20190910 Daily report

I spend a lot of time and effort on my hobby – weight control.  That means I obsessively keep my food journal, and plan to do that for the rest of my life.  Or at least as long as I plan to maintain control over my weight.  Part of controlling my weight is controlling intake.  That’s the food journal, but it is also a lot of planning, and a system of small and large rewards.  Today was a reward day.  

First plate! It is all you can eat.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – ham (90); cheese (100); toasted sandwich bread (160) with pickles and horseradish and mustard.

  • 350 calories

Lunch – Commonwealth Indian Restaurant buffet (1400); 

  • 1400 calories 

Dinner – none!

  • 0 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); ddd (00)

  • 80 calories

Total for the day: 1830 calories (limit 1800)

Once in a while it works

Today I rewarded myself for getting my weight below 250 pounds.  That’s a big achievement to reward.  So I went to an Indian restaurant near me with a lunch buffet.  “All you can eat” is a tricky thing for me now.  Being full isn’t my focus since I started controlling my intake.  But I had two plates at the buffet, and I have very little idea how many calories I actually had.  So the figure above is a guess.  But I enjoyed it, even though my body is totally full, even now, 10 hours later.  Will I ever be hungry again?  Yes, I will.  

Anyway, it was very rewarding.  I was careful to prepare for the meal as I said yesterday, to maximize the reward experience.  I’ve put some arrows and description of what I had.  The second plate had a stew made from goat meat, and some lentils (dal), plus some of my favorites from the first round.  I am no longer sure I will lose weight this week, though.  It seems I have some travel ahead, and that always throws my metabolism off.  But eventually, I will have other milestones to reward!

Try to find a way to reward yourself for your accomplishments.  It works.

-The Doctor 

20190909 Daily report

The Doctor of Things has a mission: weight control.  I also have a system for when I eat: measure everything, and write down what I ate in a food journal.   My goal for eating food: anticipate what I’m going to eat, eat a measured amount, and enjoy it.  What I avoid: getting full, because that ruins the anticipation and enjoyment of the next meal.  I look forward to: my next meal, which will be wonderful and satisfying – no diet foods allowed.  Diet portions are ok.  

6 ounces of meatloaf, with carrots and potatoes.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – waffle sections (50); macaroni cheese (350)

  • 400 calories

Lunch – 6 ounces meatloaf (300); cooked carrots and potatoes (100); wrap (110)

  • 510 calories 

Dinner – bbq pork ribs (100) 6oz sausage chili (240); Smith hot dog (140); bun (110)

  • 590 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); 1 serving each pretzels and cheese (250)

  • 330 calories

Total for the day: 1830 calories (limit 1800 + 500 bonus from swimming, total 2300)

Building anticipation

Tomorrow is a reward lunch.  The point is, I want to be ready to enjoy this reward.  I have been working at getting below 250 pounds since July, when I weighed 259 pounds, and for a battle that protracted, the reward needs to be memorable.  I prepare for reward meals with anticipation first – I have been planning this for two weeks.  I want it!  Second, I went swimming today, but only ate about 1800 calories.  I will be very hungry for this reward meal!  Third – I want to be able to enjoy every minute and eat slowly.  So I will eat a good breakfast.  Starvation feelings are no way to reward yourself!  

Part of my strategy for eating “only” 1800 calories today was to make sure my food was mostly meat and protein – cheese for breakfast, meatloaf for lunch, and a chili dog for dinner.  Really, my refrigerator is totally stocked with lots of things I like.  That’s an important idea: the foods I like and the portions I plan out are all ready to go.  There is no need to go browsing or grazing through the kitchen and maybe getting myself into trouble.  

I have been doing a lot of talking about constructing the mindset of a person who stays thin.  Out of curiosity, I did an internet search on “think like a thin person.”  What a catastrophe, or at least what mixed messages!  The top articles are all about how to be like people who are “naturally” thin, which gave me a good laugh.  No such person exists.  Any healthy thin person works hard at it.  But let’s take a look. 

WikiHow says that naturally thin people know that being thin doesn’t make you happy.  Also, you shouldn’t obsess over being thin.  Altogether, that’s just really bad advice.  If you aren’t obsessed about getting thin and staying that way, you won’t succeed.  Being in control of your weight just doesn’t come easily.  As for being happy, well, I was fat and happy before and I am less fat, but still happy now.  Actually, since I am just as happy but there is less of me, on average, there is more happiness per pound of me.  So WikiHow is wrong, being thinner has made me happier.  Just not in the way they were thinking.  

