Stay on a diet Archives - Page 6 of 40

20200904 Daily report long weekend

Post author:The Doctor
Post published:September 4, 2020
Post category:Daily report

It didn’t come too soon. The Doctor sometimes needs a long weekend. It’s time to stop and think about what’s important and get your mind right.

Every day, I keep a food journal, maintain portion control, and make sure I am hungry every time I eat. Yes, it takes discipline to do it every day, but I have made it easier by setting up my life and my mindset so that I want and need to do it. It doesn’t take willpower and force for me to lose weight. I tried that for many years and it didn’t work, over and over. I thought for a while that low carb/keto would be the answer, but it seems even on those magic diets you still have to wach how much you eat or it doesn’t work.

That’s the difficult part, really. How do you lose weight? You eat less. But you must never, ever tell yourself that.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – 3x eggs (80); 1.25 ounce Pepper Jack cheese (140); tomatoes (20);

400 calories

Lunch – 9oz Nacho topping (420); 1oz chips (140); sour cream (60);

660 calories

Dinner – pizza (600); salad (50);

650 calories

Snacking – cheese (50);

50 calories

Total for the day: 1760 calories (limit 1700)

Persuade and lead yourself

Force yourself to eat less? What a terrible idea. You would have to do that every meal and every day. You would hate it and when you stopped using force you would go right back to what you prefer. You have to persuade yourself to prefer a different goal when you eat.

One of my goals is to be physically hungry before I eat anything. Sure, there is something to regulatory and eating when it is the usual time. But if I am not hungry at that time I will usually wait until later. The first few bites when you are properly hungry are the best part. You don’t even want to eat too much because it ruins the experience. I mean, the experience of eating when hungry only lasts for a few mouthfuls. After that the experience is diminishing returns. Plus if you eat too much now you won’t be hungry at next mealtime.

Pick your new goal carefully. I found with my goal of being hungry that I actually prefer it to my old goal. When I was gaining weight and not paying attention, my eating goal was to feel full, and I taught myself that eating and feeling full was comforting and satisfying. Now that my goal has changed, I find being physically full a bit distasteful. In a way, I welcome the end of my measured portion and the feeling that I could eat more.

Why eat more? I have had enough! Enough calories and enough so that Iwill be hungry for the next meal. Satisfying that hunger is now why I eat. The behavior reinforces itself because I don’t want to eat too much and I want to be hungry. Now it’s no longer about force. I WANT to do it. Now it’s a matter of discipline. My goal is so rewarding that I will do all this portioning and measuring and journaling every day, because attaining the goal is worthwhile. Losing weight is a side effect. It’s a side effect I like.

I have persuaded myself to do this. Go thou and do likewise.

-The Doctor

20200903 Daily report: Nacho 2!

Post author:The Doctor
Post published:September 3, 2020
Post category:Daily report

What a difference a new day makes. Remember: every day is a new day. A new day is a fresh start. You can do everything right, one new day at a time. Some days won’t be good or won’t go the way you wanted and planned and even fought for. But most of them will.

I had the same dinner today that I had yesterday. But because my head was in the right place, it was a satisfying experience today and I didn’t want any more afterwards.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – sandwich with bagel (330); 2x Canadian bacon (40); Muenster cheese (70)

440 calories

Lunch – wrap with 6x meatballs (47); 2T hummus (70); 1.5x Ole wraps (50);

425 calories

Dinner – 10oz Nachos (450); 1oz chips (150); sour cream (70);

670 calories

Snacking – Nectarine (30);

30 calories

Total for the day: 1560 calories (limit 1700)

If

If you are properly hungry (physically hungry) when you sit down for dinner, you will enjoy the experience of the first few bites the most. If you are TOO hungry then you might wolf those first few bites down and not really enjoy them. Take time with those first few bites. The rest of your meal will never be quite as good. That’s why going back for seconds is a bad idea – you will never recapture those first few bites until you have time to become hungry again.

If you sit down to eat and you are not particularly hungry – physically craving the food and feeling like your stomach is empty – then eating is a bad idea. You should question why you are doing it at all. It’s important that your call to a meal should be physical. Otherwise you risk starting to eat for the wrong reasons. You may go out of control, and over the long term it will show up in your body’s weight.

