Calories, why?

I've been thinking about my 9th grade science class. It was 1989 and I had really long hair that may have been spiral-permed at the time. Jan & I spent most of the class writing ridiculous notes to each other about who had a bigger brain and which of us was more likely to rule the world. When we weren't giggling like 14 year old girls we were lab partners setting things on fire. It was during one of these experiments that I burned the ends of my long hair and learned about calories [simultaneous, but separate events].
We were taking things like marshmallows and cheerios and, if I remember correctly, weighing them, setting them on fire until they were just black char, and then weighing them again. The calculations would teach us how much mass/energy/calories each food contained. Is it how much of the mass is missing equals the number of calories it has? That kind of makes sense. If you feel inclined, please learn about this and let me know.
Or Trisha - you could go down to your basement and get your notebook from 9th grade science [we probably did the same stuff] and scan your notes for me. It's in the box labeled "Ninth Grade: Science/Calculus/Latin: Notebooks & Mathlete Awards". You were so cool back then. Love you!

So I've known since 1989 that things have calories. And it takes a certain amount of energy to burn them. And then those calories are gone along with the mass that contained them. I think we timed our burning marshmallows also. Like it took 14 seconds to burn 40 calories with so much heat/energy... This, in terms of being a human and wanting to lose/maintain weight, is making sense right?
I've been reading the USDA's report on nutrition. Fascinating! Sort of. It has confirmed lots of things that I knew seemed right but had no proof for. As if the USDA's science wasn't enough, while I was getting my birthday mani-pedi last Saturday, I also read some very sage advice in Glamour Magazine {look at this!} from Dr. Sass [I'm not kidding] about healthy eating. Both sources say the same thing: to lose weight, it doesn't matter so much what you eat, it's how many calories you consume compared to how many you burn. I'm not talking about heart disease and liver failure and brain activity. Just mass. If you get your daily calories from twinkie-crusted, deep-fried sausages, and you eat fewer of these calories than you burn, you will still lose weight. And then your arties will clog up and you'll die. If you get your daily calories from baby spinach leaves and quinoa, and burn more than you eat, you will lose weight and maybe not die of a heart attack.

Now that I've completed my yearly cleanse and embarked on a healthier way of eating - I am adding in some weight loss goals. "Goals" in terms of, it would be nice to be thin again. So I counted all of the calories that I ate yesterday, just to get an idea of what I was dealing with. I decided that it wouldn't be so bad to stay in the 1800/day calorie range as the "high ideal". The USDA says that Americans should eat about 2000 calories a day as a healthy amount. So I had my 1/2 smoothie [130 cal], 2 eggs [140 cal], signature salad [670], and 1/2 of a Boboli pizza for dinner [900]. The pizza was a schocker! Boboli has a weird serving size that says 1/6 of the pizza, but then says that there are 12 servings. You could cut it into 12 servings, but then 2 of these pieces are actually a serving? what? The crust & sauce together are 1320 calories. The crust is made with some whole grains, but also white flour, cheese, sugar... the sauce has high-fructose corn syrup in it. Then I put on my favorite toppings: 1/4c mozz [80], 3 sliced button mushrooms [4 cal each], pepperoni [1 ounce = 140 cal], and olives. Let me tell you, I have NEVER looked at the nutritional content of olives. They are not good for you. I am not really a big olive eater, but Pete can eat an entire can/jar/bowl/wheelbarrow of olives while I am getting out the knife to slice them up for a pizza. According to the jar, two Kalamata olives have 25 calories. I put 6 olives on my pizza for 150 calories. If you care, you can have 6 mushrooms or 2 olives. You can have 4 olives or 1/3c of mozzerella cheese. Crazy!

So I think did pretty good. I had fresh fruits & vegetables for 2 of my meals and stayed within my calorie count without really trying too hard. Plus I went to the gym for an hour and did housework all day.