New tack

I'm trying a new tack which hopefully will help me both cut calories and be more academically productive.

That is to replace my large lunch and 2 small snacks with 2 larger snacks. That way, there is no "lunch" meal to distract me and I can use all my between-class time to do homework and the like. Then, I can have something like a bar in the morning and a smoothie in the afternoon, and I will hopefully cut my total at-school calorie intake that way, while leaving nutritious dinner and breakfast unaffected.

Incidentally, I saw this recently:

http://calorielab.com/news/2010/11/20/twinkie-diet-results/

It's hilariously stupid, of course, but it makes me smile and want to try it. I remember in high school one time our English teacher had an alcohol-influenced idea at a party and had us all write list of 100 things to do before we die, and one thing I wrote on mine was to follow a series of weird diets, with an example given: 'like "foods that start with vowels".' Anyway, this would be a good time for something like that, wouldn't it? Obviously not during this season, but during the mostly holiday-free stretch after the end of January, maybe. I could use it as my aid to not getting bored in the last 10 pounds. Just come up with 10 weird diets and try to lose a pound on each one - the guiding principle, of course, being calorie restriction within the arbitrary framework of the diet coupled with continuation of good exercise habits. I can think of three already: foods that start with vowels, the Twinkie diet, and SlimFast. The research aspect would be seeing how each one facilitated or hindered sticking to the diet and feeling healthy in the process. Oh my God I'm such a dork. I may actually do this.