overeating: morning^midnight

Overeating means eating more than usual. No precise definition.

• loss of control .. late-night overeating is worse
• restraint .. is what I need. In the morning, there are other family members around so I feel a semi-conscious restraint.
• socially acceptable .. morning is less guilty. This factor is subconscious, subtle but powerful.
• wrong-* temptation .. late night is worse
• late-night overeating is followed by inactivity i.e. sleep 😦
• late-night overeating tends to delay my sleep, as I often feel a motivation to get some work done.

So let’s be more tolerant of over-eating in the morning 🙂

— one special scenario: power surge at night. Late-night overeating can be be justifiable.

Kranji trip: family outing diet xp

Without this review/reflection, I would suffer the self-hate, despair, self-contempt, wipe-out as I completely forget the efforts, the rewards, and focus exclusively on the failures, the loss of control,,

🙂 In the morning I resisted the wrong-time temptation.
🙂 The night before, I had only 2 red-bean pancake, and said no to leftover cooked rice+dishes
At Kranji,

• 🙂 I made the right choice to eat a papaya
• 🙂 I made the right choice about red bean cold dessert. Better than a few other foods. The ice helped a lot.
• By buying 2 cake-history breads, I decided to reward my efforts of the morng + the night before.
• 🙂 .. I delayed the eating of the cakes. I gave myself the chance to discard [1] them.
• 🙂 At cake history, I exercised self-discipline to avoid buying too many
• I did buy a sugary drink, partly becasue it looked novel and it is full of healthy ice cubes.
• .. It proved against that sugar without starch is not so irresistible, thanks to my “system”

🙂 At Admiralty, I didn’t buy any food, even though they are very economical.

— [1] this is an example of the proposition .. buying something only to satisfy a longing, a desire, to be discarded later.
As I grow older, I may need this technique more and more.

• eg: As I shared with Kyle in 2019, on the street of NY I gave away lots of cheap fruits, as the burden was way too heavy for me and I would not enjoy the extra fruits anyway.
• eg: my tanbin.com domain name. I just don’t need it any more. It satisfied my need for a few years.
• eg: buy some gadets for kids …
• eg: cheap toys for kids

BMI Loss@ctrl: self-care^self-hate

Big part of my cabin fever is diet loss@control, esp. the wrong-time temptation. I’m used to be in control, so the loss of control is devastating, /degenerative/ and destructive.

Self-hate, unreasonable expectation … are part of the underlying….

What we need is compassion and self-care. In my preoccuation with BMI, I fail to recognize and celebrate the huge effort and success in

• avoid family meal when not hungry
• starch
• fat
• raw veg + fruits
• chia seeds

Pehraps my diet is not lost, but BMI battle is in decline? If that’s the case then we need the bao3shan1 strategy.

Perhaps the increased calorie intake (presumably starch+fat) is directly due to stress-coping.

Perhaps what I need is warrior diet — Go without starch/fat for 16H everyday.

L@Ctrl^dailyBattle^temptation^badFoodList^sustainable

1. I feel t_dailyBattle and t_L@Ctrl should not appear on the same blogpost.
2. t_badFoodList is strictly for lists
3. if possible, temptation category blogpost should avoid those tags above.

t_Sustainable is about life-long habit and adjustment

## what calorie-dense foods are binge-risky #nut

Note water content is arguably the biggest unsung hero/ having the potential to save the day.
Many otherwise binge-risky calorie-dense foods are saved by the high water content — fruits, smoothie, chendol, red-bean congee, even ice cream (with chia seed),,, The more water content, the safer, since the stomach gets filled up by the water content which serves as a binge-preventing circuit-breaker.

