Stay on a diet

20191102 Saturday weigh-in

Once you have promoted weight control to the top of your moral hierarchy (or very near the top – let’s say the top three), it is hard to look at the world any other way.  I was reading through my food journal and it’s amazing to see how it plays out.  (I also record life events in the journal.)  In my non food life, good things happen, and bad things happen, and through it all, I keep recording what I ate and how many calories, how I felt about it, how often I exercise, calorie content of foods, and of course, how much I weigh.  

I weigh my body every Saturday.  It is so important to me that I am weighing my whole family!  I keep a separate record of that.  I even want the kids to pay attention to their weight and have all the tools they need to control it.  Tool #1 is to record what you ate and how many calories were in it.  Tool #2 is just as important.  You must weigh yourself every week. 

There are perfectly good alternates for these tools, too.  But these are mine.  

Not quite straight, but still a lower number than before.

Since starting my weight control lifestyle, with a new weight control mind, back in January 2019, I have lost:

Pounds!!
0

The pull of candy.....turn it into a reward

With all this Halloween around, I have started to feel a bit deprived for candy.  My weight control system does not allow actual deprivation.  Who would keep up a diet and lifestyle that makes you unhappy and deprived?  You will have to use increasing amounts of force and willpower to keep that up, and eventually your resentments will take over.  Goodbye, weight control!  

So I want to avoid that.  What I have done successfully in the past is turn food cravings into a reward.  All kinds of food temptations are allowed in this system, so long as the calorie count stays under control.  Candy is no different!  

As part of the system of rewards, I have regularly celebrated every 10 pounds lost with a special dessert, or meal.  When I got my weight under 300 pounds, I baked a gingerbread cake and ate it  – piece by piece – over a couple of weeks.  During that time, I made cake part of my calorie count, and was able to really enjoy each piece and look forward to eating them.  The technique was easy – I counted up all the calories in the recipe, including icing, and divided by the number of slices.  The math came to 550 calories per slice.  That way, the reward didn’t stop my quest to keep controlling my weight and transform my mind and body.  And it turned out that eating the cake that way was much more enjoyable than if I had just eaten a few really big pieces.  Anticipation makes the sacrifice worthwhile.

There are other ways of controlling your calorie intake and checking your body for weight gain.  Mine has certain strengths: it works, it is enjoyable, there are no food restrictions, it doesn’t cost more money than I was spending before.  Unusual events like holidays are no problem, though I always find travel is difficult while dieting.  Or is it the other way around?  The weight control diet has certain weaknesses: it takes work, it takes planning and organization, it takes careful negotiation with yourself, constant paying attention, and time spent keeping a food journal.  Plus you weigh yourself every week. 

I have met people who handle this differently.  My grandfather at the same thing for every meal.  Every lunch was the same, every dinner was the same, etc. I don’t mean that breakfast, lunch, and dinner were exactly the same!  But he was very, very thin.  I don’t know exactly what my other grandfather’s system was, but he gave the impression of not being sensually interested in food.  Another man I met cooks all his food on the weekend, then eats it for the rest of the week.  He knows exactly how much food he had for the week, though e doesn’t care much how much he has on any particular day.  Many people weigh themselves daily or weekly, but some use other measurements, like the way that clothes fit, or a belt.

The strengths of those systems are all about saving time and attention.  If you know exactly what you are going to eat and how much (however you get there), you are controlling your intake.  You don’t have to pay as much attention as I do!  Just eat the portion.  All the work is already done for you.  I imagine it’s the same for people who eat frozen pre prepared meals from a store.  That wouldn’t appeal to me, but it might work for you.  However, such a person is at risk during unusual events like holidays.  Between Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, there is a lot of extra food around and the usual routine can get disrupted.  It is for this reason that people gain weight around the holidays and try to lose weight in the beginning of the year.  But there’s no denying the simplicity of the system most of the time.  

Regulate your food intake and weigh yourself regularly!

-The Doctor

20191101 Daily report

To lose weight, you have to get your mind right.  Once your mind is right, then your brain is on your side.  Your body will follow.  How is this mind-miracle achieved?

On one level, it’s your brain.  You have to figure some of it out.  But I can show you some good ideas.  First, be willing to admit that everything you think about weight loss might be wrong.  A common way to approach a diet is to try to will yourself thin .  Don’t force yourself to eat and do things you aren’t happy about.  That brings us to punishment and resentment.  Through force and punishment, you can actually come to resent yourself.  It is easy to resent the part of you that is saying “eat less!”  and insisting that you eat things you don’t want, and making you go hungry and unsatisfied.

