Research

I'm going to throw something "out there" right now. This may shock those of you that have been following this blog, and have seen my sparkling personality shining through my prose, but I'm not a terribly popular person. I have two personal email accounts. One I use for subscriptions (it's the older of the two accounts), and the other I use for actual correspondence. The second receives only about three emails each week, mostly from old friends who don't really want to touch base with me as much as they want to spread the latest virus alert (don't open any more emails ever again or you will DIE!!!) or the oldest email petition out there (sign this and send it to all of your friends, or CBS will CANCEL TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL!). I don't even know when the last time was that my Yahoo account actually was used by someone who wanted me to reply to them. Well, besides the horde of Nigerian millionaire widows who need me to help get their fortunes out of the Bank Swiss Accounts and will "reward my generosity to the amount of $2m (dollars) for my help in this regard."

But just because it doesn't come from an actual person I know doesn't mean it's entirely worthless. I get almost weekly newsletters from Scientific American, and I found two articles that actually related quite well to this blog. This article discusses a study done recently by people who were on a weight loss program. Unsurprisingly, they found that those who ate healthy foods and exercised at least 30 minutes daily had lost at least 9 lbs at the end of six months. The interesting thing here (no sarcasm this time) was that those who recorded what they ate each day lost about double the amount of those who didn't use diet journals.

Now, I don't intend to log everything I eat. Nobody wants to read that, at least not yet. I do, however, plan to use this space to confess each time I eat something I shouldn't. (Which reminds me, yesterday, I had a bowl of Ramen noodles and two granola bars. Did I mention that already? If I did, just forget this parenthetical.) Today I've been perfect. Well for carbs, at least. But that's all I'm focusing on right now.

The other article indicates one way to be motivated to lose weight. Apparently, people who receive relatively small cash prizes for their efforts lose more weight than those who don't. This article puts a slightly different spin on it. Rather than gaining cash, the subject of the story bet his friend that he would lose a certain amount of weight each week. If he didn't, he would lose $500. Each week. That would motivate me...

I don't have the cash to pull off that kind of a bet. Fortunately, I do have that contest going with Rody. Hopefully that will be enough to keep me in line.

P.S. Speaking of staying in line, I want you all to know that when I left the convenience store next to my office today, I had NOT purchased chocolate chip cookies, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups or pecan pies. Thanks, I'm proud of myself, too.