• nuts — prime eg. I can binge i.e. eat a lot quickly. Some people are naturally protected from this binge risk.
• creamy cakes, fried foods, chicken skin, potato salad — are the worst fatty foods. High binge risk.
• starch — I can eat a lot in one meal, including the fibrous starch like starchy roots.
• lean meat — (not KFC)
• cooked meat — I can binge iFF with rice

— a few foods with moderate binge-risks

• 🙂 chocolate? I usually don’t binge, not at the same level as cakes or potato salad.
• 🙂 avocado?? not sure. Not as tasty as cheese cakes and more natural and more fibrous.
• 🙂 fancy nuts and avocado? binge-risk is limited by cost ! Rather expensive, and seldom offered in quantity.
• — low risk
• 🙂 fish — (non-fried) I can eat quite a lot but fish is almost always low-fat, low-starch so I get filled up without too much calorie load.
• 🙂 porridge
• 🙂 whole fruits — most of us can’t eat too much fruits (with the sugar), largely thanks to the water content
  • Watermelon — i can eat a lot but not calorie dense 🙂

–fat without starch or sugar without starch are significantly less binge-risky than with-starch

• eg: cheese alone
• eg: fried peanuts and many fried nuts are not tasty
• eg: chocolates — actually i won’t eat a lot
• eg: red bean paste alone (not in a pancake) I won’t binge.
• gr8 eg: candies
• gr8 eg: raisin, dried fruits
• gr8 eg: visible sugar on biscuits and cakes
• gr8 eg: among Indian deserts, those very sweet are the least attractive

not all fattening foods are equal4me

Many such foods are expensive but not satisfying/delicious. Analogy — at comparable stress levels, some jobs (GS) are less rewarding in learning, brank or income.

* eg: ice cream is much better than fried peanuts. In fact many nus are more calorie dense than ice cream
* many fried social foods are not delicious at all
* Indian desserts are oily and starchy
* 油条

Since my hackathon weekend in mid May 2019, I have loosened my self-restriction and eaten quite a lot of

• ice cream
• millet porridge
• taro

— My intensity of guilt is tied to the quantity of food but 1 pound of these foods are NOT equally nutritious or fattening. I’m ignoring the facts that

1. fiber — in taro (also millet) is relatively healthy and automatically stops me from overeating
2. water content — in porridge is filling and automatically stops me from overeating
3. fat and sugar — is only in the ice cream and missing in the other two
4. I chose relatively low-calorie flavors of ice cream

— I also failed to give enough credit to the self-reward factor. I did two exercise classes and 10-20 hours of coding practice in the 2nd weekend of May. I didn’t go out.

Q: Do I rather not have this motivation and avoid this mild level of indulgence?
A: No! Thus motivation is so extremely precious that I would willingly pay this price in terms of some overeating

— This episode of overeating is not loss of control, but rather a controlled indulgence.

— I also failed to look at the other foods I had throughout these days … mostly fruits and frozen vegetables, some tuna, some smoothies at gym. Very little starch (sweet yams) and no fat no chocolates.

On previous “normal” days I frequently eat more chocolates.

I also gave myself a Chinatown 4-dish treat … more calories than this time !

— Clear, sharp and critical thinking is … critical! Writing down these pointers help me … focus.

##[18] binge: interleave + low_cal fasting@@

Until I started counting calories, I wasn’t aware of these calorie binges —

• froyo —  I can easily eat 600 cal in one go
• 汤圆 — 350 cal/10 pc. I can eat 700 cal in 30 minutes
• ice cream — one women’s fist would be 300 cal. I can eat 4 of those, or 1000+ cal in one go. However, far less dangerous if with raw veg — ice cream: controlled indulgence
  • always eat with plenty of raw veg
• peanut — (roasted in shell, Chinese flavor) without control I can finish a 400g packet in one go without realizing it … probably 1500-2500 calories.
  • always eat with plenty of raw veg
• [u] chee**cake (#1 biggest calorie binge) — I can eat 4 slices quickly, up to 2000 calories over a few minutes. See cheesecake #1 high-cal food I eat
• [u] pecan pie 2000 cal for 16oz .. I can presumably finish in an hour.
• [u] pound cake — about 2000 cal. I can presumably finish 66.6% – 80% in one go if nothing else
  • always eat with plenty of raw veg
• [u] tuna subway — see tuna subway: not low-cal at all I can finish a foot-long in one meal, topping 1000 cal even without cheese. Staff usually add 6 cheese slices i.e 300 calories so total 1300 calories in one meal
• [u] Philly cheesesteak — I ate a footlong within an hour. At least 1000 calories.
• [u] potato salad — I can eat 1000+ cal in a day, over 2 meals.
  • 🙂 I believe due to fiber and starch, potato is more filling than other binge foods so I only finish 1000+ cal over 2 meals
• [u] creamy white sauce — in a noodle or rice. I would think the sauce alone contributes 300 calories (400 if I ask for more) With the starch I could top 500-700 calories in one go
• [u] creamy soup — less fatty than white sauce… 200-300 cal for 16 fl oz i.e. 2 standard cups. I I can eat 400-600 cal in one go.
• Indian buffet — probably 2000-3000 cal in one meal without fried stuff
• … However …
• chocolate binge is never as big as potato salad, or ice cream
• cheese pearls — as part of a salad, presumably and theoretically, I could eat 700 up to 1000 cal in one go, but I guess this is more like chocolate
• [u=popular in U.S. only]