Instead, think of it as a negotiation between equal partners.  No force is allowed.  Get your mind right first – you want to lose weight and eat less.  How do you do that and still have a satisfying and happy life experience?

Pizza, again!!?!

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – 2x pieces Spanish tortilla (333); Kirkland whole wheat wrap (110); 1tsp Duke’s mayo (30);

  • 470 calories

Lunch – noodles (250); toast (130); hummus (80); Swiss cheese (50);

  • 510 calories 

Dinner – Aldi sausage and pepperoni pizza half (570);

  • 570 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); 2x Aldi peanut butter cups (120); 1 bag chips (150);

  • 350 calories

Total for the day: 1900 calories (limit 1800 + 500 bonus from swimming, total 2300)

Spooky creepy spectacular!

OK, that was one last salute to Halloween.  I have nothing spooky, though if my scale is possessed tomorrow, I will let you know.  

Every week, I spend some time reading articles and blog posts about weight loss to try and understand what ideas are working for people.  Usually I focus on stories about people who have lost 100+ pounds.  First, that includes me (though I haven’t lost that much yet).  Second, those are people who have had to develop a good system and work at it.  Third, these are people who are able to keep their weight under control afterwards.  That means they have built new lives that work for them.  

Today’s article: What Women Who’ve Lost 100 Pounds Eat Every Day

The article profiles five women, very briefly presenting a table of their food choices.  I’m not sure about the premise of the article.  Maybe eating what these women eat wouldn’t work for you, and maybe it would.  There’s no mention of a food diary or a calorie count, just a list of foods and a bit of narrative color.  I have pulled out some interesting pieces from each profile.

  1. TK’s food choices are not that interesting to me, but she mentions that she snacks whenever she needs it.  That is great – don’t try to tough out being hungry.  Part of you will resent going without and feel deprived.  That kind of thing can lead to breaking your diet discipline.  Get some snack packs and learn to recognize when you need one.  I have little packs of beef jerky, 90 calories each.  I’m still not that good about knowing when to open one, though.
  2. SK has an interesting food list.  She learned that her body does well when she avoids dairy and carbohydrates.  She has a fair amount of meat and protein in her diet, and then she rewards herself with measured amounts of chocolate.  That kind of self-knowledge is wonderful.  She has built a diet that she likes and her body likes too.  That kind of thing will make it easier for her to stay thin.
  3. JJH incorporates several ideas into her diet that the Doctor has mentioned before.  She pre-prepares a lot of meals on the weekends and portions them.  She eats a lot of meat and vegetables, and her top breakfast choice is bacon and eggs.  I am getting hungry for that right now, just reading about it.  Reading her bio, she also mentions failing on a lot of previous attempts at dieting.  Like me, she admits she stopped paying any attention to weight control and gained a lot of weight over time.  For her, a supportive social network and strength training were also important.  
  4. For CG, I see a trick I have seen elsewhere – raw vegetables and hummus as the snack.  She also seems to avoid breads and simple carbohydrates.  That’s true for a lot of people, I notice.  When you are restricting your calorie intake, you have to be very aware of what foods will make you feel satisfied and not mind eating controlled amounts.  Looking at her bio, she is also someone who had bariatric surgery, which restricts your stomach size.  That helped her feel full while eating less.  I would be concerned about what happens when the surgery is reversed, because she talks about wanting to feel full.  But for her it seemed to work.
  5. Last, it’s CP.  I am predisposed to this one because she is a fan of flatbread sandwiches for lunch.  I love those!  It’s a great way to have a sandwich without hundreds of calories of bread.  Also, I see a lot of themes I know and love in her bio.  She does a lot of pre planning of her meals – check!  She found some supportive friends – check!  And she makes a thing about not punishing herself, but being kind – which I totally agree with.  Use rewards to keep yourself happy and satisfied.  It works for a lot of things.  

The Doctor is a big proponent of a food journal, counting calories and weighing yourself often.  This article doesn’t mention any of that, but it does say that it’s about what people eat – not how much.  I don’t think there is any magic about what you eat, but it pays to look and see what other successful people are doing.  Maybe you will learn something.   Don’t be too proud to learn!  

-The Doctor

20191031 Daily report

My weight control-focused lifestyle is lived one day at a time.  Almost, one meal at a time.  But really, every day is a new day.  My calorie count is for the day.  My food journal is set up for daily entries.  It is not always easy to live while focused on high quality experience, since I am asking a lot of myself.  There is a lot of effort, planning, and execution of plans.  I am taking it one day at a time, in more ways than one.  One day at a time is something ex-alcoholics or ex-smokers might say in group meetings.  But yes, it is one day at a time.  It is not easy.  But there are compensations.  

