The Road to Normalcy

Not too much to report this week except for the feeling that this is taking too long. *Sigh* I'm getting to the point now where I want to get it over with, but then when I ask myself what that means, I have to admit I don't know. How will I eat when I lose all the weight I want to? I guess I'll eat pretty much the same, because the amount of calories I'm consuming now will probably be the right amount for someone who weighs 135 lbs. Let's see: 135 X 13 (sedentary person) = 1755. I figure I'm eating about 1650 right now, so that means when I reach my goal weight I could indulge once in a while with no big impact. As long as the indulgence doesn't lead to bingeing, that is.

If I step up my activity, I can take in more calories. 135 X 14 (moderately active) = 1890. Right now I'm at 168 lbs, so 168 X 13 (sedentary) = 2184 - 1650 = 534 cal per day I'm saving. Multiply that by 7 = 3738 calories per week. Since a pound = 3500 calories, I'm potentially losing 1.06 pounds a week. And what d'ya know? That is what I'm losing--most weeks anyway.

I need to step up my activity, though, in order to start using more calories.  If I mutiply 168 by 14, for instance, I get 2352 - 1650 = 702 X 7 = 4914 / 3500 = 1.4 lbs per week.  Not exactly speedy, eh?  But it adds up over time.

And anyway, it's not about the speed, or the weight loss even, but the learning that takes place.  I am learning to be thin; that means not just getting thin but staying there.  And to stay there, I have to eat differently than I have in the past.  I have to change my relationship with food, change the words I use to describe encounters with food.  No more chowing down, pigging out, bellying up to the buffet, or drowning my sorrows in a quart of ice cream.  Eating cannot be medicine or a drug to abuse--not without serious consequences, anyway.

Sometimes it's comforting to look at the numbers and remember that it's all very cut and dried.  I must take in fewer calories than what I expend in order to lose weight.  Period.  It takes time because the difference is small.  Sure, if I wanted to exercise all day or half-starve myself I'd lose weight faster, but who has the time or ability to do that?  And even if I could do that for a short period of time and lost all the weight quickly, I'd only put it back on as soon as I resumed my normal routine with its fat-producing intake and output ratio.

You can't argue with science.  No matter what foods you consume, it still comes down to input vs. output; expend energy or store it as fat.  Simple?  Yes.  Easy?  Definitely not.

I'll see you next time, a little ways down the road to normalcy, taking it one pound at a time.