There was a time I could have hated someone like John. Mid thirties, over six feet tall, nowhere close to 200 lbs. Lean, healthy, ordering the fried lasagna at the OG (that’s the Olive Garden to you uninitiated) and explaining to the rest of us eyeing the vegetable soup and salad (the "us" is my sister’s wedding party), how he’s been trying to gain weight for the past ten years.
Fortunately, he was talking to the right person. I consider myself a professional at gaining weight and an amateur at losing it. Right away, I could tell he knew how to order at restaurants – fried lasagna was a good choice – so I encouraged him to up his chip intake at home. Ruffles, Fritos, you know, hit the refined carbohydrates hard.
He confessed to the occasional dark beer adding a pound or two, but watching John eat confirmed my suspicions. He was going to be a tough case. He nibbled at his breaded and deep-fried bundles, actually tasting the food and commenting on the flavor of the ricotta stuffing. He offered a portion to the groom, and then – gasp – stopped eating when he was full, leaving two – TWO!!!- bundles completely untouched.
When I encouraged him to join the clean plate club, he declined. Then he confessed that he, as a matter of routine, waited until he was hungry to eat, sometimes even skipping breakfast if he wasn’t.
Inwardly, I shook my head. Saturated fats and refined carbohydrates would only get him so far. He can’t expect to gain weight if he listens to his body’s signals for hunger and fullness. That’s ludicrous.
But that’s not the most insane thing I saw him do at the rehearsal lunch. At the end of the meal, we passed those incredibly addictive and FREE chocolate Andes mints around the table. He didn’t eat any. Not a single one. I guess he doesn’t like them??? Sure, we’d all just scarfed slabs of tiramisu, but I can tell you, on my side of the table, my second “dessert stomach” had just woken up and was demanding more sugar.
Being choosy about his dessert is really just another symptom of his problem. He’s going to have to stop discriminating against perfectly tasty, calorie-heavy, nutrient-free foods if he wants to gain weight. Some people will never learn, I guess.
Which brings me to why I can’t hate John and his super metabolism and fantastic digestive enzymes. I know what it’s like to make the same mistakes over and over, especially when it comes to food. Eating healthy is a lifetime journey for me, meaning I’ve spent a fair amount of time at the station refusing to board or getting on the wrong train.
Nevertheless, here’s one thing I have learned. I don’t have to have a metabolism like John’s to be healthy. I cook kale and onions so well Whole Foods should call me for rhe recipe. (In the interest of full disclosure, my kids consider this dish radioactive waste.) What I do need to have is some sort of understanding of what works for my body. And then the hard part, I need to come to terms with what I often think of as the dieter’s creed, I Cor 6:12:
I don’t have to have been dealt a perfect hand to be healthy if I learn to choose what is profitable for my health. Which is what my super slender and fit, don’t-hate-her-because- she’s-beautiful sister said the night before the wedding, while I was chomping down on Reese’s and Snickers. Self-control comes down to a single choice. Just choose right now that you don’t want to do something, and don’t do it.
Or something like that. To be honest with you, my brain was on a serotonin high from the sugar and I can’t really remember. Which is why, as I hang on to the healthy eating train for dear life, I’m grateful that after the apostle Paul wrote verse 12 (see above), he wrote this, in verse 14:
The power that raised Jesus works in us as well. Healthy eating, or attaining any good habit, for that matter, isn’t a journey Christ-followers make alone.
Thank goodness, ‘cause I’m exhausted and hungry! Kale, anyone?
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