I like to keep healthy and fit.  Part of that is working out four mornings a week and playing some sports on the side; the other?  Diet, of course.  A couple of years ago I transformed myself physically (6’2″ and 140lbs. to 6’3″ and 200lbs.) through a combination of diet and exercise.  I’ve never been healthier.

After the bulk (so to speak) of it, I stopped paying as close attention to my diet.  For two years I avoided candy, soda, carbs, cheese, dairy, etc.  The power a donut had over me was overwhelming.  And one day, I decided life was too short, and so I ate it.

I’ve decided recently to get back to a more regimented diet.  On one hand, it can be boring, but on the other, it allows me to focus on other parts of my life since there’s a simplicity and stability to what I’m eating.  And the upside is being even leaner.

The catch is that now,  I’m used to being able to “eat whatever I want to”, mostly because of extreme metabolic activity—I heat up a room in more than one way, babe—I burn it right off.  And so, if I want that mid-afternoon candy snack, no worries.  But I’d like to be a little leaner, and as I’ve been cutting things out of my diet, those snacks seem to be screaming at me.

Do you hear it crying? It is crying for freedom. FREEDOM.

The amazing part is I’m not actually hungry.  I’m just savoring what it will be like to have those luscious gobs of fat and sugar briefly overwhelming my senses.  In college, peanut butter cups were one of my basic food groups, but I always bought the king size: two just weren’t enough.  After four I’d feel a bit gross, but that would dissipate in an hour.  Reese’s figured this out and now makes them with 3 cups to a package, which is just a micron above the plateau of gross… you can eat that, go on.  It’ll be all right.

And I’m not. Even. Hungry.  I have sympathy for those who struggle with their weight.  If the food is calling my name, I can only imagine what it’s like to be starting from a point even further up on the scale.