Pattern — fat and starch are most dangerous, devastating, destructive, hard to contain, like a tornado. This is one of the biggest long-term challenges to my wellness (long-term challenges 1)starch 2)binge) so the hours and hours of deep introspection, experiments, discussions are worth it. I’m willing to spend a lifetime total of $50k to get rid of this uncontrollable habit, but that’s not realistic.

I tend to question if the calorie numbers are accurate but I have no evidence against them.

#1 Solution discovered @ X’mas 2018 — what2go with raw veg #celery

Suggestion — interleaving — is it possible to deliberately introduce a few days of low-cal dieting? Ideally before the binge, but afterwards is also a reasonable idea, but not as a self-punishment. Key idea is to convert the binge into a controlled, planned part of a program.

#1 defense after losing control: bao3shan1

In my vernacular/jargon, Bao3shan1 means street-by-street defense.

• slogan: When I lose grip I don’t Give Up control. I continue to exercise self-restraint under severe pressure.
• slogan: damage control. At this very moment, some level of self-discipline can limit the calorie impact.
• slogan: stop the bleeding

Losing control doesn’t always happen in a big binge… It could be a single chunk of creamy cake. It could be small as an egg tart but at the wrong time. Out of a thousand (healthy) adults, each will lose control and give in to food temptation once a while. What can we do? Avoiding temptation is always better, but we will face the temptation some day. Therefore, My strategy is mostly on damage-control. Here’s a vivid illustration of damage control —

On History channel, I watched a documentary about Second World War U-boat bunkers (https://www.historynet.com/frances-u-boat-bunkers-survived-the-war-and-thrive-today.htm). Huge Tallboy bombs were able to penetrate one layer but not another layer of the K3 bunker. This Tallboy vs K3 story parallels the bao3shan1 battle.

(Shall we merge into the bigger blogpost https://1330152open.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=16427&action=edit ? No need.)

diet control: Nov18,CNY19 trips

“Eat only when hungry” guideline proven completely ineffective on the 2018 Thanksgiving trip to Singapore. Total loss of control. In Jan 2019, I am more in control but still putting on weight.

I feel the target of maintaining 136 lbs (61.5 kg) is unrealistic with frequent dining out. If it is unrealistic, then it can backfire and hurt my self-esteem, self-confidence and self-mastery.

Hypothesis — my body might adjust in Singapore (recall age 17). to maintain my weight I might need more powerful foods like

* fancy fruits
* chia
* whey
* fish

Q: In Singapore, is my calorie in-take higher now … breakdown?
A: yes perhaps 50->100-200% higher, due to eat-out, whole milk, butter cookies, chocolates, ice creams… I have no better evidence than published calorie numbers.

One Challenge is office hours. I now have many healthy snacks but always hungry, perhaps due to lack of calories.

