Laugh Yourself Thin Making Happiness, Fun, and Pleasure the Keys to Permanent Weight Loss potx

Laugh Yourself Thin
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Laugh Yourself Thin
Making Happiness, Fun,
and Pleasure the Keys
to Permanent Weight Loss
Melanie W. Rotenberg, MD
With Mitch Rotenberg, PhD
Copyright 2010 by Melanie W. Rotenberg, MD
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without
prior permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rotenberg, Melanie W.
Laugh yourself thin : making happiness, fun, and pleasure the keys to permanent weight loss /
Melanie W. Rotenberg with Mitch Rotenberg.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-313-38636-7 (hard copy: alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-313-38637-4 (ebook)
1. Weight loss—Psychological aspects. 2. Weight loss—Humor. 3. Laughter—Health
aspects. I. Rotenberg, Mitch. II. Title.
RM222.2.R675 2010
613.2'5—dc22 2010020178
ISBN: 978-0-313-38636-7
EISBN: 978-0-313-38637-4
14 13 12 11 10 1 2 3 4 5
This book is also available on the World Wide Web as an eBook.
Visit www.abc-clio.com for details.
Praeger

An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC
ABC-CLIO, LLC
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This book is printed on acid-free paper

Manufactured in the United States of America
The information published in this volume or any related e-book, Web site, or database is
provided for informational purposes only and is not intended to supplement or replace the
advice of a trained medical professional. The information provided here should never be
used for the purpose of diagnosing or treating a medical or health condition. Readers should
consult their own physicians before making any decisions or taking any actions that might
a ect their health.
This book is dedicated to our son.
Aaron, growing up in our joyful and o -beat household,
you have happily borne the brunt of our jokes. But, in so
doing, you have learned the ways of the humorist.
Your comedic talents and level-headed disposition have
led us to conclude “Our work here is done.”
“I can’t see my shoes.”
—Aristotle
*

*
Just not that Aristotle.
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Laugh the Pounds Away Forever xi
PART I: ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOR
ONE: Turn Your Head and Laugh: Happiness, Joy,

and Pleasure in the Pursuit of Weight Loss 3
TWO : I’m Allergic to Food, It Makes Me Swell:
Thought and Mind for Success 23
THREE: Tossing Your Cookies: Food Behavior That Works 45
FOUR: Laugh Your Butt O : Activity Behavior That Works 67
FIVE: I’m on the Duct Tape Diet: Handling Hunger 83
PART II: INPUT—FOOD AND DRINK
SIX: Eat Right, Die Anyway: What Are Good Foods? 105
SEVEN: Put the Mu n Down and Slowly Back Away:
What Are Not-So-Good Foods? 125
viii Contents
EIGHT: Water Intolerant: The Right Drinks 143
NINE: Living Extra Large: How Much, When, and How to Eat? 153
PART III: OUTPUT—METABOLISM AND ACTIVITY
TEN: That Which Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Fatter:
Increasing Metabolism 173
ELEVEN: Dinosaurs Refused to Exercise and Look What
Happened to Them: The Right Activity 195
Conclusion: I Told You That There Would Be a Quiz at the End! 215
Notes 221
Resources and Further Reading 229
Index 231
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, I must thank my agent, Ellen Pepus, of Signature
Literary Agency. Without her terrifi c guidance, great advice, and gen-
tle coaching, this project would never have come to fruition.
Thank you as well to my editor, Debbie Carvalko, and all the won-
derful people at Praeger/Greenwood for encouraging my passion to
teach and entertain.
And a big thank you to all who o ered stories and advice or their

