“I’ll have the Caesar salad and an iced tea,” said Emoni.
“I’ll have the fish and chips and a rum and coke,” said Meghan.
Emoni waited until the waitress had left before turning to her friend and saying, “Now, you know the only reason I let you order that is because your mom just died, right? Because I don’t want you thinking I’m slacking on this whole best-friends-diet-accountability thing.”
Meghan waved it off. “Forget it. Who cares?”
Emoni paused as she considered the best way to address this new attitude. It could be a healthy part of the grieving process, or it could be a hint of something much darker. Emoni didn’t know. She wasn’t a psychologist. “Last month, you cared. Remember? You were going to work your butt off, and I was going to work my gut off.”
“I know, but I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror the other day as I was getting out of the shower and it reminded me of my mom, and I flashed back to all those times I would watch her getting dressed when I was growing up, and I really treasure those memories. That got me thinking about how much I look like her, and that actually made me really happy. It’s almost like, by keeping my juicy butt, I’m keeping part of her with me.”
“So, you don’t want me to hold you accountable to your diet anymore?”
“What diet?”
“Damn. Then who am I going to get to hold me accountable to my diet?”
“Who says you have to diet? Life is short. Eat dessert first.”
“OK, first of all, that is a bumper sticker saying, not an actual life philosophy,” said Emoni. “Second, yes, life is short, and I don’t want to live it with this gut. I am going to get rid of it, and I am going to look great and feel awesome and live my best life.”
Meghan held her hands up, palms out in surrender. “All right. You do you. If you want me to slap your hands away from my fries, I will.”
“Oh, you got fries?”
“Yeah, that’s what the ‘chips’ part of ‘fish and chips’ means because the British are weird.”
Emoni looked pained and Meghan laughed. “I’m sorry, but I’m not going to give up delicious food just because you want to go on a diet.”
“No, it’s OK. I have to learn self-control if I want to reach my goals.”
Meghan raised one eyebrow. “OK, now that sounds like something out of a self-help book.”
Emoni held up a hand between herself and her best friend. “No. You do not get to judge my reading list. I won’t judge you for the poison you are putting into your body right now, which means you don’t get to judge the books I read.”
“Hey! Fish is healthy! It has tons of protein. And do you know how many nutrients potatoes have?”
Emoni rolled her eyes.
“I’m serious. They’re loaded with potassium.”
“And then covered with enough salt to completely negate all that potassium and then some.”
“But not the other nutrients. Or the protein in the fish.”
To be continued…