Stop Eating? Yeah, That’s The Ticket! Or Is It?

According to the Associated Press, the main reasons for subway delays in New York over the last year were track problems, signal problems and illness; specifically fainting passengers. Was it something in the air you ask? Of course not, it was dieters who were fainting. Now I need a daily nap as much as anyone does, but that is just ridiculous.

With the coming of the New Year and 1 out of every 3 people (no, that’s not statistical data, just a guess in the dark) resolving to get in shape or lose weight, the subject of fainting dieters is a timely topic. People go a day or so without eating to lose some quick weight and then they get dizzy on the subway and pass out. I guess it’s better they take public transportation rather than driving themselves. The problem with the side affect of this dieting trend is that whenever someone takes what I will refer to as a ‘diet nap,’ the conductor has to remain with the fallen until emergency personnel arrive. Hence, the otherwise unnecessary delays for all of the people who choose to feast and not blackout every time there is movement around them. When these innocent eating bystanders are late to work, do you really think that the excuse “some really weak and sick looking thin person passed out again and the subway got delayed” is going to cut it? Sadly, I doubt it.

I have had to lose weight before, as have many people I know. I know a few that are struggling with weight loss or maintaining their weight loss now. As a high school and college student, I worked at Jenny Craig as a stock clerk. You can imagine my joy when I was 3 days into my summer vacation and enjoying my new driver’s license with all of the privileges it brings. You can then imagine how quickly my joy diminished when my mom, who I had driven to her Jenny appointment because she had just undergone eye surgery, ran outside to tell me that she had just gotten me a job. I spent the rest of that summer working 40 hours a week for Jenny Craig and remained there for almost 5 years until my last year of college, but that’s a little off the point. Sorry, I was just trying to establish some credibility as an expert. I’m sure I failed.

While there, I was responsible for stocking (as the job title implies) all of the shelves and freezers with the deliciously tiny portions of expensive dietary meals. I also got to package up each client’s order and walk it out to them as they weighted, I mean waited in the lobby. I got to know many of them on a first name basis since we saw each other every week. These were people who were very serious about their weight loss and many succeeded. However, despite all of the diets I saw and witnessed while working for a weight loss center, I think I found a diet idea last night that may be even better than starvation or professional weight loss counseling and carefully portioned meals.

The diet light bulb went off for me last night while we dined at our favorite Italian restaurant, or restaurante to sound more culturally keen. While we sat at our table awaiting our generous family style portions, I looked up at all of the kitschy photos around us. There it sat, the next great idea in weight loss: a picture of what had to be a 500-pound man in an obviously handmade, tailored 3 piece striped suit. While the suit was very nicely made, it did nothing to hide this gentleman’s extensive girth. Just witnessing that one photo alone kept us from overeating at the restaurant (or restaurante if you prefer). It brought back memories for me of being at Jenny Craig and hearing about dieters who put photos of themselves at their heaviest on the fridge or a picture of something that made them not want to eat.

It’s a cheap and easy way to try to curb your appetite. The best thing is that it works on a physiological level, which is where many people get into trouble with overeating, I think. Granted I’m not a doctor but I did bump into one yesterday. It’s like they say; your eyes are bigger than your stomach. The whole idea is that if we can make the eyes less hungry, surely the stomach will follow.

Now if we can just get all of the people starving themselves to buy into this, they can lose weight a safer way and we can keep people from dropping like flies on our public transportation. That will get people to work on time and increase our productivity which I’m sure will make housing prices and the cost of gasoline go down, right?