time by reviewing the manuscript. The friends and family who assisted
include Debbie Bernier, Joe Bernier, Amelia Torre, Marcia Weinstein,
Marylee Fennell, Terri Hamilton, Laura Fausone, Dawn Mineo, Pam
Wheeler, Dawn Fuller, Bob Taylor, Rick Fennimore, Fred Mullins,
Christine Folkes, Susan Jackson, and Sherri Garafolo.
I am truly grateful to all the enthusiastic participants of the annual
conference of the Space Coast Writers’ Guild. You people helped me
ferment this crazy plan, and I do appreciate all the wonderful guidance
through the maze of the book industry.
Real gratitude goes out to comedian Kevin Hughes, for inspiring
my husband and me to start writing humor and for encouraging me to
get up in front of a crowd and tell jokes.
And I’d like to give a huge thank you to my son, Aaron Rotenberg,
and my husband, Mitch “Long-Su ering” Rotenberg, for putting up
with me all these years.
x Acknowledgments
Finally, the biggest thanks goes out to my patients, who inspire
me to write, to teach, to learn, and to grow. Where would I be with-
out you?
Melanie Rotenberg, MD (aka “Dr. R”)
Introduction: Laugh the
Pounds Away Forever
Roller Coaster Haiku
Oh my Freaking God
I think I’m Going to Die
Oops, There Goes my Lunch
The weight-loss journey, for most people, is a lot like a theme park
ride, a very stressful and scary one. It doesn’t have to be. Ideally, it
should be more like a fun, exciting adventure, with a safe and pleasant
outcome.

Although I hope you will think this book is funny, please realize that
the weight-loss concepts are serious. Healthy skinniness can’t occur
without laughs, since negative emotions undermine successful weight
loss. Laughter is the hallmark of a life lived better, a life full of pleasure
and joy.
LIFE IS ALL ATTITUDE—LUCKILY, I’VE GOT LOTS OF THAT
A warning to my readers: my husband, Mitch, has a black belt in humor,
and I use his material every chance I get. If you aren’t in the mood to
xii Introduction
laugh while you read, put the book down and back away. I am intent on
making the experience enjoyable for you. In my spare time, when I’m
not seeing patients, I’m writing or practicing comedy. I started doing
stand-up routines just after my 40th birthday; you could say I’m hav-
ing an unusual midlife crisis.
When I asked Mitch if he would help me write this book, his re-
sponse was “I’d rather put eye-hooks through my hands.” The man
blurts out funny stu all day long, and then I run and write it down.
Let’s just get it straight—his blurting got him credit for co-authorship,
but I did the hard work, and that’s why the book is written from my
perspective.
I also have to tell you this: most of the stories here about my pa-
tients, friends, and family are true, but the names have been changed to
prevent unwelcome visitors to our house in the middle of the night.
GONE WITH THE CHIN
One other thing you need to know: this is not a quick-fi x diet book. If
you are looking for a way to lose a few pounds and then want to go
back to your previous lifestyle, look elsewhere. This book is meant for
people who are tired of traditional dieting and are now looking for
permanent, healthy weight loss. I’ll teach you how to do it by taking a
humorous, positive, joyful approach.

Here you will fi nd information about wellness. I discuss not just food
choices but approaches to eating, exercise, behavior, and thinking. I
talk about mood and activity. I don’t tell you what to eat and what not
to eat, but I do advise on good choices and not-so-good choices.
I will talk about activity and exercise. I have to because, ultimately,
regular exercise is how successful people lose weight and keep it o
permanently. Besides, I am an exercise doctor, and I’d be a fool if I did
not talk about something near and dear to my heart. Activity works,
and in this book I’ll tell you why it works and how you can make it
successful for you, even if you’ve never thought of yourself as an exer-
ciser. Many of my patients in my medical practice can’t even get out of
a chair on their own when they meet me, yet they all learn to exercise.
I’m very creative.
Most people gain back all the weight they lose through a traditional
diet plan shortly after going o the diet. In fact, the saddest part of
weight-loss research reveals that the majority of dieters not only gain
back their lost weight; they gain even more than what they lost. This
Introduction xiii
does not have to happen. It will not happen to you if you follow the
scientifi cally based suggestions in this book.
People gain back their lost weight for one very important reason: they
haven’t embraced weight loss through a thinking and behavioral whole-
life approach. For most people trying to lose weight, the word “diet”
implies a temporary state of food restriction. Either types of foods or
amounts of foods are restricted until the desired weight is achieved.
However, there are three parts to successful and permanent weight
loss: (1) thinking and behavior; (2) input, as in food and drink calo-
ries; and (3) output, as in metabolism and activity calories. Most diet
books, even those written by physicians, have an overemphasis on the
“input” part of the equation. A typical diet book will give you pages