If you monitor your body’s weight regularly you will be alerted to any changes before they go out of control. In control means you know your weight and you know your clothing size. You can go to the store and try on Size X and be pretty confident it will fit. AND, you can get on a scale and be confident you know the answer within a pound or two. OK, an overweight person can know their size in clothes. But can you really? I was surprised almost every time I went to the stores for new clothes. I had no idea what my weight was and didn’t monitor it for years. The clothes you own can stretch out and fool you.

If you pay attention to how much you are eating – yes, counting calories and measuring portion sizes – you have more control than if you didn’t. Do you know how many calories you need to eat in a day or week to maintain your weight the same as last week? Leave aside trying to lose weight. Do you know your body well enough to keep your weight the same, for a year? How much do you have to eat to gain weight?

Know your body and know why you eat! You can learn your body and choose what reasons for eating you like best.

-The Doctor

20200902 Daily report: now focus!

Post author:The Doctor
Post published:September 2, 2020
Post category:Daily report

Today I had a challenge. It was a rough day and it’s been a hard week so far with lots of ups and downs. Yesterday I started feeling the disconnect. I wanted to eat even though I wasn’t physically hungry. I’ve paid enough attention to myself over the last year and a half to notice the difference. I was also tired today.

Even though I had enough food (by the calorie count) the food didn’t satisfy me. I wanted more! But I know by now: if food doesn’t satisfy you, MORE food won’t satisfy you either. That way madness lies.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – chili and bread (250)

250 calories

Lunch – bread (60); cheese (100); chocolate (170); Snickers ice cream bar (180);

510 calories

Dinner – 9oz nachos (390); 1oz chips (140); sour cream (60); olives (10);

600 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80); banana and grapes (60)

140 calories

Total for the day: 1500 calories (limit 1700)

Nachos!

In case you are wondering, it’s a baked nacho topping made with beans, meat, cheese, salsa, green chilies, and spices. After it’s all baked and melded together, you can eat it with tortilla chips, salsa, sour cream and black olives, my favorite toppings for nachos.

It’s a favorite and should be hugely satisfying. But it almost wasn’t because my head was in the wrong place. Part of me was processing my emotional state and tiredness and coming up with the answer that I needed respite, comfort, satisfaction. That part wanted me to eat, and eat, until I was full. It’s a pattern that has not worked for me – during the time when I thought that way, I gained weight uncontrollably and wasn’t considering my responsibility for my body’s weight. So I know it’s a danger and it was weird to watch it start again. I always say that the danger, after you put for the effort to lose weight, is going back to your old mind and old life afterwards.

The old you let you gain all the weight! It can’t be allowed to come back. The new person you have invented for yourself lost a lot of weight and puts you back in charge. The choice should be easy.

Anyway, I made it through today. Tonight I’ll go to bed early. Tomorrow is a new day. Be careful of your thinking.

-The Doctor

20200901 Daily report (with more push)

Post author:The Doctor
Post published:September 1, 2020
Post category:Daily report

Pay attention. Pay attention if you want to be in control of your body’s weight. Fine, on one level you pay attention to how much you are eating. But that is not the point. Pay attention to yourself, find out about yourself and you will learn how to get the right behavior out of yourself. You must get your mind right.

Do you want to control your weight? Pay attention to why you are eating. If your weight is out of control, you will know from the following simple test. How much do you weigh? If your answer includes the word “about” or “um” and you don’t really know, then you are not paying attention.

Can you say what you had for dinner last Tuesday? What about lunch last Monday?

Why are you eating? What does it do for you? How does it make you feel?

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – bagel (330); cheese (70); salami (100);

500 calories

Lunch – ham (200); bread (140); pretzels (100); cheese (100);

540 calories

Dinner – chili (200); gobi aloo (125); gazpacho (30); Reese’s PBC (100);

455 calories

Snacking – cookies (120);

120 calories

Total for the day: 1615 calories (limit 1700)

When I was out of control

I remember those days. I ate whenever I wanted, however much, without thinking about consequences at all. Of course, I did get up to 325 pounds that way. Not all at once. It seemed to go in stages with long plateaus. I was only 230 pounds when I started graduate school, but near 300 pounds 10 years later. My primary interest in eating was to feel full, which I learned to associate with comfort. Soon I was in a trap – eating and feeling full became my quickest and easiest ways to find satisfaction and comfort.

I don’t look for the easy way in my life so much any more. It’s much more of a challenge, much more rewarding, to readjust my thinking and aim for higher goals. Satisfaction comes from other things in my life that I work hard for and accomplish. Eating food is not an accomplishment and I have gotten away from that thinking.

