Seriously Watered-Down Calorie Science.

Hello again, my dear friends! Welcome to the latest installment of Liz Gets Healthy-- in which we get a weight update, I talk about whatever I want, and you'll also see a pokemon gif and we end with a weirdly serious PSA! Sounds like a winner to me.

Any post that starts right out of the gate with a trophy-- you know this is serious awesomeness.

I will tell you what I weighed this morning. I want to let you know that I put my weight on here not to be a sensationalist-- and not to begin some kind of gross-out-reality-TV-vibe (If I wanted to do that, I would post pictures of what my bare arms look like. *Shudder* you're all lucky that I love you and dress conservatively, thus shielding your eyes). I post it because it holds me accountable.

Seriously, Honey Boo Boo might mistake me for her mom.
I actually kind of like little Honey Boo Boo... I think she's presh.

So this morning I weighed in at 249! That really made my day! And we haven't even exercised yet today! Amazering! My first official two pounds! So awesome! It may not seem like much, but if we get into the science of it-- that means I've either burned or not consumed 7,000 calories!!! (Science tells us that 1 calories are actually a measure of energy and that there are several confusing disambiguations involving kilojoules and... stuff.) But the long short of it can be described by this lovely graphic:

OMG I LOVE SCIENCE!!!

Okay Science, but what does this mean? Well, today I'm going to tell you what I know about it and how I use that information. I know some of you know a BUNCH about this-- I know at least a small handful of you folks are either physical trainers, health coaches or sports coaches in some capacity-- so if I'm utterly wrong in the face, you'd better let me know.

Well, you guys could be nicer about it than this... but just let me know, seriously.

But every day, simply by existing, you burn a certain amount of calories to stay alive (I believe this is your metabolic rate? I could be wrong). If you have a desire to stay the same weight, you should eat the same amount of calories as you burn. So let's pretend you are a person (a stretch, I know) and you, by simply existing, wandering around, going to work, caring for your children, playing video games, fire dancing, whatever, you burn 2000 calories in a day. So you eat 2000 calories every day and stay the same weight. Hooray!

Oh. Mai. Gawd. Is this why skinny folks wear makeup?!
I finally know how I got so fat-- not wearing makeup.

 Approximately. If you have a strong desire to gain weight, you're going to have to consume more calories than you burn. So if you are that same work-going-child-caring-fire-dancing person, and you want to gain a pound in a week, you need to consume 2500 calories in a day, every day, for one week.

This is a fairly easy task in the United States if you can afford to spend even $20 at an Olive Garden and you like breadsticks. Or if you're willing to eat a burrito the size of your face. Or if you have an order of boneless buffalo wings on top of your regular food. Calories are everywhere, yo. For me, gaining 70ish pounds in 2 years was something I did quite literally by accident. There's a bunch of foods I could post here that are shockingly highly caloric. Maybe that's for another post, though. I will give you this picture, though:

Considering that THIS is a real food in 'Murica... yeah.

But if you're me and you have no interest in gaining any more weight, you need to figure out how to burn more calories than you eat! And my 2 pound weight loss means that somehow I have made it happen. I burned 7,000 calories. I am awesome.  My little fitbit tracker is a HUGE help to me in this regard, because it sets a goal for me every day to have a caloric deficit of 750 calories. Theoretically I should lose 1.5 pounds a week (which is a slow, long, painful process, but it must be done).

I think the most interesting thing that happens when I track my calories is how very picky I become. Where before I could just have a box of girlscout cookies and not look back, now I'm staring at nutrition facts and coming to the realization that if I want to exercise, if I want to be able to concentrate and utilize my brain, I had better not blow my calories on 15 caramel de-lites.

Calorically, these cookies are basically worth their calories in... cheesecake?

So calories become currency in my day do day life-- they're like money. How do I want to spend them, how many do I have left over, is there a deficit, how many can I earn at the gym so that I can drink my chocolate almond milk at night like I like to? Strangely, I think that getting our budget under control and practicing frugality in our financial lives has helped me develop good habits as far as budgeting.

So somehow, I worked and saved up 7000 calories. And a big shout-out to my body for going right ahead and cashing those calories in for 2 pounds of weight!

But how much is 7,000 calories worth in food, you might ask? Well, here's an interesting quiz to help you understand what a mere 100 calories looks like of various foods. I also found this interesting picture of what 200 calories of various foods looks like.

http://www.menshealth.com/100calories/

Here's the recipe for a REALLY confusing 1200 Calorie bacon-nut salad

But losing weight for me isn't just about eating less food-- it also means I hopefully burned some of those calories by traversing the gloomy stairwell at my work tower, some of them dancing at my desk, and hopefully a good portion of them at the gym!

And today will be no different! Stay tuned team. This is only the beginning. Today is a cardio AND lifting day at the gym, so everybody is ready. Remember, no excuses!

That Sandshrew has some intense bicep curls going on.

A VERY IMPORTANT END NOTE: I don't mean to say that it's easy for everyone to gain a pound-- just as it is very very difficult for me to lose weight, some folks struggle to gain. People struggle with weight on both sides of the spectrum. Eating Disorders are quite literally the most dangerous mental health struggles. A scary percent (I believe it is around 10%, though it may have changed) of folk diagnosed with  anorexia nervosa actually die from disorder-related complications, including but not limited to starvation. There's a whole host of things folks struggle with when it comes to food and weight including Orthorexia, Bulimia Nervosa along with my "friends" Compulsive Eating Disorder and Binge Eating Disorder. (We can be all technical and say that only anorexia, bulimia and "EDNOS" are in the DSM-IV-TR, but I'm just going right ahead and accepting BED, CED and Orthorexia as very legitimate struggles as well).

The point is-- I can be funny and post pictures of the double down, but eating disorders and high OR low weight are extremely serious matters. If you or someone you know is struggling, please, please, please reach out and get help or help them. Feeding them a double down is not going to help.  Instead try This Website and help them find professional help. 

Sometimes we have to get serious here at LGH.