Daily tracking

20200817 Daily report: now with BLE

…also known as Big Lunch Edition!  Normally I have three meals relatively balanced in calories.  I find that usually keeps me going.  But today, I had a very late breakfast and small.  Then I was really hungry for lunch.  There’s nothing like getting really hungry.  Not so hungry that you are suffering over it, but hungry enough that it is a physical need.  When you are controlling your body’s weight using a portion control strategy, it’s very important to keep in mind why you are eating.  Your own psychology of eating.  It’s easy to fall into a trap where you are eating for reasons other than physical need.  Then, your weight will go up.  Especially if you are not paying attention.  

Weight control doesn't have to mean taste control!

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – leftover beef and broccoli stir-fry with rice (200)

  • 200 calories

Lunch – Bratwurst (260); 1/4 Lavash wrap (30); bagel (330); hummus (100);

  • 720 calories 

Dinner – 120g Tortellini (300) Italian sausage (240) Brussels sprouts (25);

  • 565 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); 

  • 80 calories

Total for the day: 1565 calories (limit 1700)

Running-around calories

I’m amazed how sedentary I have been for several weeks.  It feels like I haven’t even driven anywhere.  And I haven’t!  It’s starting to feel more and more like I need to eat less and less to lose any weight.  Well, I can take some time to walk tomorrow.  

It all comes from paying attention.  The Doctor is a routine-izer.  For a long while, about a year, I developed and stuck to a routine where I was losing up to 2 pounds a week.  Then, I had a long plateau of 6 months where I didn’t lose any weight, and also I didn’t try very hard to lose more.  Suddenly in July, like throwing a switch, I decided to lose weight again.  But amazingly, it came a lot harder than I remembered in 2019.  Doing the same things didn’t result in much weight loss.  I blame this partly on the lack of exercise (swimming) and general lack of running around outside.  Since I was paying attention, I learned pretty quickly from the scale and my calorie count that my old routine wasn’t going to work as well.  Either I would lose up to a pound a week, or I could try something else.  

You can see how frustrating a diet can be.  You think you are doing all the right things that worked before, and suddenly they stop working.  No wonder people get frustrated and quit!  Especially if they are forcing themselves to lose weight.  Much better, don’t you think, to set up your life so that weight loss is a side effect of a life you like to be part of.  

How could you set up your life that way?

-The Doctor

20200816 Daily report with exercise

Today was a good day for food, diet, and eating.  A good day is when you maintain your weight control lifestyle.  I have found two ways to make the lifestyle work so far!  The first is paying it a lot of attention.  It becomes a hobby and the most important thing you do all day.  That works, but the danger is that everything else in your life becomes less important.  The second way is to pick another obsession – like career – but still maintain weight control by staying minimally on top of it.  I can do that because I have developed some good habits in the last year.  Picking foods I like, measuring portions, writing down calories in a food journal, and learning the importance of at least some exercise!

I can't get enough of this!

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – leftover pizza (500)

  • 500 calories

Lunch – 2x Italian sausages (240); peach (40)

  • 520 calories 

Dinner – 5oz cooked rice (160); beef and broccoli stir-fry (315)

  • 475 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80);

  • 80 calories

Total for the day: 1575 calories (limit 1700)

When sedentary is up!

My current lifestyle is heavy on remote work .  That means a lot of sitting in front of the computer and I am the most sedentary I have ever been.  That is not working very well with a steady and disciplined approach to weight control, and I am seeing progress but in small spurts.  It’s still progress.

Walking is now my major exercise.  I walk 3 miles at a time hopefully 3x per week.  I have discovered I like a certain amount of exercise and I miss swimming and all the running around I used to do pre-Corona virus.  But that was then and this is now.  We can find ways to cope!

It’s more important than ever to find out what thin people are doing – I mean, people who have stayed thin over the years.  It does take constant discipline and vigilance.  But if you set up your lifestyle and incentives the right way, it will result in a life you like to be living.  

Let’s talk about that lifestyle and incentives some more this week.

-The Doctor

20200814 Daily report quickly

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Caption

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – xxx (00)

  • 00 calories

Lunch – yyy (00); zzz (00)

  • 00 calories 

Dinner – bbb (00); ccc (00)

  • 00 calories

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

  • 80 calories

Total for the day: 000 calories (limit 1800 + 500 bonus from swimming, total 2300)

Add Your Heading Text Here

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I won’t talk fast, but I don’t have time to say a lot today.  It’s already 10.30 and I do not think staying up late helps people who are trying to control their weight.  There’s some connection between eating and staying awake that I don’t need!  And I had such a nice dinner, too.