Now I pay attention to my physical needs and I have learned to use hunger as a good sign. Hunger means I haven’t been overeating and it means I will really enjoy what I eat next. The anticipation is dramatic and the food is much more satisfying then when I would eat it all. I pay attention to why I am eating. If I want to eat, I ask why. If it’s not mealtime I have to have a good reason, otherwise: is this hungry eating or emotional eating?

I don’t like to give in to emotional reasons for eating food any more. But it takes some paying attention. It’s much more important than paying attention to how much you eat. If you have your mind right and are eating only for physical reasons of hunger, you will stop eating and be satisfied more easily with less food. You won’t feel deprived and it will be easy to stop eating when you have had enough.

Paying attention is very close to getting your mind right. You have to pay attention to the right things.

-The Doctor

20200831 Daily report: end of August

Post author:The Doctor
Post published:August 31, 2020
Post category:Daily report

The end of August! It’s almost the end of summer. The first half of this year, practically speaking, I didn’t lose any weight. It was The Great Pause. It started before the Corona Virus lockdown. Then suddenly in June I found I was able to lose weight consistently. However, even though I was eating the same as before (1800 calories per day) I was losing very slowly – less than a pound per week. Why did I stop? How did I start again?

Then, I found out how to lose more than a pound a week again!

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – beef and broccoli (315); rice (50);

365 calories

Lunch – 2x bratwurst (260); Ole wrap (50)

570 calories

Dinner – 12oz sausage and bean chili (420); braised snap peas (60)

480 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (80);

80 calories

Total for the day: 1480 calories (limit 1700)

Why stop?

I stopped controlling my food intake in December 2019. First I was ill, then I was on vacation away from home and my food scale, holiday food, and lots of other excuses. I didn’t even get on a scale in December!

But by January 11 2020 I had gained 8 pounds from my November, 2019 low of 237.4 pounds. At the start of the year I tried to come under control again. And again, and again. I couldn’t get it together for more than a couple weeks, it seemed like.

On the good side, I didn’t gain any more weight after January. I stayed in the mid 240s for several months. That’s a kind of progress, that I didn’t go back to my old habits and keep gaining and undo all my work. I wasn’t in total control but at least I wasn’t totally out of control either.

At the time, I was pretty unhappy even with that silver lining. I was used to losing 2 pounds a week and feeling pretty good about myself. Looking back at my calorie counts and eating patterns during that time, it’s clear that I was eating too many calories to lose weight. (Today, I see that as good information. How many calories a week does my body need to stay at a consistent weight? I can use that data to get an idea.)

Suddenly, in June, I started to lose weight consistently. But that part of the story will be told another time. Keep track of your calorie count!

-The Doctor

20200830 Daily report and amble

Post author:The Doctor
Post published:August 30, 2020
Post category:Daily report

Exercise is a little tricky right now. With everyone staying at home most of the time it’s amazing how little exercise I get compared to before, when I was running around more, visiting stores, washing cars, swimming, and walkin places. So I have been trying to walk several times a week, a 3-mile circuit with lots of hills. Today, I ambled instead, on a 1.2-mile trail. I don’t know if it counts much for exercise, but it was nice to be outside.

And it made my hungry for dinner.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – pizza (450); chocolate (150);

600 calories

Lunch – bratwurst (280); 1/4 protein wrap (30)

310 calories

Dinner – 2x hot dogs (110); Ole wrap (50); Gobi Aloo cauliflower and potato curry (300);

570 calories

Snacking – marshmallows (60); ddd (00)

60 calories

Total for the day: 1540 calories (limit 1700)

When your body is catching up

I have heard may times from people who have lost significant weight that they also get impatient with their bodies. Many start working out in order to show more progress. It’s difficult to lose significant weight and still see an overweight body in the mirror. Then the moving of the goalposts begins. I mean that your goal changes.

Even if you are thin, controlling your weight won’t result in a body that is fit, toned, or muscular. Here you were thinking “if only I were thin” and now you start thinking “if only I were thin and worked out.” I don’t know how much further it goes. But at some point you have to decide how far to take it. Will you lift weights? Work out? Start running? Those exercises, especially lifting weights, burn a lot of calories. But they also take a fair amount of dedication and maintenance.

The key, as ever, is to get your mind right. If your life is fixed on weight control, it helps keep the rest in perspective. You may not work out or have a supremely muscular body, but you are in control of you body’s weight. I plan to be modestly fit, but I am curious to know what would happen if I was thin and lifted weights for a bit. Not to become bulky, but to be stronger. How different would I look?

