Diet shmiet (part one of two)

I must say, when my girl friends reminisce about the times when they were "so skinny" and "had no stomach," I totally can't relate. I have never ever ever been skinny (or maybe that's my eating-disorder-prone high school self talking), and couldn't even conjure an image of a skinny me in my head, until I had a dream of a stick-thin me a couple of weeks ago. (Didn't like it.)

I'm feeling a tad pressured though, coz I've got an upcoming trip, and I'll be standing alongside my super svelte teammates. Trust Fate (and her sense of humor) to dump all the skinny girls in PUA into one team--my team. Haha. Hence, the frantic "Marie! How do I lose weight in a month?!" cry for help a few weeks back. My fave beauty/fitness guru's reply: "Stop eating sweets!"

"Never gonna give you up..."

And then I realized, when people ask, "How do I lose weight?" what they're really asking is: "How do I lose weight without making any effort?" We all know what we're supposed to be doing—eating right (meaning, lots of fruits and veggies, good carbs); eating small, frequent meals; drinking lots of water; working out—but we just don't want to be bothered. So we fall into the trap of crash diets. Or, at least, I do, when I have to fit into something (often, a bikini) in a short span of time.

Next: Crashin' and burnin'