Long term dieting

20190623 Daily report

My moral structure had to be changed in order for me to actually lose 120 pounds and then keep it off.  “Being thin” was not in my top 10 moral considerations, or even top 100.  Now, it is in my top three at all times.  It doesn’t make me a better or nicer person, but it does put a shape on the future.  That shape is a thinner me.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – 2 x Spanish tortilla slices (166); half bagel with ham and cheese (360)

  • 700 calories

Lunch – 2 x slices of Pizzeria Uno thin crust pizza (170)

  • 340 calories 

Dinner – Reuben sandwich (600); french fries (400)

  • 1000 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80)

  • 80 calories

Total for the day: 2120 calories (limit 1800)

A brief word

No picture today!  I was too busy.  

I was a little disappointed Saturday because I thought my weight would be down more.  My calorie discipline was very good.  I was suspecting that I had some water weight gain and to check this I weighed myself again this morning – 265.0.  I didn’t eat enough yesterday to gain two pounds!  So that is encouraging, in a way.  Next week I might have gotten over that.

My observation continues to be that there is no such thing as a person who is naturally thin.  So don’t be hard on yourself.  Being thin and maintaining that weight has a price.  That price is constant effort.  Two things I am prepared to do for the rest of my life are: keep regulating my food intake (calorie counting) and keep weighing myself weekly.  I will become thin and stay that way. 

You can develop a system to make staying thin part of your routine, but being thin has to perch at the top of your moral hierarchy if you are going to stay thin.  It is best to come up with a lifestyle that contributes to your being thin and also makes that satisfying and enjoyable.  Otherwise, why put all that effort in?  Losing weight, and staying thin, take a lot of effort and it is constant.  It can’t be something you dislike doing.  Reward yourself for doing it, reward yourself constantly.  That will make it satisfying.  The struggle gives you meaning.  Do that.  It is a system that works and I am telling you how it goes!

-The Doctor

20190622 Saturday weigh-in

Saturday is my weighing day.  It’s reality day.  I have been counting calories all week, writing in my food journal, planning out meals and figuring out how I work and how to keep myself happily losing weight.  Did it all really happen?  Did I really lose weight?  

I believe I need my own willing cooperation to make weight loss and weight maintenance work.  I can’t force myself because I don’t have the kind of willpower that can do that for more than a couple of weeks.  Dieting, approached as a willpower problem, takes a lot of will and makes you feel unhappy.  Treating yourself well, on the other hand, takes only a little willpower and feels really good.  It produces results.  

Headed down

This is good news!  That means that since starting my weight control plan in January 2019, I have lost………

Pounds!!
0

Scale and reflection

I wasn’t happy when I got on the scale this morning. It said 265.8!  That’s what I weighed last week. 

I have been working hard on controlling my food intake this week, after a few uncertain weeks in the recent past.  The harder I work, the more I have to give up.  I am giving up the future where I have eaten more food, for a future where I am thinner.  And it has worked.  Every week (barring illness) I have weighed less than the week before.  It has correlated fairly well with how successful I was during the week, of keeping my calorie count low.  This week, my calorie count was practically a record low.  I mostly ate meat the whole week, and I really had hunger and calories under control.  And then the scale had me losing no weight?!?

I got off the scale.  I was going over in my mind all the things I might have gotten wrong this week.  The scale beeped – an error code was on the display.  Whew!  The higher weight was an error.  I let the display clear, got back on and I was down to 263.8.  It’s not as big a loss as I was hoping for, but still 2 pounds is a great amount to lose in one week.  My hard work was worth it. 

Based on this one week, working harder on restricting the calorie intake didn’t necessarily translate to a bigger loss than average, though.  I have had weeks where I lost three pounds or more.  It might just be circumstances, water weight, etc.  Next week will tell.  But now it is reward time.

My reward for passing halfway will be to make a gingerbread cake!  I have done that before, and I carefully made a half cake last time.  I can do that again.  I previously made a full icing recipe and used half last time, and froze half.  It was really good.  So the new lifestyle is rewarding, taking good care of myself is rewarding, and success is rewarded.  I am floating towards my thin weight on wings made of reward.  This is truly a transformative approach.  I urge everyone to lose weight this way.  

-The Doctor

20190621 Daily report

Sometimes it is easy to keep the two commandments.  Sometimes it is harder.

  1. Thou shalt regulate thy food intake
  2. Thou shalt monitor thy weight

Today was a little harder to keep #1.  When you are at a social gathering it can be difficult and indiscreet to try to weigh things, or ask about calories.  Tonight I had to resort to eyeballing my food and saying “yup, that’s probably X calories”.  Lunch time was easier.  I was doing the cooking and I knew exactly what I was serving.

