It's a kind of magic

Another year, another set of resolution.  I, for one, this year decided to make only one resolution: to gain weight.  Yep, that's right!  It's a win-win.  If I gain weight, and judging by the historical trend there's a very good chance of gaining, I would have finally kept a resolution.  If I lose weight, I still win because of all this medical nonsense about healthy weight increasing one's life span, which might not even be true.

So I was on my merry way of keeping my resolution, indulging in post-holiday semi-binge of leftover and on sale chocolate, which skinny people in our office put out  as part of their evil plot to keep me fat, when I read an article about the best apps to for DIY weight loss.  Since my hubby bought me an iPod Touch on the occasion of Black Friday, I decided to download the app, MyFitnessPal, just to see what this is all about.

Ladies and gentleman, there is nothing miraculous about that app.  MyFitnessPal is on my iPod for the last 14 hours, and I still haven't lost an inch or a pound.  There was something magical about it though.  Upon entering my weight and height, I was given allowance of over 2500 calories a day, roughly twice my usual on any low calorie diet.  Now that's magic!  I was so ecstatic, I even forgot to overeat.  But then I grew suspicious and upon further investigation discovered that my weight in kilos had been translated into pounds, but the translated number remained somehow as my weight in kilos. A quick adjustment brought down my daily allowable calories to a very, very little over 1300.  There's nothing magical about that.

But...it has been fourteen hours and I can say that there's something about this app that I cannot explain.  I had kept food diaries, recorded points and calories and fat and blah blah, at times obsessively, but I always knew there was no way I could sustain that for more than a week, even if that.  My inner gut tells me that this has a chance of sticking.  It could be the magic of Apple though.  Also?  That number of remaining allowable calories is somehow more difficult to ignore than a piece of paper with points.  I don't know why.

And finally, yes, I still take my weight in kilos, even after living in this wonderful country of ours for more than 15 years.  I still am more comfortable with metric system and haven't given up hope that Americans will eventually come to their senses and switch just like the rest of the world.  I also know that the minute I fully acclimate myself to pounds and inches and Fahrenheit, the switch will be finally made and I would have to relearn the old way, so I resist being the victim of Murphy's Law.  The biggest bonus though - my weight in kilos is 2.2 times less than in pounds!  It just sounds and looks less scary on the scale.  One would say that the weight loss is also 2.2 times smaller in klos, but I got it covered!  I measure my weight loss as a percentage of total body weight!  On the Excel spreadsheet.

Yes, I am an accountant.  Did you even need to ask?

Education of SubWife

I have lived in US for the past thirteen years, and I think I have adapted well. But every now and then certain facts/things/cultural info come to my attention that are completely new to me; the info that anyone natural born knows, but no book ever mentions because, like I said, everyone is supposed to know this before they stop wearing diapers. Maybe they give out this info in labor rooms, but unless someone tells you, you won't know or deduce it.

Today was one of those days when I found out something new. What is this pearl of American fashion wisdom (or maybe universal fashion wisdom, I am just no aware)? That pink and red don't match, and to be more precise they clash. And according to my American born and raised friend, with whom I had an honor to go kids' clothes shopping, this piece of fashion truth (?) is very common knowledge. Well, they didn't teach that in ESL classes, high school or college. It wasn't on my citizenship exam. Quite frankly, I was shocked, and my friend was shocked in return that I didn't know. In any case, tt would've never occurred to me on my own! I am quite sure I didn't dress DD or myself this way because I am not a big fan of pink and like red even less, so at least I didn't traumatize my little fashionista that way. But if no one had ever told me, it was only a matter of time until my child would commit this fashion faux pas because of her mother's ignorance. Basically, I was a ticking fashion bomb.

So thank G-d for my American friend who detonated this bomb in time. But I still don't know if it's just me, the poor uneducated in fashion foreigner, or someone else didn't know this either. Is this an American mishugas or a universally held standard of beauty? Your feedback would be very much appreciated.

P.S. I am pretty sure that DD has a pink and red striped sweater from Children's Place. What's up with that? You can wear pink and red in one piece, but a skirt/shirt combo with those same colors is a no-no? Am I being too logical about this? Someone please educated me!