Rant #2,461: The Weight

Nothing really new to report on the job front ...

So let's talk about my front.

Literally.

For about the past six weeks or so, encompassing my last work weeks and through right now, I have been on a self-imposed diet, or at least self-imposed as to how I am handling what I eat and what I don't eat.

I had just had a doctor's visit, and I was given a good bill of health. But the doctor said that if I could, I should lose about 15 pounds. He told me not to give up the things that I like, but to monitor how much of those things that I eat.

And that is just what I have done for roughly the past five weeks or so.

I still eat what I like to eat, but I don't eat all day anymore, or not really all day, so to speak, but in between meals. Even though I did not do that while working, I certainly did it when I would get home in the evening. I would eat dinner, then roughly two hours later, I was at it again, eating salty snacks and cake and drinking soda until I was full.

No more of that. Now that I am home, after breakfast--which I now eat at about 6 a.m, in the morning as opposed to the 4 a.m. in the morning when I used to have the first meal of the day--I do not eat at all until lunch time, which for me, is now between 11 a.m. and noon depending on what I am doing that day. While working, it used to be between 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p,n,, but now that I am home, I have moved up my lunch time.

After lunch, again, I do not eat between meals at all, and my next meal is dinner, which I usually have between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. depending on what I am doing. Tonight, for instance, my son and I have somewhere to go, so I won't eat until 6:30 p.m. or so, but generally, it has been between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. When I was working, I ate almost religiously at 6 p.m., or when I arrived home.

And then that is it for the day. I might have some seltzer if I am thirsty or even some fruit if I am hungry, but generally, once dinner is over, my eating for the day is too.

I am also kind of staying away from red meat too, although not entirely. I have tried a lot of the "non-meat" meat, and generally, they are awful. With the faux chop meat, it is really what you add to it that makes it edible, because otherwise, I find it hard to digest.

And as far as fast food is concerned, I still have it at least once a week, but I am trying to stay away from the usual stuff, and although I haven't done this religiously, I try to eat the non-traditional-meat offerings from places like Burger King and Taco Bell. Subway is not my cup of tea, as their sandwiches are really tasteless and certainly do not look like what you see on their TV commercials. I have eaten there recently, but won't do so again.

And my soda drinking, while still there during lunch and dinner, has probably been cut in half by not imbibing outside of those time periods. If I am thirsty, as I said, I drink seltzer, which doesn't really satisfy me but has that zip of carbonation that kind of does, mentally at least.

So since early October, i project that I have lost about 10 lbs., maybe slightly more. I don't know for sure how much I have lost because I haven't weighed myself, but based on what I see and what others have told me, yes, my diet is working.

I mean, it really isn't a strict diet, per se, it is really a change in my eating habits that has absolutely nothing to do with my work situation, as I started it before I lost my job.

My job now is to find a job and keep at the diet, and I think that I can certainly do both at the same time.

Only time will tell which one will be a more successful pursuit.