and pages of food rules and recipes. These books rarely talk about the
behavior, attitude, and cognitive processes that go into how and what
we choose to eat. They rarely give more than a page or two to the issue
of activity and exercise. Weight loss can’t be permanent unless all three
areas are addressed in a balanced manner.
It’s like everybody and their brother has written a diet book or a cook-
book. Even dead people and  ctional characters are getting in the act.
I’m afraid it won’t be long until we see Noah Cooks for Two.
Now remember, health advice works only if you act responsibly with
the information. Which reminds me of the time my hospital o ered
a breastfeeding course but had to cancel it because more men signed
up than women.
Back to weight loss: calories are just a convenient way to measure
our bodies’ fuel. Weight loss occurs when there is more fuel burned
than taken in. Activity (output) is just the way we burn the fuel that we
get through food (input). If we put out more calories than we take in,
we lose weight. Maintaining that loss permanently is just maintaining
the balance between input and output. It’s really very simple.
xiv Introduction
STUDIES SHOW THAT WOMEN PHYSICIANS
ARE 100 PERCENT MORE LIKELY THAN MALE
PHYSICIANS TO HAVE BABIES
I have a lot of experience with health and weight loss, personally and
professionally. When I was pregnant, I su ered severe morning sick-
ness and ate anything I could to calm my queasy stomach. (Patients
don’t think it’s very professional when the doctor barfs on them.) By
the time I gave birth, I was 50 pounds heavier than before my preg-
nancy. It took me a long time to lose that extra weight, but I’ve kept it
o for more than a dozen years. More important, I’ve been a disabil-
ity physician for a couple of decades, and I’ve counseled thousands of

patients on weight-loss techniques. Obesity is the number one cause of
disability in the United States and also the leading cause of prevent-
able death.
Youthful fi gures and activity levels are not just for the young but
can be in the grasp of anyone who is willing to make health a priority.
My goal is to teach people how to avoid becoming chronically sick or
disabled in the fi rst place and then stay in great shape for the rest of
their lives. I have a wild fantasy that if enough people read this book,
I’ll put myself out of the disability business for lack of patients. Truly,
that would make me ecstatic. Read this and enjoy a slimmer, more vi-
brant, fun, and happy life, permanently.
The key to weight loss is to start from a good point and go to a bet-
ter one—the joy, laughter and happiness that you develop will be all
your own.
—Melanie Rotenberg, MD
(Oh, and one more thing: pay attention throughout. My husband
and I are professors. Don’t be surprised if there’s a quiz at the end.)


PART I
Attitude and Behavior
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ONE
Turn Your Head and Laugh:
Happiness, Joy, and Pleasure
in the Pursuit of Weight Loss
People want quick results, but there are no healthy ways to rapidly slim
down. Health spas often promise serious weight loss with only one ex-
pensive session of an exotic treatment. Usually it involves being slath-
ered, enveloped, and heated. None of those techniques really work; they

are only sucking water out of your system. However, I guarantee that
you will experience rapid and dramatic weight loss with the piranha
swim.
Laughter is the key to weight loss. Well, really, it’s those things that
cause laughter, like happiness, fun, and pleasure. But we can use laugh-
ter as a good gauge of how happy and content we are. Stress, negative
emotions, and misguided thought patterns are a leading cause of obe-
sity. Yet diet books almost never address an overweight person’s men-
tal state or level of joy. They might have pages of dietary restrictions
and recipes, but rarely is there more than perfunctory prose on reliev-
ing negative emotions. There might be a chapter or two on exercise, but
nowhere is there a description of the cardiovascular benefi ts of a good
pillow fi ght.
And we all need a good pillow fi ght on a regular basis. The way to
lose weight and to keep it o permanently is to lower stress, depression,
4 Laugh Yourself Thin
and other negative emotions through positive thinking, humor, fun, and
lots of laughter. A lighter approach to life leads to a lighter waist line.
A recent study by Dr. Mark Wilson at Emory University brings home
this point. He o ered unlimited nutritious food to two groups of mon-
keys, high-status, contented, happy ones and their miserable, stressed-
out, low-status subordinates.
1
All the monkeys ate about the same
number of calories. However, when Dr. Wilson substituted high-fat and
sugary junk food pellets in unlimited supply, the high-status monkeys
ate about the same calories as previously, but their stressed-out brethren
couldn’t stop munching. Those miserable primates continued to eat the
junk food all day long and well after sundown, similar to human snack-
food grazers. The researcher concluded that eating high-calorie foods