Chicken and....basically a risotto.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – 2x Spanish tortilla (166); whole wheat wrap (110); tsp mayonnaise (30)

  • 470 calories

Lunch – steak and cheese sandwich (500)

  • 500 calories 

Dinner – chicken breast (220); 10 ounces rice casserole and peas (230)

  • 450 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (120); 3 pieces candy (150);

  • 270 calories

Total for the day: 1690 calories (limit 1800)

Halloween!

The Doctor is taking tonight off in honor of the holiday (and because there is a lot to do tonight: costumes, trick or treating, candy sorting, candy eating…).

I will say: I have been spending time in my office recently.  It’s amazing how supportive people are about weight loss, but it’s always people who are thin themselves who comment and give encouragement.  I recognize now that people who are thin work at it constantly with various degrees of success.  So they recognize that you are working at it too.  Maybe they appreciate it.  

But wanting to be thinner is not the same as making the mental changes necessary to bring it about.  Even working at it does not guarantee any success, as I found out over the years.  You have to have a good system that you like and are willing to live out.  That means promoting new values to the top of your hierarchy of rules you live by.  Changing your mind is actually the tricky part.

Do it and your body will follow.  That part will take time.

-The Doctor

20191030 Daily report

Every day, my job is to live in the world as if I was in control of my weight, and as if that was a good thing.  I want that life to be both very practical and of high quality, because that’s the kind of life I find worth living.  On the practical level, I maintain weight control by planning meals and counting calories, and recording what I eat in a food journal.  Also, I weigh myself every Saturday, with few exceptions.  

On the quality of life side, it is important to most of us to be living a life one can be proud of.  That is part of the meaning of quality.  If your standards are low, quality can mean anything.  For years, the idea of quality that I lived was to eat whatever I felt like, and not pay any attention to how much.  Now I do things differently.  Quality now means successfully negotiating with myself, to engage as many layers and parts of my being as possible towards my goal.  The feeling that so many parts of my life and of myself are coming together and working together gives me a strong sense of meaning.  It is very fulfilling to make progress and achieve goals while living in harmony with all your contradictory parts.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – Jimmy Dean sausage, egg, and cheese croissantwich, oven-toasted (400)

  • 400 calories

Lunch – Roasted chicken breast (220); with 10 ounces of rice and peas cooked in wine, broth, and spices (230)

  • 450 calories 

Dinner – 12 ounces chicken curry (335); 5 ounces cooked white jasmine rice (160)

  • 500 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (120); 

  • 120 calories

Total for the day: 1470 calories (limit 1800)

Self regulating - the pendulum swings again

Yesterday, when I wrote my food journal in the blog post, it was accurate.  However, that didn’t last.  I had another 500 calories last night, late.  When I have that kind of feeling, like I need to eat, I don’t try to fight it anymore.  I recognize that I haven’t met my own needs somehow.  There are two problems that follow on from this initial failure.

First, there is the temptation to make up for the calorie overage the next day.  I have learned (through this happening before)  that you have to let it go.  Accept that you failed, at least in part, to keep up your end of the bargain.  The bargain is, my subconscious being will be happy eating controlled amounts of food, so long as it doesn’t feel deprived.  That means the food has to be very appealing, it has to be planned well, and I have to take care that I eat at the right times, before I get too hungry and deprived.  Remember I am in deficit as much as 1000 calories per day.  To be that far under what your body needs to keep its weight, a lot of care and attention is required to make the food you do eat seem like enough.  It HAS to be on time, and it HAS to be meeting the need for food that is worth the wait and the effort.  I ate fewer calories today, but that’s because I honestly didn’t want them.  This is because of the second problem.  

The second problem with overeating is that it throws off your digestion, your metabolism, your appetite, for the whole next day.  Sure enough, that was my day today.  I just felt terrible, and while I got hungry and ate food, it just didn’t feel satisfying and I didn’t feel properly hungry.  I was carrying around the imbalance from last night.  Thank goodness, the pendulum will swing back to normal soon.  

Anyway, I have learned that if I try to hurry the pendulum along by skipping a meal, it just makes the problem worse.  I make myself feel deprived again, and that could lead to even more overeating later.  The balance I am trying to maintain would be thrown off even further.  Then the next day’s recovery would be even harder.  That kind of cycle can get really bad.  So my advice is just wait it out.  If you don’t feel better tomorrow, then you will the next day.  Just give your body time to reset.

