Food just tastes better when you are hungry for it.  That’s the knowledge that led me to my greatest insight – my food goal was all wrong for weight loss.  I was eating with the goal of feeling full.  But how can you lose weight if your enthusiastic goal is to be completely full?  By dieting (eating less), you are working against yourself.  You have to use a lot of willpower to keep from filling yourself at every moment.  It feels wrong, not being full!  So unsatisfying.

My new food goal is to be hungry in time for each meal.  Success is to eat just enough so that I am hungry for the next meal.  Today was a partial success.  I woke up hungry, had my delicious home baked bread for breakfast, then didn’t eat again until 12.30 when I was hungry.  But at 3PM, I got hungry and had some chicken.  And then some more.  With hummus.  I stayed in my calorie limits today, but dinner felt unsatisfying, because I wasn’t hungry for it.  I have to learn to treat hunger symptoms with something more filling, or at least something in a package of 100 calories or so, like beef jerky.  It’s so easy to overdo it and then ruin my appetite.  

I am accumulating so much self knowledge on this diet!  By the time I am done losing this weight, I will be an expert on my own eating needs and behaviors.  Keeping the weight off might be less of a challenge.  

-The Doctor

20190514 Daily report

There are two parts to controlling your weight – no, not diet and exercise!  I mean, of course, (1) monitoring your weight at least weekly, and (2) regulating your food intake.  This daily post represents #2 – an online food journal and an expression of my thoughts as I go through this quest to lose 120 pounds.  Part of regulating your intake is to keep a total and honest accounting of everything you eat. 

My own take on this was to change my thinking and my food goals.  Instead the typical food goal – eating until I was full – I have decided that my goal is to wait until I am hungry, then eat just enough of a food that I am really looking forward to.  It really raises the eating experience to a new level.  Your food gets really exciting when you are hungry for it. 

This stir-fried chicken is going to taste sooooo good!

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – Jimmy Dean sausage egg and cheese croissantwich (400);

mid morning waffle pieces and ham (150)

  • 550 calories

Lunch – BLT wraps (400)

  • 400 calories 

Dinner – sesame chicken with broccoli and peppers (400); rice (160)

  • 560 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); 1 ounce of Sarris peanut butter meltaway egg (110)

  • 190 calories

Total for the day: 1700 calories (limit 1800 + 500 bonus from swimming, total 2300)

The importance of hunger when it is your goal

Today was a swimming day.  I was pleasantly surprised that my swim times were excellent.  I’m not sure why, but the pool was crowded today.  I shared a lane with an elderly but spry man wearing flippers, and he was pretty fast in them.  He had a cane up at the end of the lane, so I thought he was going to be slow.  Wrong!  But I didn’t do badly either.  Tuesday seems like a strange day for a crowded pool.  I can’t figure that one out.

I am rediscovering the importance of hunger as a goal, and food as a reward for hunger.  This last few weeks, I have noticed that I have started grazing around and eating between meals.  It’s all within the calorie limits, I think (it’s hard to keep track of grazing a few pretzels or chips, so I estimate).  But it means I am not really hungry for meals, and my mealtimes drift around a bit.  It’s all very unsatisfying.  Today, even though I was being more careful, I was hungry around 10AM and snacked.  Lunchtime (11.30) came and went, and I wasn’t hungry.  I was determined to wait, and around 12.30 I got hungry after all.  Then my BLT tasted great!  

After swimming, I was sure I would be hungry, but I wasn’t.  I finished my work and made dinner.  I only really got hungry just before eating at 5.30 – perfect.  I enjoyed my stir-fry a lot.  Later that evening, dessert started to sound good, so I rewarded myself with some peanut butter egg from Easter.    Just the right amount – one ounce.  I am sure I will be hungry for breakfast.   What will it be?  What will be worth waking up for?   

