Long term dieting

20190803 Saturday weigh-in

Every Saturday I weigh in – literally, on a scale.  I have no idea before I step on, what I will weigh.  Some people weigh themselves every day.  I do it once per week.  It is a commitment I have made as part of my new lifestyle.  I will weigh myself every week and monitor my weight for the rest of my life.  It’s the only way I will get in control of my body’s weight.  Last week, I gain ed a pound.  IT was always unlikely, I just didnt’ eat enough to gain anything.  I was probably ill and retaining water.  I felt a little better yesterday and today, how did I do this time?

Lowest number ever

I have been stuck at or above 260 for a few weeks.  I was starting to have doubts about what I was doing to lose weight.  But this is very, very positive.  IF I continue to feel healthy, I may lose more weight in the next week.  But since starting in January, I have lost:

Pounds!!
0

Halfway rut?

Since I achieved half of the 120 pound weight loss I want a month ago, I have been in a rut and it’s been uncertain what was going on with weight loss.  I am feeling like things are now a going bit harder than the first 60 pounds.  But now I have lost 7 more than 60!  Maybe this is a good sign and I will keep losing.  I will keep working away and see what I can achieve in the next week.  

Usually after I have been ill, the first full week I am better shows a very good weight loss in the 3 pound range.  That would be nice for next week.  I still kind of feel resentful about the weeks I lost while being ill.  There’s a “why did I bother dieting if it didn’t get me anywhere” feeling, as if I have sacrificed for nothing.

But if losing 120 pounds was easy, everyone would do it.  I am doing this new lifestyle partly to take control of my body.  As I worked this technique out, I learned this new lifestyle is attractive to me and makes me feel satisfied and fulfilled.  So I have reasons other than losing weight, to keep on it.  I am answering an important question: how much quality was missing from my life?  I didn’t realize that what I was doing before wasn’t satisfying or fulfilling, or was only cheaply so.  Now I’m after a deeper prize.  Where else is my life unsatisfying?  What else needs changing?  How about your life?  Let’s think about it.  

-The Doctor

20190802 Daily report

Every day, I keep a food journal.  Really, I write in it every time I eat, not just once at the end of the day.  I might spend an hour on my food journal any given day.  That’s because I have remade myself into a person who values being thin and in control of his body’s weight.  I didn’t care about that when I was gaining weight, in my old life.  Now I do.  Because I value that, I keep a food journal and I weigh myself every week.  That’s how I will lose weight and how I will maintain my weight, once I get wherever I am going…

Zero the scale, then 10.5 ounces of curry

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – 2 x Cotsco bratwurst (280); quarter bread wrap (22.5), a little mustard and onion

  • 620 calories

Lunch – 5 ounces of cooked rice (160); 10.5 ounces of red lentil curry (290)

  • 450 calories 

Dinner – 6 x pizza slices (100)

  • 600 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); Snickers ice cream bar (180); pretzels (100)

  • 360 calories

Total for the day: 2030 calories (limit 1800 + 500 bonus from swimming, total 2300)

Early morning

I have an early day tomorrow.  However, I think I am starting to feel better.  Maybe my stomach problem is going away.  That would be nice!  I am blaming my lack of progress on illness, though I don’t know if that’s legitimate.  

Someone asked me yesterday how to deal with cravings at certain points during the day – like at night, after dinner.  First, I think that is important self knowledge that you should pay attention to.  Knowing you will be hungry at night, you can try changing things to keep yourself happy and avoid that kind of snacking. 

Recently, I tried having a small breakfast, then a larger lunch and dinner, with dessert planned for a couple of hours after dinner.  The anticipation of the dessert kept me from snacking, and I was happy enough with dessert (ice cream sandwich, the good ones from Blue Bunny, with chocolate ice cream and chocolate syrup in the center) that I didn’t want to eat afterwards.  For breakfast that same day, I had chocolate-covered tea cookies (Aldi) and yogurt.  I was happy until lunch even though breakfast was 280 calories.  Try something like that.  Give yourself something to look forward to at night, that you can plan on.  

Time for bed!  

-The Doctor

20190801 Daily report

There’s nothing more daily than a daily report!  Today I am in a bit of a rush, but I always justify writing a daily report.  My daily reports are where I keep track of issues and thoughts related to my weight control lifestyle.  It’s a lifestyle lived day by day, with each new day an opportunity to learn about myself and improve the quality of my life.  My weight control system requires a new lifestyle that is very appealing, plus the results are nice. 