Today I made a chicken curry for dinner.  You can see the ingredients laid out above, ready for cooking, and then the finished portion plated below that.  I will put the recipe in the Recipes tab at the top of the blog, as soon as I can get around to it.  The point is, when you add up everything in the dish, it comes to 2000 calories.  When I finished cooking, I weighed the entirety in a bowl on the scale: 4 pounds, 11 ounces.  That’s near enough 75 ounces.  One-sixth of that would be 12.5 ounces and 2000/6 portions is 333 calories.  So the whole thing, divided in six portions of 12 ounces each, with 5 ounces of cooked rice per portion (160 calories) is just about 500 calories per portion.  And in my experience,  1.5 cups of raw rice makes 30 ounces of cooked rice.  That’s six portions, five ounces each.  There are six meals, delicious and ready to go.  And curry and rice are easy to reheat.  

What a week!  And still only half done.  Don’t worry about today – it’s gone.  Plan how you can make tomorrow a good day. 

-The Doctor

20191029 Daily report

This weight control lifestyle, which I urge you to try, is worth living all by itself.  Even during those weeks where I didn’t lose any weight, it was still rewarding, satisfying, fulfilling.  And the cost?  Keeping a food journal.  Counting calories.  Weighing yourself weekly.  Changing your mind so you see the world like a thin person.  And a certain amount of planning and cooking meals.  Each meal has to be a reward, you see, so that you will be happy eating a measured portion.  It’s a negotiation you should have with yourself.

Periodically, reward yourself for good progress.  Every 10 pounds I lose, I get a special meal.  Does that sound wrong?  Some diet advice says you shouldn’t use food as a reward.  I bet 85 pounds that that advice is wrong.

A measured portion, but delicious and worth waiting for.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – toasted peanut butter (200) and jelly (100) bread (140)

  • 440 calories

Lunch – half an Aldi pizza (570)

  • 570 calories 

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

  • 530 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); potato chips (100); chocolate almonds (100);

  • 280 calories

Total for the day: 1820 calories (limit 1800 + 500 bonus from swimming, total 2300)

Your surprising body

My body never ceases to amaze me.  Last week I was sure I wouldn’t lose any weight.  Part of the reason is I thought I was getting sick; that always messes up my weight.  For one thing, my exercise speed was slow and my breathing was a mess that week.  Many people will tell you that exercise is an essential part of losing weight and getting healthy.  I kind of disagree.  The weight loss forums (try Reddit) are full of people who are losing weight, in some cases 80 or 100 pounds, like me, but very few of them exercise at all.  Most people don’t exercise.  I do it because I like some kinds of exercise.  

My recreation of choice is swimming.  I have been doing it for years, but now it is an important part of my routine, twice a week.  A person who was interested in dieting and exercise for health reasons would probably have more exercise in their routine.  I just want to be in control of my weight!  Exercise doesn’t have to be part of weight control, especially if you have to force yourself to go.  As you know, I don’t like to use willpower just to live my daily life.  But I don’t have to use much of willpower to go swimming, because I look forward to it.  

Anyway, last week my lap times were way off – instead of 70 seconds per lap I was taking 80 seconds, and huffing and puffing all the way.  Today, my lap times were back to normal and my breathing was much easier.  What was going on?  It’s a mystery.  Let’s credit my new swimsuit.  That’s right, for the first time since losing 85+ pounds I have bought a new swimsuit. 

It makes sense if you think about it.  Men are known to gain weight first around the middle and stomach.  First on, last off.  So the last 35 pounds I am trying to lose will come disproportionately from there.  My weight is currently 238 pounds, and my waist size is 44.  When I weighed 325 pounds, my waist size was 52″.  When I weigh 205 pounds, I am guessing my waist size will be noticeably smaller.  Anyway, it was time for a new suit.  When I go to Florida this Christmas, I wonder if I will have to buy another one? 

It was weird looking at the new suit and putting it on.  I am not used to smaller clothes, so part of my brain was insisting it wouldn’t fit.  And it wasn’t a perfect fit.  Swimsuits, on my body, tend to be much looser in the water than when you put them on dry.  So there is much retying when I am swimming laps, because they tend to want to fall off.  Out of the water, even when I loosened the drawstrings, they felt a bit tight.  Still, I am looking forward to them becoming a little too big, as I get smaller.  How long will it take?  

Guard your willpower!  You may need it.

