Just Kidding

I’m not a novelist, but I play one on the internet. In my quest to become one in real life, I’ve studied a thing or two about the craft. Fortunately for you, one of the “one or two things” I’ve learned along the way can be directly applied to dieting.

When it comes to starting a new manuscript there are two basic approaches one can take, colloquially referred to as “pantsing” and “plotting.” The term pantsing originates from the phrase “by the seat of one’s pants.” The term plotting originates from the Greek words “plo” meaning “this might be a good idea for a book” and “tting” meaning “but it’s probably not.”

I tried pansting a book once. I ended up writing over 120,000 words and in the end it . . . well, it just stopped. I kept hoping that something interesting might happen along the way, but nothing ever materialized. It was clear I should be a plotter. So on my most recent go at it, I did just that. This time, when I got to the end, I actually had an ending. And he lived happily ever after.

We have the same two choices when dieting: plow forward by the seat of those pants we’re hoping to soon trade in for a smaller pair. Or come up with a plan.

I began Diet #113C last week with this plan:

  1. Divide all the Christmas leftovers into sixty parts and gradually consume before March.
  2. Give up artificial sweeteners.
  3. Eat more plant life.

One good thing about short, holiday-related, gain-a-pound-a-day, binge eating is that the weight that goes on fast always comes off fast for me. I took my three-bullet-point plan above, put it into action and lost ten pounds this week.

Ha ha. Just kidding.

I did lose about three pounds by mid-week. But then I spent the second half of the week finding them. Somehow that first bullet point morphed into, “Divide all the Christmas leftovers into four parts and eat them one right after another.”

Fortunately, it’s still January.

I got this.



5 Responses to “Just Kidding”

Julie said
on
January 12, 2015 at 6:00 am

A new week, a new chance to keep doing what you know you must. You are doing great Charlie, heck you are in onderland and staying there. I visited it once for a year or so but didn’t get to stay as long as I liked. So working on visiting there and making a home there this year.
Take care Charlie and have an awesome day.
Blessings,
Julie

biz said
on
January 12, 2015 at 7:53 am

I had to throw out the rest of the Chef Mix – well, not before eating 90% of it! Hugs!

Christine said
on
January 12, 2015 at 12:34 pm

I keep coming up with a new plan, or plan fragments. Nothing materializes into a full-blown plan and so I haven’t started a thing! Maybe tomorrow though… 🙂

Charlie said
on
January 12, 2015 at 11:53 pm

Well, my second Day One of the year didn’t get much better. I think I need to suck it up and get rid of that drum of peanut butter at work. It’s not helping.

Back to the Fridge » Diet 115 said
on
February 23, 2015 at 12:32 am

[…] Before Back to the Fridge went off on a five-week diet soft drink adventure, I had embarked on Diet 113C. In that post I talked about how all my ambitious, post-holiday diet plans crashed and burned right […]