WebMD has some interesting thoughts, though.  I am paraphrasing, but:

  1. Build a fantasy of what your life would be like if you were thin.  Maybe that would work for some people.  I think it is related to the next point:
  2. Change your behavior so that you act like you imagine a thin person would.  Good advice, if vague.  How would this thin person act, then?  
  3. Pay attention to how much you are eating.  One scoop of ice cream should satisfy you.  Interesting way of putting it, but that needs a bit more explaining.  
  4. Change your goal to being healthy, avoid the goal of losing weight.  That makes sense.  Logically, if your goal is weight loss, everything you eat betrays the goal.  Finding a different eating goal is a good idea, but I rejected this one in favor of embracing hunger as the goal.

That’s it, really, though there are some minor points.  If this is a sample of diet advice, the Doctor is going to clean up in this world!  Where would you look for advice?  What has been effective for you?  

-The Doctor

20190908 Daily report

Every day, my task is the same.  Since January, 2019 and for the foreseeable future, I am paying attention to how much I am eating and writing it all down in my food journal (which is an online spreadsheet).  To do this I am not directly using my willpower, which wouldn’t work.  I am inventing a new lifestyle built around some new values, and living those out.  In consequence, my body’s weight is coming under control.  It’s what I value now. 

Only us vegetables in here! But still delicious.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – 2x barbecue chicken sliders (150); small piece of cold pizza (50)

  • 350 calories

Lunch – 10oz macaroni cheese  (475); mandarin oranges (75)

  • 550 calories 

Dinner – 13.5 ounces vegetable curry (350); 5oz cooked rice (160)

  • 510 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); tasting food while cooking (estimated 100); 3x Sarris chocolate pretzels (70)

  • 390 calories

Total for the day: 1800 calories (limit 1800)

The price of success

I spent two hours today making a double batch of the vegetable curry.  There was the cooking, but there was a lot of preparation – there always is for vegetarian food.  I usually find meat satisfying while running a calorie deficit, but sometimes vegetable curry is welcome.  And this is a fabulous recipe, flavored with coconut, Indian spices, ginger, garlic, tomatoes, chilies, and caramelized vegetable fond.  Cooked just right (and this one was), it is an amazing dish.  You don’t quite notice the lack of meat.  (You may notice I didn’t count the yogurt featured in the picture in my calorie count; once I got the calculations done it was about 10 or 15 calories, so I ignored it.) 

Anyway, I minced four onions, six garlics, two inches of peeled ginger, and processed 1.5 pounds of potatoes, a whole head of cauliflower.  Because ingredients are added in layers to make the curry really good, there is a lot of running back and forth to the stove, the recipe, and the cutting board.  You don’t really sit still.  I can see why people like outdoor kitchens and grilling, too.  Cooking curries can make a lot of clutter.  I spent a long time cleaning everything afterwards.  But the dish is totally worth the effort, once in a while.  Since my food intake and weight control are my hobbies now, this is all time spent doing things I like, or else accept cheerfully must be done in their pursuit.  

While that was going on, I also made a two pound meatloaf, with potatoes and carrots.  Yes, it was a busy afternoon.  On the other hand, I won’t be spending a lot of time cooking dinner this week.  And my lunches will be easy to fix.  The cold meatloaf sandwich is an underappreciated gem, with mayonnaise and lettuce on a wrap.  I can hardly wait!  This is exactly what I have found works.  In short: this is all a lot of effort, but since my success is dependent on really looking forward to what I am going to eat, it is a price I am willing to pay.  

What would you do to lose 120 pounds?  What price would you pay to achieve what you desire?  

-The Doctor

20190907 Saturday weigh-in

The second part of my commitment to weigh control is to weigh myself every week.  Many people who are thin, and stay thin, weigh themselves every day – or have some other way to check their body (clothes sizes, belt sizes, or?) to make sure they are not over eating.  There is counting calories, and then there is the proof.  What do you actually weigh?  Because I have read that once you are fairly thin, even a small change in your body is noticeable.  Clothes don’t fit, and you don’t feel the same.  You are close to the edge and balance is affected by small things, on the edge.  So how did I do this week?

The lowest number yet!

Wonderful progress, I was recently saying that I remember the beginning of this weight loss program, when I routinely lost 3 pounds per week.  I was thinking up to 2 pounds per week was more realistic now.  (Last week I was at 251.8.)  This means that since beginning my weight control lifestyle, I have lost:

Pounds!!
0

Reward time

Every time I lose a whole decade (270, 260, and now 250) I find a way to reward myself.  I have sacrificed what part of me wants: being full.  A lot of me doesn’t value that highly anymore, but I know part of me does.  That part has to be compensated and all of me rewarded.  It’s a promise that I have to keep.  This time, I know exactly what the reward is: Indian buffet!  

