Long term dieting Archives - Page 27 of 40

20190813 Daily report

Post author:The Doctor
Post published:August 13, 2019
Post category:Daily report

Dieting is a mug’s game. It’s a temporary change and comes with a severe danger: you may gain back all the weight you lose. Instead, change your mind and embrace a strategy of weight control. Once your thinking is under control, you can bring your eating under control. Then your body will follow. Weight control means you are paying a lot of attention to what you are eating, and the rest – why, and how much. You learn a lot about yourself. And having taken control of your life is very fulfilling, because you can use the process of self discovery to refine your tastes.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – ham (150) and cheese (70) sandwich (140) with 1 Tablespoon of hummus (40)

400 calories

Lunch – 2x bratwurst wraps (300)

600 calories

Dinner – corned beef and cabbage wrap (250); 2 eggs, 0.5 oz cheese and toast (350)

600 calories

Snacking – 2x Reese’s peanut butter cups (80);

160 calories

Total for the day: 1760 calories (limit 1800 + 500 bonus from swimming, total 2300)

Lead with hunger

During my weight loss work, I am supposed to focus on on how I feel. I know when I have my food balance right because I feel hungry just in time for the next meal. I’m not supposed to feel hungry between meals, though there is sometimes a temptation to eat between meals anyway! But if you focus on being hungry as the signal for eating, then food eaten outside of meals interferes with your signal.

When you do it right, getting hungry and then satisfying the hunger with something you love to eat is very fulfilling and rewarding. When you corrupt the signal, it’s less of a reward and there’s less incentive to make it all work properly. I feel like I have lost this balance. Looking at my food record the last few weeks, I see a fair amount of grazing after dinner. Even though the calorie counts have not been that far off, it’s had a bad effect on my weight loss. Eating after dinner can throw off the whole next day.

Waking up with your stomach empty is a satisfying feeling. Isn’t that strange – being unsatisfied is satisfying? But I rarely wake up hungry. My stomach seems to take about an hour to wake up after I do. But the system just works better when I start the day off totally empty. So that’s a new rule (or newly rediscovered). Focus on being hungry for breakfast, and empty when you wake up. Don’t eat after dinner, make sure dinner is satisfying.

The last few days, I rediscovered this almost by accident, by going to bed on time! I had to concentrate on getting things done and there was no snacking after dinner. Immediately that set my days up perfectly for the cycle of hunger and satisfaction. Food tastes better when you are hungry for it and you can really rev up your anticipation by knowing what you are going to eat, and when. Satisfying that hunger, with the exact food you want, makes it worthwhile going to the trouble of getting hungry in the first place. Focus on hunger!

-The Doctor

20190812 Daily report

Post author:The Doctor
Post published:August 12, 2019
Post category:Daily report

To lose weight is difficult. To lose a lot of weight, very difficult. To then keep your new weight, is almost impossible. At least, if you are forcing yourself to do it. That takes willpower I don’t have.

Over the last eight (!) months, I have learned a lot about myself. I was able to transform myself into a person capable of losing weight, first a little, and then a lot. 68 pounds is a lot by anyone’s measure. (I will have about 52 to go before I plan to stop and re-assess.) Willpower-as-force wasn’t in it. I tried ordering myself to lose weight many times in the past. Amazingly, that didn’t work. So it was time to change.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – ham (150) and Muenster cheese (70) on bread (140)

360 calories

Lunch – grilled bratwurst wrap (300); 4 ounces cooked spaghetti (200), 2 Costco meatballs (100)

600 calories

Dinner – 4 ounces corned beef (300); cabbage (25); carrots (25); potatoes (200)

550 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); pretzels and cheese (210); red grapes (100)

390 calories

Total for the day: 1900 calories (limit 1800)

And those were pretty awesome grapes

I went a bit over my calorie limit today. I didn’t plan on it either, which is a bit weak. But I did carefully plan out dinner – corned beef and cabbage using a slow cooker! The cabbage was a bit well done, but everything else was perfectly cooked. I will probably do that again. It was so easy. But then I decided to eat grapes, and they were really, really good. So I will have to pay for that at my next weighing.