It is so important to keep your food goal in focus.  If your goal is to be hungry before you eat, you must make sure you are hungry before you eat.  That means not spoiling your hunger with shacks or appetizers.  That means eating just enough.  Those first few bites when you are seriously hungry are wonderful and soon you look forward to that experience.  It’s a much more fulfilling way to live.  Eating until you are full becomes boring, pale, unexciting, by comparison.  But if you are going to use hunger as your goal – and it has a lot of benefits for weight control – you must keep your hunger sharp!  

-The Doctor

20190513 Daily report

Every day, The Doctor keeps a food journal and calorie count.  It’s the only way to be sure that you are in control of how much you eat.  Who remembers what they wore last week?  What the weather was?  What you had for breakfast yesterday?  The act of measuring helps bring your intake under control.  The Doctor also weighs himself every week.  That keeps the food journal honest.  Once you have self knowledge, you learn how much you can eat in a week and still lose weight.  The proof your food intake is under control is the scale. 

Much better than pre-cooked bacon

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – 4 x bacon strips (70); corn chips (200)

  • 480 calories

Lunch – Meatball and hummus wraps (250); pretzels (100)

  • 600 calories 

Dinner – spaghetti and meatballs (500); 

  • 500 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); Nestle Lil Drums chocolate cone (120)

  • 200 calories

Total for the day: 1780 calories (limit 1800)

It's all in your mind. Change your mind.

Dieting as a mental process is so challenging.  When your eating goal is to be full, every bite you don’t take is a deprivation.  You have to fight against your eating goal all the time.  (100% of the time, your mind is telling you, eat, I’m not full!).  With that eating goal, dieting is a punishment and a trial that never ends.  When people on a diet say they’re tired of being hungry, I think that’s what they mean.  They are tired of not being full.  Their brain and their being have accepted the goal – being full is the highest good!  The only source of satisfaction and happiness! 

The diet forums are full of people trying to stay strong, and I applaud them when they succeed.  But the Doctor started his system of weight control (not dieting) because it was important that the system was comprehensive.  There’s no way I was going to lose 120 pounds and have any chance of it coming back again.  I decided my mind had to change.  I had to let go of my old life and my old being, and reorder not just my goals but my values hierarchy.  On top now, was being a person who could successfully control his weight.  My old values got pushed down a few notches.  They are still there.  But they are not allowed to interfere with my new highest good, having my weight under control.  

That is one side.  But this is a complex problem.  Another challenge was to reformulate my eating goal.  I chose hunger as my goal.  I don’t mean what other people mean, when I say hunger.  As I said above, when your eating goal is to be full, anything less than that feels hungry, feels like deprivation.  When I say hungry, I mean the gripping hunger that comes from having an empty stomach and digestive tract.  

Food just tastes better when you are hungry for it and also looking forward to it.  I found I was not hungry between meals (using my narrow definition of hungry).  But I was hungry at mealtime.  

Today, I had trouble keeping my focus.  The old goal kept swimming into view.  I wasn’t hungry and still wanted to eat, to graze, to feel full and satisfied.  I didn’t give in (much), but it was distracting.  I decided I was missing something.  What was it?

It was a goal and a reward.  Every 10 pounds lost, I have rewarded myself and recognized the achievement.  That pulled me forward.  I haven’t done that this time!  And I am already approaching the next 10 pounds lost.  I had better pick a reward soon, so I can see my path clear.  Every bit helps!  

-The Doctor

20190512 Daily report

Hello.  As part of my (so far successful) system of weight control, I regulate my food intake.  I do that by keeping a food journal (a log of everything I eat) and I keep the system going by changing the way I was thinking about food.  I encourage myself and keep things interesting with a system of rewards.  And I find deeper meaning in my new life.  It is more satisfying, my food goals are more refined, and the feeling of control is a benefit and a motivator.  Part of the control is food portioning.  