Burgers in the mist

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – 2 x carnitas wraps with sour cream on flour tortilla (220)

  • 440 calories

Lunch – Prime rib burger (390); Kaiser roll (210); grilled corn on the cob with butter (150)

  • 750 calories 

Dinner – spanikopita (200); kielbasa (100); pizza (100); bread and hummus, bread and tapenade (100)

  • 500 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80)

  • 80 calories

Total for the day: 1770 calories (limit 1800 + 500 bonus from swimming, total 2300)

A rare indulgence, and extra swimming

Today I went swimming for exercise.  Later, I swam again for recreation.  For several hours, with small children.  I am well exercised today.  On top of that, due to circumstances I ate my lunch rather late – 1.30 instead of 11.30.  It was a good lunch, though – 100% grilled.  

I tried brining the corn on the cob.  I put the corn in a gallon of water with a half cup each of salt and sugar, for about 40 minutes before grilling on a fairly hot grill.  It’s pretty easy – just keep turning the corn every 2 minutes, and keep the lid closed otherwise.  Every couple of turns you take the ear on the right and transfer it to the far left.  Then turn them all again.  It took about 10 or 12 minutes, but it was very well grilled by the end.  (I think a half cup of sugar was a bit high, though.)  The corn had a lovely roasted flavor you don’t get from boiled corn on the cob.  

The burger also came out very nice – 3 minutes per side on a medium grill.  It was made from prime rib but labeled 20% fat, and the manufacturer helpfully included the calories per patty. 

The rare indulgence was actually the bun (toasted on the grill).  I couldn’t tell you the last time I had a hamburger on a bun.  (I can tell you exactly when I last had a hamburger on a  flatbread wrap, though.)  When you are deficit calorie counting, bread is one of the things that I have sacrificed.  Low calorie flatbread wraps are my staple for sandwiches of all kinds.  That meal was worth waiting for.  

Beautiful weather today, recreational swimming, a fabulous grilled lunch, and a family dinner party.   Keeping my focus on calorie counting (at dinner) was tricky but possible.  I am sure I didn’t overeat, but I will find out tomorrow when I weigh myself.  This has been a good week for my new life, though.  My tally for calories for the week is one of my lowest ever.  And I was never deprived!   I 100% recommend the approach of using self knowledge to find a food lifestyle you really like.  

-The Doctor

20190620 Daily report

Today was a long day.  But I have committed to my two weight control habits and will complete them, no matter the hour! 

  1. Regulate your food intake
  2. Weigh yourself regularly

My plan is to do these two things for as long as I want to be in control of my weight.  That’s pretty much as long as I live.  There are many different ways to do the first.  My system is calorie counting, with a lot of self knowledge along the way.  To keep doing this, I had to find a way that didn’t suck away willpower.  I don’t have enough to force myself to lose 120 pounds!  Let alone last my whole life.  No, I had to transform my thinking.

Pizza dreaming

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – 2 x Pork carnitas wraps with yogurt (200); Grilled pork loin, plain (100)

  • 500 calories

Lunch – 6 x pizza slices (100)

  • 600 calories 

Dinner – 5 ounces spaghetti, cooked (250); meatballs (230)

  • 480 calories

Snacking – Snickers ice cream bar (180)

  • 180 calories

Total for the day: 1760 calories (limit 1800)

Another perspective

Yesterday’s post included describing the weight loss system of Keto Kelly (and Scott Adams).  I wrote a comment to her post, asking a few questions:

The Doctor’s comment:

Congratulations on losing 100 pounds! It is really impressive that you were able to do that by changing how you thought about food and eating. 

The post says you had a successful three month break with no weight gain. Were you following the keto rules then? When you are at a weight you like, will you stay on keto afterwards? What about calorie counting, will you keep that up? 

I am half way to my own goal. Thanks for your answers!

Kelly nicely replied with her own comment answering my questions:

Thank you!! And congrats on your losses!

I stayed on the keto diet during that 3-month period. When I reach my goal weight, I plan on sticking to keto (with some popcorn here and there ;)) and a fasting regimen yet to be determined. Probably one meal a day except on weekends. And I plan to do the fasting regimen in place of calorie counting. It’s less effort to watch the clock, and keto helps me feel satiety signals easier.

