Daily tracking

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

20190507 Daily report

My goal for eating is to become hungry right at mealtimes.  That actually works, about 80% of the time.  Maybe 90%.  Breakfast is the meal that is trickiest to control.  Sometimes I am really hungry for it when I get up, and sometimes it’s an hour until my stomach wakes up.  And sometimes, strangely, I feel kind of hungry when I go to bed, but when I wake up hours later, I am not hungry at all for an hour.  There’s also the opposite problem, when I get hungry before mealtime.  It happened today – I was really looking forward to lunch at 11.00, though lunchtime is 11.30.  I was able to wait until 11.30 by putting a pizza in the oven at 11 – and then anticipating it.  By 11.30 it was ready to eat, and I was very hungry and full of anticipation.  

Worth waiting for?

My daily food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – Aldi mini apple pie (210); bratwurst wrap (290)

  • 500 calories

Lunch – 3 x Rising crust pizza slices (170)

  • 500 calories

Post swim snack – 1/2 piece homemade Tres Leches cake (300)

  • 300 calories

Dinner – homemade sausage chili and noodles (400).

  • 400 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); french toast (100); beef jerky (90)

  • 270 calories

Total for the day: 1970 calories (limit 1800 + 500 bonus from swimming, total 2300)

Listening to yourself

It’s important to accept the idea that there are different parts of you and they might be trying to tell you things.  If only we were willing to listen.  Last week I wasn’t able to swim on Friday – pool was closed unexpectedly.  I could have swum Monday, and had a wide open schedule.  But I kept finding reasons not to go.  Basically, I tortured myself for a good part of the day trying to make myself go swim.  Some part of me was resisting and resisting, so finally I gave in around 2PM.  Today, it was no problem.  I picked a time and went, and had a nice swim.  

So what was the part of me that was trying to make myself swim Monday?  A psychologist would call it my will.  “I will go swim, I order myself to do it!” 

“Perhaps later,” said some other part of me. 

Well, what was that part of me, saying no?  I haven’t given my hypothetical different parts names.  But it’s a part of me that can veto my will.  (Have you ever tried to force yourself to diet?  And found yourself breaking the diet some time later?  How can that happen?)  The trap there is to fall into the idea that you are weak and don’t have willpower.  But very few people can force themselves to do things they really don’t want to do, not for long.  And then you might get really disappointed in yourself, or angry and frustrated, and lose trust in yourself.  That’s not a fulfilling or meaningful way to live.  We must aim higher.   

The point of my system of weight control is that life is better this way.  It is not better because I am thinner.  Thin people aren’t better people.  Life is better because I am listening to myself and respecting these inner voices.  What are they telling me?  Figuring it out can be quite meaningful and interesting.  You are working to understand yourself.  That is respect for your own being.  I have found a way for every part of my body, mind, and spirit to work together.  It’s amazingly powerful.  

Disappointment, frustration, lack of trust in your own self – the opposite of meaning, fulfillment.  Don’t spend one more minute in that world.  Read my posts on how to start a diet and find more meaning in your life, and love and appreciation for your self.  I wouldn’t be doing this (and couldn’t be successful at it) any other way.  

-The Doctor

20190506 Daily report

I am a person who has been able to lose 49 pounds, at last count.  I didn’t used to be that person.  The man I used to be ate his way to 325 pounds, with no end in sight.  That man didn’t value being thin very highly, and didn’t value weight control hardly at all.  Looking back, this is an important reason why my attempts at dieting failed.  For that person, losing weight was a temporary condition dependent on willpower.  I clearly don’t have the kind of willpower needed to diet.  I have never successfully dieted before.  As for dieting unsuccessfully, I am something of an expert.  

Now, I am a different person.  I have been remade, and weight control is near the top of my list of values.  I have given up on low quality reasons for eating food, and am enjoying my life more than ever before.  

Two of these make for a high quality experience! All five is actually low quality.

My daily food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – 2 x BLT wraps (200)

  • 400 calories

Lunch – 2 x bratwurst wraps (290)

  • 580 calories

Dinner – Homemade vegetable curry and rice (450)

  • 450 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); pretzels (120); Nestle Li’l Drums chocolate ice cream cone (120)

  • 320 calories

Total for the day: 1750 calories (limit 1800)

How the same food can be high and low quality

I have been hitting hard the theme of weight control and its two parts: (1) monitor your weight and (2) regulate your food intake.  But if it were only so easy, everyone would be in control of their weight.  

