{"id":8191,"date":"2018-11-18T09:58:56","date_gmt":"2018-11-18T14:58:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/?p=8191"},"modified":"2018-11-18T09:59:08","modified_gmt":"2018-11-18T14:59:08","slug":"stop-whining-and-get-the-job-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/?p=8191","title":{"rendered":"Stop whining and get the job done"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been meaning to do something systematic about losing my overweight for some time.  last Thursday I started the process by seeing an endocrinologist who specializes in weight management.<\/p>\n<p>After some discussion, we developed a treatment plan that surprised me not at all.  I&#8217;m having my TSH levels checked to see if the hypothyroidism I was diagnosed with about a year ago is undertreated.  It is quite possible that increasing my levothyroxin dose will correct my basal metabolic rate to something closer to the burn-food-like-a-plasma-torch level it had when I was younger, and I&#8217;ll shed pounds that way.<\/p>\n<p>The other part is going on a low-starch, high protein calorie-reduction diet, aiming for intake of less than 1500 calories a day. Been doing that for nine days now.  Have lost, according to my bathroom scale, about ten pounds.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;d have done this sooner if I knew it was so easy. And that&#8217;s what I&#8217;m here to blog about today.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve spent my entire life listening to jokes, folklore, and sob stories about dieting.  If you leave out the obvious marketing hype, the message is always the same: it&#8217;s difficult, most people can&#8217;t stick to it, if you try you&#8217;ll be beset by grouchiness and food cravings, and too often it doesn&#8217;t actually work no matter how hard you try.<\/p>\n<p>But here I am. Nine days in, nine pounds off (allowing for measurement uncertainty).<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s what I&#8217;m doing:<\/p>\n<p>* Counting calories.  My wife and I have been auditing my regular meals &#8211; and the recurring specials like steak night at the Outback &#8211; for calorie count.  The top-level aim is to keep my daily calorie intake below 1500.<\/p>\n<p>* Reducing my simple-carb intake. Less bread. Less chocolate. (Alas, my custom of a bedtime cup of hot dark-chocolate cocoa is no more &#8211; it&#8217;s the only major casualty of the new routine.)<\/p>\n<p>* Reducing portion sizes.  One less strip of bacon in the morning.  Half a pan-fried boneless pork chop last night instead of the  whole thing. On biweekly streak night, a half portion of fries, and grilled asparagus rather than a dressed salad.<\/p>\n<p>* Less snacking.  When I&#8217;m feeling peckish I have usually dealt with it by munching a small handful of mixed nuts or pistachios. I still do that, but &#8211; consciously &#8211; less often now.<\/p>\n<p>* Staying a little hungry.  I don&#8217;t let myself eat to repletion any more; instead I go for 80% full, and skip meals if I think I can get through to the next without serious physical discomfort.<\/p>\n<p>* But: when my blood sugar craters, I eat something &#8211; as soon as possible, actually, so the reaction will be less likely to draw me into eating calories I don&#8217;t need.  I&#8217;m not dieting to beat myself up; controlling my intake is a means, not an end.<\/p>\n<p>* Planning ahead. Yesterday some senior people at my kung fu school met for brunch at a local place called &#8220;Bacon Me Crazy&#8221;. I know what I like to eat there &#8211; a bacon sandwich on toasted sourdough bread. Yes, a calorie bomb. I compensated by trimming my early breakfast to just two eggs, skipping the usual bacon and toast; problem solved.<\/p>\n<p>What I&#8217;m <em>not<\/em> doing is attempting a big-bang change to my eating routine, because I don&#8217;t think that would be sustainable.  Endocrinologist-dude would have me off bread and potatoes entirely;  I&#8217;ve decided to view that as a tactic rather than the strategy and relax about it as long as I get my overall calorie reduction.<\/p>\n<p>Now here is the part that is kind of pissing me off.  This is <em>not difficult.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I asked Cathy to give me a heads up if she thought I was getting grouchy or withdrawn due to undereating; she consistently reports that this has not occurred.  I don&#8217;t have food cravings or constant distraction by thoughts of eating. While I don&#8217;t exactly <em>like<\/em> feeling slightly hungry most of the time, I&#8217;ve become used to it; it&#8217;s no big deal.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m pretty sure I can keep this up long enough to get back into size 42 pants. (Stretch goal is 40.) So, why have I been hearing all my life that dieting is a gauntlet of hell?<\/p>\n<p>Admittedly it helps that I eat a relatively high-protein, low-starch diet by choice even when I&#8217;m not dieting, because I like it. Still, I have to ask&#8230; <em>What is wrong with you people out there?<\/em> Have most of you not got the willpower of overcooked spaghetti?  Are a majority of you too stupid to do calorie counts and intelligent adaptation?<\/p>\n<p>The only thing my diet is making me grouchy about is other dieters.  Stop whining and get the job done!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been meaning to do something systematic about losing my overweight for some time. last Thursday I started the process by seeing an endocrinologist who specializes in weight management. After some discussion, we developed a treatment plan that surprised me not at all. I&#8217;m having my TSH levels checked to see if the hypothyroidism I&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/?p=8191\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Stop whining and get the job done<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8191"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8193,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8191\/revisions\/8193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}