The great part about these rewards is that I fit them into my weight control lifestyle.  My calorie count for the day will stay at 1800 (more for a swimming day).  I will have a reward and I will still lose weight next week.  Maybe I won’t lose quite as much! 

It’s an interesting reward now, because being full isn’t ideal to most of my consciousness now.  At a buffet, I do have to estimate how much I am eating, but there is a license to satisfy the part of me that wants the sensation of fullness and finds that comforting.  I try not to ignore these parts of myself, especially because that part is powerful enough to take control if provoked!  I have (and everyone on a diet has) had the situation where my conscious will said Don’t Eat and part of me says (with its mouth full) Too Bad.  Even though I don’t want to, I find myself eating, even though in theory it’s all me and I should be able to stop!  

So I pay attention to the parts of myself that are at odds with the goals and ideals of my conscious will.  I still have a body and it still wants what it wants, no matter what I say.  

Paying attention means a lot of different things.  But some of them are worth the effort, don’t you find?

-The Doctor

20190906 Daily report

I don’t have the willpower to force myself to lose weight.  I have proved that over and over.  However, after I changed my mind and started viewing the world differently….it moved beyond willpower.  Now it’s a question of: Would you like to maximize your enjoyment of life?  To increase its richness and your own satisfaction, refine your tastes and work for your own betterment?  Well, yes I would, thanks.  Now I use my willpower to work towards that.  During my failed diets, I’m afraid I was using my willpower for a negative: to deprive myself and force myself to go against my desires.  Now there are multiple layers of myself in alignment and it feel good.

These little pizzas are so handy!

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – toasted ham (90) and cheese (110) sandwich (150); 2x Reese’s peanut butter cups (80)

  • 500 calories

Lunch – 2x Italian sausage links (245); pretzels and hummus (130)

  • 620 calories 

Dinner – 6x pizza slices (100); 

  • 600 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); 

  • 80 calories

Total for the day: 1810 calories (limit 1800 + 500 bonus from swimming, total 2300)

Careful there!

Today I am being careful not to overeat.  Tomorrow is weighing day and I don’t want to muddy the results.  So even though it is a swimming day, I am sticking to my normal calorie program.  This week my daily calorie count averages 1850, which means for the week (x7) my total intake is 12,950 calories.  According to the online calculator, I have to eat 2882 calories per day to maintain my current weight, or 20,174 for the week.  The difference is about 7000 calories or two pounds I have possibly lost.  Now, I did swim twice this week (minus 1200 calories total) and take a few walks, but that doesn’t do much to the total, as you can see.

No, the way to losing weight is mostly about eating less.  My concern is how to do that consistently so that I am losing weight every week.  By paying attention and carefully planning meals, one can absolutely eat less food and not be hungry between meals.  The careful planning includes finding out what foods are rewarding.  For example, the last thing I want to sacrifice for is any kind of diet food.  Those are mostly built around the idea that you are hanging on to the old worldview that says you want to feel full every time you eat.  I have abandoned that idea.  It feel strange to me now.

What am I sacrificing, to get control of my body’s weight?  I am trading time and one possible future.  All this meal planning and paying attention takes a lot of time.  It is time spent well, on improving, refining, and pleasing yourself, but that takes effort and a lot of time.  It has to become like a hobby or a bit of an obsession.  The future I am giving up is just the lowest level of satisfaction – a full stomach.  What I am gaining is a more satisfying way of living.  With it comes the  feeling that I am taking care of myself and meeting my own needs.

What would you give up for that?  I happily gave up gaining weight.  

-The Doctor

20190905 Daily report

My daily task is to make sure I am happy with eating less food.  That is done by figuring out what foods I would really look forward to, enjoy eating, and would stick around in my stomach until the next meal.  The diet advice is to eat protein, but I have found that other things work too – like steel cut oats. Also, sandwiches work well.  I have never taken to the keto type diet, even though people have achieved remarkable success doing it.  There is no way around it: even keto people have to count calories and watch how much they eat.  On top of that, they can’t eat very many carbohydrates: ice cream, chocolate, homemade cookies, pie, bread, rice, etc.  It’s hard enough eating less food without also giving up foods I really like and appreciate!

cauliflower curry - the secret is in the sauce

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – tortilla chips (200) and salsa (basically 0); pretzels and cheese (200)

