Diet Day 001


Diet Day One - Thursday - Jan 2nd - 2020

Like many people staggering out of the Xmas and New Year holiday period of debauchery and gluttony, I have decided to go on a diet. I'm not obese in clinical terms, or maybe I am a little bit according to that official chart that doctors use to judge people according to their weight, but only slightly. My scales tell me I'm 87 kilos, but I have been told they read low and I'm probably a bit heavier than that.



A Message from the Author


If you are constantly losing the mental battle to steer clear of junk food, then the Mindset Diet may be for you. This book is packed with insights and tips to help you manage your weight and stay away from patterns of eating that promote weight gain. This is a back to basics approach, where you count your calories every day, but the latest insights into the psychology of appetite are combined to give you the best possible chance of losing weight.



Anyway, I have decided it is definitely time for me to shed a few pounds. Right now, I have a noticeable belly and my thighs rub together when I walk, among a few other symptoms that I am not happy about. Probably the worst effect of having a little extra weight on my bones is I've started snoring so loudly that it is disturbing the sleep of anyone in the same building. I could use nasal strips of course, but that is just dealing with a symptom rather than attacking the cause.

Dieting holds a lot of dread for a lot of people, but I consider myself something of an expert. (I have even written a book). I naturally increase slowly in weight when I am not watching what I eat, but I also don't hesitate to go on a diet when my weight gets to a level that I am not comfortable with. Over the years that means I have slowly yo-yoed up and down in weight and that means this isn't my first diet. I know how to count calories and what works for me, so I know that my sedentary (as in I spend most of my time sitting down) lifestyle means I can only have a maximum of 1,800 calories per day if I want to lose weight at anything like a noticeable pace.

I want to make a quick start with this diet so I'm going to try and get my intake of calories down to 1,600 per day, at least for the first few days. That might sound like a lot, but in a world where even a chocolate bar has 250 calories, and a pint of beer has 350, it can be burned through pretty swiftly, believe me. You have to be aware of your calorie budget from the very start of the day if you are going to finish up hitting it, or even coming in lower and beating it, by bedtime.

Along with a realistic calorie target, another thing that is vital to succeeding in dieting is being psychologically ready. That's what my book, The Mindset Diet is really about. There are no recipes and no nutrition tips. It is all about the psychological conditions necessary to successfully get weight off, and the latest trick I have thought of is to keep a public diary of my diet as a way to shame myself into sticking to it. So, without further ado, here is the report on day one.

As I have been saying, you really have to have your wits about you when you are on a diet, but I was still a little groggy when I woke up this morning and, unthinkingly, I had a half glass of orange juice, which is about 70 calories. Water would obviously have been better, at zero calories, but like I said, I wasn't thinking. My calories were taken down to 1,530 before I was even properly awake.

Then, much later in the day, I went to a cafe and had a small cappuccino that was probably 60 calories, taking me down to 1,470 calories remaining. Along with the coffee, I had a focaccia with two types of cheese on it, mozzarella and Edam. In the display case it didn't look too big, but it turned out to be quite a slab when I got it to my table. It was a big hit on my calorie budget, too, of probably around 450 calories, taking me down to 1,020. I then rounded out my disastrous visit to the cafe with a popular local cocktail called a spritz, which had about 200 calories in it, bringing me down to 820 calories left for the day.

Later in the day, while working on the computer, I really wanted a couple of slices of toast and a coffee. I wasn't hungry, my desire for coffee and toast whenever I sit at the computer is simple conditioning, which is something I talk about in my book. So, because I wasn't hungry, particularly, and I knew it was just habit that I wanted toast and coffee at the computer, I managed to talk myself into just having the coffee instead, which was 60 calories (because I like it milky), taking me down to 760 calories with quite a few hours left in the day.

With so few calories left, I made a small meal of gnocchi and sauce for only 520 calories, including the Parmesan cheese. I drank diet coke with it, so that left me a whopping 240 calories. I have to tell you that having 240 calories left with only an hour or two left before bedtime felt very good.
With calories like that I could have eaten a whole pomelo (a kind of giant grapefruit) but I didn't, I only ate half, so 115 calories, leaving 125 unused at the end of the day, at least they would have been unused if I hadn't had a pastry for 180 calories just before my head hit the pillow, oops, taking me 55 calories over budget. But hey, what is 55 calories between friends?

It's common for the first day of a diet to go well but that is an excellent result and left me hyped for the next day.

To end, just a reminder that the best way to support this blog is to buy one of my books. Simply go over to Amazon, or Kobo and get one.

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