Holiday plans?

So what are your plans for the Holiday?
Super bowl really wraps up the whole holiday season doesn’t it?
(and… another gentle reminder PLEASE take down your holiday lights)

Also of note, Super Bowl marks the beginning of dieting season. Yup – from Super Bowl to Memorial Day, best time of the year to lose weight.
3 months, 16 weeks, 112 days.
In most cases it’s possible to comfortably lose a pound a week. (Unless you are a wrester…then you can lose 5 pounds in one day… but that’s a whole different program).

My unreachable goal this year – 7 pounds.
…one sec while I take a bite of my bagel and cream cheese….ok
I say unreachable because it’s really the LAST 5 pounds I have been trying to lose now for a couple of years. (I want to lose 7 for margin of course…you simply must account for bloating).
I always say that I am on the starvation diet – how’s that not gonna work, starving people are always thin. Of course MY idea of starving is perhaps 4 -6 small meals per day. So small I feel faint just an hour after eating (please picture me with the back of my wrist to my forehead, back arched, eyes rolled up with a woe-as-me look on my face).
Ok so perhaps my concept of starving is more like eating a lot less than usual…ok ok eating a bit less than I normally do.
My wife is roiling with laughter right now…because she lives with this…bless her.
Seriously--
I don’t diet per se. I took some weight off a few years back (40 lbs. give or take) and have kept it off without a problem because I changed the way I eat.
If you want to lose weight ...forget about cutting carbs, or fat, or eating only hot dogs and grapefruit on odd days of the week.
Eat real food. The less processed the better. This means cutting out most breads and pasta’s…this has NOTHING to do with carbs. It has to do with refined flours and sugar.
Vegetables, fruits, nuts, even meat, milk, eggs…all real food. (yes we do process milk…but that’s just so it doesn’t kill you…and ladies we do need our calcium).

Losing weight then becomes just math. And I am all about data.
First you must determine your Basal Metabolic Rate. This is basically how many calories you burn in a day while simply existing.
To do this… follow these formulas:

Adult female:
655 + (4.3 x weight in lbs.) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)
Adult male:
66 + (6.3 x body weight in lbs.) + (12.9 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years)
(* you can have more calories if you exercise. So if you do something to burn 300 calories you can add that right to your daily total.)

To lose one pound you need to reduce your calories by 3500.
Again, its just science
It’s that simple.
For example, my basal metabolic rate is 1334 calories per day or 9336 per week.
To lose one pound per week I would need to cut to 5836, or consume only 833 calories in a day. This, of course, would kill me.
So … I will opt for ½ pound a week instead. This gives me plenty of time to be svelte by Memorial Day.
Now before you going doing all these calculations – remember to stock up on chips and beer for the big game. You can make a snazzy spreadsheet on Monday, with charts and graphs and perhaps a picture of yourself naked for inspiration.

Go Eagles.
(my money is on the Pats, but I will be rooting for the underdog)