I’ve never had a weight problem so I’ve never thought much about counting calories. But I seem to recall reading or hearing that 2,000 calories a day would be about right, depending on your weight and level of activity.

While I don’t overeat, I do have a tendency to talk to much (and listen too little). I’m wondering if I could put myself on a “word diet.”

If I allot myself 2,000 words over a 16 hour day, it works out to 125 words an hour.

If you knew you had a meeting with your boss coming up, you could be silent for an hour or two and bank the words you would need.

And if you could come in under 2,000 for the day… save ’em up for some emergency (drinking with your pals or a fight with your spouse).

The problem, of course, is counting the words. You’d need some device that monitors your speech and displays the number of words, with a little beep to warn you when you have less than 25 words in an hour.

If I could do this, I think I’d sound (be perceived as?) smart as hell. Deep. Thoughtful. And who knows, if you had to ration your words, you might choose them more carefully.

When you hear someone talking about what a great president Bush has been or McCain will be… instead of blurting out “Bull shit!”… you’d save those words rather than waste them.

I can’t really count my words but I’m going to try a one day experiment and pretend that I can. I’m not going to say which day it is until after the fact. I’ll report here.

Blog posts and tweets do not count against daily allotment.