Long term dieting

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

20190831 Saturday weigh-in

Saturday!  The day when I weigh myself to see whether weight control is happening or is just a figment of my imagination.  All week I have been keeping a food journal and counting calories.  I can truly say that I have no idea what I will weigh.  I never do.  But the calorie counting has been going well.  How did that translate to weight loss this week?

Creeping down, down, down

Success!  I have lost a fraction over two pounds since I last recorded my weight 2 weeks ago.  This means that since I started my new weight control lifestyle in January of 2019, I have lost:

Pounds!!
0

That's 73 less than I used to weigh

…but about 47 more than I want to weigh.  I prefer to look on the positive side.  After all, I have already lost 73, so the next 47 should be easy, right?

Actually, I am finding that it seemed much easier to lose the first half of my excess 120 pounds.  Weight loss was about 3 pounds per week fairly routinely, and I kind of got used to that.  Now it is harder.  Why is that?  Well, part of it is success.  It takes more energy to maintain a body that weighs 325 pounds than it does 251.8 pounds.  So eating the same amount means I probably won’t be losing as much every week.  According to the weight loss calculator on the internet here:

325 pounds – 3337 calories per day to maintain weight

275 pounds – 3026 calories per day to maintain weight

251 pounds – 2876 calories per day to maintain weight

(205 pounds – 2590 calories per day to maintain weight)

For now, my goal weight is 205 pounds.  Then I will assess what to do next.

I have been keeping my calorie intake steady at about 1,850 calories per day, so you can see the problem.  In weekly terms, I need to be in deficit 3,500 calories, over a week, to lose a pound that week.  At first (325 pounds), I was in deficit 10,500 calories per week and was losing three pounds at a time.   Now at 251.8 pounds, eating the same amount of food, I am only in deficit 7,000 calories and so losing only 2 pounds a week; and errors and cheats in my calorie counting (some on purpose, some not) now have a bigger effect.  There is less room for error.  

My feeling is that adding in some daily exercise (e.g. walking for 30 minutes) will help even out those problems.  I have also had some interest in strength training (weight lifting) which is also apparently a high calorie burning activity.  But I am not eager to get started yet, that’s another activity that would take a lot of time and dedication.  

For now, I will stick with my winning system, even if the wins are slightly smaller.  Things are still going my way, not as fast.  Maybe it will be 2020 before I reach my goal.  But I will still reach it.

-The Doctor

20190830 Daily report

The commitment I made to control my body’s weight has two parts.  1. I regulate my food intake, and 2. I weigh myself regularly.  That’s a lot of regularity!  Food intake is regulated first through keeping a food journal where I write down everything I eat.  It is also controlled by learning how to eat less and enjoy it more.  Some people are able to do this through willpower.  I don’t have it, not for long.  The reason I am able to keep doing this is because I changed myself, and how I see the world.  I concsiously decided that being in control of my weight should be and was more important to me than almost anything else.  I moved weight control from #96 on my list of values to #2 or #3.  Almost nothing gets in the way of my weight control lifestyle.  That was a choice.    Thinking through that consequences and living them out make up this blog.

These are Kirkland's bratwursts. Good ones. 280 calories each.

My food intake and calorie count

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

  • 350 calories

Lunch – 6x pizza slices (100); rice (160)

  • 760 calories 

Dinner – 2x bratwurst (280); wheat wrap piece (55)

  • 615 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80)

  • 80 calories

Total for the day: 1795 calories (limit 1800 + 500 bonus from swimming, total 2300)

Rainmaking

Tomorrow is a weighing day, and I don’t want to overeat.  So, I made sure dinner was extra-satisfying – freshly grilled bratwurst wraps.  Today was a good day for food and exercise.  (I missed posting yesterday – it got late.  I may go back and fill in the food journal entry, though.)  Tomorrow I will weigh myself.  Then it’s a new week!  A new week where I can live out my new values and new weight control lifestyle.  I have plans, but we shall see.

 I was talking about this article Wednesday.  It has some interesting ideas and is called “20 habits skinny people live by”.  I am very interested in what separates thin people from overweight people.  I am and have been an overweight person, and want to be able to be a thin one – as thin as I want, through weight control. 

My current hypothesis is that weight is 90% behavior and how you see the world, and 10% genetics you are stuck with.   I have noticed that thin people tend to be very conscious of their body’s weight, and how much they are eating and have eaten during any day.  They keep track of both.  But thin people see the world differently.  My #1 rule is that thin people are devoted to and obsessed with staying thin.  It is a conscious desire that they work hard on.  I don’t believe any overweight person’s claim that some people are naturally thin.  You’re fooling nobody but yourself.  Thin people who stay thin throughout their lives know the reality – the price – of their choice.

The article has 20 rules, some of them summarized here in my words:

  1. Don’t eat late (after 8PM)
  2. Weigh yourself daily
  3. Eat a boring diet.  Quote: “We’re not suggesting you choose one meal and eat it every day for the rest of your life…”  but yes, that is what they are suggesting! 
  4. Reward yourself every day
  5. Make it a hobby – read articles about weight loss and nutrition, find friends who will talk with you about it and who are interested.
  6. Don’t let yourself get hungry – eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and add snacks as required.
  7. Eliminate extra calories.  (For example, eat the hamburger, not the bun and french fries.  Drink water, not beer.)  
  8. Find satisfying foods.
  9. Take enough sleep.  (If your life is out of control, it is hard to get your weight under control.  And sleepy people are stressed and make impulsive decisions.  Sleepy people also tempted to eat more, at least, I am.)