Good news: I got on the scale again this morning – 257.2 pounds, the lowest ever. Maybe I was onto something real yesterday, when I speculated that it takes time for extra food (binge) that I ate earlier in the week, to work its way out of the body. Let’s look at the math. Normally I would lose about 2 pounds per week which is 0.3 per day over 7 days. I weighed 258 on Sunday and 257.2 Monday. That’s an extra half pound less than I should expect. (Note that this doesn’t mean anything much today – bodies and scales are imprecise and vary a lot. What will I weigh tomorrow? If the trend continues I will take it as confirmation.)

Above, I was talking about what had to change for me to lose weight. The first thing that had to change was my mind. In my mind, I didn’t want to bother with getting thin and staying thin. I thought I was enjoying life, not paying attention and just satisfying whatever cravings I had with as much food as I could eat. I thought that was pretty satisfying.

But it turns out that lifestyle was kind of shallow and unrefined. And resulted in overweight. And as my dissatisfaction with my body’s weight increased, the pleasure of eating without paying any attention, diminished. I wasn’t able to lose weight by force (willpower). So what was there to change? (1) What I valued and (2) how much attention I was willing to pay.

To examine your values and sacrifice your old self – that is a fundamental transformation. I’m not the same person anymore. I pay a lot of attention to what I am eating and how much. And I value being in control of my weight more than I value most other things in my life. What happened to my old self? It’s gone. How I experience the world and how I grapple with the problem of my body is different. Now, it is dramatic and exciting and satisfying, and I am living very intensely by paying a lot of attention.

What do you value? What are your top three values? I can tell you one of mine – be in control of your bod’s weight.

-The Doctor

20190811 Daily report

Post author:The Doctor
Post published:August 11, 2019
Post category:Daily report

The daily reports are for my day-to-day experiences on this weight control diet system. I have never talked about my motivations for wanting to be in control of my weight, and someday maybe I will think about that. It just seems like an obvious good thing that I want. It’s much better than wanting to be on a diet, isn’t it? Dieting is temporary. When you are after control of your body, you have to come up with a way to do it that works for you, because it’s for the long term (hopefully forever). Good luck trying to force yourself to lose 120 pounds, with a system you don’t like! I tried and tried without success. Now I look for ways to reward myself for succeeding, one day at a time.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – Bratwurst wrap (300)

300 calories

Lunch – 2 x bratwurst wraps (300)

600 calories

Dinner – 6 ounces cooked spaghetti (300); 5 Costco meatballs (230 for 5)

530 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80)

80 calories

Total for the day: 1510 calories (limit 1800)

Face the music, but then write the tune

I got on the scale this morning. I weighed exactly what I did last week (258 pounds). I was not surprised, since I had a couple of bad diet days. Now, why was did I weigh the same, even though my calorie count wasn’t that high during the week? My feeling is that by eating a lot more bulk, your body just weighs more (retains more water and has more food inside) until that bulk leaves your system. I don’t know that it’s true, but it’s my theory. It could also be that I was cheating my food journal. Or some other reason. But (almost) every dieter knows the feeling of feeling heavy and full after a bad diet day. You just don’t have that feeling on 1800 calories per day.

Anyway, I have faced the music – gotten on the scale and seen the truth. I didn’t get anywhere last week, for whatever reason. But I don’t give up. I have had too much success doing this. The new lifestyle is very attractive, but it looks like I can get distracted and go back to bad habits of the past (when I was gaining weight). I talked about the possible distractions over the last few days, but I am focusing on sleep as the main culprit. Lack of sleep is bad for dieting. I am always hungry when tired, to start with, especially if I am trying to stay awake.

Everything is ready for tomorrow. It’s 9.40PM and I will be ready for bed in about 20 minutes. Let’s see if a good night’s sleep and plenty of grilled bratwurst is the cure!

I say “now write the tune” because I was feeling like I was at the mercy of the bad week, like I wasn’t in charge. I have faced up to that. Now I will write the music and play it out for this week. I spent some time writing up a menu of the foods I will be enjoying, so that I have something to look forward to. I’ve made sure I have plenty of the foods I want in the house, so there won’t be any food insecurity. And I am going to make sure to go to bed on time, so I can focus on my new lifestyle of personal fulfillment and satisfaction. It’s much nicer than the old lifestyle, really. But if you are sleep deprived and not paying attention, you can lose sight of your new life.

Remember that every mistake is a chance to learn and improve yourself. Getting control of my body’s weight is all about improving myself and having a better life. That is my aim. What is yours?

