What’s Going On with Me, You Ask? I’ll Tell You… I’m Fat! 

RJ, an old friend who recently reconnected with me, asked me to bring him up to date on my life. “What are you spending your time on?” he asked. “Are you still working or retired? How’s the body? And the mind? Give me the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”

After telling him how glad I was to be in contact with him again, I answered thusly:

“What’s going on with me? Let me start with the most important thing, RJ: I’m fat. Now, I’m not one of those people that say they are fat when their eight-pack turns into a six-pack. I have 15 to 20 pounds of blubber hanging on my bones, slowing me down, and increasing my blood pressure.

“So that’s number one.

“Second, third, and fourth, I’m dealing with a bunch of personal and business challenges that I doubt you’d be interested in.

“Fifth, for the first time in my life, I’m beginning to worry seriously about the direction of the world and what life is going to be like for my children and grandchildren.

“And finally, I’m fat. Oh, right… I already mentioned that.”

Then I thought… “Maybe I should write about this in my blog. I’ve written about my struggles with weight in the past, but maybe I should write about the new routine I’ve started that I’m excited about.”

I thought that was a pretty good idea. So that’s why you’re going to see it here now.

My new routine allows me to eat whatever and as much as I want – every day – and yet lose weight. So far, I’m averaging a pound a day. Which means that, if this continues, I’ll be back to fighting shape by the end of this month.

But before I tell you what it is, I’d like to share with you how, over the years, I have coped with those periods when I’ve draped a bath towel over the full-length mirror directly across from my shower and, if I ever found myself at the beach, had my beach towel tucked just beneath my chest so that onlookers could guess, but never know, how big my belly had grown.

My Psychological Approach: Switch-Hitting My Values

Whenever I’ve gone through one of those times, I’ve forced myself to think positively. I reminded myself that my physical appearance doesn’t matter. That what really matters is my family, my work, and whatever good I can do for other people. I told that to myself not just every morning, but every time I caught myself in profile passing a shop window.

And, of course, all of that is true.

So my vanity-based anxiety would recede. And I would begin to experience the true joy of being at peace with myself.

And when I lost the fat (which I always managed to do after wallowing in it for a year or so), I basked in my recovered body image with great jubilation, taking every chance to take off my shirt in front of strangers.

But that’s beside the point.

Here’s my new diet…

My Crazy New Eating Strategy

This diet is based on one that worked very well for me about 30 years ago. I combined it with the new information out there about the advantages of fasting, plus something I heard about a 50-year-old martial artist friend of mine who has always looked lean and muscular.

It’s simple. I eat only one meal a day. And I limit that meal to exactly 60 minutes.

I know how crazy this might sound. I know it contradicts the many other diets that advise eating lots of small meals throughout the day. It contradicts paleo diets, because I allow myself to eat all the carbs and artificial foods I care to. It even sort of contradicts the new fasting diets, which are based on having three meals a day but within restricted time limits.

I don’t know for sure the biological explanation for why it’s working. But I do know that eating once a day significantly limits the number of times per day my body will experience the ups and downs of insulin spikes that have always made me hungry a few hours after every meal (however healthy) and, when one of my meals was high in carbs, set off my metabolism so that it wanted to burn energy for fat, which meant my body would store more fat, even if the portions I was eating were small.

Actually, I think the main reason this diet is working for me is that it gives me another way to tap into the power of positive thinking. On this new diet, I no longer feel deprived. I no longer think about what I can’t eat. I don’t even have to think about how much I’m eating. I spend all my food-thinking energy imagining how I’m going to stuff my face during that one-hour period. How great it’s going to be to begin the meal with a cocktail, eat all the steak and mashed potatoes and gravy I can fit into my craw while drinking copious amounts of wine, end the meal with a pint of ice cream, and then, if there’s another five or ten minutes left, end the evening with a quick Cognac and a long-lasting cigar.

Not only is this diet working (so far), but since I started it, I have never felt a moment’s hunger. I’ve never wanted to grab a cookie when passing the cookie jar, and I’ve never gotten out of bed at 11:00 p.m. to raid the refrigerator.

I do drink a cup or two more coffee in the a.m. than I have in the past, and a glass or two of caffeinated diet cola in the afternoon. But I’m never pining for food. It’s 4:00 p.m. as I write this. We are having dinner at 6:00. I’m starting to think happily about what I’m going to eat, but I’m not pining.

I’ll keep you posted on my progress…