Consume fewer calories than you use. Guaranteed to work. Never fails.
And always remember that people almost never put food in their mouths,
chew, and swallow while unconscious. So everything you eat, pretty
much, gets to your gut by your hand going to your mouth, which,
believe it or not, is generally an act of will rather than of
instinct.

Yes, that was a pep talk to myself :) I've lost around 15 pounds in
the past 3 weeks, and it makes a lot of difference. I suggest
cultivating a sense of pleasure at feeling hungry - that's been a cool
thing for me. I also suggest eating pretty much everything you like -
just a lot less of it. None of this 'good calorie, bad calorie' crap;
aim for *fewer calories*. Just try not to allow too much of your food
budget to be tied up in fats and there should be no problem.
[Disclaimer: I am not a nutritionist.] I just think people get too
overwhelmed by the amount of 'advice' and 'expertise' out there and
lose sight of the basic fact that if you eat less,
you.will.lose.weight. It may help to use one of those calorie-tracking
tools so that you can see how many calories you usually consume and
how many are in typical foods. Once you get a feel for it, you'll
develop a good sense of what your daily 'budget' is and you'll know
(if you don't block it out!) how much you've eaten and whether you've
overeaten. This comes more naturally to some people than to others, I
think. I *know* this is the case with dogs, where some will eat 'just
right' while others (including almost all hounds) will eat much more
than is healthy if it is available. This is evolutionarily sound
behavior when meals are scant and infrequent, but not-so-much when
you're rolling in avocados (figuratively, of course, although it kinda
sounds fun in a weird way). And, as odd as it may seem, there are
apparently people out there who just don't much care for eating. Seems
strange to me, but then I'm a hound-type. So we hounds need to eat by
reason and will rather than by instinct. It's good practice for the
other things in life that should probably be done by reason rather
than instinct as well.

Lecture over. Class dismissed!

¶ 1:59 PM