I did not eat the whole pizza! Just about a quarter, though.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – Bagel (330); salami (140); cheese (70);

  • 540 calories

Lunch – Lasagna (300)

  • 300 calories 

Dinner – Pizza (700); 

  • 700 calories

Snacking – Snickers ice cream bar (180)

  • 180 calories

Total for the day: 1720 calories (limit 1700)

Don't worry about tomorrow until tomorrow

It’s one thing to know that tomorrow is my weigh-in, and it’s another to speculate and worry about it.  The week’s work is done and I have eaten everything I am going to eat until I get on the scale tomorrow morning.  I am just thinking about the week that has gone by.  I have been very busy and I have kept my focus on eating just enough food, most of the time.  That’s good and fulfilling in its own way.  Now, I will go to bed and let my body do its work.  There is a whole new week starting, a week that I can try to make the best of.   

See you next week!  

-The Doctor

20200813 Daily report – slipping or skipping

I didn’t post yesterday!  I am skipping days.  Or maybe I am slipping – no longer able to post due to lack of nourishment!  My calorie total yesterday was 1535, so that’s not a lot.  But considering how sedentary I have been the last few weeks, it may be just right.  

I had a Russian friend once, and she was ferocious.  I told her I was thinking of going on a diet (this in my 20s when I was just a bit overweight).  Two years later, she wrote me an email asking if I could still cast a shadow.  Ouch!  Abraham Lincoln once described an argument that had gotten so thin it was like soup made from the shadow of a pigeon which had starved to death.  It was that kind of a situation. Obviously I could still cast a shadow.  Two shadows, in the years to come.

Caption

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – Beef and broccoli with rice (200)

  • 200 calories

Lunch – 2 pieces Spanish tortilla (333); Lavash wrap half (60)

  • 400 calories 

Dinner – Lasagna (500); salad (30)

  • 530 calories

Snacking – Pretzels (200); Cheddar cheese (100); Snickers ice cream bar (180);

  • 480 calories

Total for the day: 1610 calories (limit 1700)

Guesstimating the portions

I didn’t make the lasagna and didn’t measure the serving.  I am guessing 500 calories but don’t know for sure.  It felt like that.  

Normally I like a bit more control in my food portions (OK, I am a bit extreme about it) but my priority recently has been work.  One thing that has had to give is food preparation.  So I am just rolling with it.

It’s been interesting to devote the last year and a half to losing 100 pounds and I want that to go further.  But maybe it’s time to change my focus a bit. I have been blogging for a while now about making a transition from losing weight to maintaining a weight and I will be thinking a lot more about that, even though I still have a way to go.  A weigh to go, haha.  My original goal was to lose 120 pounds, ending at 205.  Probably I will end up going for a lower number even than that.  But for now, 205 is still a good goal – I haven’t gotten there yet.  I am at 225.  

It’s hard to believe, isn’t it?  I used to weigh 325 pounds and have weighed around 300 for maybe 10 years.  Now I weight a good bit less.  I am a different person now and that person won’t gain back the weight.  I am aware that the old me is still in there somewhere and he has had a lot of practice being in charge.  I will always have to make sure my new life is attractive and that I will have to do some work.

What have you learned?

-The Doctor

20200811 Daily report and darkwalk

My wisdom will be extra pithy today.  I don’t have a lot of time!  I haven’t been walking in several days, but I took a darkwalk tonight – started just before dusk and it was full dark by the time I got back from the three miles.  Exercise seems important and worth sacrificing for.  Good food, likewise.

Colorful Spanish tortilla

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – Bagel (330); salami (100); 80g ham (130);

  • 560 calories

Lunch – chicken enchilada (300); watermelon (25);

  • 325 calories 

Dinner – Spanish tortilla (500); mayonnaise (50); watermelon (25);

  • 575 calories

Snacking – pretzels (100);

  • 100 calories

Total for the day: 1560 calories (limit 1700)

...and I fell fast asleep

It’s good to work hard, then you are tired afterwards. And hungry.  Physical labor is better for hunger than mental labor, that’s well known.  While keeping busy keeps your mind on non food things, another essential is getting enough sleep.  People don’t always think about that.  Without enough sleep your ability to keep your mind on the job and stay away from the kitchen will be severely compromised.  

Tomorrow I have another busy day.  That means sleep, bed for me!  Sleep well, everyone.  Dream of a life you want to live, where your weight is under control.  But it’s not just weight, is it?  It’s being in control of your life.

-The Doctor

20200810 Daily report: inside edition

By “inside edition” I don’t mean inside my belly!  I mean I was sitting inside all day working.  For all of that, on a day where I got a lot of activity, I had plenty to eat.  

Enchilada time!