What a nice answer.  And very useful.  Kelly says elsewhere on her blog that she plans to lose another 30 pounds, having lost about 100 already.  When she has reached her goal, or whatever her final weight will be, she plans to keep on the keto method.  This includes a fasting regimen.  Notice that she does not plan to monitor calories!  I would worry about that, but she has three months of experience using keto and not counting calories.  She says she didn’t gain or lose weight, so she has found a calorie balance.  

So long as she keeps weighing herself, it will probably work.  Go Kelly!  

Never argue with success.  Clearly there are several paths to this goal.

-The Doctor

20190619 Daily report

The mechanism I am using to control my body’s weight has two parts.  (1) Regulate your food intake and (2) weigh yourself regularly.  The first, I accomplish through counting calories and writing everything I eat in a food journal I keep online.  The second I keep by weighing myself every Saturday.  

I call this “the mechanism” because it wouldn’t work if I hadn’t changed my thinking first.  Having become a new person capable of successfully losing weight, I use this mechanism to do it.  I am sure it wouldn’t have worked on me before I changed.  I changed my mind.  My body came along for the ride.  

Red, white....where can I get a blue sausage?

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – 2 x Pork loin wraps (200); Twix ice cream bar (160)

  • 560 calories

Lunch – Boar’s head bratwurst (300); Boar’s head knockwurst (310)

  • 610 calories 

Dinner – 2 x pork tenderloin wraps (300); baked chicken breast tender (200); coleslaw (45)

  • 540 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80)

  • 80 calories

Total for the day: 1790 calories (limit 1800)

More success stories

Today I found the webpage of a dieter who claimed to get her weight loss model from Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert.  the Dilbert cartoonist.  I’ve read his book, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big.  There is some weight loss advice in there; Adams says you have to….wait for it….change how you think to lose weight!  He was talking in the context of a systems approach, which he favors over a goal-based approach.  He points out that the goal of losing weight is demoralizing.  Everything you eat goes against the goal!  (I mean, when your only goal is to lose weight, everything you eat is a betrayal of that goal.  Strange but logically true.)

The systems approach says you pick a different method.  Adopt a system – for example, your system might be to eat a healthy diet.  That way every time you eat, you can reinforce the system.  Every meal adds to your success.  Even if you have a lapse and eat too much, you can still keep the system going at the next meal.  

Anyway, this weight loss success calls herself Keto Kelly.  She says she has lost 100 pounds using the ketogenic diet method paired with the systems approach.  One of the Doctor’s observations is that nothing succeeds like success!  I have written before about the keto diet and its potential pitfalls in my How to Start a Diet 120 Pounds Overweight series.  But there is no denying that it is a method many people have used to successfully lose large amounts of weight.  Let’s look at her ideas.

  1. Create a new lifestyle she could live with.  Great idea!
  2. Forced her husband to diet with her.  Er, good for them both!  More seriously, she created social pressure to keep herself on her diet.  It also helped her husband lose 75 pounds.  So she helped others, too.
  3. Jump into her new life.  This sounds like she was able to reinvent herself as a new person capable of new things.  Also good!  She began her new lifestyle with fasting.  Again, who argues with success?
  4. Discovered that she liked her new lifestyle.  She liked it better than her old one, where she gained weight.  That is terrific!  
  5. She says, I have never been this well fed in my life.  That is like something I say all the time.  It means she is really treating herself like someone she is responsible for helping.  She treats herself well, and is therefore able to lose weight.  Compare this to my advice to never punish yourself while trying to lose weight.  
  6. She took a break.  In the middle of her diet, she stopped counting calories for three months.  She didn’t gain or lose any weight during that time, but still observed the keto rules.  It gave her a feeling of rest, like it was a lifestyle she could maintain.  Good thinking!  

I have commented on her post asking some follow up questions.  Maybe she will answer.  I am very interested in this idea of the transition from weight loss to weight maintenance.  

But first, comes the weight loss!  60 pounds to go. My food journal is complete for today.

-The Doctor

20190618 Daily report

I have lost 60 pounds by transforming the way I think.  My body is a lagging indicator.

My values are now built around being in control of my weight.  How did I do that?  I had to transform myself and adopt new ways of thinking about myself and about food.   I changed my thinking.  My body is steadily catching up to my new brain and my new way of thinking.  No, I am not saying “think thin”!  That’s just a reminder and a slogan.  I mean, now I am the kind of person who obsesses over calories and what I am going to eat.  When I was my old self, I didn’t worry about those things.  So it was a real transformation.