Roasted chicken and rice! What did you have for lunch?

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – Chocolate tea cookies (140); yogurt (140); chips (50)

  • 330 calories

Lunch – half chicken breast (100);  10 ounces cooked rice with peas (400)

  • 500 calories 

Dinner – 6 x pizza slices (100)

  • 600 calories

Snacking – ice cream sandwich (190); pretzels (100)

  • 290 calories

Total for the day: 1720 calories (limit 1800)

Get well soon

I hoped to be all better by now, but I am still dealing with a low level stomach complaint.  Last week I “gained” a pound, which isn’t possible with the number of calories I ate, so I knew I was retaining fluid.  I don’t feel any better through today, so I am pretty sure Saturday will be an unreliable weight.  My calorie total has been right in the target zone (averaging 1850 calories per day), but I still don’t feel normal.  I’ll get on the scale Saturday but without any expectation I will see a true reflection of my weight.  

Interestingly, I have a pair of pants which are rather a close fit (tight).  I am using them as an independent measurement of my waist size.  They feel a bit looser than last week, but hen again, they may have stretched since I have worn them a few times.  My last pair of size 50 pants are definitely hard to wear now, they get all bunched up around the waist once I tighten a belt.  But it’s hard to get over the feeling that my body isn’t in top form and I will have to be patient.  

I did something different today – I tried a small breakfast, and a larger lunch and dinner with dessert.  So far, I don’t feel any desire to snack on anything, so it may be a success.  Self knowledge is the key!

-The Doctor

20190731 Daily report

The daily report is an opportunity to go over my daily food intake.  The idea is one of two principles I have committed to: 1. Watch what you eat and 2. Weigh yourself regularly.  These principles are how I will lose weight, become thin, and maintain my target weight afterwards.  

Wednesday reward

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – Yogurt (140); bratwurst wrap (310)

  • 450 calories

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

  • 600 calories 

Dinner – 9 ounces Circassian chicken (450); half wrap (50)

  • 500 calories

Snacking – 2 x tea with half and half (160); pretzels and hummus (100); calzone slice (100)

  • 360 calories

Total for the day: 1910 calories (limit 1800)

Hungry today

I was a good bit over my calorie target today.  I’m not sure why, but I had extra tea, then snacked around 4PM and again after dinner.  Maybe I’m still not completely over a recent illness.  I did everything right today food wise, including rewarding myself with a Big Greek Cafe Wednesday $5 Gyro sandwich.  

Maybe people don’t know about those sandwiches.  Gyro is a Greek sandwich with Turkish roots.  The meat is shaved in thin slices off of a loaf made of of pressed and spiced lamb and beef trimmings, which is rotated while it roasts, like in a rotisserie oven.  The idea is Turkish, but is popular throughout the Near East.  In Turkey the sandwich might be called a kebab (roasted meat) but in Greece it is called gyros.  Anyway, the roasted and shaved meat is piled on a toasted flat bread and then the whole thing is topped with tzatziki sauce (yogurt, cucumber, garlic, dill) and diced raw tomatoes and onions.  Fold it and eat it!  I like it a lot and look forward to eating it every week.  

The mystery of why thin people eat got a little clue today.  Let me explain.  One of the mysterious differences between people who stay thin and people who become more and more overweight (like me, up till recently) is the goal of eating seems to be different.  When I was gaining weight, my desire was to eat until I was completely full.  If you eat at every meal until you are stuffed, you will gain weight.  You’re never completely full for long, either.  Now that I am trying to lose weight (with some success), I have turned my focus to hunger.  I don’t want to be stuffed full for every meal, I want to be suitably hungry just in time for the next meal.  But what about people who stay thin through their lives?  What is their goal when they eat?  How can they tell when to stop?  

Being thin and staying that way takes constant effort.  I was watching a video today (where I got my clue) where a young couple were eating chips at a Mexican restaurant.  They were both quite thin.  The man commented that he was in danger of filling up on chips.  The woman’s comment was very interesting – she said that when the entrees finally came out, she would be able to eat about three bites before she would need a box for the rest.  So, that’s my clue.  I think she is saying that instead of stuffed full, she is attuned to the slightest hint that she is getting full.  Perhaps she has trained herself to notice how her stomach feels just at the moment of the transition from “enough” to “too much”.  Maybe the eating goal of a thin person is to eat Just Enough.  