-The Doctor

20191028 Daily report

I used to think that thin people had lots of willpower.  Then, I read that thin people generally set up their food and eating so that willpower isn’t really involved.  It sounded a bit unlikely – who eats the same thing every day just to stay thin?  But it turned out that is a thing some thin people do.  Who picks dinner based on what day of the week it is?  Why, some thin people do it that way.  Who goes to a restaurant, orders a meal, eats a few bites, and then leaves all the rest on their plate and goes home???  Actually, I have seen thin people do that.  Being provident isn’t necessarily something they value.  Eating a variety of foods – not something they necessarily value.  Being thin is what they value.  You an be quite shallow, and thin.  Willpower and virtue are not necessary.

It takes sacrifice and it takes work, to get thin and stay thin.  I don’t sacrifice variety, but I spend a lot of effort and time to maximize my food enjoyment.  See what I value?

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – toasted ham and cheese sandwich: toast (150); 2 ounces ham (90); 1.5 pieces Swiss cheese (80), pickles, mustard, and horseradish sauce (10);

  • 330 calories

Lunch – Roasted pork loin wraps, with roasted apples and cucumber salad: pork loin (250); whole wheat wrap (110); cucumber salad (40);

  • 400 calories 

Dinner – 1/4 Spanish tortilla (530); mayonnaise (100)

  • 630 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (120); Kirkland tea cookies (210); chicken strips (200);

  • 530 calories

Total for the day: 1890 calories (limit 1800)

Whoops!

Darn it, when I was eating, I forgot that really good mayonnaise like Duke’s is 100 calories per tablespoon.  That threw off my calculations for the day a little.  What makes mayonnaise good?  Besides the taste, it’s because the listed ingredients in Duke’s are oil and eggs, then water and vinegar.  A bad mayonnaise has water as the first ingredient.  And a list that goes: oil, water, eggs… is only slightly better.  (Remember that ingredients are always listed in order of % weight in the final product.)  Mayonnaise is the best condiment with Spanish tortilla, which I had for dinner (and makes a great breakfast and lunch for the rest of the week).  

Spanish tortilla comes from the word for tortoise.  I used to think tortillas referred to those shells made from wheat or corn flour, but it turns out that any round food from a Spanish speaking country can be called tortilla, or torta, or various other forms of the word for tortoise.  In this case, Spanish tortilla is a large, round omelette with just a few ingredients: 10 eggs, 1 pound of potatoes, 1/2 cup of olive oil, a small onion, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. That’s it.  Then again, the recipe does use a lot of olive oil.  Those of you good at math may be saying “hey, that’s almost 1000 calories in olive oil!”, and they would be right. 

Basically, every water molecule in the onions and potatoes is replaced with olive oil by frying for 10 minutes (medium heat, covered).  The beaten eggs, salt and pepper are then added to the oil, potatoes, and onions and stirred in for a moment, which makes the the dish very rich and savory.  It’s finished in a 450 degree oven for 9-10 minutes.  The whole thing is about 2120 calories and I have 1/4 for dinner.  It’s also amazingly easy to prepare, very savory and delicious, and can be served hot or room temperature, as appetizer or main course.  And breakfast, lunch, or dinner.  I can’t say enough about it!  You can even make wrap sandwiches out of it with mayonnaise and Tabasco.  

I have a lot of enthusiasm for my favorite dishes and the things I cook.  Recognizing that, I have used that excitement for weight control.  The anticipation, preparation, and cooking, all dramatize the fact that I am rewarding myself with something worthwhile.  Each meal can be a reward, and in my system, almost has to be.  Making do, eating leftovers you don’t like, travel food….part of me gets resentful and switches to satisfaction through quantity.  That part seems to really be in charge, if it’s not kept happy. 

Make a bargain with yourself.  Diet by eating what you want, but count the calories.  Make sure what you are eating thrills and satisfies you.  The different parts of your being will notice that they are loved, and then you can have the most wonderful feeling of all – all of your different wants and desires working together.

Aim for that.  What could be better?  

-The Doctor

20191027 Daily report

It’s a spooky weight control week in honor of Halloween.  Boo!  

Before January 2019, I was living a carefree life of eating whatever I felt like, and paying the consequences by gaining weight and being out of control.  It’s a subject to be developed another time, but the weight gain seemed to go in stages, rather than a steady slow increase.  It probably had something to do with how I was living my life and the things that were happening in my life during that time.  My guess was that since I identified eating and being full with comfort and cheap happiness, it was probably correlated to when I needed more comfort and happiness in life.  I don’t do that anymore, not with eating and food, anyway. 