Above, I mentioned the idea that I was living a better life now, while controlling my weight; than before, when I was eating whatever I felt like.  That’s partly because my food goals went from low quality to high quality.  There’s more fulfillment and satisfaction from a high quality experience, at least if you are starting from a low enough place.  My previous goal when eating was to eat until completely full, even stuffed full.  I convinced myself over many years that being full was an important goal.  I looked forward to it, planned for it.  Losing weight was a real deprivation, since being full was my only souce of satisfaction.

After much consideration, I decided the goal was wrong.  My eating goal now is to be hungry just in time for my next meal – seriously hungry.  That means I can’t overeat at any meal, or else I have two problems.  First problem, I won’t be truly hungry for my next meal.  Second, the food just won’t taste as rewarding.  Food tastes more appealing and is a more rewarding experience if you are hungry for it.  That’s why I am enjoying life more now – I get more sensual satisfaction from eating than I did before, even though I am in calorie deficit!  

The food I eat now is the same as when I was gaining weight, but I look at it differently now.  Now, my goal is to be really hungry for it and I reward myself with that food – but not too much of it.  That’s why I can eat two of the sausages above and still be appropriately hungry at dinner time.  If I eat all five, I won’t be truly hungry later.  An interesting effect of this change I have made to my thinking is that now being full feels a little distasteful now.  That helps keep me on the weight control plan, and is a benefit I hadn’t planned on when I started this.  Hooray!

-The Doctor

20190505 Daily report

I keep a food journal and monitor my food intake every day.  It’s a habit I intend to keep for the rest of my life.  That’s what people do who are in control of their body’s weight.  If they can do it, I can do it.  

A gray and rainy day today, calls for suitable comfort food.  Homemade lentil soup, with a baguette and cheese sandwich.  

My daily food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – Meatball and hummus wraps (500); pizza slice (100)

  • 600 calories

Lunch – Sloppy joe sandwich (360); Jaffa cake (50)

  • 410 calories

Dinner – Pretzels (100); Homemade lentil soup with baguette and cheese (500)

  • 600 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); 33 grams of chocolate (175)

  • 255 calories

Total for the day: 1865 calories (limit 1800)

Over my limit today

Honesty is essential in my food journal.  If I don’t know what I’m eating, I am not in control.  I might start lying to myself, and lose touch with reality.  It’s always a danger.  Usually, I try to keep 50 calories under my limit, just to account for any forgetfulness, willing or unwilling.  Today, I was over my limit.  I find am often tempted to do that after a Saturday weigh-in that has more emotional impact.  This Saturday was a big step for several reasons.  

First, I have never dieted my way below 280 before.  I have never consciously, while on a diet, lost this much weight, ever.  So that’s a milestone.  It also suggests that my system of weight control, and remaking myself into a person capable of losing weight, might work.  Third, I have been a bit ill for the last couple of weeks (intestinal, don’t ask), and I wasn’t sure what my weight would be when I stepped onto the scale Saturday.  All that in combination was an emotional climax.  When that kind of storm comes through, I noticed I often over eat.  Maybe I should think about why that is.  

I have finished my post on how to start a diet (part III).  No more deep thoughts tonight!  I will come back tomorrow full of ideas.  Until then, good night.

-The Doctor

20190503 Daily report

“The pool is closed through Monday for a swim meet.”  That’s what I saw today.  I am lucky I have a safeguard built into my calorie regulation system.  I knew I would be swimming today, I knew I could eat 500 extra calories.  But I didn’t eat them yet, because the rule is I can’t bank those extra calories until I’ve earned them.  I can’t eat 500 extra calories just “because I’m going to swim later.”  Once I have swum, and if I am hungry, I can eat 500 calories more.  Today, unexpectedly, no swimming – but no harm done.  I still get to eat pizza for dinner! 

If you look at the inner 7 pepperonis, you might smile.

My daily food intake and calorie count:

Breakfast – Costco pizza slice (350) 

  • 350 calories

Lunch – 2 x Homemade chicken enchiladas (250)

  • 500 calories

Dinner – 5 x pizza slices (100), pretzels (150)

  • 650 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); 2 x Jaffa cakes (50); Lil Drums ice cream cone (110)

  • 290 calories

Total for the day: 1790 calories (limit 1800)

Every day, I concentrate on regulating my food intake for that day.  My goal is to get hungry just in time for each meal.  Part of the job is to make sure that I have something worth eating once I am hungry, since it’s going to be a small portion.  Then, I take my time and enjoy eating it.  As I eat my food during the day, I enter it into my food journal.  Then, my food intake is under control. 

I was talking to someone yesterday who said it seemed like my system (weight control) was easy for me.  That couldn’t be more wrong.  It’s not easy for me!  I am trying to make it easier for you.  I feel like what I am doing is hard, since I am inventing it as I go along.  Maybe, somewhere, someone else has come up with a similar system, but reading around the internet, I haven’t found it yet.  Some of the techniques and advice is similar (see yesterday’s post), but the underlying thinking and accumulation of self knowledge are areas I haven’t seen explored carefully.  