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – Bratwurst (260); 1/4 Lavash wrap (30)

  • 290 calories

Lunch – Sandwich with salami (140); cheese (70); and bun (170); chicken soup (30) with 2oz noodles (100);

  • 510 calories 

Dinner – 2x chicken enchiladas (300); sour cream (60)

  • 360 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); blueberries (50); crustless fruit pie (150); coffee cake (150);

  • 430 calories

Total for the day: 1890 calories (limit 1700)

Catchup/Ketchup

It had to happen, right?  I have been very calorie restricted for weeks and I was starting to feel it.  So I had a day with nearly 1900 calories!  Last year that would have been a routine day.  Now my past is catching up with me.  

I don’t see this as a setback.  1890 is not extravagant and I won’t gain weight that way.  But it does feel unusual, being full. 

Counting calories has worked for me.  But now I know my body needs exercise too, or weight loss will be slow.  I didn’t get to walk today, but I will tomorrow.  

Weight control is a long term game.  Today someone was talking about the TV show Biggest Loser, where people lose all kinds of weight.  It’s no surprise to me that many of them gain it back, though.  The weight control is outsourced to coaches and aides who tell the person what to do and how much of what to eat, and have them exercise.  When the coaches go home, the person who gained all that weight is still there, unchanged.  The relationship with food and the reson for eating are unexamined and still the same as before.  That person will almost certainly gain the weight back, and feel bad about it too.

Don’t be in that position.  Change your mind and learn to think like a thin person.  It’s possible to do that and still enjoy your life.  It does take some thinking, and some changing, though.

Change your mind first.

-The Doctor

20200807 Daily report

Yesterday, someone asked me what my system I was using to control my weight.  Well, I am not using any famous (yet) system, like low carb, keto, paleo, South Beach, Atkins, low fat, or seefood.  (Seefood, you know: you see food, and then you eat it.)  What others?  Weight watchers and Jenny Craig are popular too.  Those are probably closest to my system in because they involve calorie counting and portion control.  But for me the essential part isn’t the mechanism, it’s getting your mind right.  If you get your mind right, then your body follows.

Mark Twain had a system that he liked to call starvation.  In his day people complained they had no appetite and he advised starving yourself until you were good and hungry for dinner.  I’ve used that one a lot on my weight control system.  

Good and hungry for nachos and chips!

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – Last of the veal cannelloni (200)

  • 200 calories

Lunch – 7oz pulled pork (340); Ole wrap (60);

  • 400 calories 

Dinner – 10oz nachos (450); 1.5oz chips (200); sour cream (60);

  • 710 calories

Snacking – Snickers ice cream bar (180); 

  • 180 calories

Total for the day: 1490 calories (limit 1700)

It's been a lean week

By keeping my mind on work and away from food – which has taken a lot of concentration – I have not felt hungry enough to eat as much as usual.  That’s part of getting your mind right.  But it starts with something else.

It starts with figuring out what is your reason for eating.  Are you eating in order to feel different emotionally?  Boredom, tiredness, frustration – those are not the right reasons to eat.  It’s hard to be honest about that.  If you are overweight, first look to your reason for eating.  Maybe you are avoiding problems in your life.  Maybe you are using food for comfort.  That’s a terrible trap.  Then every time you try to eat less, it’s like you are withholding comfort and happiness from yourself….but not in a healthy way.  By eating food.   

You must learn to reconnect to simple physical reasons for eating.  You should be eating because you are hungry and that hunger is starting to dominate your thoughts and keep you from doing your work.  As Twain wrote, there’s nothing wrong with regularity in your meals as long as your appetite is calling the shots.  OK, maybe he said it using different words.  Look up his short story “At the Appetite-Cure.”

Another part of getting your mind right early on is to relearn the truth: that hunger is a good thing you can use to your benefit.  I never enjoy a meal so much as when I am very hungry for it.  Twain said your stomach should call with a shout!  So you can get to a place where you are not punishing yourself by withholding food, but rewarding yourself for getting properly hungry.  Then you can learn to be careful about not eating too much, so you are hungry for the next meal.  See how that works?

Let’s see if it worked for me, tomorrow.

-The Doctor

20200806 Daily Report double quick time!

11PM and where did the time go!  I was so busy today and I didn’t prepare a lot of the food I ate so there was a little guessing involved in counting the calories!  I will have to do calculations later.  I had veal cannelloni for lunch and dinner because they were so good – sheets of pasta stuffed with veal, spinach, and ricotta, and covered with bechamel and cheese.  Yes, I did have one little, little piece of fudge that came with a tremendous price tag!  Did you know that 36g of fudge is about 150 calories?  Now you know.  That’s just over an ounce.  