-The Doctor

20190810 Daily report

Post author:The Doctor
Post published:August 10, 2019
Post category:Daily report

Normally, this would be a Saturday weigh-in post. But I couldn’t afford a Saturday weigh-in. I am all freaked out by my terrible diet week. Even though my total calorie count was not that bad, I was too chicken to get on the scale this morning and check.

But getting weighed is an important component of controlling your weight. I can’t escape for ever. I may get on tomorrow, with one eye shut. The other important component, of course, is paying attention to what you are eating. Regulating your intake. Watching what you eat. It’s true, I wasn’t that good at doing that either this week.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – pork potstickers (250); pretzels and cheese (300)

550 calories

Lunch – chicken and hummus wraps (300); cookies (300)

600 calories

Dinner – ice cream (300); Snickers ice cream bar (180)

480 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); candy (90)

170 calories

Total for the day: 1800 calories (limit 1800)

Reset, please!

My average calories for the week: 2200 per day, or 15,400 total. That shouldn’t be that bad, considering that I have to eat about 3200 per day to gain weight, or 22,400 calories. What I recorded is nearly 7000 calories less than the break even point and so I should weigh less, right? But I have psyched myself out. There have been too many times when I was ill and should have lost weight by the calorie count….and didn’t. I am also worried that having had some bad diet days is weighing on my system (ha ha). I want to let that work itself out. Anyway, if I was braver about the scale I would weigh myself anyway. It is always better to know. Maybe I will face up to it tomorrow.

Anyway, I have gotten myself into a bad mental state. I am staying up late every night, and letting my attention wander from my diet. I can’t have that, not if I want to succeed. My plan now is to make sure I am fully prepared to have a good week. That means planning out meals and making sure I have lots of the foods I will need. And I want it to be a rewarding week, so I will have to have things to look forward to. That will get me back into a good mental frame of mind.

As for going to bed on time, I’m not sure what’s up with that. But it will have to change, so I can keep my effort on my primary goal. Keep paying attention! That’s the way forward; pay attention and have reards to look forward to.

-The Doctor

20190809 Daily report

Post author:The Doctor
Post published:August 9, 2019
Post category:Daily report

Dieting is the wrong way to lose 120 pounds. It is temporary, and someone like me who has a lot to lose, needs more than a few temporary tweaks to their lifestyle. It needs a radical re-think. Almost a new person has to be created, who cares a lot about their weight. Once that person has awakened, once the mind has been changed, then the body is the lagging indicator. A person who is serious about changing their lifestyle and their values can do it, and make it permanent.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – chicken hummus wraps (350);
rice (160)

510 calories

Lunch – half pizza (450)

450 calories

Dinner – pork potstickers (750)

750 calories

Snacking – cookies (280); bread and butter (160)

440 calories

Total for the day: 2150 calories (limit 1800)

A mystery to me

Frozen potstickers are never great. These were just ok. But what is the allure? Why do I keep trying? I should just find a recipe and make my own. My brother makes a mean egg roll, how much harder can these be? My rule is, if it needs soy sauce to taste good, you shouldn’t eat it. I found myself slipping into the old pattern of thinking – “if they don’t taste great, keep eating and you will feel full and will get satisfaction that way.” My old life keeps calling me! I can’t let myself eat unsatisfying junk, it is too dangerous for me. No more.

Anyway, this week wasn’t my best. I was healthy again, at least. Well, even if this week wasn’t great, tomorrow is the start of a new week where I can do better. It’s a great comfort to get unlimited second chances. Having a bad week doesn’t destroy my morale, since I’m not forcing myself to do this. I put a lot of work into creating a new life that I enjoy, which has been very positive.

Some of the work is finding and making foods that I will look forward to eating and will find satisfying. I’ve just found my own recipe for pork and cabbage potstickers….. what foods would make you happy? Self knowledge is the key to controlling your weight.

-The Doctor

20190808 Daily report

Post author:The Doctor
Post published:August 8, 2019
Post category:Daily report

Keeping a food journal is one part of the two-part weight control mechanism. The other part is weighing yourself regularly. You could say, “to control your weight, regulate your food intake and weigh yourself regularly.” “Weight yourself regular” isn’t good grammar but sounds good.

I’ve found that paying careful attention to what you are eating almost carries with it a command to set a limit. If you are counting the calories in your food, it follows that you are happier with a target number. How many calories is the right amount?

