wdarling

Just posted this over on my regular blog, thought I’d repost it here, as it might help somebody.

Here are some of my favorite “diet foods,” i.e. things I eat almost every day, since they keep me full, are low in calories and taste good:

- lf cottage cheese
- pineapple
- soy sausage links/patties
- lf yogurt
- milk
- apples
- tea
- low-cal wheat English muffins
- whole wheat bagels
- vegie chili
- “lite” (no syrup) fruit cocktail
- “lite” (no syrup) canned pears
- low-cal fruit smoothies
- apples, nectarines, tangerines, etc.
- oatmeal
- Diet Coke*

* Yes, I know about the recent study showing diet sodas may lead to weight gain and/or mess you up.

Food Log

I’ve found that resisting temptation has been pretty easy thus far. Just today there were three instances where I could have easily gone off track but pretty much said “No thanks” moved on: 1) bowl of hard candies in my office break room, 2) Hershey’s Kisses and Sweet Tarts at a team meeting at work, and 3) free beer and cookies at a volunteer meeting.

How was I able to say no? Well, my calorie limit is 1500 cal. a day and basically I wind up being ruled by logic. One Kiss is probably as many calories as a whole grapefruit. A grapefruit is delicious and takes five or ten minutes to eat. A Kiss is down your throat before you even realize it, and yet the calories are in your body. Now a bottle of beer, on the other hand, is probably as many calories as my whole lunch or the main part of dinner. So if I have a beer, I can’t have dinner without going over the limit. And dinner is more important than beer. I can eat four or five things at dinner or I can have some cookies and a beer. Of course the cookies and beer lose, on the scales of logic.

That’s really how it works. It’s true, I *can* eat some “junk” food, but since by and large such food is high in calories, I can only have a small amount of it — or else I have to sacrifice eating a lot of lower calorie food which would be more satisfying anyway.

This all plays into the fact I’m using cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) as the basis for my weight loss plan. A large part of CBT is forcing yourself to reason instead of letting your feelings overpower you and drag you to places you don’t want to go — depression, undue guilt, and even overeating. Here I’m using reasoning to tell myself that I can have a nice dinner and snacks or give in to an impulse to have a “treat” and then end up hungry. I don’t want to be hungry!

Tomorrow: This diet makes me feel like I’m eating all the time, much more than usual. But I’m only taking in about half the calories.

I wanted to continue posting things I wrote up as part of my Initial Assessment, which starts out the CBT program I’m following.

Here’s what I wrote about eating habits. Mind you, this describes my habits before I started the program. Still, I think it’s useful to remember what habits I’m trying to move away from.

Eating pattern:

I generally eat breakfast and dinner at home. For lunch I either eat something I’ve brought, either leftovers or something specifically bought for lunch, or I go out to a school food vendor or a local restaurant. I also have snacks at work, either things I bring in from home or things others have brought to the office. I drink a cup of coffee and often have a bagel or something in the morning. For dinner I normally either cook or put together a cold meal. I eat my leftovers as well, since often when I make soup or something there’s enough food for a few days. At night I usually have some type of snack, sometimes very late.

Amounts eaten:

My breakfast is usually fairly small, like toast or a bagel and coffee, some fruit. For lunch I sometimes overdo it, making up for breakfast perhaps. The worst is when I go to Saba and not only eat too much (salad/soup, major entrée, plus an alcoholic beverage) but spend too much ($15-20). For dinner it varies but I don’t think I go way over. I do, however, eat too many snacks and sometimes large quantities, like big bowls of popcorn.

Food choice:

I’m usually vegetarian and eat a lot of fruits, vegetables and grains. I eat a lot of carbs. My biggest problem is probably the fact I don’t eat that much protein, which I need to work on. I have a major sweet tooth, which I normally address by keeping sweets out of the house and drinking a lot of diet (no sugar) soda. I however have a couple of sweets a week, like a cookie at work and something at weekly breakfast with my friends.

