Daily tracking

20200802 Daily report, cool edition

As much as I have been enjoying the heat resistance that comes with being a bit thinner, it is always nice when the hot summer weather breaks.  Today was that day.

To control your body’s weight, weight control itself has to be one of your top priorities.  You should be a bit obsessed!  Whatever diet experts tell you about not obsessing is a bit wrong, I think.  You aren’t going to lose a lot of weight and keep it off by tinkering around the edges of what you were doing before.  

Gaining weight actually takes effort.  But you don’t think about it.  Let me explain, after dinner.

Didn't wait to take a picture before starting!

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – Large pancake (120); syrup (60);

  • 180 calories

Lunch – homemade pizza slice (300); 5oz chili (175 ); 1/2 oz tortilla chips (80);

  • 555 calories 

Dinner – 5oz Meatloaf (400); potatoes and carrot (100); brussels sprouts (40);

  • 540 calories

Snacking – Fruit of the Forest pie for dessert (250)

  • 250 calories

Total for the day: 1525 calories (limit 1700)

1700 is still new

Formerly I was limiting myself to 1850 calories per day and losing 2 pounds per week.  Then I suddenly got less exercise (thanks Corona Virus) and I was losing less than a pound per week.  I lowered my calorie intake a bit in response.  Meeting that new stricter limit has not been too difficult so far.  I have been concentrating so hard at work that my eating has gotten very connected to my physical hunger.  That is a good thing.  That is, I am only eating when I am really hungry!

But what did I mean when I was talking about how it takes work to gain weight?  Well, it does.  You have to convince yourself to eat more and that takes some effort.  Physically, eating more than you really, really want to does also take some push.  You have to learn to ignore phyiscal hunger and physical satiety – that feeling of having eaten just enough.  It is there, somewhere.  If you pay attention to the next time you eat you will find you aren’t nearly as hungry after the first few bites.  Sometimes, you don’t really need any more after that.  

Learn to pay attention to hunger.  It can be your best friend in ways you didn’t know.

-The Doctor

20200731 Daily report Goodbye July

…and goodbye to another food week.  My food week ends Friday night and a new one dawns with Saturday morning.  It just worked out that way.  I weigh myself every Saturday morning and that makes it a good place to either end or start the week.  Weighing yourself is essential.  I have been too embarrassed to get on the scale after a bad day before.  But sometimes I wonder why.  It’s important to know how much weight you could gain after a bad day.  The more you know about your body, the better for you.  The weight control lifestyle is a knowledge-based one.

Homemade pizza this time

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – baked beans (100) 2x Hawaiian rolls (80); salami (140) Muenster cheese (70);

  • 470 calories

Lunch – 9oz chili (315); 1oz chips (150);

  • 465 calories 

Dinner – pizza (600); ding dong (160);

  • 760 calories

Snacking – chips and guacamole (150); 

  • 150 calories

Total for the day: 1845 calories (limit 1700)

The dark side

I am fond of saying that every day is a new day.  That means if I have a bad day and overeat, I can’t then eat less tomorrow to balance it out.  I treat today like a new day and stick to the calorie limit for that day.  Unfortunately that has a dark side.  On days when I significantly undereat, I can’t carry that forward to the new day and eat more.  It doesn’t seem to work, in any case.  This week I have been trying to restrict my calorie intake and that’s been going well since I am keeping my mind on work all day.  But there have been a few really lean days in there.  My calorie average for this week is just about 1600 calories per day.   That is a new low for me.  

I also started doing some daily exercise.  Yesterday and today I took long walks and earlier in the week I took some short ones.  I plan to continue the long walks for now.  Maybe that will help me with my problem!  I have been having a slowdown in my rate of weight loss from last year, when I was losing up to 2 pounds per week.  But with the pool closed this summer my exercise has slowed down just like my weight loss.  Maybe there is more of a connection that I liked to admit.  Anyway, I have a good feeling about tomorrow’s weighing.  It’s been a good week, with the calorie reduction and the walking.

The first principle of weight control is to make sure it’s a lifestyle you want to be in.  Promote weight control up your list of values until it is right at the top and push everything else down.  What would you give up for being thinner?  I had to give up my old self and his set of values.  They didn’t suit me any more.  I had to create a new set of values both to become thinner, and also so that my old body wouldn’t come back later.  I’m not going through all this again.