  • 400 calories

Lunch – 2x bratwurst wraps (315)

  • 630 calories 

Dinner – coconut cauliflower curry (360); 7.5 ounces cooked rice (240)

  • 600 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80)

  • 80 calories

Total for the day: 1670 calories (limit 1800)

Hedonistic dieting

The weight control system seems contradictory because you are simultaneously going without and seeking to maximize your pleasure and fulfillment.  First you must honestly analyze how you see food and eating.  My insight was that the goal of my former eating behavior was to feel full.  If your eating goal is to be full, then dieting is 100% against your goal.  Every moment of dieting would be stressful.  You are not full, and you never will be, while dieting.  Your willpower is never active ALL the time, and you will eventually give in as your resentment builds.  Yes, part of your unconscious mind resents you (the conscious part of your will) going on a diet!  So you are fighting against yourself in multiple levels the whole time.  Is it any wonder dieting is so hard?  Of course we all fail.  It’s against the way we see the world.  

Being full, I believe, is a cheap and easy way to satisfy yourself.  What is better?  Layering the feelings of contentment and satisfaction is better.  

  1. Anticipate what you are going to eat – plan it, be looking forward to it.
  2. Prepare yourself.  That means you will need to be hungry at mealtime.  Don’t wreck your hungry feeling by overeating at the last meal, or snacking, or having appetizers.  
  3. Eat the meal, exactly when you are hungry for it. Enjoy the sensation of eating the first few bites – they are the best.  (It is possible to wait too long and get TOO hungry.  Then all bets are off and it is hard to control your eating then.)
  4. Take a moment to enjoy how you feel.  You won’t want to eat another helping – it wouldn’t taste as good.  It would ruin the moment.  

This sequence has worked well for me – for the last 73 pounds, anyway.  It makes you very happy and satisfied to enjoy life this way.  It feels weird now to eat without measuring, or to get close to being full.  The goal of my eating has changed.  My goal, following from those four steps, is to maximally enjoy the sensory pleasure of eating, and layer it with a higher sense of anticipation and fulfillment.  In other words, refine my tastes and improve my quality of life.  And I get thin as well, as thin as I want to be, anyway.  

It is almost impossible to make this change and then go back to the old way.  It’s just too exciting and rewarding.  The old way, the old goal, seems wrong.  The weight control lifestyle reinforces itself this way.  I can have a bad day, but then it is easy to have a good day afterwards.   

Which sounds better? 

  • “I had a good food day.  I completely filled myself.”
  • “I had a good day.  I really enjoyed what I ate.”

Think about it.

-The Doctor

20190904 Daily report

The decision to live a weight control lifestyle is mostly a mental revolution.  Your body is a lagging indicator that catches up slowly to your mind.  I have been living out the consequences of my revolution since January and I am still not finished.  I will never finish.  Weight control is a life long endeavor.  Your body requires fewer calories as it gets thinner, as it ages, as the amount of exercise you take changes.  Controlling your weight has to be a lifetime commitment because the parameters are changing all the time.  You have to really pay attention to how much you are eating – so measure how much you are eating.  

Wednesday, my favorite lunch day

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – 1/8 apple pie (450)

  • 450 calories

Lunch – Big Greek Cafe Famous $5 Gyro Wednesdays (600)

  • 600 calories 

Dinner – 1.5x Italian sausage (245); noodles (150); goat cheese (50); sauteed peppers and onions (25); 

  • 600 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); pretels and hummus before lunch (80); beef jerky (50)

  • 210 calories

Total for the day: 1860 calories (limit 1800)

The sequence

I look forward to Wednesday all week.  The sequence I have found successful is to first decide what I’m going to be eating, based on what I really enjoy.  Then I prepare for eating it.  The preparation is sometimes as simple as to make sure I am good and hungry just before eating.  It is well known that food tastes better when you are hungry.  So you can’t overeat at the previous meal, or snack before the favorite meal.  It ruins the experience!

In other words, you are sacrificing a possible future.  In that possible future, you eat as much as you like, whenever you like.  The price you pay is to get overweight, more and more.  The reward is the pleasurable experience of feeling full and comforted.  

In exchange, you are substituting a higher quality experience and thus a more rewarding future.  In that future, you position yourself (by getting hungry) to maximally enjoy your favorite food (say, a gyro sandwich from Big Greek Cafe).  Then, you carefully don’t have a second sandwich, no matter how good the first one was.  The second sandwich won’t be as tasty or fulfilling because you’re not hungry for it any more.  

