The troble with any long-time projects, at least for me, is that at the beginning the target date seems so far away that it is difficult to gather the momentum to start. I use to joke that no project of mine would ever get ready if the last minute before the deadline did not exist.
The biggest long-time project I have going on right now is getting back to being normal-weighted, meaning a BMI below 25. And there is also a deadline. I want to be there before turning fifty. That means I have fifteen months left to get there, and I am still 33 pounds above that magic limit.
Which means that I will, in these fifteen months, have to create a caloric deficit of...
115500 calories. That's right, one hundred fifteen thousand five hundred.
Divided by the about 450 days I have left until my birthday, that means I have to eat 256 calories less than my body uses up, every day. Any more, and I cannot reach my goal.
Which means being very mindful of what I put into my body, all the time. Doing the weekend binge- weekday fast thing must be absolutely out of the question, as must certain calorie-dense former favorite meals. 256 calories a day means that I will recondense at a pace of one pound every two weeks.
I don't mind it, of course, if the weight comes off faster, but that is the minimum I have to achieve to ensure success.
As losing weight also means lowering one's basal metabolic rate, that means I have to keep my intake consistently below 1400- 1500 calories at my present weight, going down to about 1100 to 1300 during the last stretch. I only hope my body will be fully adapted to eating only that much by then.
256.
I could blow a full day's loss by eating one extra hamburger, or having one extra glass of beer, or a piece of string cheese, or two handfuls of nuts.
And I cannot afford to lose another day to not losing.
Perhaps I should put that number up somewhere I can see it. The fridge door might be a good place, for starters.
Julia
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