That’s enough for tonight!  I’m not sure where to begin.  I am really excited because many of these first 9 ideas have also occurred to me and I have written about them on this blog!  It’s excellent that I have been able to figure out the thin person’s mindset.  

Rule #3 is really interesting.  Remember my grandfather’s diet?  He really did eat the same thing every day – the same breakfast every day, the same lunch, and the same dinner.  It’s amazing that it is a conscious strategy of thin people.  Maybe my grandfather wasn’t that unusual?  There is also advice in the article to make sure you don’t get hungry without a meal planned.  If I get hungry and have to browse around for something to eat, I have noticed I am much more likely to feel like I need to eat more.  If I have lunch all planned, cooked, portioned, or otherwise ready, and am looking forward to it, then I stay under control when I get hungry for it.  

Don’t these rules look like what I have been telling you?

-The Doctor

20190828 Daily report

The commitment I made to control my body’s weight has two parts.  1. I regulate my food intake, and 2. I weigh myself every week.  Food intake is regulated first through keeping a food journal where I write down everything I eat.  It is also controlled by learning how to eat less and enjoy it more.  Some people are able to do this through willpower.  I don’t have it, not for long.  The reason I am able to keep doing this is because I changed myself, and how I see the world.  Now I see the world through the eyes of a person who controls his body weight.  How did I do that?  I sacrificed my old self and how I saw the world before.  I sacrificed my future self, who was even more weighty.  

I get the gyro, but sacrifice the french fries.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – Costco cheese pizza half slice (380); leftover spaghetti (50

  • 430 calories

Lunch – Big Greek Cafe Famous $5 Gyros Wednesday (600)

  • 600 calories 

Dinner – pita bread (230); chicken (200); hummus (100); peas (30); cheese (200)

  • 760 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80)

  • 80 calories

Total for the day: 1870 calories (limit 1800)

Spreading out the splurge days

Twice a week, after swimming, I allow myself extra splurge calories.  Recently I have hardly taken advantage of this opportunity.  However when I was losing 2-3 pounds per week, for the first half of 2019, I did enjoy those extra calories.  Recently my weight loss has been weaker.  Are the two things connected?  I don’t know.  But I am willing to find out.  This week I am keeping to an average of 1850 calories per day.  Let’s see what that does come Saturday. 

Due to my interest in the habits and mindset of people who are thin and stay thin, I have read some interesting things on the internet.  First, there are a lot of excuses out there.  Did you know that people who are thin and stay that way have good genes, or low hormone levels, or a natural ability to stay at a certain weight?  That’s amazing.  And I don’t believe it at all.  Have you ever seen thin people (in their 30s or older) in a restaurant?  They might order a bacon cheeseburger and fries, but they eat about two bites and that’s it.  Some take the rest home and some leave the rest on their plates.  I think they are there for the restaurant experience and not to eat themselves to capacity.  

Watch people who are heavier at a restaurant.  We clean our plates and we are there to get as full as we can.  We are there for a quantity experience.  Food is eaten there and there is nothing left to take home.  (I say we because until recently that was me.)

There are some sensible ideas in this article too.  Getting enough sleep is good for staying thin.  It also implies your life is well regulated, since you aren’t up all hours wasting time or frantically trying to get things done.   It is also common knowledge that thin people pay a lot of attention to staying thin.  Paying attention is very important, as I have discovered.  

Tomorrow I want to talk about this article.  It has several great ideas!  Tonight, I am going to take my own advice and go to bed.  Sleep good!

-The Doctor

20190827 Daily report

Getting your body’s weight control (especially when you have never lost weight before) takes a lot of attention.  Keeping your weight under control (once you are at a weight you like) takes a lot of attention, too.  It is like a hobby that you feel really strongly about and are very interested in.  There are people out there who can pay that kind of attention using willpower.  I am not one of those people.  To lose weight, I had to adopt a new set of values.  It doesn’t mean I give up eating the foods I like, though. 

Chicken, or map of Florida?

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – 2x Spanish tortilla (166) wraps (110) with 1tsp mayonnaise (30)

  • 470 calories

Lunch – 2x bratwurst (280); 2x wraps (25); horseradish sauce (10)

  • 620 calories 

Dinner – panko chicken piece (250); 5oz cooked rice (160); 1/4C lima beans (50)

  • 460 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); Snickers ice cream bar (180)

  • 260 calories

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

Back to normal, all messed up

When things are going well, I never know before I step on the scale whether I have lost any weight that week.  I am always surprised.  You would think I would know by now.  But there is a danger in assuming your system of weight loss will produce results.  You might get sloppy or careless.  Worse, you might get overconfident.  You might think you have have this weight problem figured out and you are in control!  I do think of this as a weight control system.  That may be overstating things.  

Control may be an illusion.  But some things are real.  Hunger is real.  I know when I am hungry.  If I have my life balanced so that I am hungry for everything I eat, that makes for a lifestyle I enjoy.  I wouldn’t want to be hungry all the time – just when it’s time to eat.  Today, I achieved at least that much.  Mealtimes were 8AM, 12PM, and 5.30PM.  That is fairly standard for me.  I did swim today, which gave me a very good appetite for dinner.  I had enough calories left over to have dessert right after dinner, and I have not eaten since then.    Today felt like a good day.  But I don’t know what will happen when I get on the scale Saturday.

Maybe the uncertainty keeps me sharp and focused.  

-The Doctor

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