I appreciate your thoughts, but I think you’re off on some of it. Especially the alcohol. The only issue the alcohol causes (for the most part) is weakening my resolve which has resulted in some late night food binges, and also liquid calories are a real leak when trying to lose weight. Anyway I’m not drinking nearly enough to sedate myself into passivity. And when I said it’s the only thing I enjoy right now, it wasn’t because I don’t have other hobbies that I enjoy. It’s just that in this pandemic in this moronic country I live in I cannot responsibly pursue those other hobbies. (Although I could go hiking if I lose enough weight to get started. It’s miserable when completely out of shape.)
The bottom line is that the only way to lose weight is to eat fewer calories than are burned. Eat less burn more – But how to do it without it becoming burdensome?
Calorie counting is tedious and doomed to fail. Trick diets are also tedious and doomed to fail. Eating healthy requires just as much dedication and planning and discipline as calorie counting and trick diets, and it’s still easy to overeat, although harder than when eating processed shit.
Sorry if my thoughts are not very organized. I’m just really not sure what the answer is other than discipline and willpower – which everybody seems to say is not enough and is doomed to failure.
I’ve never really logged anything other than keeping a fitness journal for a few years when I was really obsessively into rock climbing. And logging calories daily for periods as long as 6-8 months. Logging anything (calories, feelings, hunger, exercise) also takes willpower and discipline. I used to do something kind of like logging hunger. I used to ask myself every time before putting anything in my piehole if I was making a choice to actually eat. Not every mouthful during a meal, but before a meal and especially when snacking. Sometimes I would catch myself about to eat something when I wasn’t actually intending to eat something and I wasn’t really hungry.
Other hobbies are (or were) rock climbing, ice climbing, hiking (really mountain running when I’m fit, as hiking is kind of boring), skiing, and fishing. Although I haven’t really been into fishing for a long time after discovering my love for mountain sports. Alcohol related hobbies are home brewing, (which has been on the back burner for a couple of years due to wine), and my wine collection/exploration. I love cooking too, although that’s probably not the greatest hobby when trying to lose weight. And the cooking and beer/wine hobbies are sort of intertwined.
Is there something you can do to make exercise more fun? The only way I’ve made exercise stick is to get high and watch tv while working out. If not that, maybe you could do some rowing while listening to an audiobook or podcast or a show? Just a thought.
The trick for me is exercise that’s disguised as fun. Things like skiing and mountain running. Or hiking into remote cliffs for rock and ice climbing. I just need to lose about 80 pounds somehow to get to a place where I can enjoy that stuff. (I’ve tried rock climbing when totally out of shape and it is not really very fun or very safe. Hiking is miserable too but at least it’s safe. Mountain running isn’t possible in my condition, never mind fun or safe.)
Usually I listen to music when rowing. I can’t seem to watch TV rowing or running without getting some pretty serious neck pain. No matter where I set up the screen.
I guess the thing I’m struggling with most is that the only way I know how to lose weight and get in shape is with willpower and discipline. Yet a majority seem to think that relying on willpower and discipline is doomed to failure. But I haven’t heard any real alternatives.
And also just so it’s clear. I’m not one of the special snowflakes who can’t lose weight no matter what. My BMR as estimated by the online calculators is within one or two percent of my actual BMR based on extensive periods of logging calories.
Not saying it’s perfect, but this book makes the case that willpower is basically b.s. and that change comes from forming new habits and making good habits easier than bad habits. You don’t need to read the whole thing. The first few chapters give the idea.
I think it worked pretty good. But only when maintaining solid discipline (i.e. - willpower), because otherwise I will just eat it anyway.
The really shocking thing was that sometimes I wouldn’t catch myself until I was already eating something or had just finished eating something. Like it is literally possible for me to go grab a snack and it eat without thinking about it, even when making a conscious effort to only eat when deliberately making a choice to eat. That was and still is a little mind blowing to me. I’m not sure if that happens to other people or if I’m some kind of sick food junky.
I guess if I go forward with this log while not logging calories maybe it turns more into a mental health log than a health log. Otherwise there isn’t too much to write on a daily basis. I guess I can write about catching myself stuffing my pie hole and try to figure out what it means.
Also maybe I’ll try to figure out why I cannot get off my ass and exercise even though I really love to exercise. At least when I’m in shape I love it. But it really sucks to bridge the gap from here to there.
