I am a fifty-six-year-old male USPS mail handler. Over the years my eating style has changed in many ways. As a teenager I would drink caffeine drinks, eat burgers, pizza, and other foods, then go to sleep a few hours later and not put on weight. I began to notice as the years passed that short term diets usually ended in disasters. I have on many occasions gotten down to 164 pounds and was muscular. To accomplish this I would walk-run four miles daily, drink half a gallon of distilled water and avoid liquor, soda-pop, and food was not the focus of my life.
The best investment I ever made in my life cost twenty dollars and it was a used doctor’s precision scale that measures weight to the quarter pound. Each morning upon rising I wander in and stand naked on the scale. The cool part is that the scale locks in the weight and I have a reference to what is going on. If I eat too many snacks, or have too much food and the weight is creeping up on me, I have an early warning system. The problem with most scales is that you can gain one to five to ten pounds and the scale is too imprecise to warn you in time.
Another funny horrible nightmare involves inactivity, muscle loss, fat gain, and the illusion that nothing much is happening. Several times when I have been sick or injured/disabled for a couple weeks it appears as if the weight is staying stable. What is really happening is that muscle is quietly fading and fat is gaining.
Career choice is very important. I notice that sedentary people with sedentary jobs like computer related work and then have sedentary hobbies like video games. Conversely, I notice that something active like being a USPS mail handler can give you the full spectrum of active or passive hobbies and your health will be significantly better.
Long term success with food is much more than a diet. It is a way of thinking about food and being intellectually honest about the wrong foods. While I enjoy fried chicken I know that I will taste the fat for hours afterwards. I also know that if I bring home potato chips, dips, candy, beer, soda, pretzels, and ice cream, I will cold bloodedly devour the food with little regard to the calories. In the store I tell myself, that I will have a few chips, one beer, a cup of ice cream, but I know it is all a pretty story. So I confront reality and not get it into the cart or into my home.
Next is the problem of lead and lag time between appetite and satiation. I have observed that with low fiber food, it is possible to eat a couple burgers, fries, drink huge amounts of soda-pop before one feels full. Conversely, with foods like apples, oranges, and bananas the process of chewing them takes time and you stop after having a reasonable portion. I can devour a 240 calorie candy bar in under sixty seconds or five minutes. It takes me about half an hour to eat three eighty calorie apples and I have nutrition and fiber. So you can have three apples or one candy bar.
In theory, people count calories. I have noticed that some foods like apples seem to require a lot of body energy to digest them. They have fiber and this seems to meter the fructose into your body. Conversely, candy seems to give you the sugar rush with the post-sugar drop. Years ago, I once sat down and ate a half pound of chocolate in one sitting. For the first thirty to forty-five minutes I felt happy, mellow, and wonderful. Four hours later after my blood sugar levels crashed I felt drained, depressed, sick, sad, and yes, almost suicidal.
