Yesterday was a fasting day, and I lost 3.5 pounds, a typical amount for a day during which I consumed no food. I still can’t explain how I managed to put on 5.5 pounds on Sunday, and I was hoping that those pounds would magically disappear yesterday, but that was obviously not the case. I’ll just have to be more careful on the weekends. Everything was just too big and too much, I think. The cheeseburgers were too big, there were too many fries (the potatoes I used were huge), and the fact that I actually felt uncomfortably full after eating is a good indication that I just ate too much. Duh.

Portion control is a problem for me (and most Americans, apparently). There is a disconnect between what I think is a reasonable portion of something and what IS a reasonable portion. My eyes see a giant muffin, for example. It registers in my brain that the muffin is large, but what doesn’t register is that it’s TOO large. I think that’s because everything in this country is super-sized. Big food has been normalized (see https://tinyurl.com/3k6ctvh9). And, for unknown reasons, after I eat that giant muffin and feel like I’ve ingested a small cake (which is essentially what a muffin is), it doesn’t hit home that it was too much. Whole Foods sells incredible muffins that seem like they weigh a pound each, and I admit that there have been occasions on which I’ve consumed more than one in the same sitting.

Taste is a huge thing for me. I relish the taste of food—especially anything sweet. This may seem like another “duh” statement, but eating is highly pleasurable for me. I can distinctly remember situations in which I’ve felt completely full but have continued eating simply because I enjoyed the taste of whatever I was eating so much. It’s weird because in such cases I can actually start to feel sick yet persist. My dad likes to tell the story of a donut incident when I was somewhere around four years old. He took me (and probably my brother) to a donut shop, and I ate too many donuts and threw up right there at the table we were sitting at. The story goes that someone (maybe my aunt?) asked me how many donuts I’d eaten, and I replied, “Too many.” That sort of behavior (minus the throwing up) continues today.

So, big portion sizes combined with what appears to be an excessive appreciation for the taste of food have quite often resulted in me stretching my stomach too far. What baffles me when I think about it is that I don’t seem to learn from past experiences in which I’ve overindulged to the point of feeling sick. I suppose that’s another behavior that I need to modify. I’ll add it to the list….