Losing Weight the Natural Way

Today is the last day of my pre-op eating habits. Tomorrow I start on a liquid diet to prepare for surgery...and the post-operative diet.

There's a common phenomena, or so I've heard, among pre-op patients called "Last Supper", where just before the operation the patient will pig out on their favorite foods as a way of saying goodbye to them forever.

I sort of did this today...I say sort of because it was more calories in one day than I have had in literally months, but at the same time it was about 1,850 calories. Less than the 2003 American average of 3,770 calories per day (check it out...it's at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.) So it was a lot, but not as much as most and nowhere near what I used to have, so I take some comfort in that.

I had several of my habitual favorites. And it is probably because I don't normally eat this much any more that I actually, at this moment, feel...sated. Content. I keep thinking I could go for a Chobani yogurt, but I think about it for five seconds and think, nope...I'm good.

Several factors have converged to make me think about my recent diet. I've lost a significant amount of poundage. The effectiveness of all the diets available to Americans, in my limited experience, is dubious...after all, weight loss surgery is booming in popularity, and doing a search on the Internet that includes the word "diet" has such a high noise ratio in the results that it's tremendously difficult to find accurate information. But I did lose weight. How did i do it?

I just counted calories. Religiously.

I've been trying to eat 1500 calories a day...it was usually between 1400 and 1600 per day.

I kept track using a web site offering a free online journal, calorie count, and reports for nutrition information. When I was nearing my limit, I stopped.

It also allowed me to track my weight (I have charts on one of my blog entries with those).

The only things I didn't count? Pickles. Salsa. Mustard. Celery. They are so low in calories that I just didn't count those as anything but "freebies". I also had a small spoon of peanut butter, one of my great loves up there with cheese and good pasta, without counting it once a day.

Otherwise, I've had to change my caloric intake to try to maximize volume while minimizing calories, and preferably, still have some flavor.

I've had to make a number of changes for the healthier that sacrificed quality. For example, 2% cheese. Not bad, but still not as creamy as the "real" thing. But it saved something between 20 and 50 calories a slice.

Chicken patties...MorningStar Farms had patties for 140 calories per patty. TheDailyPlate.com lists a Banquet chicken patty as having 260 calories. The Morningstar Farms patty is made of textured soy and has less fat...it tastes "close" to the real thing...but isn't the same. And it saves 120 calories per patty.

I use egg beaters instead of "real" egg for 30 calories per 1/4 cup. A regular egg is about 70 calories.

I haven't had ice cream in months. Why? A serving is typically on the order of 1/2 a cup and is nearly 150 to 200 calories. 1/2 cup isn't much at all for filling the stomach...but the calorie count is relatively high for what is given. Is it worth measuring a cup of ice cream for 300 or 400 calories? That's a significant cut to be made somewhere else!

I have had to switch my foods to "lite" or "fat free" varieties; the Wegman's Lite English Muffin is 90 calories; the typical English Muffin rolls in at around 50 calories more than that. I don't drink juices or milk because they can take a hundred calories a serving or more.

Other things I've had to use replacements, like fake spray butter to flavor things instead of real butter or margarine.

I have had to settle for "good enough" when I know at some level that these foods are blander and inferior to the creamier or more flavorful counterparts. And all the while I'm logging everything I ate for the day.

This isn't a way for most people to live...they just can't stick to it. It's a rough regimen. And losing weight this way means routine. I've had the same basic meals for months because they're simpler and easier to follow. My aspergian mind finds this to be less of a challenge than most people probably would because I tend to embrace routine.

Unfortuneately where before I ate with abandon, without thought to consequences, and had a varied dietary intake (Peanut butter! Yum! Want more...ooh, cheese...and some cheese and butter on bread as a sandwich...yummy!), following a routine where my calorie and fat intake are recorded all the time has led to an obsession with calories. I feel guilty that my intake for today was roughly 1800 calories. I can't bring myself to eat at old favorite restaurants any more because I can't get calorie information, or accurate information, on what they serve. Others encouraged me to have a "last supper", a last hurrah, before the operation...and I can't do it. I'd want nothing more than to take a trip to a Chinese Buffet and shovel down noodles and peanut chicken...some orange chicken...stuffed mushrooms...but I can't do it. Every item I put into my gaping maw is another set of depressing calories I can't think about without hating myself.

My wife and I have this custom on Mondays of going out to Red Lobster for dinner. I have a couple dishes I order there that are low calorie, but for giggles we figured out what our "average" meal would have been before this. We calculated that my meal, for dinner alone, was hovering around the 3500 mark. For one meal. Hers was a few hundred under that if she went with her least healthy choices she sometimes made. Thing is that I didn't think I was ordering anything that big or exotic. These were typical dinners off their menu. Calories in restaurants and fast food joints...that's a topic in and of itself.

The point is that I was eating far more than I was aware I was eating. I have been losing weight...although it's been slowing lately...simply by becoming aware of how much I've been eating and actively working to reduce that number. And it's hard.

The more depressing part is that "diet" in America has the implication that we do this on a temporary basis then slip back into old habits. You can't lose weight with a diet. You lose weight through lifestyle change. When it becomes a new habit, a new lifestyle, it's no longer a diet. It's your life.

At a certain point, whether it's because my stomach is broken or my chemistry is broken or my brain is miswired, I can't "just live" that way. I'm hoping in part that this surgery will rewire the way the digestive system works so that a small piece of cheese, real cheese, will be filling and give me all the flavor I can stand without my head popping off. And that small small bit will be filling, satisfying, and low calories all at the same time. It should be kind of like my current flavor and experience deprivation diet without feeling like it's deprivation any more.

Soon...I guess I'll find out.