No more expedience.  I work towards my goal of weight control, and I pay attention.  I portion and count the food.  I find I can get more happiness and satisfaction this way, and have more meaning in my life.

Four servings of chicken and rice, 450 calories each

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – half slice Costco pepperoni pizza (355)

  • 355 calories

Lunch – peanut butter and jelly toast (300); hummus and pickles on toast (200);

  • 500 calories 

Dinner – Homemade chicken and rice skillet portion: 7 ounces seared and fricasseed chicken breast (220); 10 ounces rice cooked in olive oil, chicken broth, wine, onions, flavored with garlic and lemon and mixed with green peas (230)

  • 450 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); Aldi peanut butter cups (400)

  • 480 calories

Total for the day: 1785 calories (limit 1800 + 500 bonus from swimming, total 2300)

Sunday cooking, meal prep, planning, and portioning

All of the prep and cooking I do on a Sunday is preceded by shopping I try to do Friday or Saturday.  This week, I bought chicken breasts and chicken thighs.  Eggs were on sale, and I also bought poblano peppers for fajitas.  The dish I cooked tonight is a family favorite – chicken breasts and rice and peas one-skillet meal.  From the parenting point of view, it’s great because there is no need to coordinate extra pots with side dishes and vegetables.  I am also thinking about cooking:

  • Chicken curry (chicken thighs and cauliflower)
  • Spanish tortilla (eggs, onions, and olive oil)
  • Chicken fajitas (chicken breast, poblano peppers and onions cooked in cream)
  • Chicken rice and peas one-skillet supper

I probably won’t get to all this this week, nor would I be able to eat it!  Some of it will get pushed till next week.  I am also spending more time at my office this week, so I have to plan for packed lunches that are worth eating.  

How do you know how much you are eating and how to portion it?  Tonight I ended up with six pieces of chicken and a large amount of rice and peas (cooked in wine, broth, onion, garlic….mmmm).  The recipe is the place to start.  Add up all the ingredients that you cooked and you will have the total calories.

  • 2.5 pounds raw chicken breast = 1250 calories
  • 1.5 cups of long grain rice = 960 calories
  • 2 Tablespoons olive oil = 220 calories
  • 1 onion – 40 calories
  • 1 cup of green peas = 120 calories
  • 1 Tablespoon of white all purpose flour = 30 calories

I don’t worry about the wine (it’s deliberately evaporated), garlic, lemon juice, or broth since those have minimal calories.  Adding all the rest together comes to 2630 calories.  One you take out the chicken (cut into 6 pieces of 220 calories each), the cooked rice and peas weighed exactly 3 pounds, 11 ounces.  At 16 ounces per pound, it’s 59 ounces total and so you can get 6 portions of about 10 ounces each, and 230 calories.  Chicken = 220 calories plus rice and peas 230 = 450 calories per portion.  And it is a very delicious and satisfying meal, especially when you have been cooking for the half hour just before, and allowed yourself to get to juuuust being physically hungry.  Timing is important.

I put the rest away, after we were done eating.  Sunday is a great day for family dinner.  And I have put enough away for another dinner later this week.  

Getting thin and staying thin take work.  This is how I work it, and how I translate the effort to the effect I want.  This week is Halloween.  Unlike previous years, I have not yet bought and eaten a whole bag of candy!  And I won’t and I don’t have to.  I am paying attention now, and find my satisfaction in ways that are deeper and more meaningful than eating candy until it is gone.  I do like candy – but I eat measured amounts now, and find a way to make it part of a weight control lifestyle.  

Change how you see the world and change how you live.  Change yourself.  

-The Doctor

20191026 Saturday weigh-in

Saturday!  The day of truth….weight control truth.  All week I have been keeping track of my calorie count, eating just the right amount of food at just the right time, to keep the various pieces of my brain, body, and soul aligned on the goal of weight control.  That’s what the food journal is for, though honestly the food journal has become handy for so many things I plan to keep it always.  

Truth is the number on the scale.  How did all the careful measuring of food and calories affect your body?  It’s very important to check reality, the truth, every so often.  I do it every week.  I know there are a lot of thin people who weigh themselves every day.  Every week is working so far…..

The lowest number so far!

I am amazed to report that since I started this diet in January 2019, I have lost………….

Pounds!!
0

Under 240 pounds and still going

The weight control lifestyle I am living…the one I share with you in story and pictures, is very attractive for me.  I built it that way, and have used what I learned along the way to make it better and more effective.  It’s amazing how it operates outside my usual definition of willpower.  There is discipline, and a lot of work, but I don’t feel I am ordering, dictating to, or forcing myself to be hungry or feel deprived.  