One of my requirements was that this weight control should be successful.  I have had it with willpower diets.  In a way, I am treating myself like a collection of people with different desires.  These people are willing to cooperate on weight control, if I give them something in return.  What do they want?  Sometimes it is ice cream.  

Taking one for the team

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – Grilled pork tenderloin wrap (150); Grilled bratwurst wrap (350)

  • 500 calories

Lunch – Pork carnitas wraps with yogurt (400); baked chicken (200)

  • 600 calories 

Dinner – grilled wagyu beef burger 5.3 oz (raw, 4 oz grilled; 350) half wrap shell (55)

  • 400 calories

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

  • 260 calories

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

Exercise and diet

I swim, twice a week, because I like to.  I don’t expect it to lose me any weight.  It’s nice that it also helps keep my muscles strong, and requires practicing coordinated movement.  Notice that on days when I swim, I allow myself an extra 500 calories of food.  The swimming is burning about 600 calories (online calculator).  Sometimes, I am just not hungry for the 500 extra calories and don’t have them.  Sometimes, I am hungry for them and go the extra meal!  That’s a nice system because I feel like there are days when I can have more.  I think I will recommend that part of the rewards people build into their diets, is the occasional “more” day.  It can be something to look forward to….but your mind has to be in the right place.  So much of this is mental.

As for diet, I have written a lot about my dislike of the concept of going on a diet.  The real danger in dieting is that you will force yourself to eat less for a time, while changing absolutely nothing about the way you think.  In a way, such a diet is a long punishment session you inflict on yourself, if you follow me!  Then, at the end, you reach a goal weight, or quit your diet, and go back to your old lifestyle – either right away, or after a short time.  You are the same person who got overweight, you just weigh less for now.  It will come back, and then some more may follow.  

Part of the mental change you should make is to realize that people who stay thin have to work on it a lot.  Weight control takes constant management, and that is just the price you pay.  In exchange, you get to stay thin.  Having your weight under control doesn’t just happen, not for anybody.  To gain this control, it’s important not to feel sorry for yourself or blame others.  It is all you and can be improved only by you, by your mind.  At the end, you will be a stronger and more capable person, in control of their weight.  And you will know the price of that and whether it is worth paying.  Isn’t that a nice outcome?

-The Doctor

20190617 Daily report

Weight loss is a side benefit for me.  The goal is not weight loss.  The goal is weight control.  Weight control is about self knowledge.  Self knowledge means knowing what I have to do to make my life better.  Sound easy?  Try making a list of the things in your life that you could change to make you happier, stronger, and better.  

My goal is to make my life better.  Losing weight is a side benefit.

Test burger

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – Pork carnitas wraps (400); banana (100).  The wrap shell was 110 calories, the meat nearly 300, and the rest yogurt.  The carnitas meat was a slow cooker recipe, very nice.

  • 500 calories

Lunch – grilled wagyu beef burger (5.3 oz raw, 4 oz. grilled, 350); half wrap shell (55), cheese (80)

  • 485 calories 

Dinner – baked chicken, 1/4 wrap shell (225); mixed vegetables (40)

  • 265 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); 2 x Reese’s peanut butter cups (80); Snickers ice cream bar (180); pizza slice (100)

  • 500 calories

Total for the day: 1750 calories (limit 1800)

The struggle to stay on top of it

The Doctor does not have the willpower to force himself to eat less food.  It feels like punishment.  It is unfulfilling.  You spend every minute on a diet being resentful and unhappy.  That’s no way to live.

Instead, I changed the way I saw the world.  There’s a kind of magic in that.  Now I am describing my new world to you.  Words can change the way people see the world.  Now, I am living in a world where my goal is to ensure I am hungry for every meal, but not between meals.  Now, being full is distasteful to me.  Now, being in control of my weight is more important to me than almost anything else.  

Now, my willpower is deployed for a different purpose.  I am using my willpower to think ahead, plan, cook, and make sure I am enjoying eating less food.  Isn’t that counterintuitive?  But it is a lot more fulfilling than eating just so I would have a full stomach.  In a way, I am working to make sure I am happy and fulfilled.  Losing weight is almost something that happens on the side, a byproduct of my new life.  And this is an intense way of living, too.  All the thinking, planning, cooking, experimenting, and writing it all down, has made this a really fully lived year.  And it’s only half way over!  

Time for bed.  Good night!  Dream of how to change how you see the world.  

