Recently, I read another of many interesting Facebook posts from Ron Graham.   I associated that information to the struggles we all have with weight loss.   To summarize, the post stated that it is a lot easier to add weight than it is to take it off.  Funny thing, because we all wonder why the weight doesn't come off as fast as we may expect, if it comes off at all.  But almost by magic, it goes on quick.

After some reflection on his post, I realized diet is a lot like a round of golf.  Particularly "pro" golf.

Why is that?  A pro golfer is expected to shoot par on any individual hole.  That is the very definition of par.  Nothing great.  Nothing bad.  Hit the green in regulation and two-putt.  Ho hum.

Should a pro golfer hit an errant shot and take an 8 on a hole, it may derail his chances of any kind of respectable finish in the tournament.  One mistake takes a lot of birdies to erase.

Isn't a diet just like this?  "Par" is a day where we eat what we burn.  No weight gain.  No weight loss.  Nothing particularly good.  Nothing particularly bad.  Perfect balance, yet easily unbalanced.

The problem is that we can all consume an extra few thousand calories in a week or a weekend, perhaps in just one sitting.  This could be a holiday, a vacation, a special event, or an "all you can eat" buffet.  Can we possibly squeeze in a three thousand calorie workout on the day after a binge?  Probably not.  That's six or eight hours on a treadmill!

What does all this blubbering mean?  It is probably far better to cheat a little, and make it up than it is to try to make up for a huge diet sin.  A bogey on one hole (like having a slice of pie) is better than closing the late night buffet every night while on a week-long cruise.  A binge is like shooting a 12 or 15 on a hole.  (And the extra weight would give the electric golf cart a flat tire while we're at it.)

We can only shoot so many birdies with our workouts, so we need to keep the ball in play.  The diet fairway is best.  The diet rough is manageable.  But, whatever we do, don't hit in the diet woods.  We may never get out.  Hit too far over the trees, out-of-bounds, and you come to a McDonald's or a Pizza Hut.