I find that point (Just Enough Food) through calorie counting.  I can’t tell when I have had Just Enough just from how I feel, but maybe I can start paying attention to that feeling. This might be interesting!  How do you know when you he had enough?  What is your clue?  

-The Doctor

20190730 Daily report

My daily report is all about what I am doing every day, and why.  Every day, I regulate my food intake and keep a food journal.  That’s because of an important change I made to my moral compass. I decided that being thin and in control of my weight (which is more important) was the most important thing in my world (or at least in the top three).  Once I decided to dedicate myself to weight control, I was easily able to find ways to make that happen.  I wasn’t fighting against myself, unlike on all the other diets I tried.  

If you do it the other way around – try to force yourself to eat less or exercise more – you will run out of willpower.  To be a successful dieter in the long term, you have to change who you are and why you eat. 

Cheerful vegetable curry

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – Yogurt (140); bratwurst wrap (310)

  • 450 calories

Lunch – 2x Reese’s peanut butter cups (80); Snickers ice cream (180); 5oz Walnut chicken (250); 3/4 sandwich wrap (90)

  • 660 calories 

Dinner – 10 ounces red lentil curry (290); 5 ounces cooked Jasmine rice (160)

  • 450 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); pretzels (160)

  • 240 calories

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

The Doctor of Things

Tonight I spent some time reading about people who have successfully lost 100+ pounds through dieting, and in some cases have kept thin afterwards (some people weren’t tracked long term).   There were some interesting commonalities.  Almost all of them were on some variation of the keto diet or the Atkins diet.  On top of that, they all seemed to be counting calories.  That’s too much complexity for me; I want simple rules, not two sets of rules.  

But this is beside the point.  There is a sameness to a lot of what you read about losing weight.  

What the Doctor provides you that no-one else does, are the instructions on making the mental changes necessary to become a new person who is capable of controlling your body’s weight.  The various accounts people give of their weight loss successes are all missing that component.  They tell you what to eat, how much to eat, but not why you would do any of those things, or how you would keep on doing them.  They don’t talk about how to bring yourself into alignment with all the different parts of your being, or how having your food under control can be rewarding and satisfying, and bring you deep feelings of contentment.  

At least for me, weight loss success and failure is all in your mind.  If you figure out why you are eating, what satisfies you, and how to place weight control at the center of your thoughts where it ought to be, then you can change all that.  You can become a person who is in control of their weight and whose goal in life is to become thin and stay thin.  After you have changed your mind and adopted some new thinking, then weight loss follows as a consequence.  Your mind and body look for ways to make it happen.  Make yourself into a weight loss machine in your mind and your body will follow.  

“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.” – Sun Tzu

I talk to a lot of people who are very determined not to change their thinking about food, eating, or anything else.  For them, losing weight will be a constant struggle, to be resented.  Starting a diet while not changing anything about yourself is tantamount to Sun Tzu’s defeated warrior.  To be victorious, first change who you are.  Change yourself into a weight loss machine.  

How?  Start here, but I will talk some more about it soon.

-The Doctor

20190729 Daily report

Part of what makes my system of weight loss work is the system of rewards I use and give myself: daily (foods I really want to eat), weekly (Big Greek Cafe), and for reaching weight milestones like 270 and 260 pounds.  Past milestone rewards have included cake, Indian buffet, and steak burrito.  Today I thought I might make it to the Indian buffet for lunch, but couldn’t.  I was so disappointed, that I knew that I had found my next reward!  250 pounds, here I come.  

Today’s dinner was spaghetti and meatballs.  6 ounces of cooked spaghetti and 5 Costco meatballs.  That was still a reward – just not the ultimate reward. 

On top of spaghetti (six ounces) all covered with cheese (1/2 teaspoon)....

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – Kirkland bratwurst (280); 1/4 wrap (22) and a few extra for mustard

  • 310 calories

Lunch – small steak and cheese sub (500)

  • 500 calories 

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

  • 530 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); pretzels and cheese (200); artisan bread slice (100)

  • 380 calories

Total for the day: 1720 calories (limit 1800)

To bed

I went to bed late last night and was up early this morning.  But I did get the chance to see thin people in action again today, for 8 hours. 

