Looking at Pros and Cons

I skipped last week's update; I guess I didn't have much to say.

This week, things are going along about the same, although I'm trying to step up my exercise minutes a bit. I know that unless I do, I'll get diminishing returns on weight loss because as I lose weight, I'm using fewer calories.

I think I'm going to abandon the technique of writing food down before I eat it (step 8). It doesn't seem to have a use that I can discern; plus I keep forgetting to do it. But I'm still writing things down, still measuring and weighing, despite its being somewhat tedious sometimes.

I've been eating a lot of the same foods every day, which is fine, I guess. It's convenient and quick to make the same lunch every day because I don't have to think much about it. And it's satisfying to eat; it fills me up and I know I'll be okay (not hungry) for a couple of hours.  When I change foods, sometimes they don't work as well to stave off hunger.  Then I'm kind of stuck because I don't know what to eat. I'm not bored with the same lunches or even the same breakfasts every day, though I do like a little variety for dinner. It's good that I'm not bored because it means that I'm looking at food as nourishment rather than entertainment. Whatever works is what I'll eat. I think sometimes that's how thin people feel about food.

I guess I can gradually introduce new foods into my diet that prove to be effective at fending off blood sugar woes.

I continue to make decisions about high-fat and high-sugar foods. This past week my coworker offered chocolate at her cubicle--those Hershey's miniatures, which I love.  I was going to have one until I looked up the calories at the Hershey's website: Hershey's Chocolate.  There's 43 calories in each little bite-size bar. Half is fat.  So if I wanted to call it fat, I guess I could eat one, but otherwise, as an "Extra" (<50 cal), it's not worth it, since it would be the only one I ate that day.   As for calling it a fat, since I'm allowed only three fats per day, I can't waste one on a little piece of chocolate that's gone in a few seconds.

This is the kind of lesson I'm learning from following Shirley.  To make conscious choices is the goal in an eating plan like this.  Weighing and measuring and checking calories all give me information I need to make rational decisions about what to eat, instead of giving in to impulse or pressure from peers or the con of clever subterfuges.

So I'll continue on, doing what I'm doing, as long as it keeps working to teach me how to be thin!

See you next time.