[geeks] Diet (was: rant in e minor.)

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Sun, 23 Jun 2002, Dave McGuire wrote:

>   Subway kicks ass.  I dig their steak & cheese, with jalapenos.

I'm a big fan of the roasted chicken.  Steak and cheese is probably my
second-favorite, but it's always so greasy and runny around here, and it
still pales before the likes of Texadelphia for a steak & cheese.  The
jury's still out on the new chicken teriyaki, but it was a nice change
when I tried it a couple weeks ago.

>   Would you mind sharing the details of this 30# loss of yours?

Well, I made a rather interesting discovery in that I was getting hungry
by habit, rather than by need.  One night, I was coding on something, got
up, went to the kitchen to look for supper, and then asked myself: "why am
I even looking?  I'm really not hungry."

Turns out that I was thirsty, but not to the point that my mouth was dry.
It was a sensation that I'd long-associated with hunger.  So, now I pay
attention to stomach growling/acidity and such, rather than when it feels
like I "should" eat.

Maybe something's screwed-up in how I perceive hunger, but thirst and
hunger feel -very- similar to me until they're to the point that I need to
do something about them.  It doesn't help that most food has water in it,
so food seems to satisfy that need, and I'd probably screwed up that
association for most of my life.

Now, I eat once or twice a day.  I eat more at a meal when I'm more active
(which makes some amount of sense).  I drink a lot more water.  I
occasionally get out and bike or walk--though I walk less frequently
thanks to an ankle that likes to dislocate itself.  But, really, I don't
do any strenuous exercise--I just eat within my needs, as opposed to
within my habits.

I also cut out snacks, and switched to sugar-free methods of obtaining
caffeine, at Bill's suggestion.  This was due to my inability to tolerate
the taste of sugary things while on lithium--not at all part of this
eating experiment.  But, I found out that I like the chemical aftertaste
of aspartame, so I stuck with it.

The biggest thing that has helped me is cooking for myself, rather than
eating fast food.  A typical meal for me is a turkey sandwich (or two) on
whole wheat bread with a lot of tomato, onion, and lettuce.  Twice a week
or more, I have some combination of rice, fish, and fresh veggies.
Sometimes I have pasta and white chicken meat (not in any small amount,
either).  I don't eat a lot of fried food (except for the occasional egg
sandwich), but I have fried chicken or the occasionally hamburger once or
twice a week.  I'm also a huge fan of lean steak with a small side salad
or baked potato.

I learned the magic of spices to enhance the flavor of even boring
food--cayenne pepper makes its way onto most-everything.  Supposedly,
cayenne pepper (and most things with capsaicin) has a side-effect of
slightly increasing the metabolism, and I'd tend to agree with that, at
least in my case.

I also eat cheese very sparingly now, and I switched from whole milk to 1%
fat milk.  I don't really like the taste of skim milk, but 1% fat milk has
enough of the whole milk taste, withoug being so heavy.

To summarize: I just slightly modified my diet and listened more closely
to my body.  If I get a craving for something, I bend to it, otherwise, I
just eat good fresh food to the point that I'm not hungry (as opposed to
the point that I'm stuffed).  I eat as much as I feel like, and I'm losing
weight.  In April, I was at 290#.  Now, I'm about 254#, and I'm amazed at
how much better I feel.

--Jonathan