• sugg: bring to office protein powder … possibly low fat high fiber high protein?
• sugg: bring home-cooked meat to office
• sugg: bring my garden mix to office microwafe
• On track so far with starch reduction, esp. rice
• well done so far to eat small snacks only and one big meal
• well done with fruits
• successful with carrot and green peas
• sugg: need to really say no to starch including rice, bread. My sweet potato, carrots and green peas are good alternatives
• sugg: protein powder — if it effectively helps me cut starch, then it’s worth the money. I want to show my family I’m serious about starch reduction. See the strategies in whey to combat starch temptation
• sugg: eat lots of fish, meat, veg to help combat the temptation of starch
• sugg: eat a bit more wheat bread and less rice, but green peas are better, and carrots are even better
• sugg: Arrange with boss to start work in office early. Tell family in advance to not cook for daddy
• sugg: buy (expensive) diet foods — raw carrot to be heated, green peas, sweet tomato, low-fat ice cream to combat starch
• sugg: if they eat rice/buns, I would eat my protein powder, green pea and carrot
• sugg: try eating after they finish dinner, and discard all rice before I start.
• sugg: simply discard any left-over rice. No apologies.
• proven tip: focus on starch, the elephant in the room — After missing the main guideline, rather than giving up completely let’s focus on the big items like starch and visible fat. The guideline is no immediate death sentence, so don’t give up.
  • Analogy — after 宝山 (Bao3shan1 city) was lost to the invading Japanese, we would engage in street fighting
• survival tip: I skipped most meals except the family dinner
• survival tip: the body is weak… avoid temptation
• Don’t blame wife/grandma cooking. I chose to face the temptation.

In spite of the failure, I still advocate to boy .. get used to skipping meals on a regular basis. It will help in the long run.

Result of failure? To my surprise, on 24 Nov, I recorded the lowest weight 140.8 lbs, thanks to a strict diet after the flight

what2go with raw celery: fat-binge damageControl #西瓜

I don’t need yogurt, dips .. since I can easily live without them. Best “enhancer” for raw veg are the handful of highly identifiable ..

.. foods I wish to but can’t live without :

1. ice cream,
2. peanuts,
3. cakes — cheesecake, brownie …
   • Luckily I don’t stash them
4. chocolates,
   • luckily I don’t binge it
5. cold cut — usually higher calorie than i want, though one ham hits 90cal/100g
   • luckily not so calorie-dense

The harsh reality — if I abstain from these (albeit not-most-fattening) foods for too long I get restless… withdrawal syndrome.

Therefore, the raw veg lightens and cushions, if not neutralizes the nutritional + guilt impact of calorie-dense foods. A and B help each other but raw veg is giving more help and receiving less help !

So right now which calorie-dense foods need the most help from raw veg? 1) starchy cooking by grandma 2) ice cream 3) chocolate

For example, when I have bought too many peanuts and ice cream, I buy lots of (expensive) raw veg to help deal with the calorie footprint + the loss of control.

Metaphor — imagine a seriously polluting manufacturer contributing huge goodwill money (beside taxes) from its profits, so much so that local community more than forgives the pollution — locals actually accept and prefer the polluter to be there.

—

Celery remains the least palatable veg. Let’s try heating it and removing the bitter juice. After that, many dips would probably work.

Q: what to go with raw celery? Note the raw celery has lots of juice so the lighter “pastes” get terribly diluted. You can see the raw celery shrink to less than half after heating and losing the juice.

• watermelon — goes well with celery, both of them very juicy
• peanuts :):) overall better than ice cream and cakes
• roasted chicken breast :):) — more healthy than 老干妈
• spicy Chinese sauce 老干妈 :):)  esp. the chunky stuff
• chocolate and meat, esp. dried meat :):)
• BBQ sauce 🙂
• guacamole is helpful though not strong enough… hummus is slightly more effective and more resistant to dilution.
  • Note everyone (except those trained) finds raw veg hard to swallow, so the standard practice uses various salad dressing. If small amount of dressing then the combination is still healthier than other food choices.
• yogurt
• honey?
• 黄豆酱?
• 凉拌酱?
• yam paste
• onion-chop omelette

Sold at Trader Joe’s, the chopped mix with onion is palatable almost without anything added. Additionally, I could manually mix with peas and nuts though they contain some small amount of starch and fat. Plenty of guacamole proved a good taste-booster too. Let’s remember some tough foods like liver and 苦瓜 are extremely unpalatable, even awful if eaten in big chunks — must dice up or cut into thin strings

! Remember our goal (Tough goal) — reduce starch so as to reduce overall intake; calories is a secondary goal.

Celery isn’t a life-saving medicine. If too hard to swallow, then just eat a bit. No need for struggle with an obsession.