is a common coping mechanism to deal with daily life stressors, even
in those who don’t have a cranky boss, prolonged commute, or nasty
mother-in-law.
YOUR PERSONAL WEATHER FORECAST—CHANCE
OF SCATTERED BRAINS
Unfortunately, the majority of modern people live stressed-out, de-
manding lives. Most of us spend our days rushing from responsibil-
ity to responsibility, with little time to relax, enjoy, or meditate. A
while back, my son saw my driver’s license and read the words “organ
donor.” He exclaimed, “Oh, cool, mom, which organ did you donate? ”
That’s when I informed him that normally people wait until they’re
dead to donate their organs, but, in my case, I had already given my
brain at the o ce.
The biggest stress in my life is keeping house. I’m not much of a domes-
tic engineer. I was completely stumped one time when I had to wash
a black-and-white-striped sweater and the instructions said to “wash
with like colors.” To me that was a laundry IQ test, and I had to be Ein-
stein to  gure it out.
And, speaking of chores around the house, I’ll never forget the pa-
tient I had who went home from the hospital with hospice care. That
nurse was so terri c, she took days to help the elderly gentleman clean
his completely unkempt house before he died. Exhausted, she  nally
reached the bottom of a huge pile of junk. The last thing she picked up
was a book titled How to Clean Practically Anything .
Turn Your Head and Laugh 5
HELP! I’VE EATEN AND I CAN’T GET UP
People say they want to lose weight for a lot of reasons, like “I want
to look better in my clothes” or “I just want to get back to my college
weight.” But the real reason is only twofold—either it’s for health or it’s
for happiness. There’s no point to being thin, sick, and miserable. We

all know people who are like that. Generally they’ve got cancer or they
hate themselves, and, either way, you don’t want that for yourself.
Mental and physical health is the primary goal in permanent weight
loss. This book is about accomplishing both. When you set yourself on
the path of mental and physical health, the weight loss will follow. If
you try to shortcut the process, you won’t get very far. A positive at-
titude and a focus on pleasure and joy are an integral part of losing
weight forever.
Laughter is a key component to weight loss. There have even been
research studies looking at laughter as a weight-loss technique. But
I’m not particularly interested in seeing how many calories a day you
can burn by watching reruns of television sitcoms. I’m more interested
in the bigger picture—how can positive thinking and happiness bring
about better health?
We medical types know a lot about the physical implications of being
overweight. We know that obesity leads to all sorts of bad medical out-
comes, including cardiac disease, diabetes, arthritis, and cancer. Hav-
ing extra belly fat even increases your risk of developing Parkinson’s
disease! However, we’ve had a tough time getting people to lose weight.
Even those who lose the weight usually can’t keep it o . But the focus
has been lopsided. Most weight-loss programs concentrate on the physi-
cal issues, usually the food and sometimes the exercise. It is my belief
that the most important component is often ignored: the brain. Our
thoughts, emotions, and behaviors drive every action and decision that
we make, and they certainly drive our weight problems. The bottom line
is this: we know that permanent weight loss will not occur in people full
of fear, unhappiness, and boredom.
IF STRESS CAUSES HIVES, I OUGHT TO BE ONE
GIANT RED BUMP
So if a person is stressed, depressed, or bored with life, attempts at per-

manent weight loss will be futile. The best hope we have for true success
is to start with our most critical fat-preventing organ, our brain, and
whip it into the best shape possible. The rest of the body will follow.
6 Laugh Yourself Thin
This chapter is about ways to increase happiness, lower stress, improve
coping mechanisms and social relationships, and reduce self-critical
behavior in pursuit of thinness. All of these are crucial to mental and
physical health and permanent weight-loss success. Even if you think
your life is going well emotionally and mentally, there are things you
will learn in this chapter and the next that will make the journey to nor-
mal weight much easier. Take the time to read Part I of the book (Atti-
tude and Behavior, Chapters 1–5) before delving into the later sections.
Chapter 2 deals with the proper mindset for weight loss, and Chapters 3
and 4 address the behavioral aspects (Chapter 5 is about hunger). Once
you have read the entire fi rst section of the book, you will have a much
better foundation to approach the specifi cs of the rest of the equation,
that is, the input and output of fuel. When you have a good understand-
ing of the thoughts and actions that lead to success, you can apply them
to your own situation and immediately start making positive changes.
THE UNIVERSE IS EXPANDING, AND SO AM I
A study done at Northeastern University, in Boston, in 2003 showed
that the more depressed adolescent girls were, the more likely they were
to become obese later in life.
2
That same year, Johns Hopkins published
a study showing that in adults, there is a strong link between depression
and weight, particularly in those who are very obese.
3