Canneloni! I should have cut it open first for a better view of the layers.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – Costco pizza half slice (380)

  • 380 calories

Lunch – 2x Canneloni (200); baguette piece (50); 36g peanut butter fudge (150);

  • 600 calories 

Dinner – Canneloni (200); 5oz pulled pork (250); broccoli (25);

  • 475 calories

Snacking – None today

  • 0 calories

Total for the day: 1455 calories (limit 1700)

No time today for chitchat

I did walk today – just a mile or so.  Every little bit helps.  I am pretty sure I am going to have a negative experience on Saturday when I weigh in.  Negative is good in this case, I am saying I will weigh less than last week!  I don’t want a positive experience on my scale.

Tomorrow I will calculate how many calories were actually in those Cannelloni.  It will still be a bit of a guess, though.  Keep busy!

-The Doctor

20200805 Daily Report and not much else

When you are trying to lose weight you can lose balance quickly.  A few days ago I was amazed at how busy I was and how little time I had to think about food, and really how little I needed to. Then, on Monday, I accidentally skipped lunch.  That’s unusual.  I can set the clock by my interest in lunch at 11.30.  Anyway, I just ate dinner that day.   Instead of my typical 1500-1700 calories, Monday I had….1030.  I didn’t think much about it then, but ever since Monday I have been feeling extra hungry.  Not all the time, I’m not gnawing on the table or anything.  But near mealtimes I am definitely noticing it now.  And my meals have to be bigger than usual.  Mind over matter only takes me so far.

I had to make myself stop after 2!

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – 4oz meatloaf (320); Ole wrap (60); mayo (50); 

  • 430 calories

Lunch – bagel (330); salami (140); olives (20);

  • 490 calories 

Dinner – Costco cheese pizza (760); 

  • 760 calories

Snacking – Nada

  • 0 calories

Total for the day: 1680 calories (limit 1700)

I am thinking about it right now!

A third slice, I mean.  I didn’t starve today, but my body is thinking about that missed meal.  The danger is, that part of me will get resentful about that lost meal and start complaining: why are you punishing me?  I don’t mean to.  But there is a temptation for me to see it that way.  Then the discipline will break down and I might have a bad diet day.  

The principle is: every day is a new day.  If you overate yesterday, don’t try to fix yesterday by eating less today.  The other side is, if you under-ate yesterday, don’t overeat today to make up for it either.  That principle is being tested right now.  I may have to spend a little time thinking of a reward for myself – this has been a tough couple of weeks.  For one thing, I have not lost any weight from December 2019-June 2020.  Now I am losing again, and that has to be rewarded.  I started doing more exercise (walking) and that has changed things too.  When I get under 230 pounds (milestone!!!) I will have to be very good to myself.  Oh yes – Olive Garden it is!  

Time for bed.  If you don’t get enough sleep you will never have the time or energy to control your weight and do all your work.  Take care!

-The Doctor

20200804 Daily report, lost day edition

Part of controlling your weight is developing a lifestyle you want to be living.  I have gotten much happier since I started walking (most days) for 3 miles at a time.  I like exercise more than I thought!  At the same time, I have always believed that the food I prepare (and carefully portion) had to be the best and most appealing I could make, or else it wouldn’t be worth waiting for.  But these days I am busy from morning till night and have no time to worry about all that.  I am having food that I like but not always favorites that I have been looking forward to with anticipation.  

OK, dinner tonight was great.  But I didn’t think about what I was going to eat until 6PM.  So I am working on a new idea.  Read on and see.

Vegetable curry. Choose your curry powder well!

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – bagel (330); 3oz ham (130);

  • 460 calories

Lunch – 5oz meatloaf (400); Ole wrap (60); 1.5tsp mayonnaise (50);

  • 510 calories 

Dinner – 5oz rice (160); 12oz vegetable curry (330)

  • 490 calories

Snacking – Fruit of the Forest pie (no crust, 150); 

  • 150 calories

Total for the day: 1610 calories (limit 1700)

It may not mean anything to you yet

The advice to “keep busy” is sometimes given to people who are on diets.  But keeping busy is not always good competition for eating.  I know one woman who kept busy counting her chewings; she had been taught to chew each bite of food 30 times!  She did not have a weight problem and no wonder.  It would take all day to eat breakfast. But there are other ways to keep busy.  I have been very occupied with work and career matters, and have hardly thought about what I want to eat.  Tomorrow will make two weeks without a gryos from Big Greek Cafe, and I have hardly noticed.

If you can find part of your life and responsibilities to throw yourself into and dedicate yourself to them, you will be amazed how the focus comes off when and what you will eat.  

Short writing tonight – busy days here.  Keep striving!

-The Doctor

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