People who stay thin their whole lives have figured this out. They have a system, though it varies from person to person. They keep track of their weight and are careful to eat more or less depending on their weight. You could say they are obsessed with being thin and make it a high priority in their lives.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – tea with half and half (80)

80 calories

Lunch – tea with half and half (80)

80 calories

Dinner – packet of beef jerky (90); 1 piece of ham and 3 pieces of chicken breast (100)

190 calories

Total for the day: 350 calories (limit 1800)

Listen to yourself

Mark Twain wrote that if your appetite doesn’t call you vigorously, with a shout, it is best to wait until it does, before you eat. He was saying that if he overate, he wouldn’t be hungry for his next meal and wouldn’t enjoy it. He wrote a short story about people whose appetites were fickle, apparently it was a common problem even then.

For me, there are strict rules governing my eating behavior (not always followed) and governing my recovery following a bad diet day. I cannot punish myself or it will destroy my ability to recover and my motivation for losing weight in the first place. My system relies on convincing myself with love and attention, to eat less. Punishment isn’t in it. Losing weight for me is a fulfilling and satisfying exercise.

I had a bad day yesterday – read the post. Today is a new day, but I couldn’t pretend I felt even a little hungry at breakfast or lunch. I felt my first stirring of hunger today at about 7PM and ate some jerky and ham and chicken because that is satisfying even in small amounts. My goal wasn’t to punish myself but to listen carefully and meet my own needs. I had tea for breakfast and lunch. I didn’t even really want that but thought I should, that it might help get my digestion moving again.

What effect does this have on my weight loss? I don’t know for sure, but in the past having a bingey day, even if the calories for the week worked out, don’t result in much weight lost that week. It’s like it takes a few days to get my system back in order. That’s a bit frustrating, but I generally had a good week otherwise and felt satisfied and happy. I don’t feel cheated, in other words. Living this new lifestyle, there’s not a feeling that I am starving myself or using a lot of willpower to keep myself on target (though it seems the forces inside me are carefully balanced and can occasionally tip me over).

I have learned I need to keep myself in good condition to make weight control work consistently. That means sleep, on top of all the listening and planning I do to keep myself happy. Tomorrow is a new day, but hopefully I will wake up hungry and have a normal new day. We can hope!

-The Doctor

20190807 Daily report

Post author:The Doctor
Post published:August 7, 2019
Post category:Daily report

Come what may, the daily report is a commitment to myself and my new lifestyle. Actually, my food journal is the underlying commitment. But the daily report is me thinking about it and facing up to the world I am trying to create. A world that has a thinner Doctor in it. I will keep the food journal and I will weigh myself every week. That gives me control. But it is nothing without the underlying decision to create a new me living the new life.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – 2 eggs (80); 1 ounce Velveeta (70); one slice of Pane Torano bread (140)

370 calories

Lunch – Half of a Pizza CS (400?); 3x Kentucky Legend ham slices (33)

500 calories

Dinner – Red lentil curry (340); 5 ounces cooked rice (160)

500 calories

Mostly late night extras– tea with half and half (160); cookies (400); ice cream (430); granola bar (100); apple breakfast bar (100); chocolate (500); bread and hummus (200); Cheerios and milk (300)

2000 calories

Total for the day: 3430 calories (limit 1800)

That's going to cost me

I’m not sure why I lost control tonight and ate so much after dinner. I am not myself, I have felt totally drained of energy all afternoon and evening. That’s part of it, I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night. That was a mistake, I don’t react well to that.

Lunch was also a bit disappointing, though breakfast was nice. I couldn’t tell how many calories were in my lunch pizza (restaurant) so I had to guess how much to eat and how many calories it had. It was OK but wasn’t really satisfying to eat half of it.

Anyway, I knew I wasn’t happy about lunch, but I thought some cookies would make up for it,and I had a nice dinner planned – last of the lentil curry. And then I waited too long to eat. Anyway, the combination – lack of sleep, lack of energy and will, disappointment over lunch, frustration over the lack of energy, and waiting too long to eat…..I have to learn better to avoid all that. So far, I have had trouble with my diet when:

Cold
Sleepy or tired
Sick
Frustrated or upset (usually about meals not going well)
Too hungry (letting myself go too long before having a meal)

Any combination of those is worse. I have slowly learned over these last several months that I can’t let myself get too hungry. That tripped me up several times. I even started carrying packs of beef jerky in the car and my bag, though I usually forgot about them or denied to myself that I needed them. But it seems like letting myself get too tired and exhausted can be just as bad. I can’t allow the combination.