Loss of control:

There are certain situations where I tend to go overboard. These include buffets, parties, visits home to family, holidays, and visits overseas. Sometimes I am just so tempted by delicious foods I don’t often get to try, so I’ll eat a bunch of pastries or chocolate cake or cream puffs or fatty meat. I hope to avoid this sort of thing in future by exerting some control, being more selective about what I really want, how much I can really “afford” to eat, and eating more slowly.

What I’m doing now:

I’m already on the 1,500 calorie/day diet and doing well at following the recommendations given in the book. I’m doing breakfast at home, lunch at work (but no more Saba unless I pick something reasonable to eat), and dinner at home. In addition I have an afternoon and evening snack allowance.

Other problems:

I’ve never done the whole puking or diuretics thing. Yuck!

Did my weekly weigh-in this morning and found I’m on track. So far I’ve lost 6 lbs. What’s funny is that this is about all the weight I lost the entire time I was working out at the gym for eight months straight. And I did this in two weeks just by following a calorie regime.

I’m not starving myself either, but just learning to eat reasonable portions and consider calories instead of just the contents of the food. At this point I even seem to be developing a rhythm, with breakfast, lunch, dinner and three snacks (morning, afternoon and night), with about the same amount of food, calorie-wise, each time, and I feel satisfied after each meal, now that my stomach is getting used to it.

Later this week I’m going grocery shopping and stocking up on all the foods that I’ve found to be the best choices as far as “repeat” meals, like grapefruit, cottage cheese, yogurt, eggs, etc. I hope that by keeping all these things in stock I will avoid the temptation to just grab whatever food is handy.

So I’ve managed four straight days of keeping on track with the 1500 cal. daily diet.

I’ve actually never done a calories-based diet before, only ones that had to do with avoiding certain types of food or eating mostly one kind of food. One of my big problems over the past few years is that I’ll eat healthy, natural food, like a ton of fruits and vegies and whole grains, but that’s the problem — I eat a TON of it. And I’ll toss in snacks and “treats” that add on calories. I think I must’ve been taking in at least 3,000 cal. daily previously, and often more I bet.

So now I’m working on way less and it’s fine because I’m determined not to think of it as a “hardship” but as a necessary thing I have to cope with. Furthermore I’m working to make sure that I *enjoy* everything I eat, so I’m using all my cookbooks, being creative, thinking about choices rather than just opening the fridge and popping whatever I see into my mouth.

So far the yummiest thing I’ve had that was “diet” food was a red snapper dish I made Friday night. The best dessert I’ve had was crushed canned pineapple, which if you get the kind that’s *just* pineapple is very low in calories but really delicious. See the log below for today’s food.

Food Log

For Christmas a co-worker gave me a blank journal. Before I found BuddySlim, I was going to use it for my food and weight loss diary. However, today I thought of a better use for it: it’ll be my “good eating” book. Basically what I want to do is write down foods and recipes I come across that are delicious and also good diet foods, i.e. low in calories.

I actually know a great deal about nutrition and generally eat in a healthy fashion, but I know that when I get distracted or rushed or stressed I sometimes blank out and make bad decisions about food. I’ll get hungry and say to myself, “There’s nothing to eat in this house!” Then do something like eat half a cup of peanut butter for “dinner.” To stop this, I’ll look to the book.

The way I’m doing it is that I’m writing each food or recipe and putting a big label on it for food type (i.e. Snack, Fruit, Dinner, Breakfast, etc.) and then making a note of the food or where to find the recipe. For example:

SNACK, FRUIT
raw cranberries

SOUP
Spanish Potato and Garlic Soup, p. 97, Moosebook Low-Fat Favorites

BREAKFAST, FRUIT
grapefruit

So when I can’t figure out what to eat (”There’s nothing!” or “I can’t decide!”) I can just flip through the book and get some options. Do I want a soup? Something for breakfast? Desperate for a healthy snack? The book will have it ready.

This book will also help me in my grocery shopping, as I can flip through it and quickly come up with a meal plan and therefore a grocery list.