Diet - day 14
I went to bed hungry last night, but I did not wake up hungry this morning, strange. A nutritionist would point out that if you go to bed on an empty stomach and sleep for six to eight hours, you’ve deprived yourself of food to the point where the cookies on the counter sound like a logical breakfast choice. As a result, you’re more likely to gain weight, but I found myself being able to choose a relatively low calorie option in the morning, as you can read about below.
A nutritionist would also remind us of the fact that our body’s metabolic processes may slow down when we’re asleep but they’re still functioning. In sleep our body goes into full repair and restoration mode, building muscle mass, converting protein to muscle, and repairing damaged tissues. If we haven’t provided our bodies with enough fuel to do their jobs, we risk losing muscle mass while we sleep. The main focus of this diet is losing weight, and I refuse to take account of any other concerns, including health and physical strength. Losing weight is the number one good thing that can be done for the body, and I will work on muscle mass and health when, and only when, I reach my target weight.
One more nag from a nutritionist before we move on is that our body is running and needs fuel 24 hours a day, even when we’re asleep. Theoretically this means that we need to provide our system with enough fuel to carry out its duties, otherwise we run the risk of waking up still feeling tired. A nutritionist would suggest eating a light snack with high levels of protein or fiber in the hours before bed to allow us to wake up feeling more refreshed and energized. You won't be surprised to find out that I think this consideration, while real, is of far less importance than losing weight. Being too heavy makes you tied an robs you of energy. You can forget about light bedtime snacks when on a diet, in my opinion at least.
Just to hammer that point home, we all remember times when we ate WAY more than we should and woke up the next day feeling insanely hungry. This happens because excess glucose in your blood kicks the pancreas into action. It secretes insulin, to regulate high blood sugar levels from binge eating, by pushing all that excess glucose into muscle and fat cells. When you wake up the next morning your blood is severely lacking in glucose! That’s why an average, healthy individual feels hungry in the morning after overeating the previous night. But I woke up feeling okay, even though I went to bed hungry. The important thing is how much you eat not when we eat it. Hit the calorie total, and don't worry too much about what time of day each meal and snack actually comes.
More tips like this in my book-If you are constantly losing the mental battle to steer clear of junk food, then the Mindset Diet may be for you. This is a whole new mindset. 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. Buy the Mindset Diet
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Okay, so today, on day 14 of my diet, my weight was the same as yesterday, 85 kilos, which is 187 pounds in American money. Another day then started with the usual calorie budget of 1,600, and my usual good intentions, but no actual progress yet.
Like yesterday, breakfast was something called a quadrottine, which is a very thin Italian sandwich bread, for 115 calories. I spread two cheese triangles on this for 82 calories. I also rounded that up to 200 calories and washed it down with a glass of orange juice, 111 calories, which meant breakfast was 311 calories.
Within an hour my stomach was loudly grumbling, but nobody was around so no embarrassment factor. I also didn't feel hungry. There were just the noises. They faded away after about ten minutes.
Lunch was another thin Italian sandwich bread and two cheese triangles for 200 calories, bringing my running total to 511 calories, which seemed quite a lot, but the plan was to have salad for my main meal, so I wasn't too worried about hitting my target.
A tiny snack of bread sticks - 20 calories each - 80 calories in total brought my running total to 591.
Then two delicious white chocolate and cranberry cookies at 100 calories each and a coffee at 60 calories (260 calories) brought my running total to 851 calories, or just about half my budget for the day.It's great to know you really can eat whatever the hell you like, so long as you hit your calorie budget.
My evening meal was two burger buns with mozzarella in (I didn't have the salad in the end. The best-laid plans of mice and men, and all that). Each bun was 214 calories, and there was 300 calories of mozzarella. That took my running total to 728 plus 851, which was 1,580. In other words my eating for the day was over, my calorie budget all used up and I would be going to bed hungry again. Oh well.
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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