-The Doctor

20200730 Daily report – rain time

Now comes the rain!  Things have been dramatically hot for weeks and now it breaks.  Hopefully the hottest part of summer is over.  It’s done wonders for my appetite though.  I am currently working through the idea that I should only eat when I am physically hungry.  Part of weight control is to reconnect that link to physical hunger.  Many people who are gaining weight have learned to link the good feeling that comes from eating to emotional needs.  That is no good.  Find an appropriate outlet for your emotional needs.  Find the right outlet for your physical needs too.  

Well, I did have 10 ounces of chili for dinner.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – 2 plums (30); mac and cheese (200);

  • 260 calories

Lunch – bratwurst (260); half Ole wrap (30); baked beans (130);

  • 420 calories 

Dinner – 10oz chili (350); 3oz guacamole (135); 1.2oz chips (170)

  • 655 calories

Snacking – none yet (0);

  • 0 calories

Total for the day: 1335 calories (limit 1700)

Walkies

I walked three miles today, more or less, quite hilly too.  It was a humid day, quite overcast, but I enjoyed it.  It was nice to see what people have been doing with their houses.  There’s so much remodeling going on right now!  

I have been trying to walk more now that I don’t have access to a pool.  Yes, I haven’t had access to the pool since March and haven’t done much about it.  But it’s not too late.  I feel like there is something to the idea that even a little exercise is better than none, so I will walk a little every day.  Maybe it will take me out of my weight loss rut – one pound per week!  That’s not good enough considering the effort I put into controlling my body’s weight.  This also means that after I reach a weight I like, I should keep walking or swimming, if I can.  This Corona virus stuff is getting annoying.  

The first six months of 2020 have been quite a pause in my weight loss, and in blogging.  I’m not sure what suddenly changed for me about a month ago, but I started maintaining my calorie count better and lost some more weight – slowly.  But now I feel enthusiastic about being The Doctor again.  I can’t even blame the pause all on Corona since I stopped losing weight in December and just….paused.    Corona became a thing in March.  

So much of controlling your weight, and staying in charge of your life, happens inside your head.  Don’t neglect it.

-The Doctor

20200729 Daily report with walking

The walking continues!  I worked all day and then had a walk after dinner.  My calorie count continues low, and when I got on the scale this morning (not my usual time, I was just checking something) my weight was a new low.  My guess is that some exercise is better than none.  And this was pretty light exercise.  But it is getting cooler outside and summer food keeps getting better!

Tomato caprese with basil

My food intake and calorie count

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

  • 430 calories

Lunch – small chicken piece (30); bratwurst (260); 1/2 Ole wrap (30);

  • 320 calories 

Dinner – tomato caprese with mozzarella cheese (140); tomato (60); 5oz rice (160); stir-fry vegetables (100); 3.1oz ham (140);

  • 600 calories

Snacking – Nothing yet, likely ice cream and chocolate syrup for 240.

  • 00 calories

Total for the day: 1380 calories, probably 240 more or 1620 total. (limit 1700)

100% of it is 99% mental.

I forget the source of that quote, but I think I know what it means.  I’ve been concentrating on my work projects so hard that eating and fulfillment through food has taken a back seat.  I haven’t cooked anything in days!  My recent meals have all been with family.  It’s been nice to get together, we have all been isolated because of the Corona Virus rules.  But anyway, since my brain has been busy I haven’t had the time to worry about what I am eating, or even if I am hungry.  Be careful there – you have to take care of yourself or you will lose control fast.  

But there is a valuable lesson here: your reason for eating should be as closely connected to your physical needs as possible.  If your reasons for eating include feeling good, or at least better, then you should be very suspicious.  That way lies weight gain.  You will never run out of emotional problems that can be indulged with food.  Solving your problem is harder and challenging but very rewarding.  I will be very, very happy when I start achieving more weight milestones and achievements.  I am looking forward to Saturday’s weighing with enthusiasm  for the first time in a while.  

Here’s to success!  Don’t fall into a rut.  

-The Doctor.

20200728 Daily report – dining outside

OK, I have ruined my experiment!  This week I was going to try eating fewer calories to see if it made up for the lack of exercise.  Well, I had a walk yesterday and two today, so combined with me eating fewer calories it’s muddied the waters a lot.  However my weight goes this weekend, there will be a lot of guessing involved.  Well, the direction won’t be much of a surprise.  My calorie count is far down for some reason, and I am going to walk every day.  