Anyway, that is a fantasy. I have a goal and I will keep my mind on the job. Go thou and do likewise.

-The Doctor

20200828 Daily report pizza!!

Post author:The Doctor
Post published:August 28, 2020
Post category:Daily report

Pay attention to how you are thinking about food and eating. If you teach yourself to eat when you are bored, or tired, or frustrated, or angry, or anything besides hunger, then you are in danger. Your food intake becomes disconnected from your body’s physical hunger. Ignore that message and the first step towards uncontrolled weight gain has been taken.

But why does that lead to weight gain and not weight loss? Aren’t people just naturally going to gain weight? Isn’t that an ancient caveman fact of life?

You are thinking about only half of the issue. There ARE people who lose weight uncontrollably because they disconnect their physical needs from their food intake. Yes, anorexics. Be grateful that weight gain isn’t usually a pathology!

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – skipped, not hungry;

0 calories

Lunch – Pork burger (450); Ole wrap (50); 2x cookies (60); milk (80);

700 calories

Dinner – pizza (600); salad and cucumber salad (50)

650 calories

Snacking – pretzels (200); cheese (50)

250 calories

Total for the day: 1600 calories (limit 1700)

Another food week is done

I have eaten my last meal for the week. When I wake up tomorrow it will be a new food week, and I will weigh in. Before breakfast. I never know until I get on the scale just how much I will weigh. But I gave myself all the advantages: didn’t overeat, and I went for a walk today. Last week I lost a lot (down to 222 pounds) and I am not sure what will happen tomorrow. But whatever happens, I will keep on with my weight control lifestyle. It’s just better for me. I’ve gotten so I like being hungry for a meal and it feels strange and uncomfortable to be all the way full. I even throw away food I don’t want to eat (even cookies and cake that aren’t worth eating).

Pay attention to how you are thinking. Do you want to be in control of your weight? Look at people who have stayed thin as adults. Figure out how they think. Maybe you could think how they think. Doing what they do is not possible, without the right thinking. If you do what thin people do, then you are just forcing yourself to do strange and unnatural things. When you stop forcing yourself, your old habits and mindset are there, waiting for you. You must change your mind. The mind is the important part. Your body will catch up – a lagging indicator.

Enjoy a new food week!

-The Doctor

20200827 Daily report burger

Post author:The Doctor
Post published:August 27, 2020
Post category:Daily report

It’s not a nothingburger! It’s a tasty, tasty grilled pork burger. I had it for dinner with cucumber salad and tomatoes on the side.

The burger itself got horseradish sauce, onion and lettuce. It was so good it didn’t need anything else!

Alas the angle of my photo doesn’t show how delicious the burger looks. That’s a lesson for next time. At some restaurants they leave the top bun off just so you can see the full burger glory. That would have worked, too.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – fried chicken (200); bread (120); crackers (80);

400 calories

Lunch – meatballs (280); cheese (70); Ole wrap (50); Reese’s candy (170);

570 calories

Dinner – pork burger (450); roll (200); cucumber salad (40);

690 calories

Snacking – chocolate (40);

40 calories

Total for the day: 1700 calories (limit 1700)

A high calorie day!

1700 calories doesn’t sound like a lot for a whole day for a man in his 40s, does it? But it’s more than it appears. A year ago I was losing a lot of weight eating 1850 calories per day. It’s just I have become less active with all the corona virus restrictions. I am also burning fewer calories now, since I weigh 100 pounds less than when I started.

These are things that comes up on a long term plan to control your weight. I don’t say diet, it’s a bad word for me. I associate dieting with deprivation and heavy use of willpower. I can’t handle that, as I have shown many times. I never lost any real weight that way.

Almost two years ago, I decided I needed a new set of values and a new life built around those values. That life would have to be attractive so I would want to keep it going. I would have to negotiate with myself (!) to find out what I wanted. And I had to come up with a system of rewards to keep myself happy and encouraged so I wouldn’t feel unhappy and deprived.

What I came up with was a mental transformation and a new lifestyle. Now I prize hunger, instead of being full. I want to be hungry going into a meal because I will enjoy it more. When I was gaining weight, I would never pass up cookies or cake at the office, because being full was associated with good feelings. Now, I actually *throw away* cookies and cake that I didn’t like very much. They were wasting my time with bad cookies! I’m not going to get good and hungry (which takes work) and reward myself with bad-tasting food.

