Day 16, To Eat Pizza or Not?

“Very simply, we subsidize high-fructose corn syrup in this country, but not carrots. While the surgeon general is raising alarms over the epidemic of obesity, the president is signing farm bills designed to keep the river of cheap corn flowing, guaranteeing that the cheapest calories in the supermarket will continue to be the unhealthiest.”
― Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

Morning

My JV Life Tracker (Vibrancy) scores have stayed over 200 since I started this journey. I scored 240 for yesterday.

I am grateful that my energy and mood are high.

Preparing For My Day

5-10 things I am grateful for:

My weight loss. I have lost almost four pounds since Day One.
My computer. It has been working for over five years.
This blog journey. It has kept me out of depression and launched me into a higher level of accomplishment.
My friends. My neighbors have taught me not to second-guess myself. When it came time to re-consider my diet, I said, “My mind is already made up!”
My body. It is getting more beautiful every day.
My food. My food is delicious and nutritious. It is a source of enjoyment.
Vibrancy. It is a way to keep score, keep me on track with my goals, and enhance my life.
Cronometer. It is my game and a way to make everything else work.
Serif Affinity. It releases my creativity.
Mindmeister. It increases my organization.

comments, feelings, ideas, moods, and empowering questions:

How can I ensure that I will sleep through the night? What can I ask the Lord for today?

	0-100	comments
mood:	70	As you can probably guess, I am a bit tired from waking up too early this morning. I tried getting back to sleep. That did not work. I relaxed with meditation. That helped.
energy:	75

accomplishments:

	accomplishment
1.	I lost almost four pounds in two weeks.
2.	I have produced a blog entry every day since Day One.
3.	As long as I am committed, I stay out of depression.

Today is my husband’s birthday. He does not want to go anywhere. However, he wants me to order pizza. Since I have been staying off gluten, it is wise to eat something else. How can I pass up pizza? I have carefully weighed my portions to avoid overeating for the last several times we have ordered it. However, pizza seems to put weight on me no matter how little I eat. I do not want to reverse my weight loss trend. Let me think of something I can eat instead. I do not want to offend my husband, but this weight loss journey means a lot.

I thought of something: order a gluten-free pizza. However, it would still have a lot of sugar in it. That may not work. I would probably have to order a second pizza if I were to go with that solution. Instead, I could make a salad and eat that.

It is still 3:40 hours until breakfast. Fasting 18 hours can be a challenge in the morning. However, I can do it now.

On January 1, 2020, I made a petition for God.

Physical

comfort from my pain, pressure in my face, and discomfort in my throat;
relief from my thirst, using Biotène® gel, drinking or doing nothing;
complete healing in my knees;
fattening of my bones, arms, calves, and buttocks;
preservation and improvement of my eyesight and cosmetically appealing state of my eyes for the remainder of my time;
preservation of my teeth in usable and cosmetically pleasing condition throughout my life;
maintenance of the strength and color of my hair;
the ability to get enough rest;
fast recovery from the fatigue I feel whenever I drive;
assistance in losing down to 50 kilograms;
the ability to fast 15 hours daily;

Emotional

comfort concerning the recent loss of my father;
continued relief from depression and prevention of it from reoccurring;
joy in all the good that I do and a sense of wonder about my surroundings;

Wisdom

wisdom about how to find, organize, and utilize what I can use and dispose of or sell what I do not need in storage;
discretion about whether to buy Serif Affinity Designer and/or Noteworthy Composer and when;
direction about what things I can most advantageously get instructed and how;
insight into whether to buy a piano keyboard to use with my computer and when;
a fashion sense so I can always look attractive;

Abilities

courage to keep the condo cleaner;
the ability to control the foods in stock that comprise my ideal diet, as outlined for August 22, 2019, in Cronometer;
ability to clear a space for a piano, preferably in the second bedroom;

I am still working on most of these things.