And the weather has changed.  Now it is pleasant to sit outside and have dinner.

It is worth getting hungry because you enjoy dinner so much aftewards.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – 4.5oz ham (200) 1.5 hot dog buns (120)

  • 380 calories

Lunch – bratwurst (280); 1/4 wrap (35)

  • 315 calories 

Dinner – chicken (100); mac and cheese (330); baked beans (80); tomato (25);

  • 535 calories

Snacking – 110g ice cream (220); chocolate syrup (20)

  • 240 calories

Total for the day: 1470 calories (limit 1700)

Eating less food

Scott Adams had a joke about losing weight by eating less food.  While that does describe most of the ugly reality, you can’t force yourself to eat less food unless you have incredible willpower and can sustain that over a long time.  Even then, it’s using force which is can make you feel quite unhappy.  Yesterday and today I had a total of less than 1500 calories per day which is very light for me and I haven’t felt at all deprived.  I wasn’t even trying, because my mind was all focused on work (crunch time there).  

Anyway, I wasn’t forcing myself to eat less food.  I was letting my brain be busy with other things and trusting my stomach to let me know when it was time to eat.  That’s tricky; I have found regular mealtimes are best in the long run.  If you let yourself get too hungry there might be a price to pay later – I have found myself feeling unhappy and resentful in that situation and then watch out: I have had that part of myself take over and eat too much.  You don’t want that.

But even then, it’s just one bad day or one bad week.  You can still have a lot of days and weeks when things go right.  That’s what I mean when I say every day is a new day.  Don’t bring yesterday’s baggage with you into today.  Let it go.

I don’t have incredible willpower.  But I have developed ways around that.  I don’t eat less food!  No, no.  I just try to enjoy life more.  I just enjoy food more when I am hungry for it.  That’s just logical, right?  I can’t get hungry for my next meal if I am still full from the last one.  And after the first portion, food doesn’t taste as nice.  Try it!  Amazingly you can control your weight that way.

-The Doctor

20200727 Daily report sans picture

Yes, it’s a day without pictures.  My camera didn’t break, I just had other things on my mind.  Interestingly, there have been some good comments from reader CPhil about exercise and diet.  I like to read about that because it introduces me to things I don’t know about the relationship between weight loss and exercise.  

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – sausage (250); potatoes (80);

  • 330 calories

Lunch – Italian sweet sausage link (250); 1/4 wrap (35); pretzels (120);

  • 405 calories 

Dinner – 7oz ham (300); baked beans (130); tomato (25); Brussels sprouts, roasted (25);

  • 480 calories

Snacking – 97g ice cream (200);

  • 200 calories

Total for the day: 1415 calories (limit 1750)

Diet and exercise

It’s an old and familiar pairing.  Looking at my own body, there has been a real fall-off in weight loss since I gave up swimming.  Based on reader advice, lowering my calorie intake may not help much.  Plus, my body misses a bit of exercise.  I liked swimming because it works so many systems at once: arms, legs, back, neck, and breathing discipline too.  But some walking won’t hurt anything and it is starting to get cooler outside, finally.  Morning walking, then.  I can probably do that every day.  I’ve been looking for a bike, too.  

Taking care of your body is a long term business.  Once you are doing it, you realize you should be doing it and should have been doing it before!  

Stay with it!

-The Doctor

20200726 Daily report: still hot

It’s still hot, but it was a nice and cool morning.  Yes, cool!  Summer mornings where I live can be unpleasantly warm and humid during the summer.  Luckily my weight loss since last year at this time has come with some heat resistance.  I’ve talked about that before.  But it’s true.  I don’t sweat unless working hard.  Just sitting in the shade when it’s 92 out is bearable.  

Another thing that comes with hot weather is cookouts.  And eating outside can be nice.  