A portion for lunch tomorrow

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – BLT wraps (400); pre cooked bacon pieces (100); waffle pieces (100)

  • 600 calories

Lunch – homemade chili and noodles (400)

  • 400 calories 

Dinner – Moroccan lamb ragout with rice (500)

  • 500 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); fresh berries (200)

  • 280 calories

Total for the day: 1780 calories (limit 1800)

Anticipation

Today was Mother’s day. For dinner I made a Moroccan lamb ragout.  But I got started a bit late and it wasn’t ready until after 6PM.  Starting at 5, I had a few berries left over from the breakfast extravaganza.  Then a few more and a few more.  I have no idea how many I actually ate (much less than a cup), but when dinner was finally ready I wasn’t really hungry any more.  I lost my hunger/anticipation!  And the Moroccan lamb is one of my favorite lamb meals.  So that was a little disappointing.  On the other hand, I did eat some lovely berries.  

The leftover lamb was packed away for lunches and another dinner.  Maybe next time, I won’t ruin my preparations for enjoying it!  

Back to bacon.  I’ve now tried three kinds of pre cooked bacon, and there’s only one thing to say: precooked bacon is not as good as freshly cooked.   It’s like an echo of real bacon, and only good enough as a substitute for a short time.  This summer, I’m going to switch to another breakfast food!  Shocking, I know.  There will still be a place for bacon, somewhere.  I hear there is a chocolate covered bacon.  

-The Doctor

20190510 Daily report

Every day, I control my food intake.  Part of that is keeping track of the food I eat (and calories therein).  It’s an online food journal, really.  I mostly use nutrition information on the food packages to figure out how many calories I am having.  My other tools include the internet, measuring cups and spoons, and my kitchen scale. 

Whatever I am doing, it is starting to have an effect.  I was reading on Reddit /loseit the idea of the person as a roll of paper towels.  If you have a full roll of paper towels and take 10 off, you hardly notice.  But if you have a roll that is mostly empty, taking off 10 sheets really makes it shrink.  I am at the full roll side of things right now.  But my pants and belts don’t fit any more.  Things may start changing faster as my roll gets unwound.  

My coverlet is actually green. It's not easy being green.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – 2 x pre-cooked bacon BLT wraps (200); Aldi mini apple pie (210)

  • 610 calories

Lunch – Homemade sausage chili and noodles (500); 26 grams of chocolate (140)

  • 640 calories 

Dinner – 3 x pizza slices (170); baked chicken piece (200)

  • 700 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); cookies (130)

  • 210 calories

Total for the day: 2080 calories (limit 1800 + 500 bonus from swimming, total 2300)

Keep on a diet by eating what you really, really want (when you most need it)

On the subject of bacon, I am getting some important research done.  I have been oven frying bacon, which is a great way to cook it, but as the weather gets warmer it will become impractical.  But they do sell pre cooked bacon, so I decided to try it.  I bought three kinds so far – Oscar Mayer (which makes a decent regular bacon); Boar’s Head (which makes very good regular bacon), and Costco (which makes fabulous regular bacon).  If pre-cooked bacon is going to work out, I want to figure out my favorites now, before the summer heat comes.  Today when I got hungry for breakfast I pulled out the Oscar Mayer and gave it a try.  

It was disappointing; too mild and lacked flavor.  My BLT wraps were way out of balance, even though I used 4 slices of bacon per wrap.  They were more lettuce and tomato wraps.  That can’t be my regular bacon.  I have been putting myself in calorie deficit and trying to encourage hunger at appropriate times.  The last thing I want after that effort and sacrifice is to have disappointing bacon.  But no worries.  I still have two others to try, and from the better bacon makers.  

People may ask how I can eat bacon while trying to lose weight.  The answer is, I can fit it into my calorie plan.  But it has to be really, really good bacon.  It has to be worth getting hungry for and really satisfying to eat a few slices of it.  Each slice of my favorite bacon is 70 calories.  I am allowing myself 1800 calories per day (more if I exercise).  Expressed in bacon, that’s nearly 26 slices.  That would be a bacon bacon bacon day.  I may try it some day, but for right now I like my BLT wrap.  It is satisfying and very tasty and keeps me happy until lunchtime.  Today, it was sad and disappointing and I needed apple pie.  Tomorrow may be a better bacon day.

