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Lose 1 Pound a Day

I recently completed an extensive health assessment, and I was not surprised to hear that I would do well to lose at least 10 pounds.  As a result, I put myself through a mini boot camp last week to see if I could lose 7 pounds in 7 days.


Is that even possible?


Several weight loss programs promise that you will lose a pound a day if you follow their program and buy their products.  So when I put myself through my own self-imposed boot camp, not only was I losing a few pounds, but I was also able to evaluate the hype surrounding weight loss programs and their promise of … LOSE 1 POUND A DAY.


Each one of us consumes a certain amount of calories every day through food and drink.  If the number of calories consumed equals the number of calories burned, we stay at the exact same weight.  What exactly is the limit to how many calories I can consume daily if I want to stay at the same weight?  How about if I want to lose weight?


The daily calorie burn is different for each person, and the exact figure is calculated based on your gender, age, height, weight, and activity level.  Here is how you calculate your daily calorie burn:


Multiply your body weight by 10.  This figure is called your basic metabolic rate (BMR), and it is the number of calories you would burn if you stayed in bed all day.


For example, my weight at 190 pounds multiplied by 10 equals 1900.  Thus, my BMR is 1900 calories, which is the minimum amount of calories my body needs every day for basic functions such as breathing, keeping my heart beating, regulating my body temperature, etc.  Multiplying your weight by 10 gives you a fairly good estimate of your BMR, but you can find an online BMR Calculator at http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/ that will take into account your gender, age, height, and weight … and thus, give you a more accurate BMR.


Is that it?


No, because you are not likely to stay in bed all day, and thus you burn more calories every day than your BMR.


Now, multiply your BMR by your daily activity level, and then add that amount to your BMR.  Here are activity level factors:

  • Sedentary (sitting most of the day) – 20%
  • Lightly active (walking here and there; daily chores) – 35%
  • Moderately active (constantly moving around; daily exercise) – 40%
  • Very active (substantial exercise for a long time) – 50%
  • Extremely active (intense exercise for an extended period of time) – 60%  

For example, if I was sedentary I would multiply my BMR of 1900 by the sedentary factor of 20% to get 380, and then add that amount of 380 to my BMR of 1900 to get 2280.

  • Woo hoo!  When I am sedentary I still burn 2280 calories a day!  1900 + (1900 x 0.20) = 2280.
  • If I am just lightly active one day, I burn 2565 calories.  1900 + (1900 x 0.35) = 2565.
  • When I am moderately active, I burn 2660 calories that day.  1900 + (1900 x 0.40) = 2660.
  • And if I exercise heavily on a given day, I burn 2850 calories.  1900 + (1900 x 0.50) = 2850.
  • Finally, when I really work it, I burn 3040 calories.  1900 + (1900 x 0.60) = 3040

But wait, there’s more!  Your body actually burns calories to digest food, and the number of calories burned is estimated to be 10% of your daily consumption according to your activity level.  Thus, take the sum shown above based on your activity level, and multiply that amount by 10% … and then add that extra to the total.  For example:

  • Sedentary, 2280 + (2280 x .10) = 2508 calories
  • Lightly active, 2565 + (2565 x .10) = 2821.5 calories
  • Moderately active, 2660 + (2660 x .10) = 2926 calories
  • Very active, 2850 + (2850 x .10) = 3135 calories
  • Extremely active, 3040 + (3040 x .10) = 3344 calories

This final figure is called your Total Daily Caloric Expenditure.  It is a measure of how many calories a day you burn based on your gender, age, height, weight, and activity level.


So what would it take to lose 1 pound in one day?


Since a pound of body fat is equal to 3500 calories, theoretically I would have to eat nothing or very little during the day, and also exercise extremely that day to achieve a Total Daily Caloric Expenditure of 3500 calories.  Thus, for me to lose 1 pound a day for 7 days, I would have to eat little or nothing all week, and exercise extremely every day.


Actually, I believe that I lost about 6 pounds during the week.  Granted, some of it was probably the “water weight” that everyone loses at the beginning of a diet, and the scale in my house may not be precise, and/or I may not have replicated exactly the starting and ending weigh-ins (i.e. clothes worn, time of day, etc.), but even if I only lost 3 or 4 pounds, I am pleased.  I can see the difference in the mirror, and I can feel the difference in the way my clothes fit.


So what’s the point?  My point is that I think people can lose weight fairly quickly, and lose it in a safe manner while eating well but without having to starve.  So how did I do it?


