Why not compensate by, oh, lying down with a cuddly dog or cat? Reading a gardening book? (These will help with the pain, too, I hope.)
Finding non-food rewarding activities is key. Or perhaps less-calorie-loaded food rewards! There's nothing like a really ripe pear with good, sharp cheese. Eat half of the pear first, then some cheese and the rest of the pear.
So good! That was "fruit before meal" a few times in the MORE plan.
Fall/winter fruit--and I was ruthlessly pro-American. No imported fruit except for bananas and, in the spring, mangoes:
apples of as many varieties as I could get my hands on
pears, likewise
oranges
tangerines
tangelos
clementines
everything citrus except grapefruit (never learned to like 'em)
banana, as advertised
kiwi fruit, yes, U.S. grown
Almost all of the fruit was purchased at the produce market less than a block from my house. I priced all of it, and most pieces of fruit were approx. 15¢ each at his prices (I mean, navel oranges 3 lb/$1.00, half of one is a pear-sized piece of fruit! 16¢, there you go). 5-lb bags of clementines in November/December for $3.99 and $4.99. I counted them once, and they worked out very well in the "cost per piece of fruit" department. (I've been un- and under-employed for a while now; this was
not a diet of luxury.)
Water was very cheap; I have excellent tap water and I put it through a Brita pitcher. No purchase of bottled water in this household; I think it ends up somewhere around $8.00/gallon or something if you do!
I went for several weeks at a time without one of those large coffee drinks, simply because I didn't go to the office (no work and taking care of Vergil), where the coffee vendor is. But each of those double mochas has *got* to be a few calories....
I make my own breakfast granola, when I'm not making a smoothie out of 8 oz. milk + 2 bananas + 2 Tb. milk powder (non-fat, not Carnation burned-tasting type). I measured the granola, b/c I had discovered that I was actually eating not 3, not 4, but 6--yes SIX--portions' worth, together with yes more fruit and some vanilla yogurt....
Just measure and write down what you do eat as you graze your way through the day. There is no one "correct" way to eat; what is needed is an awareness of what's going from the hand to the mouth. That's where the list comes in. No one else--no wife, no husband, no lifelong love--needs to know about the list. You're just being honest with yourself because you want to KNOW where you stand with respect to food:
How much do I really eat per day? Is it more than I want to? Am I eating *any* fruits or vegetables? (This isn't a silly question for an American adult to ask him/herself.) What do I want to eat MORE of? (Important to ask this one!) And then eat MORE of it. Concentrate on eating MORE of what you WANT to eat; the stuff you really aren't interested in--the fodder, the filler--will eventually diminish. It won't disappear--ice cream still lives in my freezer--but it will satisfy you in smaller amounts.
I purchased a set of rice bowls at GoodWill. Really
small rice bowls. They became my ice-cream and sherbet bowls. Then I found some even smaller ones, and they are now my ice-cream and sherbet bowls.
It's great! All because I focused on what I wanted to eat MORE of.
Give it a try. It took a lot of pressure off my mind, focusing on what I wanted to eat MORE of. Maybe for you it's MORE fresh vegetables, esp. if you had a successful garden this year. Maybe it's a specific kind of fruit, because you have a fruit tree in your yard, or your neighbor does, and the fruit is free. (Wow; what I wouldn't give...) But the positive focus made every difference in the world, and I think that's why 40 of those pounds are gone, probably for good.
Today was Thursday. Try it over the holiday weekend, just keeping a list and eating MORE of what you would really enjoy. Eat it slowly, so the enjoyment takes a little while. Just focus on the food and enjoy it.
Happy weekend!
Cynthia
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) Then a small glass of water.
. This has all been very enlightening and, I suspect, useful!
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