In the last few weeks, several neighbors, and not just the nosey ones, have mentioned they have noticed my weight loss.  In a way, hey, thanks for noticing after 85+ pounds have been lost!  But it’s nice of them to notice, and say something.  Interestingly, in general, it has been the thinner people who noticed first.  I think they are paying more attention (or maybe they are just more talkative).  As of now, of the ~10 people who have said something, three have asked for details.  Two of those were thin people, and one was a bit overweight.  That surprised me.  I thought the more overweight people would be more interested in the details.  Anyway, each person who asked suggested their own theory!  Clearly, there are many paths to weight control.

In general, I only have a couple of minutes to talk with these people before we go in different directions.  

  • Person #1 was a short lady, a bit overweight (say 40 pounds).  She was sure that I was losing weight by skipping meals.  That told me how she was trying to lose weight (willpower, force and deprivation!).  I told her about counting calories and keeping a journal.  I don’t think she was ready to hear about that.  She told me she eats mostly Guatemalan food homemade by her mother or other relatives.  She wouldn’t have much awareness of the calorie count, under those circumstances .
  • Person #2 was a lady of medium height from my office.  Her body’s frame is large, but she is reasonably thin within that type.  She suggested I had lost weight by starting to eat healthy.  People mean different things by that and I didn’t get a chance to ask what she meant.  In a way, paying attention to my body’s needs and counting calories is eating healthily.  But that also told me about how she kept thin!  Actually I think she might have lost about 10 pounds in the last couple of years.  It sounds like her goal is health, and she is monitoring her eating with that goal in mind.  
  • Person #3 is my neighbor, a very thin and wiry man of medium height.  He had a multiple-part theory.  He asked if I was exercising, eating right, or watching my health.  I assume he does all three – he is quite thin.  I playfully told him I am bribing myself to eat less, using foods I like as the bait.  That wasn’t what he was expecting, but as we passed his door he again complimented me several times.  Very kind.

There is only one conclusion: I should work on an elevator speech.  That’s a technique where you try to convince someone about something in under a minute.  I’ve been writing my thoughts about weight loss here in long form and developing the ideas, but using a lot of time and space to do it.  Something short and convincing, a story that can be told in a minute.  I will think about it.

It’s true: people will tell you amazing things if you know how to listen.

-The Doctor

20191025 Daily report

Once you have placed “weight control” firmly at the top of your moral hierarchy, you see the world differently. 

When I was gaining weight, my weight was not a thought that occurred to me while eating.  My weight was way down the list of things I was worried about.  I was much more immediate  – what do I want right now? – and took no thought of consequences on my body’s weight.  Food was for eating, whenever I felt like it, for whatever immediate pleasure I could get out of it.  More food generally equaled more pleasure.  It was kind of a carefree existence.  I enjoyed it for a while.  But I trapped myself there.

Now I live in a world where everything I eat is considered through the lens: how will this affect my body’s weight?  As a strategy for creating a sustainable and enjoyable lifestyle, it has worked wonders so far.  And I can eat whatever I want, so long as I pay attention to how much, and make sure I treat every meal as a reward I have earned.

Find out what you like and get enough to satisfy you.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – Costco half pepperoni pizza slice (355);

  • 355 calories

Lunch – Costco half pepperoni pizza slice (355);

  • 355 calories 

Dinner – Uncle Julio’s Mexican restaurant dinner party.  Chips and salsa (300); Pork carnitas fajitas (600); a few bites of cake (100);

  • 1000 calories

Snacking – 4 cups of tea with 8 Tbsp half and half (160); 

  • 160 calories

Total for the day: 1870 calories (limit 1800 + 500 bonus from swimming, total 2300)

Prepare ye

I knew I had a dinner party tonight at a restaurant, but I had slacked off a bit today.  I went to bed late; I woke up later than I wanted, and I had no time to prepare food for the day.  So I had leftover pizza for breakfast and took another 710 calories of pizza with me for lunch.  I was going to swim and figured I would need it.  My plan was to just have a small dinner at the restaurant.  (That plan was a mistake – I know from past experience that my body likes a larger dinner.  A small dinner would make me feel deprived and resentful.  That could lead to late night snacking!  See have you have to plan to make weight control work!?)