The price you pay for this second future is that you have to spend your precious time and attention on all this.  The reward is that you control your body’s weight, and you refine your tastes, discover your preferences, and get a more fulfilling and maximally pleasurable experience.  See how that is a deeper and more meaningful reward?

Done right, living like I have described is satisfying and rewarding.  Much more so than the other future, where you just eat until completely full.  That seems like a cheap and empty (haha) pleasure now that I have learned a better way.  But it does take an effort and a mental revolution.  I spend a lot of time now thinking about food and eating that I used to spend on other things.  It’s a price.  I will continue to pay it so long as I value controlling my weight.  What do you put first?  How do you spend your time?  Is it worth it?

-The Doctor

20190903 Daily report

Every day, since January 2019, I have been keeping a food journal and carefully regulating how much I eat.  Before then, I paid hardly any attention to how much I ate.  My gauge was fullness, and you can never be full for very long.  Result: a slow climb into overweight.  It was slow.  I don’t know exactly the pace, since I wasn’t paying attention or recording my body’s weight regularly, but I got up to 325 pounds.  

Then, I allowed a revolution to occur in my mind.  I began thinking like a person who was in control of his weight, and put that first in my life.  Or, very nearly first.  Top three.  Since then, my body has been catching up to my mind.  The revolution has already happened.  I won.  Unfortunately, nothing stands still.  Paying attention will take the rest of my life.  And I still have pounds to go.  

Mine, all mine! Baby back ribs.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – 1/8 apple pie (450)

  • 450 calories

Lunch – Italian sausage (300); 4 oz. cooked noodles (200); roasted peppers and onions (25); goat cheese (50)

  • 575 calories 

Dinner – 4oz chicken strips and hummus  (200); 4x baby back ribs (90); pretzels (100); Snickers ice cream bar (180)

  • 835 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); beef jerky between lunch and dinner (200)

  • 280 calories

Total for the day: 2085 calories (limit 1800 + 500 bonus from swimming, total 2300)

Right where I want it

I was very, very hungry today for everything I ate.  That made it satisfying but wow, every meal was early.  Being hungry for meals is a good sign.  It means I am operating right at the place where the calorie deficit is spread out over the day.  I am hungry when it is time to eat but not too hungry.  If I let myself get too hungry I tend to lose control and go into a food panic.  Part of my mind insists it is starving and I find myself eating too much.  That part of me doesn’t listen well to the rest of me.  But being hungry means I am operating in calorie deficit and that is excellent for losing weight.  

How do you count the calories in a pie?  I can tell you how I do it.  

Crust: 12 ounces of flour (1200 calories); 16 tablespoons of butter (1600 calories); 3T sour cream (90 calories).

Filling: 3# apples (650 calories); 1/2 Cup sugar (500 calories).  In this case I totally forgot to add the sugar, but normally I would.  For flavor, you can also add a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar.

The other ingredients don’t materially affect calories: cinnamon, 2 tablespoons of flour, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice.  Once made, the whole thing is baked at 425 for 30 minutes, then at 350 for a further 30-45 minutes, until the whole thing is full of bubbling juices and the apples are tender.  

Adding all that up, an apple pie is about 3940 calories and a 1/8 serving is nearly 500 calories.  In this case, since I forgot the sugar (!!!) the total is 450 calories per slice.  I am sprinkling a little sugar on a slice when I eat it, but it amounts to about a teaspoon.  How does it taste without sugar?  Like it needs sugar!   I mean, the balance is off, the pie is a bit dry (sugar counts as a liquid ingredient in baking), and the flavor is a bit tart – thanks to the lemon juice, and a bit dull, lacking the sweetness of the sugar.  I did use sweet apples (Gala) so it’s not as bad as it could be.  Maybe I will have to make another pie for my next reward!  Only I will remember to add all the ingredients next time.  (My father suggested adding maple syrup to the pie as a sweetener, I am not sure about that.  He also suggested ice cream.  Great idea!)

Tomorrow for breakfast: apple pie!  The anticipation is pulling me forward into tomorrow.  Are you looking forward to tomorrow?  What would it take?

-The Doctor

20190902 Daily report

The daily report is a chance for me to concentrate on my new lifestyle: weight control, lived one day at a time.  Some might say, one meal at a time.  Every day, I concentrate on living out the consequences of my transformation.  I became someone who cares about controlling his body’s weight, and decided I wouldn’t let anything get in the way.  Is that an uncompromising attitude?  Yes, it is.  I decided that was what was needed.  My goal is not a particular weight, it is control  – for the rest of my life.  My body is slowly catching up to the realities of my new life and new understanding of the world.  

