Let’s be honest about something: dieting is not easy. If it were, there wouldn’t be so many people struggling with their weight. Ten weeks in, I can tell you exactly what makes it hard — not the food, but the hunger. You finish your portion and you want more. That’s just how it is.
Here’s what I’ve figured out though: the food doesn’t have to be bad. That’s actually the whole point of this approach. I’m not eating sad diet food to trick myself into eating less. I’m eating really good food — just less of it. And when the food is this good, you can push through the hungry part. You just have to decide that you’re going to stop when the plan says stop, even when you could eat more.
Week 10 was a great example of that. The star of the week was chicken shawarma in a wheat pita — grilled chicken, spring mix, cucumber, tomatoes, and that tahini-yogurt sauce we’ve been making since early in the series. Sweet pita on the outside, tangy sauce all the way through, crunchy cucumber and those sweet little tomatoes. Satisfying? Absolutely. Fully satiating? Not quite. But satisfying enough to keep going.
I also want to flag that I swapped the planned tri-tip into this week, which pushed the shrimp asparagus stir fry to next week — happy healthy son had specifically requested that one, so it’s not going anywhere. Coming up in week 11 is dan dan mian (担担面) made with whole wheat spaghetti instead of traditional noodles, the shrimp asparagus stir fry, and more. I’ve been looking forward to giving dan dan mian a proper try — cucumber, chopped peanuts, that signature sauce. We’ll see how it goes with the wheat noodle swap.
As for the scale — down to around 250. That’s 15 to 17 pounds from where we started, averaging about a pound and a half a week. If that holds, I’m looking at hitting my goal weight within a year. The food being this good is what makes that feel possible. I can put up with being a little hungry for a year if the meals keep looking like this.
Week 52, I’ll see you there.