I have a patient who is extremely overweight, as is his wife. Recently,

the wife underwent surgery. While coming out of anesthesia, she was
particularly anxious and upset. Her doting husband o ered all his emo-
tional support. Later that day, apparently still su ering the e ects of
the medications, she turned to her spouse and said in her most grate-
ful manner, “Oh, honey, thank you for being there for me when I really
needed you. You are my Rock of Giblubber.”
I’VE ALREADY LOST THREE SIZES:
SMALL, MEDIUM, AND LARGE
Think about ways to increase your pleasure and happiness in day-to-day
life. Fun with food will lead to weight loss, not weight gain, as is often
assumed. It’s an exciting paradox: the more you truly love and enjoy
Turn Your Head and Laugh 7
food, the less you will eat of it. (We’ll talk more about that in Chapter 9.)
Weight loss should be approached as painless. Eating is pleasurable.
Having fun and laughter around meals and playing with food are im-
portant. Additionally, exercise and activity are not burdensome but in-
vigorating. Those who are most successful with permanent weight loss
are those who consider regular physical activity an enjoyable, integral
part of their daily life forever.
WHO KNOWS IF A CLAM IS REALLY HAPPY?
So what are the keys to happiness? In my experience, there are several
keys that drive most people toward happiness. Loving and sharing in
meaningful relationships is a big one. Having a purpose is very impor-
tant. Being present-centered, living life here in the moment, is another.
(Don’t dwell in the past or constantly dream of the future.) Having au-
tonomy and control over one’s life is extremely important to happiness,
as is being rewarded for e ort.
All of these keys to happiness are relevant to weight loss. People who
are in meaningful, supportive relationships are more likely to follow
good health habits. People who feel that their actions have a purpose

are more driven and motivated and stick with a plan. Those who live
now, in the present, are more attuned to their bodies’ needs. It’s been
shown that personalities that are more autonomous and independent,
sometimes called “having an internal locus of control,” are less likely
to be obese. Finally, those who feel that they are getting positive feed-
back for their e orts are more likely to continue those e orts. That’s
why there is so much emphasis in some diet programs on the regularly
scheduled weigh-ins.
THE CABLE COMPANY SAID THEY’D BE RIGHT OVER,
SOMETIME BETWEEN BIRTH AND DEATH
If you want to get skinny for the long term, it’s time to embrace laugh-
ter, compassion, and contentment and abandon anger, cynicism, and
pressure. There is a very clear and consistent relationship between how
stressed and unhappy people are and how obese they are. Stress also re-
sults in anxiety; people who have the most work and life stress are the
most anxious and overweight.
A study by Paula Rhode, PhD, of the University of Kansas, showed
a direct correlation between the frequency of everyday life stressors (like
8 Laugh Yourself Thin
arguments with family members, waiting for the repairman, or being
stuck in tra c) and obesity.
4
Her results demonstrated that for weight
loss to be permanent, one must address the psychological factors of
daily stress and loss of control, thus preventing the need to soothe fraz-
zled emotions through eating.
When people have passion in their lives, true meaning, deep pleasure,
and feelings of living a worthwhile life, it is much easier to achieve goals,
including weight-loss goals. Ah, I know what you are thinking: “Sounds
great, but I live in the real world.”

So do I, and I’m a physician, mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend,
comedian, volunteer, bad golfer, worse surfer, writer, speaker, and con-
sultant, and I play a host of other roles. We all live in the real world, with
loads of responsibilities. Unfortunately, sometimes people use their roles
and responsibilities as an excuse to stay unhappy and not work toward
changes. Don’t do that.
I believe eliminating stress is one of the keys to permanent weight
loss. You can be very busy and not be stressed. They are not the same
thing. Indeed, having too little meaningful work to do results in bore-
dom, which is a pervasive but often overlooked cause of stress.
CUSTOMER SERVICE IS OUR MIDDLE NAME.
NOPE, WE DON’T USE IT EITHER
How can you eliminate stress in pursuit of permanent weight loss? Learn
more about yourself by carefully studying your reactions to everyday
events. Start examining what really makes you happy and what turns
you o . Gravitate toward those things that really give you pleasure, and
don’t worry about what others may expect of you.
Nothing aggravates me more than dealing with rude and incompetent
companies. I swear some of them must use the motto “Why buy from
the best when you can buy from us?” The worst is when I want to talk
to a real live person, and I have to navigate an unending phone mes-
saging system or leave a message and hope that someone will call back.
A friend of mine told me that her church recently got rid of purgatory,
and now I understand why. We don’t need purgatory anymore; we have
voice mail.
Turn Your Head and Laugh 9
Are there things that you do that feel purposeless? Realize that a role
that feels important and satisfying to you (such as work or houseclean-
ing) may feel unfulfi lling to others. Examine your own values and emo-
tions while in those roles. What do you enjoy about them, and what do

