Okay, so after a couple weeks of exercising, I’m down half a pound.  No, not even.  0.4 pounds.  Good grief.

So, I thought I’d try an experiment.  After dinner we get the kids ready for bed.  I decided I’d get myself ready for bed at the same time, including brushing teeth.  After that, I’m only allowed to drink water.

Now, this might not seem like a big deal to some of you.  Maybe a lot of you already do this (i.e. don’t eat after dinner).  AP on the other hand, well… he likes to snack.  We’re not talking casual snacking either.  Let’s put it this way, if snacking were an Olympic sport, AP would be a contender for Gold!

It’s not that I can just eat a lot of crap.  I happen to have a super high tolerance for treats and snack food.  Along with that tolerance, I have a strategy that keeps me going through the most intense of snack-fests.  Alternate between sweet and salty.  Yes, my friends, that’s the secret.  Along with plenty of water, if you alternate between butter & salt popcorn (a huge bowl, the equivalent of two bags of microwave popcorn), and then about 10 mini-candybars, then back to chips and salsa, then back to a dozen cookies, then back to pretzels, then back to a pack of skittles, then… well, you get the idea.

I’d put a conservative estimate at 1,000 calories per outing.  And this is after dinner, before bed.  Not every night, and not always in true Olympic fashion, but let’s just say often enough and with more than enough that it’s time to put the freakin’ breaks on this snacker!

I’ll try this out for two weeks and see what the results are.  I’ll keep up the same exercise routine and keep ratcheting it up slowly.  We’ll see what the combo can deliver.  My guess is more than 0.4 pounds in two weeks.  Ugh.

Wish me luck!  (although this reduction in consumption won’t do anything to help the current economic crisis — think of all the lost snack food sales! — *sigh* oh well, I’ll have to find another way to stimulate the economy that doesn’t stimulate a muffin top)