Friday, May 17, 2013

I can't help it, I am a numbers nerd!

Well, it's true!  I am a total numbers nerd!  I love to count, I love math, and I love to make spreadsheets with lots of calculations on them. I am also a little OCD which can really make my love of numbers quite funny.  

For example - there are 3 restrooms in my office building that I choose to use.  I can tell you how many steps it takes to get to each one from my office.  There used to be two parking lots to choose from when parking at work.  I used to be able to tell you how many steps it takes to get to each one.  I used to wear a pedometer - if you have ever used a decent one you know you have to enter your average step length - I measured my step according to the instructions.  Then I would go walk a mile while counting my steps then check to see if I calculated my step length correctly.  I love to set timers to see if I can get things done within a certain amount of time.  I love to balance checkbooks! Oh my, I could go on and on!

Anyway - all that to talk about a thought that has been bouncing around in my head.  I am a weight watcher.  Love love love Weight Watchers because it works (when I work the program), it is something I can totally live with the rest of my life, it helps me to realistically feed my family better, and because all food has a points plus value and I have a recommended number of points plus that I use each day - numbers!  The thought/idea - "Eat well 90% of the time" and you can lose weight, get healthy - yadi yada...  But I began to think - exactly how much is 90%?? As I was kicking this around the thought became just eating well "most" of the time.  

Are you ready?

If you eat 3 meals per day - that would mean 1/3 of a single meal could be "unhealthy or less healthy that what you have committed to"  - not much in my opinion.

So lets look at it this way - It you eat 3 meals per day for a week, that's 21 meals. That means 2.1 meals could be "unhealthy or less healthy that what you have committed to.  That sounds more doable but really when you look at your current eating pattern I bet you would have to cut A LOT of unhealthy out of your week.

But wait - what if you eat snacks each day too!?!

3 meals per day and 3 snacks per day - 2/3 of a meal can be unhealthy - again not much.

Per week - 42 total eats - a little over 4 could be "unhealthy" - again , I am sure we would all need to do come cutting back!

Now if you are a weight watcher this gets kinda fun and a little more applicable!  

My recommended daily points plus allowance is 36  per day which is which means per week I could spend 25 points plus on the less healthier options.  And I would also have to add that I would want to make sure I had met my good health guidelines before I chose a less healthy option.

I know - kind of an odd post.  But I wanted to do it because I wanted to see it "on paper".  Plus the 90% thinking could be applied to many areas of life...don't even get me started!  LOL!

Well I hope it was a fun little post for you today!

Lots of love!

D. J.

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