you dislike? Are there responsibilities that you could eliminate, that give
you too little pleasure? Are there ways to make them more pleasurable?
Are there roles that you enjoy and would like to expand? Much of our
lives is spent fulfi lling functions that we never question. One of the best
ways to decrease stress is to question assumptions that you have made
about your day-to-day activities. Examine everything you do, take a
step back, and begin to look for ways to increase your happiness and
pleasure.
IF YOU’RE NOT BUSY LIVING, YOU’RE BUSY WORKING
There are some pressures that may be daunting to you to change, such
as work environment or overload. Back in 1976, psychologists demon-
strated that if you stress lab rats by pinching their tails repeatedly for
weeks on end, they will become severely overweight, much more than
those rats that weren’t stressed.
5
Do you come home from work feeling
like the equivalent of that pinched rat? Americans are the most over-
worked, and therefore overstressed, people on the planet. It’s no sur-
prise that they are also the fattest.
Some people’s idea of work stress is di erent from others’. I’ll never for-
get the attendant who ran the canoe rental at my favorite remote vaca-
tion site. She sat under a palm tree and read novels in between handling
her three or four customers a day. Last time I saw her, she was com-
plaining about how she couldn’t wait to go on vacation. I wonder where
she goes to relax: Manhattan’s Friday afternoon rush hour?
Take stock of what isn’t joyous and humorous, and approach rea-
sonable ways to fi x the pressures. Note that if you constantly worry
about your weight, you can take the issue so seriously you stress your-
self into weight gain. Conversely, many people who are chronic dieters
report that they feel exhilaration when they start a new diet. The excite-

ment of a new diet likely comes from the enjoyment of envisioning your
10 Laugh Yourself Thin
new body, your new energy level, and perhaps all the other things you
think a slimmer body will bring to you (perhaps an improved social life).
Unfortunately, traditional dieting is all about deprivation and discom-
fort. Abandon that mindset. But if you are the type that has gotten some
enjoyment at the beginning of a new diet because you are envisioning
what a thinner, healthier you will do, maintain that vision, but without
all the pain.
While you are examining what brings you more joy and less stress,
think about things like walking, biking, singing, dancing, meditating,
music, and sounds of the beach or the woods. I’m always surprised how
few people I see outside enjoying nature and using their muscles. Exer-
cise is an antidepressant and works as well or better than medications,
so not only will it help you to lose weight, it will also relieve stress and
improve mood.
HAVE A FOOD FIGHT, BUT STOP FIGHTING YOUR FOOD
Traditional dieting doesn’t allow eating to be pleasurable because it
comes with a deprivation mindset. But eating the healthiest foods for
the body isn’t restrictive and is always sensual. (That subject is covered
in detail later in the book.) Make a point to have fun around meals, with
lots of laughter. One of my favorite memories from middle school was
the day the cafeteria erupted into a food fi ght, I remember laughing so
hard I almost split my seams. (Yes, I am giving you permission to have
a food fi ght, but, no, I am not coming over to your house to clean up.)
What’s wrong with playing with your food? Try doing this with a
straight face: put black olives on all your fi ngers, then eat the rest of
your meal. You’ll be laughing so hard, you might forget to clean your
plate.
Eating for pleasure can come from the company you keep at your

meals or the silence and quietness of the moment. In Chapter 9 we talk
about increasing the enjoyment of savoring what you are eating with the
art of meditation.
MY BOSS IS HAVING A NEAR-HUMAN EXPERIENCE
I am good friends with a lot of nurses. Nurses are some of the most
stressed-out people on earth because of all the problems in health care.
It seems that no matter how hard they work, someone above them is
saying that it isn’t good enough. As a physician, I observe the coping