-The Doctor

20190509 Daily report

The method I use to control my weight is simple and has two parts.  (1) Monitor your weight every week and (2) regulate your food intake.  Part of the regulation is a complete and honest recording of everything I eat (there are a few exceptions).  It’s amazing what has calories and what has more than you’d think.  Anyway, after four solid months of dieting, my clothes have started to not fit in uncomfortable ways.  I had to say goodbye to all my size 52 pants this week.  It was harder than you think, to let go.  It’s part of becoming a new person, after all, and that is always a little scary.  

I'm sure there was a Simpsons episode about this, using blue pants.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – 3 x pizza slices (170)

  • 500 calories

Lunch – The Doctor’s famous ham, roasted Brussels sprout, and horseradish wraps (370)

  • 370 calories

Dinner – Homemade lentil soup (200); breaded baked chicken breast piece (150)

  • 350 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); 42 grams of chocolate (220); three Jaffa cakes (150); Nestle Li’l Drums ice cream cone (110)

  • 560 calories

Total for the day: 1780 calories (limit 1800)

Don't slack off

The Doctor was on Reddit today looking at the Loseit forum (an online weight loss group).  One thing I picked up quickly is that dieters are really dedicated to using their willpower, and are discovering real reserves of willpower in themselves, to force themselves to stay on their diet plans.  The Doctor is impressed with their strength.  There is no way The Doctor would last that long.  That’s why I have invented a new system that makes the weight loss program self reinforcing.  

So how does The Doctor keep motivated and keep dieting?  It’s hard to answer that in the way it is asked.  I am not using willpower to keep on the diet.  Instead, I have totally changed how I look at things, including food. 

In my old life, my goal when eating was to be full and to enjoy whatever comfort or satisfaction came with a full belly.  When I was thinking like that, dieting was almost impossible.  Every time I tried to diet by eating less, I was pushing against my need to be filled.  I had no satisfaction from eating things I didn’t want to eat, and didn’t even have the cheap satisfaction of feeling filled.  In no time, I would start rebelling against my diet and break it.  I wasn’t someone who could lose weight on purpose.  

Now, being thin is at the top of my moral hierarchy.  That might sound shallow, but I have a serious weight problem that needs care and attention.  Obsession is fully justified.)  Now my goal, when eating, is to be hungry when I sit down to eat.  It’s a more refined and powerful eating goal than eating until filled.  I could eat and eat for a long time before feeling full, when that was my goal.  The food tastes so different, and exciting, and fulfilling, when you are really hungry for it and are really looking forward to it.  Focusing on being hungry has several benefits.    

The beauty of focusing on being hungry is that I have to plan to be hungry for my next meal too, and the next, and the next.  So I play a game where I balance eating just enough to last me until my next meal.  Also, it can’t be so little food that I get hungry too early.  Being seriously hungry just in time to eat something really delicious, that I really want, is hugely satisfying.  It’s become a source of fulfillment to have that timing work out for every meal.  

The second benefit of focusing on my hunger regards overeating.  With my new goal of being hungry, I have noticed that only the first portion of food is really fulfilling.  And it really is amazing how good food tastes when you have been looking forward to it for a while and are super hungry also.  Taking a second helping, even of food you love, just doesn’t taste as good and doesn’t feel satisfying.  In consequence, it’s started to feel really distasteful to have a full belly.  It prevents fulfillment of my eating goal.

Embrace hunger!  It does have its downsides, though. I’ll talk about that later.  

