Diets

Picture from here.

I used to joke around and call vacations "Retirement training sessions."

Well, eating 5 meals a day may work for a short vacation but it does not work for retirement.

Everybody in our house is grumpy because we are all on diets.  Mrs ERJ just wants to tone up.  Youngest daughter wants to improve her athletic performance.  The doctor was "alarmed" at Jr's rate of weight gain.  And I am on a diet because I picked up 10 pounds in my first 10 weeks of retirement.  No good!

 It is hitting Jr. hardest.  Food is his language of love.

For my part, the math is simple.  I was eating 500 Calories a day (3500 Calories per pound of body fat divided by 7 days) more than I was burning.  To lose a pound a week I need to eat 1000 Calories a day less than I had been eating (and drinking).  That is about one and a half meals a day that I need to stop eating.

So I made a chart and posted it in the hallway that leads to the bedrooms.  It shows a glide-path starting at 186 and ending at 168 at year's end.  I gave  the kids permission...in fact, encouraged the kids to bust my chops if I fall off the glide-path. Tomorrow morning is my once-a-week weigh-in.  I did a couple of informal weigh-ins and was depressed to see I was up 3 pounds at mid-week.  I think I may  have done my initial weigh-in on a down dip.  I expect the kids to hoot on me and lobby to ditch the diet.

That is not going to happen.

More bran flakes and less sausage.

Apple sauce or fruit preserves on pancakes instead of syrup.  Syrup soaks in while apple sauce stays on top.  You can only taste what is touching your tongue.  Idea and picture from here.

Few or no meals out.  Switch to hard and sharp cheese and use 1/3 of the amount.  Increase the number of items in the menu rotation to include some kid non-favorites.

Deserts are likely to be ripe bananas dipped in chocolate syrup or vanilla yogurt.  Picture from here.

I will stop eating before I am stuffed.  Those clever Europeans have a saying, "You cannot tie a bag shut if it is more that three-quarters full."  I think that speaks to the ability to move and perform work when one is too full of food.

Picture from here.

Oh, and stop eating 5 meals a day.

My goal is to lose about 30 pounds.  That would put my weight at 5 pounds more than on my wedding day.  I want to be let my arms hang down and to be able to count my ribs.  It will be very nice if I can get there by my anniversary at the end of March.

Addendum:

Saturday night I belatedly decided to check the repeatability of my scale. My preferred method would be to weigh several different items in a random way and then reweigh those items in a different, random order.  The two measurements can then be plotted on a chart with one measurement as the X axis and the other as the Y axis.  They SHOULD make a 45 degree line.

As it was, I hopped onto the scales and weighed myself.  I hopped off and spun the scale 90 degrees and re-weighed myself.  Then I removed and reinserted the batteries and repeated the exercise.  I got a two pound swing just spinning the scale.

Too late in the evening to shop for a new bathroom scale.   This morning's weigh-in came in at 185.2 lbs but I have little confidence in it. I will be shopping for a new bathroom scale on Amazon.com and will appreciate any recommendations.