OK, the beans were cooked inside.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – sausage (200); wrap (140); peppers and onions (60)

  • 400 calories

Lunch – 2x bratwurst (260); 1/2 wrap (70)

  • 590 calories 

Dinner – 2x hot dogs (110); 2x buns (120); baked beans (160); potato pieces (40);

  • 660 calories

Snacking – fire-toasted marshmallows (75)

  • 75 calories

Total for the day: 1725 calories (limit 1750)

Yes, it's a new limit

I’m trying something new this week.  Since my weight loss has slowed down and there has been a reduction in my physical exercise regimen, I will trying lowering my daily calorie limit to 1750 for a week to make up for it.  That will be 700 calories less than usual.  My exercise regimen was actually about -1200 calories per week, but we will see what effect this has.  I would like to have a bit more exercise, but thanks to Corona virus closures I can’t go to the pool and it’s pretty hot outside for much else.  The mornings may get cooler and I can do more walking, I guess.  Online the calculator says someone like me would have to walk for 1 hour to burn 380 calories.  I do miss swimming and hope it comes back.  

There now, I have something to look forward to on Saturday.  Will I continue losing just one pound or will it be a bit more?  Always start the week off with a pull – something pulling you ahead, something to look forward to.  It’s part of setting up your life so that you are rewarded and enjoy it.  That makes it worthwhile.

-The Doctor

 

20200724 Daily report and wrap-up

No more week!  My food journal is full and tomorrow I turn to a fresh page.  Every day is a new day, but every week is a new week also.  The formula is well known: if you are in deficit 3500 calories for the week, you will lose a pound of weight. How many people really know what their zero point really is?  Do you know how many calories a week your body needs?  There is a range and it changes all the time.  I used to be able to predict it well: 1850 calories per day, for a week, and I would lose about 2 pounds – maybe a little less.  1850 x 7 = 13,000 calories a week, which means I was in deficit 7000 calories, maybe a little less.  

But it’s not so simple, is it?  Do we really believe that if I ate 13,000 + 7000 calories per week or 2860 per day, I would not gain any weight?  I am not sure I believe that.  The other possibility is that my calorie counting is too strict, which I am also not sure I believe.  Actually it’s also possible that when I overeat I am not counting accurately – but rather under counting.  That one sounds most likely.  

Sausage, noodles, cheese, and tomato bake

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – 10 ounces ziti, sausage, cheese, and tomato bake (390)

  • 390 calories

Lunch – 10z Beef and broccoli (315); 1.5oz rice (50)

  • 365 calories 

Dinner – chicken wrap (90); 7 ounces ziti, sausage, cheese, and tomato bake (280);

  • 370 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); banana (50); pretzels (300); 100g ice cream (250);

  • 680 calories

Total for the day: 1805 calories (limit 1850)

Not any more?

The last several weeks, though my weight has been going in the right direction, it has been slower than I expected.  1 pound per week.  Now, compared to the time I was losing 2 pounds per week, there are some changes.  I am not as active with the Corona virus business shutting everything down.  I haven’t been to exercise or even out and about as much as usual.  My swimming burned about 1200 calories per week, and also people say it raises your metabolism so you are burning more calories at rest.  Is that true?  Well, it’s true that I haven’t been swimming since March.  Or I could be losing less weight due to old age.  As they say, he who is not handsome at 30, rich at 40, or wise at 50 will never be handsome, rich, or wise.  In a way, I am trying to be handsome well after 30, when I should be going for wisdom instead.  

Well, there is no rule against being handsome AND wise.  One of my insights was that I should create the kind of life I want to live, and that does involve weight control.  Is that wise?  Well, it’s what I want.  If it is coming more slowly than before, it is still coming.  If the restrictions are lifted and I can swim again regularly, it will be a good chance to see if my weight loss jumps back to 2 pounds per week.  

Have a good end to your week.  Tomorrow is a new one.  You can make it a good one.

-The Doctor

20200723 Daily report: three squares

As in the three square meals I had today.  I have a concept of “food security” which has been working for me.  I find that if I wait to eat until I am hungry, it makes it more stressful to have to decide what I am going to eat, or to discover I don’t have anything handy that I do want.  Having lunch meat or other shortcut foods around doesn’t seem to work all the time.  Maybe they get boring!  So I make sure I have appealing foods, cooked, portioned, and ready to heat and eat.  It’s like the Doctor’s MREs.  Today I had two such meals and one fresh-cooked dinner, one of my all time favorites: Beef and Broccol stir fry.

