You Can't Have Your Cake and Eat It Too

 

Some years ago, while in the wedding reception of one of my cousins, my uncle teased me, "I am sure you use prescription to eat." Everyone who heard him laughed. He meant that as a doctor, I am careful with what I eat. He was correct. 

Although that day, I was not really careful. I helped myself with some of the courses of food and snacks served in the reception. It would be unfair to waste the money the host spent on the food. I am a teetotaler, so I let go of the bottles of chilled ethanol.

As opined by my uncle, I am relatively careful with what I eat and drink, especially outside the house. But on few occasions, human nature sets in and I pretend not to have knowledge of the implications of "spoiling myself." One of such occasions was a year ago.

It was my son's birthday. After sharing the cake with some family members and friends, we still had enough portion left. 

One inner voice whispered, "O je je cake; ko yee se bi health prefect (You better eat cake and not always behave like a health prefect)." The voice was soothing in my ears. After all, I paid for the cake. There is no harm if I enjoy the fruits of my labour, I mused.

One mouthful of cake followed the other. I must have used up to two bottles of soft drinks to push down the several chunks of cake from my stomach into the duodenum. I am not an "agbaya" now; I still left enough cake for the celebrant and other persons. 

It's my habit to check my weight at least once a week in my hospital. About a week after the unhealthy consumption of cake, I decided to check my weight.

"Goodness me!" I quietly exclaimed. The figure was unbelievable. "No be small cake I chop?" I asked my alter ego. When I stepped down from the scale, my rational self rebuked me that the cake I ate was too much, and that I deserved the weight gain of 4kg within a week.

I wrote the weight on the white board in my consulting room and began to "cast and bind" every molecule of fat in my body. My casting and binding included reduction of meat intake, reduced portion of food, walking more, and delegating less task at work in order for me to burn the excess weight.

Two months later - it took me that long to lose 4kg - my wife looked at me and said, "I think you have lost weight." The hospital scale also corroborated her observation.

Mission accomplished. My efforts were validated.