Nobody snacked.  Very few of them had anything like a drink on their desk, like coffee, tea, soda, or a water bottle.  Two or three of them (out of 15) did had water bottles.  The only people with flavored drinks were me (diet soda) and a non-thin woman, who had a very large container of iced tea.  People did get up and presumably had water from the fountain from time to time.  

This confirms what I have been saying: thin people have different eating goals than overweight people.  The only people with large, flavored drinks were me (overweight still) and the iced tea woman (also overweight).  I understand why I drink diet soda: it’s calorie free and I get whatever pleasure from tasting it and having it cold and bubbly and refreshing, and more or less unlimited.  You can see how that might also apply to how I was eating.  I didn’t change how I approached drinks, just food.  It’s almost like I am eating like a thin person and drinking like an overweight person.  

I am sure that thin people do have flavored drinks, like cappuccinos and so forth.  From what I have seen, they just don’t want to drink it continuously.  They have it at one time, and they are done.  It takes just a few minutes and they move on.  Is it a reward?  But there is no doubt that overweight people want to experience the taste of food or drink, and fullness, and satisfaction, all the time, while thin people don’t.  

What is the eating goal of a thin person?  My first thought was, they eat to be thin.  That is the goal.  Maybe that’s wrong, I will keep looking.  Maybe I can find a thin person to ask.  

-The Doctor

20190728 Daily report

Another day is another chance to have a daily report!  This is a lifelong endeavor lived one day at a time.  The price of being thin and staying thin, is working at being thin and staying thin.  Where do you get the willpower to do that? You don’t.  You transform yourself morally into someone whose highest good is their personal and professional appearance.  At least, being thin should be in the top three of their moral hierarchy.  

4 ounces of rice and 9 ounces of Circassian chicken

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – Boar’s Head bratwurst (300); most of a yogurt (120)

  • 420 calories

Lunch – rice pudding (240); yogurt (140); potato chips (160)

  • 540 calories 

Dinner – 4 ounces cooked rice (120); 9 ounces of Circassian chicken (450); steamed mixed vegetables with butter (40)

  • 610 calories

Snacking – pretzels (170); hummus (80)

  • 250 calories

Total for the day: 1800 calories (limit 1800)

Summer complaint

I was ill a few weeks ago, which played merry hell with my diet.  For example: I ate more than usual, the types of foods I ate changed (my appetite ran to carbohydrate rich foods) and things were generally unpleasantly intestinal, mostly fluid retention and feeling bloated and full.  Recently, I threw that off and had a couple of good weeks.  Now, it seems like being ill is back in (low level intestinal things).  Take today for example.  I didn’t get hungry for breakfast until 11AM.  I had lunch at 2.30.  Then I was ravenous by 5PM.  My lunch in particular ran to carbohydrate rich foods.  There is some blockage in my system and things don’t feel normal.  Grrrr.

It’s possible that I am not really ill and I am just trying to rationalize a reduction in my weight loss progress.  If things don’t clear up soon, I may try a new strategy: increasing my daily calorie count.  Nothing drastic – up to 2000 per day instead of my standard 1800.  It could be that my body isn’t happy with 1800 and somehow that is impeding my progress.  I’m not quite ready to go there yet, but I am open to the idea.  I’ve talked about it before, in the context of reaching my goal weight.  What then?  Do I just go from eating 1800 calories per day to 3200 per day?  That’s almost double, what would that be like?

On the good side, having a lot more calories to play with will mean having cookies with my tea, eating bread, cereal, and peanut butter and jelly again.  And donuts.  (I could eat these things now, in extreme moderation, but I have chosen to cut them out of my weight loss diet planning as non-priorities.)  French fries.  Sandwiches on bread, toast with butter and jelly, pancakes and waffles.  There is a lot to look forward to!  And I am getting there, however with a few pauses for illness.  

I do enjoy 1800 calories per day.  It is so challenging to get the balance right, and I like a challenge.  The balance of course is between hunger and the sating of hunger.  If I get too hungry I lose control.  Not hungry enough and the incentive to eat less is gone (I console myself for eating less by figuring out exactly what is most appetizing for me to eat).  

So, I enjoy where I am now, and I have things to look forward to in the future.  That’s a great place to be, isn’t it?  Illness is temporary and I have a system that has worked until now.  It probably will keep on working.  I will find out, and so will you, just keep reading.