Does that mean I eat only diet foods?  Never.

Make the pie. Eat the pie! In measured pieces.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – 2x bratwurst (280) on quarter wraps (27)

  • 330 calories

Lunch – skipped (00)

  • 0 calories 

Dinner – 2x Armand’s pizza (230); grilled hamburger (230); bun (140); cookie (50); noodle salad (75)

  • 955 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); beef jerky (100)

  • 180 calories

Total for the day: 1765 calories (limit 1800)

Tomorrow, pie for breakfast

The way I am able to keep myself going in my lifestyle is a constant paying attention to myself.   I learn how to reward myself for doing a good job and let myself anticipate a reward.  That pulls me forward into good choices.  I baked a pie today.   I don’t usually do that, but tomorrow is the first day of school and my grandmother and mother always baked us an apple pie for the first day of school.  I intend to keep that tradition going.  Looking at my picture, I can see it will take a few more years of practice, though.  My fluting on the pie edges always collapses like that.  Worse, this time I forgot to add any sugar to the apples before baking, so this might be a bland pie.  No worries – I will sprinkle some sugar on the cut pieces tomorrow.  Each slice is 450 calories (8 slices per pie), and would have been 500 calories per slice if I had remembered sugar.  Is that an upside?  

I have all the foods cooked and in my refrigerator that I will need this week to keep myself happy and satisfied while in calorie deficit.  This is a short week (Labor Day Monday) too.  This is how I prepare to live out a weight control lifestyle: weekend cooking, shopping, planning, and preparing for the meals I will eat.  In my case, they are meals I will be really be anticipating.  They will be a reward for keeping up the good work, and also an inducement to stay on my path.  

One of my central insights is the power of hunger, at the right time.  Food eaten while hungry, especially if you have been anticipating it all day, is tremendously satisfying.  I want to be hungry for my favorite food so I can enjoy it properly.  That means I won’t snack or overeat earlier.  A big problem for me was eating after dinner.  Now I don’t usually do that, because it might spoil breakfast.  And I am having pie for breakfast.  

How are you preparing?  What are you looking forward to tomorrow?  Think about that.

-The Doctor

20190901 Daily report

The daily report is all about my daily commitment to a weight loss lifestyle.  I’ve constructed the lifestyle carefully so I enjoy it.  That’s so that it doesn’t take a lot of willpower to keep it going – it provides its own motivation.  That works through the power of paying attention.  I pay attention to what would keep me satisfied and happy, while eating less, and try to do it.  For some reason, that works.  I think of it as an ongoing negotiation between myself….and another part of myself.   

Paying attention means eating well

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – skipped (00)

  • 0 calories

Lunch – rice (200); Italian hot sausage (245)

  • 445 calories 

Dinner – 8 ounces chili (320); 1 ounce chips (120); 2T sour cream (60); Snickers ice cream bar (180); candy (250)

  • 930 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); pretzels and cheese (200)

  • 280 calories

Total for the day: 1655 calories (limit 1800)

Eating patterns

Usually I stick to three meals: breakfast 8-9AM, lunch 11.30 and dinner 5.30.   If I plan them all out ahead of time and have the foods I want to eat ready to go, that keeps me satisfied between meals.  Through experience, I have found I can’t be late for those times – I will overeat if that happens. 

I am teaching myself to think like a person who can stay thin.  That means I pay attention to how much I have been eating.  Thin people stay thin because they work hard at it.  They keep track of how much they eat and they keep track of how their bodies are responding by weighing themselves.  I am discovering that, for people who stay thin, how food tastes is less important than for those of us who are overweight.  They still notice if the food is tasty – but it’s not necessarily what they look for in a food.  I have met several thin (older) people who eat rather bland and monotonous diets – but wow, do they stay thin into old age.  

It seems like – at this point – the bland & monotonous approach works well for someone who doesn’t want to spend a lot of time, effort, money, and attention on food.  What I am doing does take a lot of time and effort.  I made chili today – it took 3 hours from preparation through cooking.  Tomorrow, I am making an apple pie.  That will take a while too.  I am also planning to make an Indian cauliflower dish this week.   There will be the last of this year’s grilling – my community grill shuts down after Labor Day.  And that’s just this week!  Not to mention all the incidental meals I will prepare.  Someone who is having the same thing every day has a much easier job.  At this point in my life, the effort is worth it.  

-The Doctor

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