Best homemade

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – 10oz slow cooker sausage, ziti, and cheese bake (390);

  • 390 calories

Lunch – 1/2 pounds of pork burger (540); Lavash wrap (60);

  • 600 calories 

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

  • 375 calories

Snacking – 110g ice cream (300); pretzels (50);

  • 350 calories

Total for the day: 1815 calories (limit 1850)

Future imperfect

When I was little, homemade beef and broccoli stir-fry was part of my favorite dinner and I asked for it every year on my birthday.  Of course back then I didn’t think about portions, but I did learn that dinner is best when you are hungry.  I remember my parents introducing the concept of measuring food on a diet they tried sometime back then.  I don’t remember what it was called, but I do recall they had a few weeks with no meat and then one day was “X ounces of meat day” and they could weigh out a certain amount.  I didn’t think about these things when I was developing my own weight control system, but they are in my mind somewhere.  

I tried reading about mindset as it relates to weight control and dieting.  Try a search on mindset and weight loss yourself and see how many results you find.  It’s a lot.  But having read about 10 pages there is a lot of bad advice out there.  Almost all of them talk about avoiding your scale as a technique.  How will you know where you are and in what direction you are going without that?  Others repeat the bad advice that you shouldn’t use food as a reward.  Of course you should definitely use food as a reward!  I’ve lost 90 pounds rewarding myself every meal of every day!  

It’s much more sensible to not use food for emotional reasons and be clear about why you are eating.  Use food as a physical reward and a sensual reward, not as medication to help your feelings.  Every person is a bottomless pit of emotional need (ok maybe that is overstating a bit) and you will eat yourself out of control in no time that way.  And the phrasing!  Don’t use food as a reward means what, use it for punishment?  That’s where my mind goes.  I guess there are people who see food only as fuel and neither reward nor punishment, but I am not sure that’s an ideal many people would seek after.  

Much better to create a world you would like to live in and then live there.  If that world involves meeting your physical need for food with carefully portioned meals that are your favorites….how many people would say no?  There is some work involved since you have to actually prepare and plan ahead a bit to make that happen.  But it is totally worth it.  

-The Doctor

20200722 Daily report with blueberries

It has been a great year overall…..for blueberries.  Fairly terrible for a lot of other things.  But for blueberries, I don’t remember a better year.  They have been cheap and ranged from pretty good to very good.  

Eating the blueberries plain is good.  Putting them in pancakes…..also good.  Making blueberry cobbler, Texas style was very, very good.  I have done all those things this year.  But I haven’t made a pie.  If I can stop eating them long enough to have any left over for pie, I will do that.  It’s been awfully hot for baking, though.  I will hope for a cool day.

I like to focus on creating a world I want to live in.  That means letting out my desires and creativity in cooking and food in general.  The portion has to be controlled, but the kind of food is up to me.  

Not as seasonal as blueberry pie, but worth waiting for

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – burrito bowl with 100g meat (250); 30g cheese (110); 130g refried beans (110); 2T sour cream (60);

  • 530 calories

Lunch – Big Greek Cafe $5 Gyro Wednesday!!!! (600);

  • 600 calories 

Dinner – 13 ounces of ziti, sausage, and cheese slow cooker bake (520);

  • 520 calories

Snacking – blueberries (50)

  • 50 calories

Total for the day: 1700 calories (limit 1850)

It's always up to you

I have been paying more attention to my body.  That isn’t all good.  I am still 34 pounds away from my initial goal – to lose 125 pounds.  (Wow, though, 100 pounds lost may not be far off.)  I am still 50 pounds away from a more final goal of 185 pounds.  Nobody will look at me (unless they know me) and recognize I have lost a lot of weight.  They just see someone who is 35-50 pounds overweight!  Well, as long as I am losing weight I can tell myself that I am thinking like a thin person on the inside.  My body is just the lagging indicator.  And things are going well this week for weight control.  I even have blueberries.

You must always keep in mind that your goal is to build the life you want and live it.  If you don’t then your life is just the things that happen to you.  Being in control of my weight is only part of the life I want for myself.  Right now, it is taking a lot of my runtime, but it is also rewarding.  You can set up your life so that the accomplishments are rewarded.  That’s partly why I focus so hard on rewards.  They are rewards for achievement and they are meant to help create the life I want.  Achieving is better than accepting and should be rewarded.

Encourage yourself with rewards, it’s much better than punishment.  The beatings will continue until morale improves, right?

-The Doctor

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