Everyday Systems

One of my male friends is 70 and experiences bouts of depression. He also had back pain and can't exercise the way he used to. He's not a shut in, but can isolate himself a lot, except for short periods of time with grandchildren that he can rise to the occasion for, and regards himself as a compulsive eater. Last year, he decided he just did not want to have to negotiate shopping, cooking, and having food around, so he signed up for Meals On Wheels. He was not doing it to lose weight. He gets two meals a day and probably has coffee and something simple in the morning. He was surprised (but I wasn't when I heard about it later) that he started dropping weight. In eight months, he's lost a little more than 55 lbs. He's still officially overweight, but feels great and is off his meds for diabetes!

There's nothing fancy about the food, although it is "healthy" in the sense that there's few processed snack foods provided and few desserts. It's not organic, Paleo, vegan, whole grain, juice-based, or any of the other restrictive plans that tout themselves as being absolutely necessary for good health. There might be populations that need something more specialized, but once again, plain old moderation has had a huge impact.

It's also very cheap! $7 a day for lunch and dinner. Of course, they accept donations, so a person of more means could pay the flat fee and donate more, but I don't think they even ask for an income statement. It's meant for shut-in's but no requirement there, either.

So, if you find you just can't make No S work on your own, you just have to make it until you're 60, are debilitated enough so that you won't go buy more food, and live where they have the service!

Seriously, for some older people, this is a viable option, I would think, and hearing about it may give younger people the incentive to realize, hey, I can do this on my own.

Fascinating. It kinda makes one wonder how he was eating before.

Congrats to your friend. I hope this adds life to his years.

He was a self-described compulsive eater, and believes, as he did with alcohol, that he is powerless on his own to control himself with food. Not all obese people are compulsive eaters; in fact, most of them aren't, apparently. But I'd say most of them aren't eating only three plates of food a day.

I'm pretty sure he felt for a long time that as long as he wasn't drinking, he wasn't going to mess with much more. He didn't even feel unattractive! It was probably a wise move for the time.

He doesn't think of himself as exerting control now, though in my opinion he IS controlling himself because he is perfectly capable of driving two minutes to the local supermarket, buying junk, as he used to, and devouring it. Or going to McDonald's and supplementing his meals, which many dieters end up doing. He has been sober for about nine years despite living in close proximity to booze that he COULD buy, but doesn't. In all his years of alcohol sobriety, he said he could never apply the principles to eating. Obviously, he is not interested in the freedom to choose what and how much to eat anymore. I doubt it would have worked a few years ago. Just as with boozing, he basically doesn't want to live with the effects of this compulsion, and has found a way to limit his intake without much work on his part. I doubt at this point he believes he could exercise the same control on his own, but it works with his lifestyle, and that is a blessing.

There's a lot to be said for outsourcing your decision making.