So it seems I must revive a commitment to sleep. I must go to bed on time. By itself, being tired doesn’t break my diet, but in combination with other things it is not good. I can’t always control when other bad things will happen. So I have to prevent tiredness being a factor. Originally, my spreadsheet had a column for recording my sleep, but I stopped trying to do that about two months ago.

As usual, this is a chance to learn and improve. I am grateful that I have the ability to think through these problems and make adjustments. It’s important to keep yourself happy when you are asking a lot from yourself. And losing 120 pounds is asking a lot. It’s worth paying a little attention.

-The Doctor

20190806 Daily report

Post author:The Doctor
Post published:August 6, 2019
Post category:Daily report

It is very important, fundamental, to control how many calories you are eating, if you want to maintain your body’s weight or lose weight. There are many ways to do that, and not all of them involve counting calories. For most of us, we want decisions about what to eat and how much to take up very little time.

I am taking a different approach. Since I want lifelong weight control and don’t want to eat the same thing every day, I accept that I will have to spend some time to do it. Time spent planning meals, cooking, measuring, packing leftovers, as well as budget planning and going shopping for food. I have observed that people who are thin and stay thin, and fit and stay fit, are completely obsessed maniacs (in a good way). They are always watching how much they are eating.

The Doctor’s approach could be summed up as paying attention and calorie counting. Pay attention to how much you are eating, have eaten, and have yet to eat today. Learn yourself and plan out your meals. Measure what you eat and drink. I accept all this as the trade off for getting thin and staying thin. What would you trade for that?

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – roasted chicken breast half (100); rice (400); Italian bread (140); and cheese (60)

700 calories

Lunch – Twix ice cream bar (160); oatmeal cookie (50); Kentucky Legend ham (200); Italian bread (150)

560 calories

Dinner – 10.4 oz red lentil curry (290); 4oz cooked rice (130)

420 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); Perdue shortcut chicken (80); hummus (70)

230 calories

Total for the day: 1910 calories (limit 1800 + 500 bonus from swimming, total 2300)

Time well spent

Why would you spend all this time and effort keeping up with your weight? Aha, luckily for you, the Doctor has come up with an enabling lifestyle that is attractive, so one wants to stay with it. This lifestyle means making a permanent change to the way you live and elevating the value of being thin to the top of your morality, or moral hierarchy. Then you start to see everything through that moral lens and everything changes for you.

What is the attraction? It’s that you have to pay a lot of attention to yourself and aim at pleasing yourself. You want your body and subconscious impulses (mind) to be so happy with all the love you are showing yourself, that they are eager to do their part. You learn what would make you happy to stay on a restricted calorie diet and you do it. I have a system of rewards. I feed myself (measured amounts of) what I want, and in exchange my body and subconscious are satisfied with that. When I achieve a goal or milestone, I reward myself with a special food. If the way you look at food has truly been transformed, then you don’t have to worry about using food as a reward being unhealthy mentally. In the right mind frame, it makes perfect sense and I have lost 67 pounds that way. So far. 53 to go.

Showering yourself with positive attention, catering to your own desires for favorite foods, and carefully rewarding yourself with treats for each ahievement is a very attractive way to live. You get enormous satisfaction from preparing yourself for a favorite meal. You actually don’t want t overeat at the previous meal, or snack, so as not to reduce your enjoyment of your favorite. Food always tastes better when you are hungry; when it is your favorite food and you have been anticipating it all day, it really multiplies your enjoyment and your sense of fulfillment aftewards.

Learn yourself and you can achieve weight loss and weight control. But you will have to accept the price and pay it. Find a way to make paying part of the enjoyable experience!

-The Doctor

20190805 Daily report

Post author:The Doctor
Post published:August 5, 2019
Post category:Daily report

The daily report is a chance for me to think about the mechanism I am using to control my body’s weight. (1) Regulate food intake and (2) weigh yourself regularly. (I like that there is regulation and the beginning of the first axiom and regularity at the end of the second one. I might trademark that.) The important questions are: why do these things and how to gain the ability to do them?

