Too much of a good thing can be wonderful!  –Mae West

Just finished the last swallow of my coffee.  It is not quite 6am and already I’m wishing I had a second cup.  But I have learned, a second cup is just not the same.  The first cup each morning is perfection, but after that, subsequent coffees simply don’t measure up. Such is the life of the addicted!

Why are most things in life like that?  It is only when you have abstained for a while that the experience is born anew.  (careful, careful… let’s not let this drift into suggestive territory…)  I can’t say I have truly learned this deep down ‘in my waters’ as the old folks used to say.  In my head I know it, but in practice I sometimes still allow myself to have the second (and third) piece of chocolate, the second cup of coffee, the second morning of not doing my exercises, in hope that a miracle of Universal benevolence will occur.

Yesterday I heard a nutritionist, whom I respect, say that in her practice she encourages people to restrain their portions and eat only when hungry.  The subject of ‘grazing’, which is a popular way of eating, came up and she said when she is working with a person who needs to gain weight, eating often is the method she recommends!! This was disappointing like the first time a boy said to me ‘I’ll call you’ and I believed him. Seriously. She went on to further say, most of us never quite feel hungry, or full, when we graze.  Apparently we need to feel those two extremes (but not too much of either) for the right chemical things to happen in our bodies to keep us in balance, weight-wise.  So where’s the damn manual?  Can’t somebody figure out this whole ‘being human’ thing, PLEASE??

It is said ‘discipline is just choosing between what you want now and what you want most’.  Hmmm.  Right now I want the most pleasure.  Have I got it?

I used to have two cups of coffee every morning. But most days I cut out the second cup, since it is not as satisfying as the first, and I’ve replaced it with green tea.  I like green tea and I enjoy drinking it plain, no honey or lemon or anything.  So it’s virtually calorie free.  You would think, according to conventional wisdom, cutting out that 150 calories each day would see me lose weight… but it did not.  Of course some demon spawn will say, ‘Oh but you must have replaced those calories with something else’.  Well, okay, if you say so, but I am unaware if I have, and I have given it a lot of thought over cake…

My mantra, ‘Moderation, and lots of it!’