A little more consistent

I keep going back to this:  Writing. With a pen. On Paper.

Right now, the physical act of putting pen to paper makes me more cognizant  of what I’m recording and thinking.  It makes me more mindful.

A person who has been an inspiration to me in private weight loss site I used to use (MyFoodDiary.com – you must pay to join, kept talking about what I thought had to be a scam: The Donut Whisperer: I’ve tried it all Now What Diet.

Here’s the deal – if it’s a scam, you have to work hard to be scammed – there’s no website to join for a fee, there’s no series of ebooks to buy and keep buying.  There’s no ultra expensive online class to pay for.  Nope – just a $15 paper back book that must be ordered from the very minimalist website.

But the gist of the what the book says is this:  be kind to yourself.  Eat what you love.  Eat for pleasure and stop eating when it’s no longer pleasurable.

OK – that part is more of the same what we’ve been hearing from the mindful eating section of the diet industry.

Here’s the big kick in the pants dose of honesty this book offers: We are overweight because we eat too much.

Yep, true.  And of course, there’s the big kick in the pants dose of honesty the book also offers as a solution: Want to weigh less? Eat less.

But this time – there’s no big thing about avoiding McDonald’s, Krispy Kreme, Baskin Robbins.  Nope – instead, the author says if you love it – EAT IT.  Just don’t eat it all.  And if you don’t love vegetables consider taking a good multi vitamin.

I’m not sure if you’re like me, but when I eat something decadent (food I’ve labeled ‘bad’) I tend to eat it fast (as if someone might catch me if I don’t scarf it down) and I tend to eat it all – because I can never ever have it again.  With the donut whisperer, the idea is that we can eat all the food we love as long as we are feeling pleasure while we’re eating it.  We must stop eating when the pleasure starts to wane.  The book suggests dumping a salt shaker on your plate once that the pleasure wanes so that you won’t pick at what’s left on the plate.

Easier said that done. But there’s a method to make it a bite easier:

The book’s author, Susanna Dee, suggests starting the program by doing 30 days of prompts -each time you eat.  The prompts are like this:

Midway through the meal, stop and answer:

I’m enjoying this ___________ because it ____________.  I’m looking forward to ____________ for my next meal.

The act of stopping mid meal and writing out the answers (I haven’t figured out how to do this gracefully in a restaurant so I do it mentally) automatically makes you more mindful of eating.

I add to the prompt – out of 1-10, the pleasure I’m getting from eating is ___.  And if that number is lower than 6, I stop eating.  Recognizing that I get to have another favorite food the next time I eat makes stopping a heck of a lot easier.

I’m making one of my favorite foods later today so I can enjoy it for lunch tomorrow: tuna casserole – with pasta AND cheese, and buttered bread crumbs.  Actually, I’m looking forward to it -the recipe calls for mushrooms and a real sauce made from milk instead of opening a can.

When I eat it for lunch tomorrow, I’ll have my notebook out writing out my prompts so that I will notice when the food is no longer as pleasurable so I can stop. Interestingly enough, the point where the food is no longer pleasurable is usually when the body has just enough of it.  Just sated with a smile on my face.

I don’t know if I’ve lost weight.  What I do know is that for once, I feel my obsession with food and my weight beginning to loosen it’s grip on my life.  And that is really want I want more than anything else.

I’m not posting a link to anything.  If you’re interested – google “The Donut Whisperer” and you’ll find the info.