I burned a lot of calories exercising every day.  On at least 3 of the days I exercised extremely for over an hour by bicycling up City Creek Canyon here in Salt Lake City, starting at about 4700 feet above sea level at my house and rising to slightly over 6000 feet above sea level at the end of the trail (7 miles up, 7 miles back).   On every other day, my exercise was lighter … perhaps I only walked for an hour.  FYI, a person my size can burn 100 calories per mile walking, or as much as 200 calories per mile running or bicycling swiftly.


Also, I ate 6 small meals every day, about every 2.5 hours to avoid feeling hungry.  At each mini-meal I had a high quality low or non-fat protein source (such as non-fat yogurt, turkey jerky, non-fat cottage cheese, non-fat protein powder in a shake, etc.), some fruit, something whole-grain (wheat crackers, cereal, brown rice, etc.), and veggies.  With each meal I drank at least 16 ounces of water in order to feel full.  I had no cookies or deserts of any kind for the week, although after a long bike ride I may have had something like a 100-calorie Healthy Choice fudge bar (since protein after a good workout helps rebuild muscle).


I consumed no more than about 300 calories at each mini-meal, sometimes less, so I estimate that my daily intake was no more than about 1500 calories.  Like I said, I never really felt hungry during the week, for if you eat something healthy about every 2.5 hours that includes protein you will stay satiated and keep your energy level constant.


So I cannot say that I proved the theory that you can lose 1 pound a day, but I think that you can lose at least half that much … and I know that you can enjoy the process.

Find Native Spanish Speakers to Call Via Skype

If you want to speak Spanish, at some point you have to go beyond memorizing new Spanish words and studying Spanish verbs and grammar.   Besides, that can get a little dry if that is all you are doing.

What you really want to be able to do is speak Spanish, right?  That’s the fun part.  In fact, there is a growing body of language teachers who say that we should spend FAR more time practicing speaking and hearing Spanish than we should spend studying Spanish.  Personally, I think that there should be an even balance between study and conversation practice, for I find that the more words I know, the better I am able to express what I am trying to say.

So I strongly suggest that you find native Spanish speakers to converse with in Spanish one-on-one, and you can find those language partners in LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) and speak with them on Skype (www.skype.com).   Here is how you do that:

First of all, you need a LinkedIn account.  It is free to establish a basic LinkedIn account, just go to the web site and sign up.  LinkedIn, which is kind of like Facebook for business professionals, will try to get you to sign up for a higher level account which costs at least $24 per month, but you don’t need that if you don’t want it.  The basic, free, service works fine for finding language partners.

Once you have a LinkedIn account, join several LinkedIn groups where you can find native Spanish speakers who can help you speak Spanish while you help them speak English.  Do a language exchange.  So, at the top of the LinkedIn page there is a search box with a drop-down menu that enables you to search for people, jobs, groups, companies, etc … switch it to groups, and then search for Spanish, or Latino, or language, or español, or something like that.  Your search will return various groups, ranked according to the number of members in each group.  The groups with the largest number of members will appear at the top (numbering sometimes in the thousands), while the smaller groups will appear toward the bottom of the list.  Here is a list of the LinkedIn groups that I belong to where I was able to find native Spanish speakers:

  • Association for Foreign Language Professionals
  • Exchanging languages
  • English Spanish Translator Org
  • Spanish Immersion
  • Spanish for Professional Purposes
  • Spanish in the USA
  • Spanish Speakers
  • Spanish language professionals
  • Hispanohablantes
  • OPENRED: SPANISH/ENGLISH WORLDWIDE NETWORK
  • Latin America Network
  • SPANISH TEACHING
  • Oportunidades laborales en Sudamerica – Jobs opportunities in South America
  • Mexican Professionals
  • Bicultural Latino professionals
  • Language Experts!!!
  • Marketing Connection LATAM

Once you are on a LinkedIn group page, there should be a button at the top that says “Join Group.”  Some groups you are able to join immediately once you click that button, but other groups will take a few hours or days to join before the moderator accepts your request to join.  I don’t believe that I have ever been refused entry to join a group on LinkedIn … most of these groups want to grow their group size as large as possible, so they will accept everyone who wants to join the group.  For example, I am a member of a group called Mexican Professionals, in spite of the fact that I am neither Mexican nor (some would say) entirely professional.  (Smile).

Once you are a member of the group, you can post a message on the group discussion board for all to see.  At that point all you have to do is post something like, “Seeking conversation partner – I will help you learn English, if you will help me learn Spanish.”  Actually, I recommend posting that message entirely in Spanish if you are looking for a Spanish speaking language partner (which is what I did).  For example, “Le ayudaré aprender inglés si me ayudará aprender español.”   Another thing you should put in the posting is your Skype ID, as well as to ask for the Skype ID of anyone who wants to become a conversation partner with you.  