Amazingly, once I had eaten half of my lunch, I decided I was satisfied and put away the rest.  (That reminds me – I should rescue it and put the rest in the refrigerator now that I am home.  Done.)  It’s important to point out that I didn’t deprive myself of lunch just to have a bigger dinner – I really felt satisfied and decided not to have more pizza.  I went swimming and headed out to the restaurant, a stylish Mexican place.  Unfortunately the kitchen was a bit slow, and you could predict what happened next: I decided to eat some chips and salsa.  An entire bowl of chips later, I managed to stop.  Man, those were good-tasting chips, mostly because I was so hungry.  Swimming does that to your appetite.  And it was cool outside – that also makes me hungry.  

Dinner finally came.  In a way, the fajitas failed the first test of fajitas – sell the sizzle.  Mine were not sizzling, probably because they were pork-carnitas based and heavy on barbecue sauce.  But again, they tasted really good at first.  The menu had all the calorie counts for the dish, and the fajitas were 1000 calories.  I considered eating all of them.  But really, after the third tortilla I had enough and it wouldn’t have been enjoyable to eat more.  I quit and got a doggie bag.

Interestingly, I was the only male adult in our party who quit with food still on the plate and the only person to take any leftovers home.  That’s right – I pay attention to that kind of thing now.  Nobody drank alcohol in our group.  I had a diet cola.  But I calculate that I had 1000 calories for dinner.  That’s a lot to have at one time – I usually get about half of that for a meal.  We shall see what effect it has on weighing, tomorrow morning.  

It’s been a good week for weight control, I feel.  I hope yours was likewise.

-The Doctor

20191024 Daily report

One of the challenging, but ultimately rewarding, parts about being on a weight control lifestyle is the need to set priorities.  One priority comes from self knowledge.  When you are restricted to 1850 calories per day (for me a deficit of about 1000 calories) you soon learn which foods will keep you satisfied and prevent hunger.  You also learn which foods won’t be satisfying.  Let’s break it down.

Three meals a day at 600 calories each is 1800 calories with no room left over for cravings.  So I have tried reducing the number of calories at each meal.  I have found through trial and error that my body doesn’t mind a smaller breakfast, or a medium lunch, but it needs a good dinner and maybe tea or a snack in the afternoon or evening.  400 for breakfast, 500 for lunch, 600 for dinner?  That makes 1500 calories and I still have about 350 for a snack…quite a nice snack.

Today I decided to have a large breakfast.  I followed that with a large lunch and a large dinner.  I did take some tea in the morning, but now there is nothing left in my budget and I want something sweet.  But I will have it tomorrow.  I’m not actually hungry now (I had 710 calories for dinner!), and so the sweet won’t be that satisfying.  But if I tell myself “tomorrow”, I will build up anticipation.  When I am actually hungry tomorrow, and I have been craving chocolate all night, and then get some and can eat it…. it heightens the experience and you really appreciate every bite.  But especially the first two bites. 

Today is recipe day  – a new feature on the Doctor of Things.  Behold the mighty Extra Large Quasi Cubano Breakfast Sandwich.  Instructions below.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – Quasi Cubano Breakfast Sandwich.  2 slices of toasted Italian panini bread (260); 3 ounces Carando brown sugar ham (135); 2 pieces Swiss cheese (80); pickles and mustard (negligible); horseradish sauce (20);

  • 500 calories

Lunch – Half an Aldi Supreme pizza (570); 

  • 570 calories 

Dinner – Costco pepperoni pizza (710)

  • 710 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80);

  • 80 calories

Total for the day: 1860 calories (limit 1800)

Quasi Cubano?

A real Cubano sandwich is made on special bread, with roasted pork, ham, cheese, pickles, mustard, and mayonnaise, stacked, packed, pressed, and grilled or toasted and served warm.  

A Quasi Cubano is a bit simpler and easier to make at home.  I skip the pork loin (though I do have some roast pork that it’s tempting to add on, it’s cooked in the French style with French herbs and wouldn’t go well) and use pre-toasted Italian bread.  I don’t grill or press it either, though that is tempting.  I can control the calorie count easily and it is simple to prepare.

The bread is toasted as in the first picture, then spread with a layer of mustard and horseradish mayonnaise.  The cheese and ham go next; then a layer of pickles and finally the whole is assembled and cut.  For breakfast I normally have a smaller version of this, but the large one was so amazing today I decided to share it.  The small version has about 320 calories and this was about 500.  

I am always amazed and grateful that this counts as diet food and I am losing weight fairly steadily doing this.  Remember that once you learn your body and have a calorie count worked out, you can do a lot with it.  I had three pretty amazing meals today and I will lose weight anyway.  

You can do it too!

-The Doctor

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