Mental transformation has worked for me and I have had a great time and have enjoyed getting hungry and then eating restricted portions, while losing weight. That’s only half of the puzzle. Negotiation with yourself is also important.

-The Doctor

20200826 Daily report: aftermath

Post author:The Doctor
Post published:August 26, 2020
Post category:Daily report

Today I was dragging more than usual. It’s tempting to blame the wine: I had two glasses last night and I usually don’t drink wine. Sometimes I have a small glass of sherry. On the bad side, I didn’t feel like I came alive much today or was able to concentrate 100% at work. On the good side, my appetite was suppressed and I didn’t eat much. I did enjoy what I had, though. I recommend you always eat foods you really like so that it’s rewarding after a day of sticking to your weight loss plan.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – 4oz fried rice (200); crackers (50);

250 calories

Lunch – ham sandwich with bread (140); ham (130); salami (100); Muenster cheese (70);

440 calories

Dinner – fried chicken (300); roasted potatoes (100); green beans and tomatoes (50);

450 calories

Snacking – tea with half and half (160);

160 calories

Total for the day: 1260 calories (limit 1700)

Data driven diet

There’s an article online about dieting which is very interesting to read, at least the second half is! You can click the link. The first half is just setup, but the second half describes a data-driven weight loss program. It’s somewhat invasive and has you measure your blood chemistry after you eat like a diabetic would. You can use that information to tell which foods (and quantities) you should avoid. The lady in the article said two things I like to hear: she is keeping a food journal (she calls it logging) and she is excited about using the system for the rest of her life! It’s enjoyable to her. That’s the best way.

As the Doctor says, if you enjoy the weight control lifestyle you are on, you will fight to stay there. Willpower isn’t needed to force yourself to do things you want to do.

And think of the benefits of that system. You would look at foods in a whole new way. Portion control would be easy as you learned to link the chemical results with how foods make your body feel. You would avoid any food (or more than a few bites) that has a bad effect on your system.

On the other hand, you might learn you should only eat raw broccoli and raw oats. I wouldn’t stick to that!

-The Doctor

20200825 Daily report with wine!

Post author:The Doctor
Post published:August 25, 2020
Post category:Daily report

People sometimes say to me: “Doctor, how do you keep up your diet for the long term? You have been doing this since January 2019! Don’t you get tired of it?”

And the answer is, dear Reader, that I found a food lifestyle that I like and so it is easy to stay with it. I don’t call it a diet because of the negative associations of diets, unpleasantness, and deprivation.

And I have had two glasses of wine, which also helps. I don’t count the calories in wine or other alcohol. At the same time, I record the 80 calories I have with my tea (in the milk). What’s with that? Aha, it’s because I hardly ever drink alcohol. I don’t like the bitter taste of most alcohol and don’t want to go to the trouble of making whiskey sours or margaritas every time I want a drink.

My food intake and calorie count

Breakfast – 10oz fried rice (350)

350 calories

Lunch – bagel (330); 2oz ham (90); salami (100); Muenster (70)

590 calories

Dinner – lasagna (300); sausage (120); bread (150); salad with dressing (70);

640 calories

Snacking – ginger cookie (60); Cabot cheese (50)

110 calories

Total for the day: 1690 calories (limit 1700)

Calorieeeeeeeeees

I recorded 1690 calories today, but it is an undercount. I also had some watermelon and grapes and didn’t record them. I often don’t record small amounts of fruit like watermelon or blueberries or grapes. But they do have calories. Such is my lifestyle. But I have to admit: today I let go and had more calories than usual. I also had wine, probably 200 calories in two glasses.

With the wine and the fruit I am surely way over my limits, today. But am I worried? No. I have had several very good weeks in a row, and if I let go a bit today, it won’t hurt my average. On the other hand, I have been trying to feed my physical needs, and not my emotions. I have to wonder if I really wanted all those calories today. Truly, I was very hungry for dinner and I did enjoy it very much. That and the wine.

And I went for a walk today, too.

Could you stand a lifestyle where you eat delicious food, exercise, have wine from time to time, and fruit, and mostly stay under a calorie limit? Could you do that for a long term? I am convinced that I can, because I have done it for quite a while now. It’s not hard to want this lifestyle and controlling my weight is a nice benefit.

Don’t waste your willpower. Pick a lifestyle you want to live and you will fight to stay on it.

-The Doctor