A friend of ours came up to us at Happy Hour the other night and asked if we noticed something. I said “You lost weight.” “Yes, twenty-five pounds. I’m fasting.” He actually was eating one small meal a day, but nothing white. Just lean means, seafood, vegetables and whole grains.
So my husband, with this limited information, decided to do the same. Not the fasting part, mind you, just the no white part so- no white bread, pasta or white rice. This is how, for the next week or so, I found him in the kitchen toasting a slice of whole wheat bread periodically throughout the day. I think butter was also involved.
“What?” he said, when I looked at him. “It’s whole wheat.”
And the one white thing he never gave up during this short experiment was white wine. He’s off that kick now, but before that, he was eating handful after handful of the pistachios I keep on the kitchen counter for snacks.
“What?” he said to me, when I looked at him after the third handful. “They’re pistachios- they’re good for you, they’re healthy, they’re low-cal.”
I told him they were healthy and good for you, but definitely not low-cal. No nuts are low-cal. Do people even use that expression any more? It hearkens to Weight Watchers, 1960’s days, with a scoop of cottage cheese and a pineapple slice, plopped on a sad plate lined with lettuce.
As we were having a glass of wine that night, he looked at his phone and said “Uh oh.”
“What?”
He had discovered that pistachios were 800 calories per cup, which, for me, is about half of what my daily calorie intake is supposed to be. Not that I count, but I used to.
My sister Kelley doesn’t like the idea of the whole fasting thing, or diets in general. She’s on an anti-diet crusade these days. She’s the Molly Hatchett, make that the Carrie Nation of dieting, crushing Keto, Paleo and Intermittent Fasting Diets with a withering glance.
“At least it’s better than Ozempic,” I countered, about our friend who was fasting.
“True.”
I was talking to my other sister Elise about Lent and what she was giving up. She’s kind of a sweet fanatic, so she’s giving up cookies and candy and is fasting one day a week. She was saying a lot of the Bible is rooted in practical advice. Like Jesus being in the desert for forty days (which is now Lent for some) was a way to detox and get closer to God.
“Also to starve and hallucinate,” I said.
I’m not Catholic anymore but I used to give up French Fries for Lent, but I would always forget about it and eat them anyway. I think I ate more French Fries at Lent than anytime time during the year! A priest who advised a Woman’s Church Circle I used to belong to in Tallahassee once told us that Sundays were a mini-break from Lent, so you could eat, drink or do whatever you had given up. Alleluia!
Elise is also giving up Instagram at night, which I think is an excellent idea. My sister Kelley, who is now Jewish, does this every week by turning off her phone from Friday night to Saturday night. Shalom shabbat. Now a diet from Social Media is one diet I can get behind!
Whatever you celebrate- Lent, Passover, Spring Equinox, Spring Break, Festivus- enjoy it and remember- Life is short, eat dessert first!
