Most Americans Had Unwanted Weight Changes During Stress of Pandemic, Says Study

[Hugin]

22. I find the best means of weight control is talking about it constructively with others.

Sadly, that's also one of the most difficult forms of weight control to find.

What started me out on this whole process was thinking of what I eat as fuel. When we buy gas. (or in modern times charge up a car) We fill up the tank to what it will hold. (How many calories it takes to keep us alive for a period of time based on our metabolism/activity level) If we try to keep putting in gas after that point, it's only going to spill out on the ground. (or in the weight analogy, our body stores the additional calories as fat) A waste of gas and money. (and harmful to the environment, no?)

So, I start there. How many calories does it take to get through twenty-four hours? Well, conveniently enough, the FDA says for the average person that would be 2000. Recognizing that it's going to vary around that number based on if I'm daydreaming or cutting lumber from, let's say 1500 to 3000 calories/day. But, most of the time it's 2000.

Okay. I know how big the tank is. I know from reading the convenient labels how much each thing I eat contributes to what my tank will hold. But, I GET HUNGRY, DARN IT! So, for me, I find the best way to proceed is to eat small amounts of calorie contributing items several times during the day. A bit here and a bit there. Never exceeding my daily total.

DARN IT! I'M STILL HUNGRY! (because, I'm only daydreaming today and my stomach is accustomed to having a certain volume of food, but, I don't need the calories.) So, what I do is switch out some of my grazing which would contain calories with a few which contain much fewer to attain the volume and not gain the calories. There are many items which provide this. One of my favorites is pickles. They give a salty satisfaction and volume which is mostly water.

The real trick for me was teaching my stomach who was boss. It took around a month of pushing through and was a marathon. But, once I had achieved a consistent reduction in the volume of food my stomach was expecting the hunger cravings subsided and the pattern became second nature.