Ok well one day pretty much in the books with eating better while not tracking calories.
For breakfast I had a 2 egg quark (a soft German cheese made at a local farm) and wild mushroom omelette with a few pieces of Canadian bacon.
I made a big pot of vegetable soup today with carrots, potato, fresh corn cut right off the cob, onion, celery, garlic, and kale. Had a bowl of that for lunch.
My wife and daughter made buffalo chicken zucchini boats for dinner. Those definitely have some calories as they have cream cheese and chicken in the filling and then cheddar melted on top. But I only ate one boat when I originally almost grabbed two. They sound very odd but were actually pretty good. I also had a spinach and kale side salad with locally made sheep’s feta, kalamata olives, onions, and dried cranberries with a simple oil and vinegar dressing.
I’ll likely have about 8 oz of locally made full fat unpasteurized yogurt a little later. Or maybe I’ll skip it unless I’m hungry. I think I could have it and still have a successful day.
I guess my mind is still thinking in calories because I’ve ballparked today at about 1700-1800, if I do end up eating the yogurt.
Basically, make the desirable habit obvious, attractive, and easy, and make the undesirable habit invisible, unattractive, and difficult. Stack habits with the healthy ones leading to a fun or rewarding one (for example, after rowing, have the glass of wine.)
With weight loss, a few things to make it easier:
Use online grocery ordering, and click the button to reorder last week’s groceries. On week 1, order no high-cal snacks.
Buy a beautiful low-cal cookbook, and keep it front and center in your kitchen.
Stash your big plates and bowls, as well as your squat glasses. Use small plates and tall skinny glasses.
A few things to make snacking or overeating horrible and difficult:
Toss/give away all snacks (easier if your family is supportive). Then you have to get your mask on and drive to the store, or pay big bucks for food delivery if want to eat high-cal crap.
Don’t make enough food to have seconds. If you do bulk cooking, freeze the meals in sizes that are enough the people who will eat. Then you have to cook something else, drive to the store, etc.
There’s lots more in the book. I need to reread it, because I already forgot a bunch of it. But it helped me quit alcohol and add a bunch of healthier habits to my routines.
Another decent day today. Same breakfast as yesterday, and another bowl of vegetable soup for lunch with a chicken drumstick from a rotisserie bird (skin removed). For dinner I had another bowl of vegetable soup and a “Mexican” stuffed tomato (with ground turkey instead of beef) with salsa and a bit of sour cream. Also had about a half ounce of peanuts and 8 ounces of plain full fat yogurt for snacks. Ballpark 1800-1900 calories.
Thanks. I believe we had this discussion before as well. I actually read something called Mini Habits For Weight Loss which was probably just a rip off of the Tiny Habits ideas. It was somewhat helpful.
Another good day. Same breakfast, lunch, and snacks as yesterday. And then meatloaf, potatoes, and roasted carrots and broccoli for dinner. Ballpark 1800-1900 calories.
I’m not sure I’m doing anything different from logging except in my head instead of using an app. And estimating instead of weighing everything. But I think I’m pretty good with my estimates after extensive periods of logging and weighing in the past. And it’s easier (although certainly not as accurate) than logging. So maybe it won’t seem like a chore and maybe it’s “good enough”. I guess time will tell.
My hunger is not too bad. Typically my good days are breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Almost never snack between breakfast and lunch. Usually have something between lunch and dinner. And then probably 50:50 if I have something after dinner before bed.
Another good day today. Ballpark 1700-1800 calories.
Almost ate a poor dinner due to work stress though. Things are out of control and I’m working long days/nights and weekends and not making any headway.
245 pounds this morning. Which is 2 pounds less than I was about a month ago (last time I got on the scale) and I had 2 really bad weeks in the interim. So I think this week was really successful eating well without tedious tracking. (Even though I can’t help myself from “ballpark” tracking in my head.)
Big test today, because I am going to drink some wine. I’ll probably split 2 bottles with my wife. Then I’m going to go the rest of the weekend without any booze, when normally I would probably drink one more night since we have a long weekend.
Managed the weekend per my plan. Drank wine Friday and nothing since. Ate a little bit to excess on Sunday, but nothing over the top crazy. I probably averaged about 1900 calories per day Friday through today. Just need to put in good days until Friday, and hopefully that will translate to a couple of more pounds lost.