Thinking is key.  You got to be overweight using your old thinking and habits and life.  You have to be willing to let all that go and adopt some new ideas before you can be in control of your weight.  But you can do it.  You can value things that keep your weight under control and learn to devalue things that keep you from that.  You can find within yourself the strength to do this, if not for yourself, then for all the people that depend on you.  

A support system is also nice.  There are people in my life I don’t share my weight loss achievements with, and don’t discuss my new values and thinking with.  I don’t believe those people would be happy for me or help me.  Better not to involve them.  There are other people in my life who are happy I am getting my weight under control.  I tell them all about it and they tell me I am doing a good job.  

Self knowledge is also important.  If anything helps keep the weight off, it’s knowing all about how to control your intake and the months of experience you will have doing that.  That’s why you can’t make temporary changes and go back to your old life once you have lost some weight.  Your old life made you overweight, and will again.  It has to go.  Your new self knowledge makes you strong and independent and in control.

-The Doctor 

20190502 Daily report

I am having a strange week, food wise.  This morning, I was very hungry.  I thought this was due to my low calorie day yesterday, so I didn’t worry about it.  I had a nice breakfast.  Then I wasn’t hungry for lunch, until an hour late.  Then I was Really hungry!  So I ate almost all the rest of my calories for the day, for lunch.  I wasn’t hungry for dinner, so I thought it all worked out.  Wrong!  By 9PM I was hungry again, and am now way over for today.  If you average yesterday and today, it works out…..

It's amazing how good these are. What is it with Belgian chocolate??

My daily food intake and calorie count:

Breakfast – 6 x pyrohi with butter (75 + butter)  

  • 600 calories

Lunch – Costco pizza slice (350); chicken and hummus wraps (350)

  • 700 calories

Dinner – noodles (75)

  • 75 calories

Snacking – 35 grams of chocolate (175); 3 x chocolate hazelnut coins (55); tea with half and half (80)

  • 425 calories

9PM meal – sloppy joe sandwich (300); pretzels and hummus (100)

  • 400 calories

Total for the day: 2200 calories (limit 1800)

Weight loss review

I’ve been reading some of the many, many websites dedicated to losing weight.  Most interesting to me right now are those which describe ideas from someone who has lost a lot of weight.  I am having fun fitting their ideas into the Doctor of Things weight control framework.  This is so I can see if there are agreements and any contradictions.  Always listen to people who have lost the weight already, right?

The article I am reviewing right now – click here.

This article has weight loss tips from twelve people who lost weight successfully, most of them lost 100+ pounds.  What follows is my summary of the advice they would give to other people.

Sarah – devote a lot of time to weight loss.

David – make sure you have your desired foods and snacks ready to go

Julie – monitor your weight by any method that works

Megan – create new values to live by

Jessica – Focus on today and this week

Olivia – create new values to live by

Kate – create new values to live by (the article wrongly calls this motivation)

Haley – build in small goals (persuade yourself), find a support network

Laura – create new values and aims to live by

John – change your mind and your body will follow

Justine – lead with your powerful spirit

A lot of this sounds familiar to me.  I use the same points in my post on how to start a diet 120 pounds overweight.  None of it is contradicting what I have been doing, which is nice.  The last piece of advice, from Justine, I am not sure how to interpret.  She is quoted as saying that your spirit is powerful and the person in the mirror has all the motivation you need.  I’ll have to think about that one.  The article itself layers its own advice on top of what these guys are saying.  And it’s not the kind of article that has a lot of nuts and bolts.  None of the twelve mentions a food journal.

This article also continues the strange obsession with motivation that I see in all the weight loss literature.  Pretty much every overweight person is motivated to be thin. Trust me, I was very motivated for years.  Motivation was not the problem.  If it was just motivation, I would already be thin.  What  I needed was a whole new way of thinking.

A key difference with the Doctor of Things diet is that I have put a lot of thought into the need to let go of your old life, change your values, listen to your desires, negotiate with yourself, and satisfy yourself, with a goal of controlling your weight.  Your life should improve in its quality and satisfaction.  Losing weight is hard enough, you don’t need to be punishing, depriving, and starving yourself at the same time.  Self knowledge is the key to maintaining control.  

