Still On the Road

            I made a bacon pie yesterday. It started life as a chicken and asparagus pie but I was feeling a bit down and had bacon available. I had also skipped breakfast so didn’t have to feel guilty about it. It was glorious and wonderful and I will probably make another before the end of the week.

            Apart from making people want to eat bacon, I say this to demonstrate that dieting does not mean you have to cut out all of your vices and favourite foods. To be fair bacon isn’t that many calories in and of itself but I know people who think they can’t eat chocolate or cake or a list of other things that they love and would miss terribly. This makes the idea of dieting repugnant to them and so they don’t enjoy doing it, and probably stop doing it. However, I eat whatever I want as long as I can work it off later, or I can go without eating other stuff for awhile. Having said this I have a massive tube of Lindt Lindor on my desk at home that I don’t think I’ll ever finish as I can only have one a week – not because they are individually calorific but because it takes a great deal of willpower to stop at one rather than eating the entire tube in frenzy of gluttonous glee. I’d wake up after the sugar black-out surrounded by red Lindt wrappers the morning after the chocolate massacre and might breakdown in tears because of what I’d done/sugar-come-down.

         So while I know I keep saying ‘you can eat what you want’ there is a certain measure of control involved. If you slaughter your way through packets of chocolate continuously you will probably have to do so while using a treadmill. While I accept not everyone believes in a zero-point economy, I think most diets work on a zero- or negative-point system, in that you have to balance or under-pay the calorie side to make progress. This can entail quite a lot of work as you have to eat to live (obviously) and want to eat a satisfying amount. I have noticed I can no longer eat as much as I used to – although I gave it a good go at pizza hut on Friday – which is great because I have less of a desire to eat more and that helps a lot.

On the down side my stomach has apparently not communicated this effectively to my brain and as such I still order quite a lot, usually resulting in wasted money rather than me eating too much. Once I learn to master this balance I’ll be a lot better off health, weight and money wise but in the mean time I guess I’ll just have to keep learning. But that’s okay – I knew when I signed up for this that it would be a continuing mission to explore strange new ways of eating so I’m aware I need to be in it for the long run.

I’m now a spritely 228.5lbs as of this morning, meaning I’ve lost just under 30lbs in four months. Four months ago I would have said ‘yeah, I could do that’ but I wouldn’t have believed I would. I’m glad I have done, and more so that I’ve kept it off rather than slipped back into old habits. My goal is still 182lbs but that might change to more like 190 depending on how much I get into the gym. Either way, I won’t be so upset when people park badly in parking bays as I’ll be much more able to squeeze through the door with greater ease and grace. I already feel less like a geriatric elephant when I have to try, so that’s got to be a good sign.