Day 49: Poll Results

Well, the votes are in everyone, and the Yeas have it!  That is right, by a vote of 13 to 11, I have been authorized by the democratic voice of the people to eat some pumpkin pie.  I guess I should have asked this: Can I have whipped cream on it?

I would like to thank everyone who voted, though I think that there are a few people who took the addage "vote early and vote often" a little too seriously.  When I said vote often, I was kidding, but as some of the more tech savvy among us know, you can delete the cookie the poll uses to keep you from voting more more than once.  I want everyone to know that I am not a cheat.  I will not eat the pie if the majority doesn't want me to do so.  Since I cannot tell who voted how many times, I am afraid that I am going to have to engage in some detective work to determine whether true voter fraud has occured.  I have called on an international team of well-seasoned veterans of election counting, led by former president and peanut farmer Jimmy Carter (peanuts, by the way, are not authorized on the diet), to determine whether the poll should be thrown out entirely.

In other news, I will be starting a new segment on my  blog each Sunday dedicated to you, the reader.  I will start responding to comments made by you to help you understand the diet, refute the periodic criticism, etc., etc., etc. 

Today's query comes from "Denise" who has asked how I can lose 1.5 notches on my belt size.  Excellent question "Denise."  There is actually a formula to determine this.  In order to perform this calculation, you must first determine your "notch total" (this is a term of art).  Notch total is derived from mulitplying the number of days (signified by d) each belt in my possession is worn by the number of notches I go over when securing the belt (signified by n).  Because I own four belts, there are four separate products from this initial calculation.  The sum of these four products comprises the "weekly notch total" (also a term of art).  When the weekly notch total (signified by w) is divided by seven (the number of days in the week), I get the "daily notch total" (signified by t).  One then subtracts the the daily notch total, which represents an average of the number of notches I used on my belt in a given week, from the notch total as of October 4, 2010.

So, to perform this calculation I use the following formula:

((n¹ x d¹) + (n² x d²) +(n³ x d³) +(n⁴ x d⁴)) / 7 = t

t(original) - t(current) = change in belt size

When you do the math, this is how it works out:

((3 x 8) + (2 x 7) + (1 x 8) + (1 x 7) / 7 = 7.5

9 - 7.5 = 1.5

So, there you have it.  The numbers never lie "Denise," so there is no point arguing with them.