-The Doctor

20190501 Daily report

Every day, I write down what I ate and total calories in my food journal.  My aim is to be in control of my weight.  You can’t control it if you don’t know what’s going on.  The food journal is a lifestyle change, and a high-priority one.  I have committed to doing it for the rest of my life.  I also commit to weighing myself every week.  I am glad I didn’t weight myself today, though.  Yesterday, I had a big meal and followed it up with a lot of cake!  I woke up with no appetite at all.  It took all morning before I was hungry again, and just in time for lunch.  It’s Wednesday, and that means…

I may never get tired of this diet

My daily food intake and calorie count:

Breakfast – tea with half and half.  Not hungry at all.  

  • 80 calories

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

  • 600 calories

Dinner – 2 x Costco pepperoni pizza slices (355).

  • 710 calories

Snacking – none

  • 0 calories

Total for the day: 1390 calories (limit 1800)

Observing thin people eat

Today, I had a great opportunity to watch the behavior of thin people around delicious dessert food.  I brought my leftover, homemade birthday cake to my team at work, thinking they would eat it up quickly (and I wouldn’t get snowed under with all the calories!).  I’ve never really watched thin people’s behavior until recently.  All the people I watched today were thin, some very thin.  Those who ate it agreed the cake was very, very tasty.  I had already pre-cut the cake into 300-calorie pieces.  What I saw (in no particular order): 

  1. Fitness guy (he exercises every day) ate a full piece.  Then he went to the gym, as usual.  
  2. Very thin guy cut a piece in half and ate it quite slowly while talking to the group standing around the cake.
  3. Joker guy ate a full piece, reasonably quickly, while talking to the group standing around the cake.
  4. Beard guy politely refused cake, because he had had cake at home over the weekend.
  5. Cello playing girl hesitated to take any cake.  When I told her how many calories per slice (300), she cut a piece in half and ate that, fairly slowly.  She told everyone else who approached the cake how many calories were in a slice (she was meaning to be helpful – she clearly thought that was important information).  
  6. Egyptian guy took a full piece and ate it slowly at his desk. 
  7. Pregnant girl (quite thin) took a half piece and ate it slowly, while talking to the group standing around the cake.  First she asked if the cake was safe for pregnant women.  (I think she just wanted everyone to know she was pregnant – just passed the first trimester.)  

Two other people refused any cake.  There were three half pieces left at the end of the day.  I gave them to the people at my mechanic’s front office (some car work today).  Back when I was gaining weight and out of control, I would have waited until no one was there, then taken a big piece and eaten it in my office.   I wouldn’t have thought about calories.  What a difference changing your mind makes.  As wonderful as the cake was, since I didn’t think I could freeze pieces and eat it slowly, I couldn’t wait to get rid of it. 

It was very interesting to watch the thin people use social approval as a tool to regulate their cake eating.  Once they were told how many calories in the cake, almost everyone opted for a half slice of 150 calories.  Most of them ate it in front of each other and were slow about it.  There’s a lot to learn, there.

-The Doctor

20190430 Birthday report

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to meeeeeee, happy birrrrrthday to meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, happy birthday to me!

I can reverse these numbers in 9 years!

My daily food intake and calorie count are:

Breakfast – 2 x meatball and hummus wraps (225)

  • 450 calories

Lunch – burrito bowl with meat, cheese, beans, salsa, sour cream, jalapenos

  • 550 calories

Dinner – 2 x homemade chicken enchiladas (300).

  • 600 calories

Dessert – Tres Leches cake (610)

  • 610 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80)

  • 80 calories

Total for the day: 2290 calories (limit 1800 + 500 bonus from swimming, total 2300)

On top of the other excitement (cake!!!), today was a swimming day.  It was a great workout, I felt in good form and my lap times were the best ever.  OK, towards the end of the workout the times dropped off a bit, but it was all acceptable.  So I felt fully justified in eating my entire controlled allowance today.  I hope this means my body is all better, after two whole weeks of intestinal unhappiness.  Or at least I am getting there.  

I had a very nice birthday.  No deep thoughts for today.  I do have some ideas for next time.  I have been hitting hard on the theme that weight control is the only fruitful goal, which comes in two parts: monitor the weight and regulate the food intake.  But I haven’t talked much about another important aspect of keeping on top of your diet: negotiation and persuasion.  It brings up an challenging set of questions:

  • “Who are you, who are you persuading, and who are you negotiating with?”

I will talk about those later.  Some easier questions are: what are you persuading someone to do, and what leverage are you using to negotiate with?  That’s easy, because you are persuading someone to keep their mind on their new values when considering food.  You are persuading someone to pay attention and make sure their old thinking doesn’t come out again.  As for negotiation, you are using carrots, as in the carrot and stick approach.  By careful use of rewards, you are getting everyone in the negotiation pulling together in service of your new goals and aims.  I’ll talk more about who, next time.  Happy birthdays all!  

-The Doctor

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