Fasting
not a quick fix to weight problem
I
sometimes multitask. The business definition of this term means to
juggle multiple projects/ tasks at the same time. It’s
a necessity at work to survive, but I’ve learned I really shouldn’t
do it at home.
Case in point: Jilda and I were sitting on the couch reading last week. I was
reading “The Missing,” a book by Tim Gautreaux. Jilda was reading
an article entitled “Lose Weight, Have More Energy & Be Happier in
10 Days.”
I was engrossed by my book, but who wouldn’t be interested in losing weight,
having more energy and being happier?
So, I utilized my multitasking skills to catch a great deal of what she was saying.
Believe me, I could stand to drop a few pounds. In fact, the last photo I saw
of myself made me appear as if I were expecting.
She seemed to be saying something about “fasting.” My mind conjured
up an image of losing weight while driving at a high rate of speed. I thought
to myself, “That’s a diet I can embrace.”
Obviously, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. This
plan had nothing to do with cars at all. In fact, it has nothing to do with food. You
have to go a day without eating at all.
The other pieces of the conversation I caught explained that every two hours
you drink a concoction of water with lemon juice, maple syrup and a dash of cayenne
pepper.
“This will boost your metabolism, cleanse your system, and make you feel
more energetic,” Jilda read.
“We will also lose weight.” Someone in California lost eight
pounds in 48 hours, according to the article.
“That’s nice, why don’t we try it,” I said absently.
That afternoon Jilda mixed up the elixir and we were set to try it the following
day.
The fast hit the first snag around 7 a.m. when I got up on Saturday morning to
make a pot of coffee.
Jilda called out from the bedroom “We can’t have coffee.”
That threw up an immediate red flag. “WHAT?” “Coffee is not
food,” I said. “If we’re going to do this, we can’t
drink anything but the lemon juice,” Jilda said. I headed to the office
in a huff, to check my e-mail.
The first e-mail in my list was from Whole Foods and it was recipes for some
of the best-looking food I have ever seen. I quickly deleted the e-mail.
I think you’re supposed to take it easy when you fast and do things that
don’t require a great deal of energy, but we both had a lot to do. So
as the day progressed, not only were we tired, but starving too.
The taste of the lemon water with maple syrup tasted pretty good but the cayenne
pepper sneaked up on me. It would have gone quite well with a big homemade cheeseburger.
By 10 a.m. my guts started growling like a bear with a toothache and by noon,
I was thinking about eating the Styrofoam ice cooler.
I would have given a week’s pay for a stash of those C-rations we used
to eat when I was in the Army.
By 5 p.m. I was ill tempered and snippy. I was afraid Jilda would call
me a wuss for bailing out, but it seems she was struggling too.
So she rattled some pots and pans and cooked up a pot of purple-hull peas and
a pone of cornbread. We washed it down with ice-cold sweet tea. I can’t
recall ever having a better meal.
The fast was not a total wash because we both lost a couple pounds. The
biggest benefit from the experiment was what I learned — never multitask
at home.
Rick Watson’s column appears each Sunday in the Daily Mountain Eagle. He
will be signing copies of his book, ‘Remembering Big,’ at Legal Grounds
Coffee Shop from 7 until 9 p.m. Tuesday. |