I ran into Kate on my day off while getting a chocolate muffin and coffee at Au Bon Pain. After being coerced to sit with her, and some mindless small talk, this is where the conversation led. Xander is thirty-eight and his mommy is still worrying about his weight. And she’s still oblivious why he weighs more than both his parents combined. But, now at least he wants to do something serious about it. “No doubt about it, Kate.” “He’s tried Atkins, South Beach, Weight Watchers, he’s gotten prescriptions for Meridia and Xenical, emptied out the Walgreens stock of Hoodia, HydroxyCut, Trimspa, and Alli, did some diet where he ate these weird cookies all day, and he even went to Mexico to buy some stuff which only gave him bad stomach cramps and which made him gain ten pounds.” Xander was desperate. Not desperate enough to do the one thing that will work over the long term – diet and exercise – but desperate enough to try anything in search of the easy shortcut. Everyone wants a quick fix and have their problems fixed with just a simple pill. They want to keep eating bacon cheeseburgers and drinking chocolate shakes every meal, then watch TV all day from their lazy boys and still lose weight by just taking a bunch of herbs in pill-form. Everyone wants to be that “after”
