100 Day Bland Food Challenge: Day 10

Keith Huddleston
Jul 22, 2017 · 3 min read
By ZooFari — Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8870305

My diet has a bunch of rules, but the gist of it is that I am trying to make the food deliberately bland, selecting from a very narrow band of possible meals. Every meal I cook for myself is vegetarian, whole food, but not all-raw, because I guess there is a limit somewhere as to how far I am going to go out of the mainstream.

This has not been easy. It has been a kind exercise in seeing how my mind works — the kind of bullshit narratives I make as to why I should be able to eat something. Though I worried that the number of rules I left myself would cause a problem because of possibly making me overwhelmed or confused, it has in practice formed an air-tight case against my mind’s machinations to eat something I have committed not to.

Light head = baked potato, or berries

Need it NOW = berries or pre-made lentils and rice

Stomach feels empty = cabbage, stir fry (this one stopped after first few days).

Need variety = need variety enough to eat oatmeal?

Oh, it’s meal time, probably should eat = baked potato, or stir fry, or lentils and rice

As you can perhaps see, baked potatoes are just about always plan A. This was inspired by this video by Penn Jillette:

Catching myself and having an answer has been like mindfulness meditation, but instead of breath I return to what I have allowed myself to eat. Often when I let a craving pass in this manner, I imagine that some part of my brain is just sizzling as it changes. The idea is to change the nature of my cravings in the hopes of keeping the weight off. I tell my wife that I am burning out the cravings.

I haven’t had a sweet tooth much of my life, but when I have lost weight on the slow carb diet, I have developed intense sugar cravings. On this current diet the cravings are much rarer, but I have been craving pasta and pancakes (not together, mind). The challenge ends on October 20th, so on the 21st, a Saturday, I dream of going out for pancakes.

Part of this is also because there is no “breakfast food” that I allowed myself on my diet, and after the challenge is over I want to continue on with vegetarianism, eating meat only when I am someone’s guest and it has been served to me (a social meat eater). So if at the end this challenge, if my wife I restart our tradition of going out for breakfasts on weekends, I’ll be eating pancakes.

When I am not battling a craving for carbs — or apparently wheat-based carbs — I’m usually not hungry. In fact, more often I have to had to read my energy is low and consciously tell myself “why not have a baked potato?.” Also I have just been pounding coffee, and to a lesser extent Irish Breakfast tea, so I make sure to eat something with most of the cups, or at least in the middle of a coffee bender, because I don’t want to feel weird.

8.5 pounds down. So as long as I don’t gain weight from here, I am good for the $100 for the first month.

90 days to go. I’m coming, IHOP. October 21st. Will I need a reservation?

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Keith Huddleston

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Truth, beauty, agape, and the dao. Seeking to do more with less requires understanding.

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