Why is easy. I want to be in control of my body’s weight. I don’t want to diet, or get thinner, etc. Those are all temporary. They are ways of temporarily restraining yourself until you reach weight XX, or else give up. You don’t make any permanent changes to yourself or your life. In the worst case, you may gain all the weight back and more besides. So control is the answer. Axioms 1 and 2 give that control.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – 2oz meatloaf (150); half a sandwich wrap (45); french fries and carrot and cucumber salad with dill (50)

250 calories

Lunch – 2oz meatloaf (150); half a sandwich wrap (45); french fries and carrot and cucumber salad with dill (100)

300 calories

Dinner – Big Mac (450)

540 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); cookies (250); pretzels (200)

530 calories

Total for the day: 1620 calories (limit 1800)

A shorty

I did a lot of traveling today, so I only will write a bit.

To successfully control your weight, you have to change yourself permanently. Your old life caused you to gain weight, and gain, and gain. You can’t diet, lose weight, go back to your old life, and then expect to keep your diet weight?!? So you have to put in the effort to create a new life that is worth living. It has to be better than your old life and more rewarding. Then, you are not very tempted to go back to the old way. Your new weight control life will win, most of the time, and that is all that matters. Losing weight and maintaining weight are about averages over a long term of years. It took me 15 years to gain the last 50-70 pounds of my highest total (325).

It’s pretty impressive that I gained weight at all during those years of not paying attention. My metabolism was probably near 3300 calories per day for many years. Now that I am paying attention and am happily satisfying myself with 1800 calories per day or less (most of the time), I sometimes wonder what it must be like to eat, say, 4000 calories per day. I must have done it, but I wasn’t paying attention and didn’t notice. Doing it on purpose, while paying attention, sounds kind of difficult. Regularly eating, say, 3300 calories per day sounds strange to me now. It seems like it would be a lot of food.

That is a problem for the future. Right now, I want to stay on top of my currrent average. So far this week, that’s about 1933 calories per day, a bit high. Time to pay some more attention!

-The Doctor

20190805 Daily report

Post author:The Doctor
Post published:August 4, 2019
Post category:Daily report

Every day, I have committed to writing a food journal and keeping track of what I eat. It’s not how I lived for many years, but during those many years I gained weight and was unable to lose it. Now that I am keeping track, I find that the work is much more productive. Keeping track is simple but requires a lot of paying attention. Not just what you eat, but how much, and why you eat.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – tea with half and half (80)

80 calories

Lunch – 2 x ham and cheese wraps (150)

300 calories

Dinner – meatloaf as pictured (150); cooked carrot (25); cucumber salad (25); oven roasted cauliflower (25); french fries (100)

325 calories

Snacking – Nestle’s Li’l Drums chocolate cone (120); Sarris chocolate cherry cordial (65); oatmeal cookies (300)

485 calories

Total for the day: 1190 calories (limit 1800)

Only the few

I was not hungry at all this morning. Yesterday, I snacked a lot late in the evening and spent most of the day trying to recover. My appetite only really returned at 10PM today! Having a bad day like yesterday is bad for several reasons.

First, clearly I wasn’t listening to myself and didn’t keep myself happy and satisfied. So that has to be gone back over and figured out. What should I have done differently? It was a difficult day; I was up at 4AM and that kind of screwed up my food schedule. Then I stayed up until nearly midnight. That wasn’t good for me either. When I get that tired, I will often overeat. Someone said once that calories can temporarily take the place of sleep.

Second, you feel physically bad the next day. I felt all bloated and heavy today. It takes time for overeating to work it s way through your system. I was sluggish and unambitious today and didn’t get much done. My weight control diet is meant to enable a new and exciting life. This wasn’t it!

Third, it messes up the next day’s eating. My system of weight control relies on using hunger as a valuable signal that things are going well, and also as an intensifier for food as a sensory experience. So really by overeating the day before, you are really making it difficult to get back into your desired system the next day.

Fourth, you feel emotionally let down. I don’t let myself feel self pity on this diet, so my feeling is more related to the first point – where did I fail in paying attention to myself and making sure I could stay focused on the positive? Also, you tend to feel bad about overeating and angry with yourself. The productive way to deal with that is to admit to yourself where the failure really is. You probably took the easy way out, were lazy and didn’t plan well. You demanded too much of yourself and then it fell apart a bit. Time to pick up and figure it out, and try not to let it happen again.

Self knowledge is the only way to make this work, improve, and keep motivated. If you let yourself, you will take the easy way out and quit trying to get your weight under control. Learn why this happened. Where did you fail? Don’t blame your body. It’s only responding to a failure of your conscious will. It can be fixed! So get that figured out and move on, with a new and improved knowledge of yourself.

-The Doctor