Lick The Lard

Lunch today:

Tuna salad (tuna without oil or mayonaise, carrot, sweetcorn, lettuce, half egg): 106kCal
Spinach and bean salad (spinach, bean, bacon - which I didn’t eat): 90kCal
Orange juice (500ml): 228kCal
Soup: 50kCal

Total: 474kCal

When I really started to lose weight, I realised the mistakes I’d been making when I’d been trying to lose weight. The subtleties made such a big impact on me that I started writing a book about the profound tiny details which made the difference between me wondering “why does nothing I try work?” and the weight literally dropping off. I should finish that book, but alas, I have to work to earn a living, and that has not left me time.

I’m pretty good at managing my weight now, mainly because (a) I understand well what I can and can’t eat, and (b) I have a level that if my weight crosses, I know I need to take emergency action.

An “emergency action” line is essential to maintaining weight, because if you get into the wrong habits and your weight starts increasing little by little, soon enough you have a double mammoth task on your hands: excessive weight to lose, AND bad eating habits to break. An “emergency action” line cuts stops you reaching that tragic situation.

Right now I’m in the “emergency action” phase, working down from 78kg to 74/75kg. It’s not a huge amount to lose, but it means I need to pay close attention to what I’m eating. In essense, I’m back to those tiny tiny details.

One of the most important of those is paying detailed attention to what I’m eating.

When I was trying to lose weight, I thought I was paying attention to what I ate. And I was paying attention - but not in the detail that was required.

I would think “this is grilled beef - it’s ok because grilled is low fat”, “this is a salad, which is therefore low fat”, “this is a tomato pasta sauce, so it doesn’t contain cream and therefore is low fat”, etc. I forgot about the sauce brushed onto the beef, or the unhealthy parts of the salad, or the oil in the tomato sause.

I wasn’t getting into the depth of what I was really eating.

This was illustrated today. Two salads side by side - a Tuna salad, and a Chicken salad. Both of them were essentially the same except the tuna salad was dressing and mayo free, whereas the chicken salad was grilled chicken with a bit of skin remaining, and a low fat dressing.

The difference between them was approximately 200 calories.

Imagine if I grab two salads for lunch, as I did today. I could be eating 200 calories, or I could be eating 600. With orange juice and some soup, that’s almost 900 calories - for a salad, soup, and a drink.

I need about 2000 calories per day to lose weight, and 2500 per day to maintain my wait. That simple difference of 400 calories is almost entirely the difference between me losing weight or not losing weight.

That’s so important that I’m going to repeat that here for me. That simple difference of 400 calories is almost entirely the difference between me losing weight or not losing weight.

That is why real detailed attention to tiny detail makes the difference.

Another example: What’s the difference in calories between a can of “tuna in oil” and a can of “tuna in water”? Which of the two kinds do you buy usually?

A simple Kimchi-chigae could be a very healthy dish - but it’s only really healthy if the right tuna goes into it, something that is forgotten if you just look at the ingredients: kimchi, tuna, vegetables, and spice. If I was trying to lose weight, the tuna that goes into it could make the difference between losing weight that day and not losing weight that day.

Should you not pay attention to details like that in everything you eat, you can’t help but miss hidden calories and wonder to yourself why you are making so much effort but not losing weight.

“I’m even eating salad and the weight doesn’t come off - nothing works for me.”

“I’m not eating anything unhealthy and I still don’t lose weight.”

“Why does nothing work for me?”

Because you are not looking at your food in the detail that you need to.

Now you have the reason.