food – Atomic Slingshot Press

The hardest part is figuring out that you have a problem. The next is figuring out what the true nature of the problem is, to begin with.

A significant aspect of my life is that I’m fat. I have not hidden that fact. I may not look it, but I’m overweight. Some would call obese.

In trying to solve any problem, the first thing to do is to figure out what the problem is. Without a clear picture of what is wrong, then it is impossible to fix anything.

This is true no matter what it is that is broken. Whether it is a problem with a relationship, a car, the house or whatever. If the vehicle makes a noise that it shouldn’t, then it needs to be fixed. But. Is it the alternator? The pistons? The Clutch? Where is the noise coming from? What is the real problem?

That is like working on my novels or in this case, my weight.

What is the problem? Is it that I’m “big-boned?” Or is it genetic and I have no control over it? No. I call bullshit to those excuses.

I have to be real and call it as it is.

I’m fat cause I eat too much, too often. Period.

It isn’t the fact that I sit on a chair all day hacking at the keyboard with my ten digits. It isn’t the fact that I like pop too much and can’t enough of it.

I’m fat because I overeat food; I’m a glutton. I have a sedentary lifestyle.

Am I ashamed that I overeat? Perhaps.

It is one of the risks of my profession. The danger is that I’m going to get fat and that my weight will be what gives me future health issues.

So this brings me anxiety.

But how do I fix this problem?

Now that I know what the problem is, what do I do now?

My simple solution is to stop eating. My wife tells me that my statement is incomplete. She tells me that I have to “stop eating so much.”

I don’t know if this is going to work or not. It is hard as it is against my bad habits. I’m a glutton after all. I didn’t become a glutton cause I hate eating.

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As you may know, I have been doing a diet for nearly a month now. I have lost 17 lbs so far. At the moment, it feels great. I have lost waist sizes, and I have more energy. My appetite is down, and I no longer feel hungry all the time.

It hasn’t always been this way.

When I first started the diet, I was eating nearly 3000 calories a day. I would eat five helpings of spaghetti at dinner, and I never ate salad. I was approaching 290 lbs.

What I did to start was to control my food intake, cause no amount of exercise is going to help me lose any weight if I don’t control my eating.

The first thing that I did was to get an app for my cell phone called “My Fitness Pal.” It is a calorie counter program. I entered my information; my height, weight, and how many pounds I wanted to lose. It then told me how many calories I was allowed to eat if I wanted to make my goal weight.

Now, I am nearly 34, so I know myself. I know that if I don’t hit this hard, I will lose motivation. I’m still working on the discipline thing. So I put down that I wanted to lose 2 lbs per week.

It gave me 1800 calories per day. That’s it. Before I decided to change my habits, I could eat that at lunch.

The following two weeks were some of the hardest days of my life. I discovered that a plate of pasta, just the noodles, was 500 calories. And I would eat three to five helpings of it.

My Discoveries

I discovered that grains are not my friend, they cost too much in calories. I also found that I can fill myself up with salad, pickles, cucumbers, cheese, and such, which would only cost me 500 calories.

My appetite has shrunk; which is a good thing. I no longer feel hungry if I don’t gorge myself. I no longer pine after the tasty delicious…

I do have my bad moments. The times that I make a mistake and eat waffles, which I discovered are 250 calories each, which I ate 5. Then I spent the latter half of the day hungry cause I really wanted to make my calories.

Hangry and not knowing what to Eat

I always thought that ‘Being Hangry’ was just a joke. That it was not a real thing. I discovered that it is a real thing. I also found that I get hangry bad. Those Snickers commercials have a grain of truth wrapped in them.

Another issue is I never know what to eat anymore. My go-to meal was always spaghetti, and I make a mean spaghetti. However, I overeat it. I can’t help it, I’m still a glutton after all. So the big issue is eating food that I love as much as spaghetti, that I can enjoy as much and not worry about consuming too many calories.

Hope

There is hope, though. Find someone to do the diet with. To help fill out the daily food journal when you know it’s not going to be good and don’t want to deal with it. Find someone to encourage yourself to keep going, past the first few weeks. Past the Hangry stage.

Cause once past that stage, it gets easier. The appetite decreases, the energy goes up. Results start coming in.

I weighed in nearly a month ago at 286.5 lbs. Today I weight 269.5 lbs. I will take those results.

Future

Now, only changing my diet is not going to work in the long run. At some point, I will plateau and stop making gains. I have been making plans for more exercise. It is getting nice out, so more time walking around is in order. I have also pulled out my old rollerblades and plan on making a fool of myself on them. I am also going to be getting a bike at some point. Something that can fit in the limited storage space I have.

But that is all cardio, don’t you plan on gaining muscle? I have heard that a couple of times. And yes. I do. But, I plan to get down to a better weight first before I gain it back in the form of muscle. It is in the cards, however, not yet.

I will be in better shape by the end of the summer.

Cause, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” Someone out there that inspired me but eludes my memory…

Perhaps I will do another blog post about my different mantras. It seems appropriate.

Tag: food

Trying to find the Dieting Problem.