Yesterday I woke up with a sore throat and an overall queasy feeling. Unfortunately, I am the world’s crankiest patient. Pretty much anything Devin has said to me the past 24 hours I responded negatively, angrily, or sarcastically. Fortunately, I don’t sick all that often.

Today I was talking to my friend Diane. She’s a weight watcher who lost 170 pounds in 2000 and is maintaining successfully. I love chatting with her because she always has an insight that I can relate to. When I mentioned to her my amazement that people tell me they actually CAN’T eat when they’re sick, she laughed in agreement with me and said “eating feels so good that when I’m sick, I like to eat to take care of myself.” I replied “Yeah, I can’t think of anything better for a stomach ache than a nice big snack.”

Of course, we laughed knowing that a saner approach would be to moderate food intake while ill. I’m sure from a scientific standpoint its hard to justify eating a sandwich to cure stuffy sinuses. Some foods – especially liquids – are indeed helpful, but they tend to be healthier things like soups and herbal infusions and the like. Personally, I’d prefer to eat cookies.

At any rate, laughter was good medicine too. Talking to Diane put a smile on my face and helped me feel less silly about my quirks. It reminds me how important it is not to go through the tough stuff alone.

I look back on all the times I tried to lose weight all by myself and all of the crazy ideas I had about how I would keep that weight off (i.e. ‘magically with no effort’). No wonder I felt depressed and despondent when I had setbacks. Being uninformed can really be a bummer. And when I’m depressed, boy do I like to eat!

So now that I’ve had my reality check and a good laugh, its time for me to do the stuff that REALLY helps. Namely getting some rest and staying hydrated.

Oh yeah, and being a little nicer to Devin.