It's no secret that I derive great pleasure from food. This very site is named after a sandwich, for example. But as I'm on day 32 of eating healthy to lose weight (for the 100th time) and I'm thinking about how much focus and planning and willpower it takes to lose weight, I'm reflecting upon how I got here in the first place.
Because when I'm not eating to lose weight, I invariably, inevitably gain weight. I don't have a sense of how to eat to maintain. If I'm not focused on losing, I just eat for pleasure. Here are some examples, with calories in parentheses.
On a work day I would start with a clif bar (250), then be starving by lunch and have the Raising Cane's Box, sub coleslaw for toast, extra sauce (1700), but then be super hungry by dinner again. Perhaps Jimmy Johns for a #9 (950), chips (300) and cookie (400). That might be enough, or I might mindlessly eat goldfish or cereal later at night(200).
That's a 3800 calorie day without even trying to go crazy.
Maybe on a Saturday, I might wake up and have a protein bar (210) and then go to Chick-fil-A for lunch. #1 with fries and two sauces (1100). Might even go to a movie and get cookie dough bites (400). Then could get a Dominos pizza. A medium slice of pepperoni and sausage is 250, but I'll probably have 6. (1500)
That's a 3200 calorie day that sounded even worse.
These examples have a lot of eating out, but unless I'm trying to, I eat just as poorly at home. I can buy cookies, go through most of a bag of tortilla chips in a day, grab handfuls of m&ms at work, or when I'm trying to focus on work late at night, pick up some candy bars & chips.
The idea that I average 3500 calories a day when "eating normally" is both totally realistic and totally insane.
At the moment I'm sticking to 1800 calories a day, and some days it's not very hard, and some days it just feels like I need one more clif bar or breakfast burrito at the end of the day, like if I had room for 250 more calories I'd feel satisfied. Which makes sense. I should be eating 2000-2200 calories a day probably. But I don't. For 12 years I've told myself that one day I will get to my goal weight and start eating a 2000 calorie maintenance diet. That day has never come.
I now accept that I'm either doomed to repeat this cycle of gaining and losing weight for my entire life, or I will have to grow up and "stay focused on eating healthy" for my entire life. It was actually eye-opening and inspiring to hear that Niraj tries to eat healthy meals 2/3 of the time, specifically lots of salads for lunch. These are not the meals that get shared or talked about. (Akin to the problems with Facebook and Instagram, where people only see other people at concerts, sports, vacation and think that everyone else is having so much fun.) The reality is if you can have the bacon cheeseburger once a week if you eat healthy the rest of the time.
Basically, I need to stick to entering my food in the app, hitting a daily calorie goal, and weighing myself once a week in order to not gain all the weight back. There is no letting up once I reach my goal weight.
Nice post, I was literally just thinking of what kind of salad I was going to get for lunch, lol. I did have a couple of burgers this weekend, but was also camping and hiking. I definitely hear you on the difficulty of maintaining though.
ReplyDeleteA few ideas on maintaining...one thing that helped was trying to get my calorie intake to more closely align with my activity level, which can make the ordeal a little more fun where you feel like activities are letting you earn the foods you like. Also snacking more frequently with things like nuts, yogurt (I used to dislike it but now don't mind it so much if it's with fruit), and things higher in fiber can help with feeling less massive hunger at mealtimes that encourage you to put down a really high-calorie meal. Sometimes I'll get something I really like but not eat the whole thing which feels kind of wasteful when I'm not able to take the rest home, but still feels like a better move when eating out since portions at most places are usually pretty huge.
After my two week trips around the country to see you guys, I always looked forward to coming back to Israel where I eat better. I loved all of the food I had with you all, but man did my body feel bad by the end of my trip.
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