Everybody's An Expert These Days

So I'm talking with a couple guys a while ago (maybe 6 weeks or two months or so ago) and I tell them that I'm not eating donuts anymore.  I have a seriously unhealthy relationship with donuts that I've had for a rather long time* and I decided a few months ago that I needed to kick the habit.  So, we're having this conversation and one of the guys asks why and I say, "Well, for one reason, I've dropped 25 pounds and I don't want to put it back on."  Now, bear in mind, I had lost the 25 pounds while still eating donuts on a semi-regular basis**.  But the time had come to give up donuts.

"I want to lose 20 pounds over the summer," says one of the guys.  "I think I will give up donuts, too."

And we talk a bit.  We chat about food and stuff.  The first guy says he won't COMPLETELY give up donuts, though - once a month, that's still okay.  The other guy talks about how he sneaks cookies and pudding at work because his wife won't let him eat that stuff at home.  And, frankly, neither guy is in my weight class.

At one point they ask me, "How have you lost weight?"

"Just eating less, I guess.  Well, on some days.  Most days I just eat normally.  Sometimes I skip lunch.  Or breakfast.  I quit drinking diet pop."

"Oh, you can't skip meals.  That'll mess up your metabolism.  Your body will react to that and you won't lose weight."

Um...  Wait.  You asked how I accomplished the task.  That's how I actually did it.  Two or three days a week I would simply skip a meal.  And I quit drinking diet pop and switched to water and zero calorie lemonade and more coffee***.  That's it.  The days I didn't skip meals I still sometimes over ate.  I still ate donuts.  So, while I get what they were trying to say... I think experience trumps theory here...

I'm just sayin'...

And it was among friends, for my benefit.  Two guys who really do want me to succeed and who were celebrating my success (30 pounds now, by the way) and want to see me continue on.  I just found it really interesting that in the face of facts, they would parrot a truism**** that we've all heard, yet in this case, proved to not be, well, true.

But this isn't a rant.  Nor am I trumpeting my accomplishment.  Just an amusing observation about the human being's ability to, well, "Reject reality and substitute it with my own..."

Of course, I NEVER do that... :)














*And in that post I say it's not my donut obsession isn't in "some weird and emotionally unhealthy way..." but I think that's exactly what it has become...


**Every third Sunday at Otterbein Church is fellowship Sunday - or as my family calls it, "Donut Sunday" because we get 5 or 6 dozen of Tops' best donuts and lots of coffee and tea and hot chocolate and cappuccino mix and mmmmmm..... Not to mention, virtually every time pastors get together, the snack of choice is fried filled or iced (or filled AND iced) dough...mmmmmm.....


***I think dumping the diet pop was the biggest contributor, frankly.  Check out This Report


**** Truism probably isn't the right word.  There's actual SCIENCE to back this up, I know.  It's a bad idea to skip too many meals. Short answer, Longer answer, Note: this is something like what I did...