I posted a message like this written in Spanish on about 10 message boards, and I was FLOODED with responses.  They poured in over the next 3 days … non-stop … I actually had to go into all of the boards about 3 days later and delete each of my postings (which also deletes all replies to the postings) because I had to work overtime to keep up with all the people who wanted to do a Spanish-English language exchange with me.  (I deleted the postings after, of course, I had gathered the contact information of prospective language partners).  Replies came from all over the world – Argentina, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Spain, Chile, from Latinos living in the United States, and from various other Spanish speaking countries.  It appears that there are many more native Spanish speakers who want to find an English language partner, than there are native English speakers looking for a Spanish speaking partner.

I highly recommend that you do the courteous thing and at least reply to everyone who contacts you.   Either reply on the message board acknowledging each of the people who replied, or send each person a private message via LinkedIn.  Like I said, after only a few days I had to go back and delete my original posting to stop the flow of incoming messages.  I now have the contact information of over 50 people throughout the world who are willing to trade Spanish for English with me.  (NOTE:  Don’t be giving out personal information – like a credit card number, duh! – because I expect that there are shady characters out there.  Nonetheless, I am always careful and have never had any problems … I have only ever found nice people to converse with via Skype).

Now you have to go into Skype and send or receive a “contact request.”  Skype enables you to make free calls through the Internet (not using phone lines) to any other Skype member throughout the world.  It is a pretty amazing thing to be able to talk for an hour for FREE to someone living in Argentina or elsewhere in the world.  Again, the key is that the other person must also have a Skype account … if you use Skype to call a cell phone or landline, it will cost you (although it is still only pennies per minute); but if you make a Skype to Skype call (one member of Skype calling another member of Skype), the call is FREE.  I even have the Skype app on my iPhone, and I can use that app to call a Skype member (although I am sure that type of call counts against the total amount of data usage I am allowed on my iPhone).  I think that you can establish a Skype account for as little as $10, and then you download the application to your computer.  If you only use Skype to call another Skype member, you will never even use up that $10 it cost to join Skype … this is money that sits in your account and is used up if you should ever use Skype to call a landline or cell phone.  If you only use Skype to call another Skype member, that $10 will stay in your Skype account.  So … while you are in Skype, send a “contact request” to the Skype IDs that you received from people while in LinkedIn, and once they accept you will be connected.  Or, perhaps a LinkedIn group member that saw your Skype ID listed in the group message you posted will send you a Skype “contact request” that you will find in your Skype inbox the next time you log into Skype, and once you accept that request that person will become one of your Skype contacts.

This is how you can find language exchange partners in Linkedin that you will converse with via Skype.

The other thing I might mention is that while you can certainly make voice calls using Skype, it is more personal to make video calls using Skype.  If you have a webcam installed, and your language partner also has a webcam (which is usually the case), in Skype you can both see and hear the person you are talking to, while they can both see and hear you.  Again, pretty amazing stuff, and it is FREE, FREE, FREE.  You do have to buy and install a webcam, however you can get a very nice one for very little money.  I researched webcams and found a highly rated one on sale at Best Buy for about $30, I bought the Logitech HD Webcam C510.  Most of the Logitech webcams are highly rated and recommended, and range in price from about $25 up to about $90.  My webcam also includes a microphone, so the only other thing I needed was speakers plugged into my computer, and I was good to go.  (If I want to, I can also switch to a headphone set with microphone instead of using the webcam’s built-in microphone).

There are hundreds or even thousands of native Spanish speakers out there right now looking for native English speakers who are willing to do a language exchange.  When I meet someone new via Skype, I usually suggest speaking for 15 minutes at a time in one language, before switching to the other language for 15 minutes, and then back again, etc.  Most people are willing to have a least a 30 minute conversation, and I find it best just to schedule an hour so that there is a time limit.  Also, keep an eye on the clock so that the conversation does not skew in favor of one language … the idea is to get an even exchange, spending 50% of the time in Spanish while spending the other 50% of the time in English.  Some people have suggested speaking English to me while I speak in Spanish to them, kind of a two-language-at-once conversation, but I don’t feel that is a good idea because you need to hear Spanish as much as you need to practice speaking it, and your language partner needs to hear English as much as they need to practice speaking it.  So go 15 minutes at a time in one language, and then 15 minutes in the other, then back and forth again.