To keep the condo clean, we got a maid service from Castle Fresh. I love that solution.
For my teeth, I recently got a WaterPik® to add to my Sonicare®.
I still have not made progress toward getting a piano. However, I decided, “Not now.”
I found TMJ exercises that help.
On Day One, I started this journey to lose to 50 kg with excellent progress so far. I can now fast for 18 hours.
I got Serif Affinity Designer and started using its features.
While reading a library book, The Joy of Less by Francine Jay, I still wonder what to do with my storage stuff.
My knees are doing okay.
With biweekly care from my cosmetologist, my hair and nails are looking fantastic.
My eyesight is probably better than it was earlier this year. My eye supplements (astaxanthin, zeaxanthin, lutein, and omega-3 fatty acids) help.
I got some relief from thirst by cutting back my lithium 900 mg a week.
I am still struggling to get adequate rest. Today is a case in point. However, most days, I am sleeping until past 5:00 AM. I can get to sleep at night, okay.
Finally, I have accepted the loss of my father; may he rest in peace.
For now, I am out of depression, with the help of SAMe and l-tryptophan, and feeling more joy than I have for years.
I still have driving fatigue, but I do not notice it much since I am driving less.

Has my petition been granted? Partially. It is a work-in-progress between God and me. I encourage you to write a petition. Submit it to your Higher Power, whoever that is. I call my Higher Power ‘Lord.’ Remember that you are a partner in getting the petition fulfilled.

However, it is not all in your hands. The Universe will help you out and must. So often, when I have a problem, I find a solution that has been there all along. All I need is to reach out and accept it. When I had a cyst near my left eye, I found a doctor nearby without any trouble. He specialized in surgery around the eye and performed the cyst removal on my first appointment. It required one more visit to remove stitches, and that was it. I experienced very little pain, and the operation did not cost me that much.

It is still 2:20 hours until breakfast.

Breakfast

I completed my 18-hour fast! I had the usual breakfast, except that I added ginger. I usually add it with vanilla Orgain, but it was tasty with chocolate, with the ginger taste dominating the chocolate. I wish I had used my tiny scale to measure the ginger. My regular scale does not like to measure a single gram. See the diet diary below for the ingredients and amounts I used today.

My husband asked me to scratch his back before breakfast. I did two separate sessions, getting his shoulders, the front of his arms, and all over his back. I am using a back-scratcher, long-handled brush to do most of the work. That saves my manicure.

Organization

I put a new task in JV Life Tracker, starting yesterday: Walking & Straightening. I get up to three points for doing it for 15 minutes. Already, in only two days, the condo is looking considerably more organized. Leo Babauta, in his success habits, suggests de-cluttering every day for 15 minutes. Until now, I have not set up accountability for that.

I learned from Cronometer yesterday that standing, doing straightening burns the same number of calories as walking 2.5 miles per hour. Instead of pacing so much, let me get chores done. That is what functional exercise is all about. In our culture, we tend to exercise for training rather than accomplishing some work. Maybe it is time we exercised as part of our work. This morning, I even lifted some weights (relatively heavy objects) as part of the straightening.

When the pounds start coming off, I feel the urge to get organized, too. It becomes a wholesome transformation. I pray that I can keep my mood up. The only thing that has threatened it so far was when I almost second-guessed myself about doing this diet.

Affirmations

This morning before breakfast, I recited Ten Success Affirmations to myself while walking. Thankfully, I have those statements memorized again, so they can work their magic. Lately, I have read, You Can Create An Exceptional Life by Louise Hay and Cheryl Richardson. I have to admit, I have not been regular at doing affirmations, though I have used them from time to time. They are useful for getting you to believe better about yourself. This is crucial during weight loss. You must believe you deserve higher quality food. Otherwise, you will keep eating cheap, low quality food.

Wellness Plan

Do you have a wellness program in place for yourself? Or are you waiting for the right one to come along? The truth is that you have to design it yourself. A one-size-fits-all approach does not work for hardly anyone. I can go on and on about what I do, and I have. However, it will not work for you unless you design it. I am still improving my wellness program template in this mindmap, which I described this in Saturday’s blog entry. You can use this plan as far as it works for you.

Evening

Birthday

I decided to have two small pieces of pizza for my husband’s birthday, which I weighed. I still have 131 calories remaining in my calorie budget. Pizza may slow down my weight loss, but it will not stop it entirely. I restarted the fast for 16.5 hours. I am glad my husband opted out of cake and ice cream.

Before the pizza came, we got the carpets cleaned. I put the houseplants on the patio to clean the carpet under them. Now, it smells a lot better in the living room.

I slept for a while this afternoon but did not make up for the amount I missed last night. I am drained. I did not make it outside for my walk today, though I did walk down to the basement garage to let in the carpet cleaner. It seems like most of the day, I have been scratching my husband’s back and arms.

