Charlie and I are on a diet.
We’re both about 20 pounds over our fighting weight, thanks to the pandemic and having to hang around the house doing nothing for a year. Our family doctor said, “Everyone has gained weight during the pandemic!”, so we’re normal, at least in that respect. I have probably been eating 3,500 calories a day for the past six months!
Charlie asked me if I would be her “diet buddy”.
The diet plan we’re on is called “NutriSystem”. It costs about $300 every two weeks for the two of us. That’s less than I normally spend, so no problem there. The food comes in breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks which range from 150 to 270 calories apiece.
Most of the food tastes good, and there is a large menu to choose from.
We eat something six times a day, so we’re never hungry. The portions are small, but get the job done, I guess. Yesterday, I had the following: Waffle for breakfast, 160 calories; Snack for brunch, 160 calories; Hamburger for lunch, 240 calories; Snack in afternoon, 150 calories; Pizza bowl for dinner, 270 calories; and Snack after dinner, 150 calories. No celery, no carrot sticks, and no green tea.
That is 1,130 calories for the whole day, and I was never hungry. Amazing!
I figure that the normal calorie requirement for someone my size (normally, 5’10”, 180) living an “active” lifestyle would be about 2,500 calories per day. My lifestyle includes doing chores in the house, working in the yard, and walking each dog 1 mile per day.
Charlie always loses weight slower than I, so I will have to keep cheering her up. Our metabolisms are different, and I am more active. Charlie spends most days, particularly at this time of the year, in her home office doing taxes and helping clients out with banking issues, Covid “lifeline” loans, etc.
She wants to lose some weight so she will look good when it’s time for her Las Vegas fling (after tax season) with friend Karin.
I started the diet at 197 pounds. It’s the most I’ve ever weighed.
I’m estimating that I will lose about 2 pounds per week, and that it will take me perhaps ten weeks to get me down the 180- pound range.
We are a couple of weeks into the diet already and I’ve lost about 8 pounds. Nothing to get excited about because a bunch of that was probably water: it’s always easy to lose the first five pounds.
We dieted about four years ago while on an extended RV trip of three months. I think our “plan” then was having a Zone bar at lunch, Weight Watchers TV dinners, no food after 6: 30 p.m., and no desserts. I got down to 170 pounds (from 184), which was too much: I looked and felt like a skeleton.
If I can get to 177 pounds, that would be excellent.
Got to run: it’s time time for my snack! See ya.