Oddly

September 27, 2017

If you’re being hunted by an evil “The Most Dangerous Game” type down jungle paths, light striped through the dense trees, you’d be smart to watch for tiger traps – pits filled with spears and covered with what looks like palm fronds over solid ground.

Want to know what my tiger trap is? The danger that lies unseen in my way?

It’s not eating ENOUGH.

Every fat lady knows this. You go through the day counting lettuce leaves with lemon, rigid in your determination to force that fat off by force of will, and then night falls and all hell breaks loose. Unsweetened baking chocolate is not safe. Decades-old French fries lost in the unplumbed depths of the freezer are fair game. A midnight run to Mickey D’s is not out of the question.

Starvation is a TERRIBLE thing to do to a body’s health.

It’s counterintuitive but absolutely true: To avoid overeating, you have to eat more food.

And, as Chip at Body Dynamics says, you have to make better choices about that food.

That way, when night falls and the siren lure of Oreos lures you toward the rocks, you have the strength to tie yourself to the mast and fill your ears with wax. (How did I get here from jungles filled with tiger pits?)

When I’m hungry after dinner, I know I haven’t eaten enough during the day. Fortunately, past frenzies have stripped my house of anything even remotely interesting, including an entire jar of my brother-in-law’s insanely good and salty chocolate sauce, eaten by the spoonful while standing by the sink. Tomorrow I must eat more food!