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Tony Lawrence: Dieting in Party Land
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Recently I noticed that the scale at our gym needed adjustment.
Astonishingly, it seemed to be saying that I weighed 196 pounds.
This is, of course, ludicrous. I weigh 173, maybe 178, but
certainly not 196.
However, there was also the problem of certain jeans that just
wouldn't fit any more. I used to wear a 32 waist, but had
decided that a 34 was more comfortable, but the darn 34 jeans
had somehow shrunk, and it was all I could do to get them
on.
All right, all right. I had gained weight. In spite of my efforts
to maintain an active, calorie consuming lifestyle, the pounds had
crept on. It was now May, summer was right around the corner,
so it was time to do something about it NOW!
Of course I didn't. The end of May found us back at Berkshire
Vista with me still pushing the needle well over the 190
mark. While it is true that tight jeans are not an issue
at a nudist camp, my happy little pot belly was now uncovered
and I could see it every time I sat down. No doubt every
one else could see it no matter what I was doing, so I
resolved to crack down and get rid of it.
Of course I did nothing of the kind. Most of June slipped
away with no adjustment to my eating habits whatsoever. After
all, 196 isn't so bad, right? *Lots* of people weigh more
than that. *Lots* of people are a bit overweight, especially
at the beginning of summer. It's all just "Winter Weight", right?
It will come off.
But there are sinister forces at work. A nudist camp is a social
place, a place for parties, a place for get-togethers, a place
for FOOD. Any Saturday at Berkshire Vista will find at least
one and probably several impromptu deck parties or pot-luck meals,
and just walking by one of those is probably a few hundred
inhaled calories. Should you actually eat and drink, you are
surely good for a couple of thousand calories at that meal
alone.
Contemplation of that reality led me to all sorts of idiotic
promises: I'll only eat a *little* bit. Sure I will: a
little of this, a little of that, a little more of this,
some more of *that*..oops, is that Strawberry Shortcake? I'll
just have a *little*.
I found that there were plenty of good reasons not to weigh
myself. After all, I'm in a hurry right now. And I have
sneakers on, so it wouldn't be right anyway. Besides,
I just ate, and my wallet would throw it off, wouldn't it?
The darn thing probably isn't at all accurate anyway. It's
just springs and stuff, probably all stretched out and
completely useless. Why bother?
But then I noticed that while lying flat on my back, I
now had a view of flesh I didn't used to be able to see. I've
heard some people get serious when their toes disappear, but
I wasn't going to wait for that. That belly had to go.
Yet the typical nudist weekend still conspired against me.
Let's get real here: I'm not going to walk by a pot-luck
smorgasboard and pretend to be some ascetic monk fasting to
purify his soul. We have too many good cooks at Berkshire
Vista, and there is no sense pretending that I even begin
to have enough will power to ignore all of it. The plain
fact is, I could likely keep it down to something less than
insane, but there is no way I would get through a weekend
scot-free of calorie abuse. Forget about it: this boy is
going to EAT.
So that means more herculean efforts elsewhere. If the
weekends are a lost cause, then the rest of the week will
have to compensate. So I set out three weeks ago to cut
back, trim down, and lose that paunch.
The very first step was to shrink that stomach. For the
first week, I did not diet at all, and in fact maintained
a daily calorie intake well in excess of 3500. It could
have been more; I wasn't even counting at that point.
Does this make any sense? Shrink your stomach by *not*
dieting?
Well, actually, it does. The secret of this is to allow
yourself as much food as you want, but to spread it out
more. Smaller meals don't stretch out your stomach, and
you slowly get used to feeling full with less. So have that
entire pizza for supper, but spread it out over the
entire night. Eat one piece, and wait a half an hour before
doing another. This also works in another way because
the "I've had enough" signal takes quite a long time
to reach our brains. When we spread it out as I'm suggesting
here, it often turns out that we're quite happy *not*
to eat that whole pizza, and will feel completely satisfied
long before it is gone.
This strategy can also work over the weekend. There is *always*
a party somewhere, and most of them last for hours. Stretch
your eating out, and you keep your stomach small and easily
satisfied.
Of course, this isn't going to take any weight off, and it
might even add a few pounds (it probably won't- it didn't
for me). So it is time for the next step, and that involves
counting calories.
When I've done this in the past, I've sometimes gone nuts
with the calorie war, trying to keep my consumption under
1200 calories per day. That is, simply, insane. Yes, it
can be done, and yes, I've done it. But it is torture,
cruel and unusual punishment, more than any person should
have to suffer, and is more likely to result in complete
and abject failure than weight loss. I'm a six foot
male, fairly active, and probably need at least 2500
calories or more just to stay healthy. So for dieting,
I set a target of 2,000 calories per day, and at least
initially, I didn't enforce that on the weekends. For
me, that's a workable number. It leaves me very slightly
hungry, but not insanely ravenous. Some days I find that I
can feel fine with a bit less, and will be content with
1500 calories; on another day it will take 2200. That's
OK.
On the weekends, I don't bother to count at all, but just
keep the "spread it out" game in play, and limit the non-party
meals to low-calorie productions like yogurt and cucumber/tomato
sandwiches.
During the week, I find that it's pretty easy for me to keep
the count very low for breakfast and lunch. It's dinner
and dessert that I find hard to pass up, so by eating less
when it is psychologically easier for me, I get to splurge
a bit when it is not. And again, spreading it out and
eating slowly help tremendously.
Exercise is a critical part of life, and it's not just
something you need to do while dieting. At Berkshire
Vista, we are literally on a mountain, so there are
plenty of opportunities for strenuous walking. I
think running is a mostly useless activity: in the
first place it is much more efficient than walking,
so it actually (for most of us) consumes less calories,
it does terrible things to your tendons and muscles
because of the great shock every time you come down,
and most nudists have to wear some form of clothing
or restraint to be comfortable when running. Walking
is better all around.
Swimming is also great. Berkshire Vista has a nice pool.
We don't play tennis, but that can be good exercise, though
again there is some chance of hurting yourself accidentally.
Nobody wants to hear this, but you also need weight-bearing
exercise. This is critical for keeping bones strong, for
maintaining muscle mass. It also is much more useful in
a diet program, because the "after-burner" effect (the
fact that your metabolism stays "up" after exercise and
keeps on burning calories) is higher for that type of workout
than it is for aerobic activities. That doesn't mean you
shouldn't get aerobic exercise, of course. But it does
mean that old fashioned weight-lifting (or Nautilus machines,
etc.) are vitally important.
Well, it's been three weeks now. I'm down to 179. I do want
to take off a bit more, but there is no rush. I have skipped
a few deck parties, have passed by a few desserts, but I
haven't made myself miserable, and I don't intend to.
Tony Lawrence, apl@ 07/10/98
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