-The Doctor

20190616 Daily report

My daily food journal helps me keep trck of the food I eat.  What did you have for breakfast today?  Yesterday?  Tuesday?  How many calories did you eat Wednesday?  How about last week?  If you can answer those questions, you have taken the first step to controlling your body’s weight.  Now it comes down to: how do you find the willpower to do that, every day?  I have found that willpower isn’t the issue, if you look at things the right way.  I don’t use my willpower to force myself to eat less.  I use my willpower to make sure I treat myself really, really well.  

I am willing to eat less food, if the food I eat is worth the wait.  That means I have to figure out what I really want and try to make that happen.  I cater to myself, and part of me responds really well to that.

Grill night for the Doctor

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – steel cut oats and Log Cabin syrup (325)

  • 325 calories

Lunch – pork carnitas wrap with sour cream (300); knockwurst wrap (335)

  • 635 calories 

Dinner – grilled pork tenderloin with chimichurri sauce (300); grilled eggplant with yogurt sauce (300)

  • 600 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (40); Snickers ice cream bar (180)

  • 220 calories

Total for the day: 1780 calories (limit 1800)

Recipes and eating by system

The Doctor has been promising to post a few recipes on this site.  The work is almost done, then I will start linking to that content.  Until then I will describe it! 

My dinner tonight was cooked on a gas grill.  The tenderloins were pounded flat and lightly rubbed with brown sugar, salt, pepper, and brushed with olive oil.  The sugar makes the meat brown quickly, and the molasses content is great for flavoring the meat.  Cooking is only 2 minutes per side on a hot, preheated grill (turned down to medium just when the meat is put on the grates).  After cooking, the meat is well seasoned and is still moist, since the grill is so quick.  The Chimichurri sauce is a olive oil and red wine vinaigrette (4 and 3 tablespoons, respectively), with 4 tablespoons each of minced parsley and cilantro, with a half teaspoon of dried oregano and 1/4 tsp salt.  It’s the green sauce in the picture above.  Spooned on top of the hot, flavorful meat, it is totally worth getting hungry for.

The eggplant slices were brushed with oil, salted and peppered, then cooked on the same grill for 4 minutes per side.  The heat was a bit aggressive, I think next time I will turn the grill down to low.  The yogurt sauce had mint, lemon juice, zest, garlic, cumin, and salt.  That was a really strong flavoring, I think it overpowered the eggplant!  I may cut the spices in half next time. 

I was talking to an acquaintance this weekend, a fellow of about 75 I will call Bob.  Bob has stayed thin in his old age, and trim and muscular too.  I see him at the pool often.  How does he do that?  Is he the mythical person who eats what he likes and doesn’t gain weight?  

Ha, no.  Bob told me that he cooks once per week.  He makes three pounds of meat and an enormous salad, and then eats all that during the week.  His wife doesn’t cook for him, he found he had better control if he does that himself.  He said he only gains weight during travel, like on holidays, when he can’t easily regulate how much he is eating.  That is a really interesting system.  Bob has figured out how much he can eat in a week to maintain his weight.  Instead of paying attention every day to how many calories he can eat, he really only has to pay attention once per week, when he portions and cooks the food.  

Is that a bit dull and monotonous, to eat leftovers 6 days out of 7?  Maybe, we didn’t go into specifics.  But boy, is he fit and thin.  Would that system work for me?  Maybe, once I am 75.  Right now, I am enjoying bribing myself with delicious food that changes every day.  One thing is clear: I am putting a lot more work into my daily food choices, cooking, and calorie counting than Bob is.  

I have made sure that I have a lot of my favorite foods ready to go this week.  I have hamburgers grilled, and sausages, carnitas, and chimichurri grilled pork tenderloin leftovers all ready.  And coleslaw.  No grazing on snacks and chips this week!  The food is so filling and satisfying that I am sure to have a great week.  I am really working hard to keep myself happy.  And it is paying off.  It could work for you, too.

-The Doctor  

 

20190615 Saturday weigh-in

Every week I check to see how good my food journal is and how well it reflects what is really happening.  The best way to check is to weigh myself and see how it matches what the food journal predicts!

This week was not the best week for my diet.  I lost focus, I didn’t reward myself every day, and consequently suffered from the urge to feel full.  My calorie average for this week was around 1950 per day.  On weeks where I have lost 2 pounds or more, I have averaged 1850 or less per day, over the week.  And a lot of the calories I ate this week were highly available, that is, came from processed foods high in carbohydrates.  I’m also not convinced I remembered to write down everything I ate.  So this total might be too low.

On the other hand, the total calorie count was far below what I needed to lose weight.  How did I do this morning on the scale?

Does the new camera make my feet look orange?

