Ouchies!

So I finally decided to find out what the score is regarding my weight and body fat percentage, because I've been meaning to do something about my appearance for years. Turns out, I'm 130lbs and have a 27% body fat percentage. For someone who's 5'2" and 24 years old, that's kinda high. It also turns out that my blood pressure is pre-hypertension. And of course, I don't have the most hourglass figure a girl could ever want, so you can see every lb of that 130. So for a lotta good reasons... drastic action is going to be taken. I've been working out on the exercise bike at the gym every night all week, and I'm really enjoying it, I just sit there with a CD going and pedal until the music stops. I started out kinda lightweight, but Friday night I did 15 miles during a 62 minute cd (Les Mis Complete Symphonic Recording CD2), doing what the bike calls "60 rpm" average at a flat intensity level of 2 on a scale from 1-10 (figuring higher rpm is better for me than working harder at lower rpm?). Unfortunatly, the bike is in pretty bad shape, and the pulse rate indicator doesn't work, and I can't afford to buy my own (for $50 can get a pulse rate indicator... or for $100 my own exercise bike... both out of my budget for now). Today I have also started changing my diet. There's still half of a pizza casserole in the fridge that I'll have to finish, but I'm trying a buncha different brands of yogurt, as well as some slimfast stuff, and strawberries and cucumbers. Oh, and here's the big shocker: I'm not only switching to fat free milk *shudder* but I'll actually be drinking my 6-8 8oz glasses of water per day. I'd say wish me luck, but I don't think I'll have any trouble sticking to this... I know it needs to be done, and I have a very big incentive at the end, waiting for me :) What I can't understand is how the government could get the recommended calorie intake so wrong... normal being 2000, SlimFast's site recommends that I only intake 1300 to achieve my goals... on a normal day, eating my normal food, drinking my milk, etc, I only take in about 800-900 calories. Acoording to the gov. that's like... a starvation diet. *shrugs* just means I'll continue to ignore all "recommended daily values" like I always have.