I have so many Skype contacts that are language partners, that invariably when I log into Skype now I see that some of them are already logged into Skype.  (You can see the online status of all of your Skype contacts).   So, if I want to strike up a conversation, all I have to do is send a chat message to someone logged in to see if they are available for a conversation, or I can just call them straightaway via Skype to see if they pick up the call.  (I usually poke them with a chat message first to see if they reply).  But the other thing that I have found is that now when I log into Skype, my Skype contacts will see that I just came online, and sometimes one or more will send me a chat message asking if I have time to have a Spanish-English exchange right then.  Therefore, you can be spontaneous and go online and see if you can find someone to converse with (which I do occasionally), or you can establish a regular schedule with specific partners to have a conversation at a specific time and day each week (which I prefer to do, and I have about 5 of those regular partners right now).

So let me say one more time, there are hundreds or even thousands of native Spanish speakers out there right now looking for native English speakers who are willing to do a language exchange.  What are you waiting for?  Go out and find them … and make some friends all over the world!

Top Ten Reasons to Learn Spanish

  1. Learn Spanish because it is fun to learn it.
  2. Learn Spanish to enhance your mental functioning … it works much better, and is a lot cheaper, than popping ginkgo biloba pills.
  3. Learn Spanish because it is the fourth most commonly spoken language in the world, and you can easily find a Spanish speaker wherever you are in the United States. 
  4. Learn Spanish to better appreciate Spanish-speaking cultures … the people, the history, the arts, the food, the literature, the music, etc.
  5. Learn Spanish to enhance your travel experiences, as well as to open up study abroad opportunities.
  6. Learn Spanish to improve your employment potential.
  7. Learn Spanish to improve your knowledge of your own language … it will enhance your understanding of words that you use every day, and also improve your grammar.
  8. Learn Spanish to make new lifelong friends, perhaps get to know better some of your relatives, or maybe learn more about your own ancestry.
  9. Learn Spanish to become a more loving person.
  10. Learn Spanish to better understand what Nelson Mandela meant when he said, “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head.  If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.”

What is happiness?

Last night at in our Spanish conversation group our topic of conversation was … What is happiness?

As expected there were various responses to this profound question … each person has their own idea about what constitutes happiness.  Some of the ideas include:

Happiness is having good friends.
Happiness is achievement.
Happiness is financial security.
Happiness is having control of your life.
Happiness is doing work that is completely fulfilling.
Happiness is knowing your purpose in life.
Happiness is peace of mind.
Happiness is helping others have a better life.

What are your thoughts?  Respond to this message by completing this sentence:

Happiness is …

Simpler is Better

For the last few years my wife and I have been simplifying our lives.  Basically, we’ve been getting rid of a bunch of stuff, and downsizing wherever possible.  Here are some examples:

In West Virginia our house sat on 15 acres of land, and it took me over 10 hours to mow everything using a fairly large John Deere tractor.  Now our house sits on a small city lot, and I can mow the lawn in about 10 minutes.

We used to have two pick-up trucks and a car, but now we have one car and a scooter.

Our library of books was once rather impressive, and I in particular was quite proud of my extensive collection of reference materials (probably because I thought it made me look smart, although the books only collected dust year after year).  We have given dozens of books away over the last few years, and now we are more apt to borrow books from the library than to buy them.

Same thing with CDs – Why did we need dozens of CDs when we listened to them only while on road trips?  I sold several of them on eBay, and many more we simply gave away.

Sheri in particular has weaned herself from a large collection of clothes, and now participates in “minimalist” projects such as the selection of a limited wardrobe to wear for a couple months at a time.  It sure makes getting dressed a whole lot less complicated.

I should be embarrassed to admit that I could only wean myself of 10 of a total of 40 screwdrivers, but hey – that’s 25 percent!  I expect that someone will have to pry my tools from cold, dead hands.

We recently cancelled our DirecTV service and telephone landline, which not only simplifies our lives but saves us over $115 a month.  Now most nights you can find us sitting in our comfy IKEA lounge chairs, me happily studying Spanish while Sheri is happily knitting away or reading.  

Many of us hold onto way, way, way too much stuff … and life really is simpler with less.  And simpler is better.

So go ahead and start going through all your stuff, all the stuff piled in your garage and in your basement and in your attic and in your closets.  Figure out what you need and what you don’t need any more … and give away everything you don’t need.  I recommend giving it to smaller thrift stores that directly benefit the community, for example my preferred recipient here in Utah is Crossroads Urban Center.

By giving away all that stuff that is just collecting dust you’ll make your life simpler, plus you’ll feel good about sharing some of your abundance with others.  But of course you can keep some of your most cherished items … for example my Spanish language learning resources are staying right here with me, together with my tools in my still warm hands.