Calorie-counting and weight loss

In the long term I hope to reach a BMI in the low-20's but have been finding myself having to eat less than I had expected. When I was lingering near the top of the healthy weight band of the chart I had tried reducing my weekly eating from 16Mcal to 14Mcal but for five straight months still lost less than half a pound per month which affords little in the way of a safety margin when holidays and suchlike come and I want to slack off for a while. Dropping the limit further to 13Mcal per week seems to have worked: recently my average loss has been just over a pound per month which will do. Next year I hope to increase my eating a little without drifting back nearer the top of the healthy weight band but for now I will keep on my present track then see how Thanksgiving and Christmas go.

Witnessing a lovely conversation

Listening to BBC Radio 4 last week I happened to catch an unexpectedly sweet segment. The director Paul King is a big fan of The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), directed by the late Michael Powell whose widow is the editor Thelma Schoonmaker. The radio show host surprised Paul with a live conversation with Thelma: not only was he very pleased to get to speak with somebody who knows movies and had been so close to Michael but she too was touched to hear how much he loved her late husband's movie.