-The Doctor

20190727 Saturday weigh-in

Once a week, I weigh in to see how my calorie counting is going.  My mechanism to establish control over my body’s weight has two parts: 1. Regulate food intake and 2. get weighed once per week.  Some people weigh themselves every day.  They both work.  Having undergone a metamorphosis into a person who will sacrifice a lot to control his weight and become thin, I can act out the two parts of my mechanism and not use all my willpower on deprivation.  My goal is not to feel deprived.

Some weeks, things don’t go well.  Usually, they do.  

I woke up today and weighed myself but it was not a triumph.  My weight increased a pound since last week (now 260.4).  That isn’t possible per the number of calories I have recorded in my food journal, but it’s useful to think about what went wrong and what I can do about it next time.  Next week is a new week, after all. 

Dissection and reassembly

So what was different from other weeks where I have lost weight?  I overate on a couple of days, consequently my calorie count was higher than usual for the week by about 2500.  Also, for a few of the days my calorie count was lower than usual.  After my Wednesday late night eating fest, I only had 1000 calories the next day – I wasn’t hungry for much, and no wonder.  So my calorie intake was bunched up and not spread out as usual.  Last, I have had a bloated and full feeling in my gut all day.  

  • Calories per day: (Saturday) 2420, then 1750, 3800, 1740, 2880, 1080, and 1640 (Friday).  Total: 15,400.
  • My break even point (neither gain nor lose weight): 3200 per day or a Total of: 22,400.  
  • My usual calorie goal is about 13,000 calories per week (1850 x 7).

As you can see, even with a couple of bad diet days in there, I should be losing weight.  Why didn’t it happen?  

  1. I could be wrong about my calorie counting.  I don’t see that being right, my calorie counting has been good so far through the first 65 pounds lost.  But it’s possible.
  2. I could be retaining fluid.  I like this theory, because I feel a little bloated and blocked up today.  And it means I am not to blame!  Blame has lots of calories.
  3. The unevenness of my eating this last week (one day 1080, another day 3800) has thrown off my metabolism and given time my true weight will reveal itself.

It will be hard to tell the difference between #s 2 and 3.  They both will get fixed with time.  I don’t know if it helps, but I was sure to have a yogurt today with lots of active live cultures.  This will also not distinguish between #s 2 and 3, but will help either situation equally.  

It seems unlikely that with a maintenance level of 22,400 calories per week, that I wouldn’t lose weight by eating only 15,400 calories in a week.   The usual estimate is you lose 1 pound for every 3500 calories of deficit.  So I will forge ahead and get my routine re-established.  I have no reason to change anything, yet.  But there is still a long way to go – losing the rest of the extra weight, finding out what weight I want to maintain, and then figuring out how to maintain it.  It will take a lifetime, and I hope I can keep finding ways to make it worthwhile.

-The Doctor

20190726 Daily report

Another day, another daily report!  My food journal is kept every day, even every meal.  This blog post is written every day.  My life as someone whose eating and weight are coming under control, is lived one day at a time.  Each day is a chance to live life fully and well – through the lens of my body’s weight.  

Those of you who have read my work before know that I am not rich in sustained willpower.  I do this every day because I successfully made a one-time change.  I changed myself into someone who cared a lot about how much he weighed.  But so what?  Caring doesn’t lose any pounds.  I needed a mechanism.  How could I lose weight, having failed many times before? 

Kirkland brats! They are excellent.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – skipped (not hungry)

  • 0 calories

Lunch – 2 x bratwurst (280); half bread wrap (50)

  • 610 calories 

Dinner – 7 x pizza slices (100)

  • 700 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); half chicken sandwich (250)

  • 330 calories

Total for the day: 1640 calories (limit 1800 + 500 bonus from swimming, total 2300)

What a week

A week full of struggle, failure, recovery, and triumph has just ended.  On second thought, hold the triumph.  I won’t know about triumph until Saturday morning when I weigh in.  Keeping a food journal isn’t enough, you have to check it against reality from time to time.  I weight myself every week and write that down.  Any triumph only exists on paper, or at least in my food journal, for now.  I write down what I eat, count calories, and check my weight.  The whole system works well for losing weight and gives me lots of information I can use to understand myself and enrich my life.  