-The Doctor

20190508 Daily report

Every day, I monitor my food intake and write the results in my online food journal.  I have been keeping the journal since January 1, 2019.  I plan to keep a journal documenting my food intake for the rest of my life, or, as long as I plan to stay in control of my weight.  After all, I am in the middle of losing 120 pounds.  Gaining it back again would be terrible.  That’s a problem many people have with losing weight.  Once they have gotten their weight down, they stop paying attention and drift back into their old lives that made them overweight.  And the same thing happens all over again.  No thanks.  Keeping a food journal seems like a small price to pay, to maintain all that success.  

Anyway, it’s Wednesday.  What is there to look forward to about Wednesdays?  

$5 gryo Wednesdays at Big Greek Cafe! I look forward to Wednesdays more than anyone I know.

My daily food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – 2 x bratwurst wraps (290)

  • 580 calories

Lunch – BGC gyros (600)

  • 600 calories

Dinner – Homemade vegetable curry and rice (600)

  • 600 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80)

  • 80 calories

Total for the day: 1860 calories (limit 1800)

Weight control ideas from others

I may have gone a bit over today, calorie wise.  The important thing is to be honest about it.  I’m not sure why, but I was hungry when I got up, hungry before lunch (like 10AM), and then hungry for dinner at 4PM.  Maybe my exercise yesterday was more vigorous than I thought.

Today, I am reading an interesting article by a woman who lost 100 pounds and (last she wrote) had kept off the weight for 3 years.  She tried to do in one long post what I am trying to write a whole website about, but she has some fabulous ideas.  And she lost 100 pounds, so is worth listening to.  She also has a whole section about the challenges of keeping the weight off.

Alicia had been on several diets and successfully lost weight, but always gained it back.  She was determined to figure out how to keep the weight off and try again.  Her essay has several sections:

  1. Prepare yourself mentally
  2. Set a healthy goal
  3. Set a calorie limit 
  4. Count your calories
  5. Exercise
  6. Troubleshooting
  7. Maintenance

Some of her points are golden.  For #1, she talks about the need to change yourself, and calls for total honesty with yourself.  The Doctor approves.  Your life must change, you have to re-order the values you live by and adopt a new moral hierarchy.  If you are not honest about what is wrong about your old life, you are denying the need to change.  Success will be harder to achieve.  

Point #2 is also important.  She suggests using the middle of the BMI range as the target for your healthy weight.  She points out you can always change it later, if that doesn’t suit you.  That’s great advice.  The question of what weight I am aiming for has been a puzzle to me.  I half jokingly suggested my goal was to fit into size 38 pants.  Knowing from her point #1, with honesty, where you are, and from #2 a clear goal where you are going, orients you in the direction you want.

#3 and #4 are related.  The Doctor’s calorie limit is about 1800 per day, though I will have more if I have exercised or if I really, really want to.  Alicia is a lady, so her calorie limit is about 1200 per day.  Women tend to have a lower burn rate then men.  Even so, 1200 per day sounds pretty rigorous.  The Doctor would have to be on 1500 calories per day to match her in proportion.  She also makes the excellent point that the food you eat can be anything, so long as you are honest about the calories involved.  Want an 1100-calorie burrito?  No problem, get it, but cut it in half.  Eat the other half tomorrow.  Alicia also talks about finding foods that keep her satisfied for long periods.  That’s important self knowledge.  

Regarding exercise (#5), The Doctor doesn’t have much to say.  Alicia is quite active and runs marathons.  The Doctor knows that kind of thing isn’t necessary to lose weight, but there are a lot of people who find the activity challenging and get meaning out of making themselves do it.

#6 Troubleshooting is filled with valuable tips.  The Doctor may come back to this section again someday. 
Briefly, you should eat foods you enjoy, be honest about what you are eating, not punish yourself for having a bad diet day, save up calories to spend on the holidays.  She also has tips for plateaus (where weight loss seems to halt for a time.)  

The Doctor agrees with all this.  Go Alicia!  I hope she is having success keeping the weight off, too.  I would like to discuss her maintenance tips some other time.

-The Doctor

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