So, that’s this morning’s weigh in: 282.5 (my scale does halves). The goal is to reach 182.5 or thereabouts. And that’s pounds, not kilos. I’m an American and you can have my imperial units when you pry them from my cold dead hands.
I’m eating my first breakfast of the diet: a hot link sausage, a couple of tablespoons of sour cream, and a slice of pepper jack, washed down with a Vanilla Coke Zero (one of my two caffeinated beverages of the day). I know, it sounds decadent, way fattier than I should go, but while I decided I wasn’t going to go as overboard with fat as I’ve known some people to go on Atkins, I wasn’t going to be as scrupulous about it as the sample menus in South Beach are.
I thought of saying that this meal was extra fatty so I don’t feel denied or punished, but let’s face facts, I am denying myself things. Despite the amount of fat, a single hot link sausage and a slice of cheese with a dollop of sour cream is not a huge quantity. And I also don’t get my tea with sugar and milk. And to be honest, if I wasn’t dieting, I’d happily do not just one, but possibly two sausages, with buns and potato chips… yes, for breakfast.
Just An Aside: Yes, I eat hot dogs on buns with chips, hamburgers, cold or re-warmed pizza, curry, and lots of other things of that sort for breakfast. My wife has, more than once, gasped in horror and told me those are not “breakfast foods.” I just want to go on record as saying that there is no such thing as “breakfast food.” Food is food. God may have given us some food prohibitions in the bible, but they are blanket prohibitions. There’s no “thou shalt not eat the pizza before the clock striketh the hour of lunch.” What are and are not “breakfast foods,” is totally a matter of tradition and varies across cultures. I’ve heard hot dogs for breakfast is huge in Japan.
The people who whine that they fail on diets because they feel denied annoy the heck out of me. It’s precisely because they refused to deny themselves their various food whims and wants that they need to diet in the first place. And I’m the first one to cop to being someone who didn’t deny himself things he should have and being someone who has whined about feeling denied. Yes, sometimes I annoy the heck out of myself.
I am convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that I’ve put too much fat on my gut because I put too much food on my plate. I’m not going to blame Burger King for the fact that a Double Whopper with cheese, large fries, and large Coke is 1980 calories (basically a day’s calories for an adult woman), because a regular hamburger, small fries, and a Diet Coke is 510 calories. 1980 calories is not a reasonable calorie count for a single meal unless you’re Michael Phelps (and you’re in training). 510 calories, on the other hand, when matched with two 100-calorie snacks between meals (hopefully some green veggies), would put you at 1730 calories a day and cause most men to lose weight… eating a diet of nothing but burgers and fries.
You can get fat on burgers and fries and you can lose weight on burgers and fries. Pretty much, it comes down to quantity.
But I’m not trying to demonize restaurant portions. Sure, when Men’s Health rated the 20 worst foods in America (thanks to Cathie Walker for sending me the link) they compared the fat in one Chili’s Awesome Blossom to 67 slices of bacon. But even if I never ordered pizza, never went out for fast food, never went out to restaurants that pile on the calories, it’s easy to pile my plate high at home. Even when I cook “healthy,” if I eat too much of it, the quantity becomes unhealthy. It’s very possible and quite common to eat unhealthy amounts of “healthy” foods. Perhaps my karmic lesson in this life is moderation.
Even though my breakfast this morning sounds like an extravaganza of fat, the hot link was 340 calories, the sour cream was 60 calories, and the slice of cheese was 100 calories. The whole meal of sausage, sour cream, and cheese was 10 calories less than a plain hamburger and small fries at Burger King. I’m not trying to imply that sausage, sour cream, and cheese is a nutritious meal suitable for any low-calorie diet. I’m just saying that it’s not as bad as it sounds. I did deny myself… no bun, no chips, no second sausage, no Earl Grey tea with sugar and milk.
And I didn’t plan it to be low cal. I thought I was being a bit sinful until I did the math. That’s one of the good things about not being afraid of fat when you’re doing the ultra-low-carb phase of Atkins or South Beach. Besides the fact that you’re getting the flavor and satiation that fat provides, you can end up eating a low-calorie meal and feel like you’re getting away with something.
Still, I will only be doing ultra low carb for a few weeks, then bring my body back into a more steady state for the long term. And though I’m sort of being careless about fat, I’m not being careless about portion control. Portion control is, in my opinion, my biggest weakness, so that’s a train I’m jumping on ASAP.
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You have Vanilla Coke Zero in the States?! Life hasn’t been the same since they discontinued Diet Vanilla Coke here – I hope we don’t have to wait much longer or I may have to do a road trip!