I have had good weeks and bad weeks.  On a good week, I try to average 1850 calories per day.  Over seven days of the week, that comes to about 13,000 calories.  

This week, due to having a couple of days where my eating was out of control, I ate about 15,000 calories.  The good parts are (1) I recovered and am looking forward to a chance for a better week ahead, and (2) I should lose weight anyway, at 15,000 calories – just not as much as usual.  The loss will be less, or slower, than last week when it was nearly 3 pounds.  My weight loss is often between 2-3 pounds when I make my calorie targets.  

Now, this calculated loss of weight is just by the calorie numbers.  Normally, my diet is carefully spread out over the seven days and I don’t overeat due to my system of goals and rewards.  What happens when you severely overeat on two days (Monday and Wednesday)?  Would the resulting body weight be different if the whole 15,000 calories was spread out over the week?  Even after months of fairly steady weight loss, I never know what is going to happen when I get on the scale Saturday morning.  Today I was getting some mixed messages from my body (today was a swimming day).  My stride felt springy and energetic.  However, my lap times were not particularly fast.  

I skipped breakfast today.  I was not hungry for it, not even a little.  I had lunch at 11AM because by then I was hungry, with a strong adjective in front of it.  I’m not sure what to make of the fact I wasn’t hungry all morning.  Maybe it’s nothing.  I will find out tomorrow, but in any case next week is a new week.  Live it to the best you can!

-The Doctor

20190725 Daily report

This long term project has many levels.  It’s a lifelong commitment; I will keep this up for as long as I live (or as long as I want to be thin).  It’s also a daily commitment lived one day at a time.  If there is a bad day, well, tomorrow is a new day.  Same if there is a good day.  It all adds up.  A week is also an important level.  Every week I weight myself.  Because the calculation for losing a pound of weight means being 3500 calories in deficit per week, I count each week separately.  If this was a bad week, well, it’s just one week.  Next week can be better.  Each meal itself is an important event, three times per day.  Every meal goes into my food journal as I finish it.  Sometimes I put the meal into my journal as I am eating it!

So nice I had it twice?

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – skipped (not hungry)

  • 0 calories

Lunch – skipped (not hungry)

  • 0 calories 

Dinner – chicken and rice skillet dinner (700); chocolate (300)

  • 1000 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80)

  • 80 calories

Total for the day: 1080 calories (limit 1800)

How to recover from a bad week

As every day is a new day, diet wise, so every week is a new week.  Yesterday I ate dinner very late (10PM) and then seemed to lose control.  I had 1000 calories after dinner, at least.  Maybe more.  I had ice cream, hummus, chicken, candy, and peanut butter.  I wasn’t even really hungry, but part of me wanted to be full.  I didn’t enjoy it much, since I knew it wasn’t going to make me feel good.  And when I woke up this morning I felt awful – full and bloated, not even a little hungry.  

My usual rule when I have a bad day is to take a deep breath and treat the new day as a blank slate.  The bad day is in the past and should stay there.  I try to concentrate on the future.  But now I have had a couple of bad days this week.  It has officially become a Bad Week.  That’s pretty unusual for me, since my new lifestyle is attractive and pleasant, yet challenging and interesting.  

But there is no need to despair.  Several bad days might tempt you to drop your diet – it can be demoralizing and you might feel like you are falling behind.  But each week is a new week, just like every day is a new day.  The new lifestyle is worth coming back to.  I prefer living by my weight control rules, it has been very nice in a lot of ways.  

So the two principles of Daily and Weekly restarts can help.  Tomorrow is a new day.  Today was kind of a new day.  At least I did not overeat, though I felt terrible all day and skipped a couple of meals due to lack of appetite.  I didn’t skip them to make up for yesterday!  An I didn’t make up for yesterday mathematically anyway.  This week is shot, but since I have enjoyed living under my weight control system there is incentive to make it work better tomorrow.  Then, on Saturday, begins the new week.  It’s a new week full of new days where I can get things to go right.  I have learned a lot about myself and I have confidence in my weight control system.  It has worked well so far and will work some more.  

I’ve read a bit about a fear of failure and a fear of success. I hope I’m not getting all complicated about this.  This is a straightforward deal: weight control.  Success is measured in meals, days, weeks, and lifetimes.  It’s a long term success with lots of opportunities for short term success.  

-The Doctor

End of content

The End

Newer Posts
Older Posts