A Long One

Yesterday I stepped on the scale.  I said I was going to use clothing as a gauge of success.  Well, I think my gauge is broken!  The pants are not getting looser- so I'm switching to plan B.  A few days ago I started researching the website www.caloriecount.com and needed to know my weight.  I brought it out from the linen closet, held my breath and stepped on it.  Bam- nothing.  The digital scale was blank because the batteries were dead.  A sign!  Did I follow the sign?  No!   I  bought and replaced the old batteries, stepped on the scale, read the number and wham- went through the emotions; shock, denial, sadness and pissiness- all within seconds of each other.  Did I read that sign?  No!  I stepped on it again just to make sure I wasn't seeing the wrong number.  I needed the number to plug it into a formula on the website.  I also found the basic formula on-line.  To compute you need to know how many pounds you want to lose and in how many days.  Since I like to eat and am not into denial I am giving myself a full year to shed the poundage and increase the muscle mass. 

(3500xP)/D=C       

Where P equals the amount of pounds to lose, D equals the amount of days in which to lose it and the outcome C equals the amount of calories to be reduced from the daily intake.  In my case to lose fifty pounds in a year I need to reduce my daily caloric intake by 479 calories.  Reduce it from what number I asked?  I researched and found it.  I posted it under 'Pages'- "Daily Calorie Allowance Table".  The number 3500 represents the amount of calories in a pound.  The easier way to compute caloric deficit is to reduce by 500 calories a day for seven days and by the end of the week you should be one pound lighter.  Easier said than done.  From all the research I've conducted I should be injesting between 1600 and 1780 calories a day.  I posted research websites on the side.          

One forseeable stumbling block, at least for me, is translating recipes into calories.  Once again, to overcome and motivate, I visualized a year's calendar, a choo choo train, and new clothes.  Don't ask--  it's working.