Progress!  I didn’t lose two and a half pounds, which is more usual, but I did lose more than one and a half pounds.  Officially, since starting my diet I have lost (in round numbers):

Pounds!!
0

Wooooaaah, I'm half way there

There is an extra 0.8 pound on top of the 265, so it’s not as good as it sounds, but in round numbers 265 puts me at exactly half of the weight I intend to lose.  That’s a total of 120 pounds, starting at 325, down to 205.  It’s taken six months to get this far.  I predict that the remaining 60 pounds will take another six months.  Then will begin the maintenance phase of my new lifestyle.

I am really a new person now.  This was brought home to me when talking with my parents.  They are coming to visit soon.  When I asked what they wanted to eat, they demurred and said they would adapt to what I had.  That’s not the way the Doctor works now!  I will only eat food I really want.  It makes me less adaptable, but it is a trade off I am willing to make, since it makes me so successful at controlling my weight and losing weight.  I have never succeeded at losing weight before, certainly not 60 pounds. 

Anyway, I gave my parents a hard time, and insisted that they should have food they really want while they are visiting.  It was like pulling teeth.  They don’t want to put me to trouble, but truly, I am a new person now.  I am different than the man they knew just a few months ago.  Compared to them, I am now obsessed about my food choices and weight.  Now, I am horrified that they would just make do.  To me, in severe calorie deficit, that wouldn’t work at all.  Why would I bother with eating less, if I didn’t love it?  Why should they?  

Once I have achieved a body weight that I like, I will not stop my weight loss program.  This is my new lifestyle and I like it.  I am paying attention to my own needs and taking care of myself, and I find that enjoyable and emotionally satisfying.  This is an amazing way to lose weight.  What adaptation will I have to make to transfer to a weight-maintenance lifestyle?  What will that be like?

-The Doctor

20190614 Daily report

Every day is a new day to make a payment towards controlling my body’s weight!  How do I pay that?  The price of being in control of your weight is constant attention to regulating and recording what you eat, and weighing yourself every week at least.  People may someday ask me, “Doctor, how do you find the willpower to lose 120 pounds and then keep it off?”  And the answer will be, I don’t play that game.  I don’t have that kind of willpower.  But I have found a way that is much easier.  

Grilling time!

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – baguette and salami sandwich (150); baguette and hummus (100); Ruffles chips (150)

  • 400 calories

Lunch – Pork loin wraps (200); pretzels (100); ice cream (200)

  • 500 calories 

Dinner – grilled knockwurst (310); grilled bratwurst (300)

  • 610 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); crackers (100); cookies (100)

  • 280 calories

Total for the day: 1790 calories (limit 1800 + 500 bonus from swimming, total 2300)

Using self knowledge

I have a complete record of almost everything I have eaten since January 2019.  Sometimes, that is useful.  Right now, looking at the last week or two, I have not been keeping focused.  My method depends on eating a small amount of food for each meal.  That food has to be pretty exciting, to make up for there being only a little.  But I have had trouble with keeping to my daily calorie total of 1800.  Looking at my menu for the last two weeks, I think I have figured out why.

Many of my recent meals have been a collection of unexciting leftovers or grazing on snacks.  Who would rejoice to eat that?  Since I don’t have the fulfillment and satisfaction of eating the foods I really am looking forward to, I am falling back on my old eating goal. 

I should explain.  When I was developing this weight loss strategy, and was thinking about my eating behavior over the last 20 years, I realized I was eating to feel full.  I convinced myself that being full was the source of satisfaction and fulfillment and was the point of eating.  If I felt sad, or mad, or bad, well, I could feel happy and satisfied if only I was full.  

My new (and successful) eating goal is to focus on strategic hunger.  Using hunger, I have transformed my relationship with food and eating.  The goal now is to be actually hungry (famished) just in time for a meal.  To make that work, the food I am eating has to be worth getting hungry for.  If I am just eating snacks and random leftovers, the incentive is gone.  My old food goal – being full – re-asserts itself.  Luckily I am paying such close attention to my food that I can see this kind of thing early and fix it.    So tonight for dinner, I got very hungry and then rewarded myself with Boar’s Head sausages, freshly grilled and delicious, with mustard.  Tomorrow, I will put some effort into figuring out what will excite and motivate me for the next week.  

That’s part of why this diet is so fulfilling.  I am spending a lot of time figuring out how to please myself and reward myself.  It looks like I am responding to that kind of care!  Maybe you would, too.  What would you be willing to do, to be thin and in control of your body’s weight?  

-The Doctor

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