Frustrations

I am feeling a tad frustrated with myself. It is my fatigue.

I still have the evening to catch up on whatever I missed today. Let me listen to some music to calm my frustration.

Today, I discovered that my walking shoes are wearing out. Finding shoes that fit me is a hassle. That is just one frustration.

I want to buy a tarp to protect the living room floor, but my husband does not want to sleep on it and asked me not to buy it. He said we can afford the carpet cleaners, which have already come four times in the past two months. A twenty-dollar tarp could potentially save hundreds of dollars.

I located shoes that might fit. The store has wide, extra-wide, and extra-extra-wide. I think the extra-wide would do. I saved a link.

However, what can I do about the tarp? Perhaps I could quietly buy it anyway and take a chance. My husband might like it because it might be nicer than what he is thinking.

Pizza

I feel like eating. I am committed to my diet, though. Unh-uh! The sugar in the pizza must be stimulating my addicted appetite. That is why it would have been better to not eat any. However, I did, so let me not second-guess myself. Today, I stopped at 114 grams of pizza. I do not usually stop before I eat a lot more. What is the right thing to do in social situations? I have struggled with sugar in social gatherings all my life. As a child and teenager, I ate a lot of sugar. When I became an adult, it became more and more evident that it was harmful to me and that I had become addicted. But how do you tell the hostess? You can avoid the occasion altogether, but what does that do to your social life? Loneliness is not the right answer to sugar addiction. It can even make it worse. I had only my husband to offend this afternoon, but he would have felt bad if I did not eat any pizza.

So instead of having all the answers, I am asking some questions. What about pizza? Some people are faced with donuts every morning. Pizza, at least, has some food value. If I can get through tonight without being compelled to eat more food, I can count it as a victory.

Diet Diary

Next Morning

Was this just from the pizza? I only had 114 grams! It must have had more fructose than Cronometer reports. It was commercial rather than homemade pizza. I had a little wider eating window as well. From a dieting standpoint, pizza is a disaster. Maybe it made sense from a social standpoint. Maybe not. I will let the reader judge. I will go on.

Prayer

MORNING PRAYER

Dear Lord,

My counselor suggested that I might allow extra weight on my body to permit social enjoyment. I did not want to concede to that. However, that is what I have done. This time, according to Cronometer, I was still in my calorie budget!

The Simple Answer

Surely, this is complex, but the simple answer is to avoid pizza, especially commercial pizza, which is loaded with sugar. That is how they hook their customers.

What Do I Do Now?

Again, this is a time to weigh values, much as it was on September 19, 2020. What did I do then? I fasted for 20 hours. Maybe that is the correct response now, so I can get back on track. Except then, I had eaten a lot of extra calories. Now, I have not. Puzzling. Maybe green drinks are the answer.

Frustration

Last night, I was feeling frustrated. Maybe I was feeling frustrated that I ate pizza, intuitively knowing what would happen on the scales. However, I thought I was careful enough. My husband loves pizza, and he loves to share it with me. Sometimes, I even lose the next day after eating it, but not today.

Emotional Hit

Hardest hit are my emotions. Yesterday has undermined my self-confidence and taken down my mood, much as sugary treats do. I avoided so many social engagements I almost became a hermit. My family could not understand. It was the negative effect of sugar on my mood.

Sugary Food

Mom ordered Hawaiian food once for my birthday that was tasty but very sugary. I raved about how good it was, intending to offer thanks for her gesture. The problem: she did it again. That time, I helped pay for it, but I would not eat any. She could not understand why. I told her it had too much sugar. How do you solve a social/nutritional problem like that? Maybe most people’s moods do not dive with sugar. Mine do.

Food Addiction

I am addicted to sugar. Many people are. If my readers suffer from that, will you help them? Sugar is one of the most challenging things to avoid. It is part of nearly every social celebration. I not only ate sugar, but I also ate dairy and gluten as well. Lord, help me figure out what to do.

Amen.

If you would like to join me on this journey from the beginning, please start with Day One. If you wish to download a FREE copy of my ebook (with no need to enter your name or email), click on the book below. Please continue this journey with me by clicking on the arrows at the right of the page.

This article, with its diet diary, shows what worked for me. I do not claim that it will work for you. Consult a licensed medical provider to determine your diet and medical care. These blog entries do not diagnose or treat any disease. If I provide any clues for you or your provider, I will be happy.