Cathy Classics by Cathy Guisewite for February 21, 2020

Numbers can be deceiving. Looks can be deceiving. Cookies are honest.

The “Ice Cream Diet” sounds good to me!

The accepted theory is that 3500 calories= one pound and that if you eat less calories than your body needs to operate, you will lose weight. If that actually worked, I would have completely disappeared sometime around the summer of 2000.

Eat less, exercise more, cut back on the sugar and fat (I didn’t say eliminate totally, but cut back). You may not lose weight QUICKLY but it will go and be less likely to come back. Whenever Hubby and I have tried an extreme diet (like one of those awful liquid diets) we have lost weight but it all came back and brought reinforcements!

The best diet I ever seen is one I would definitely not recommend. Manage somehow to contract the rare immune disorder called granulomatosis with polyangiitis (you can lose weight just trying to say it). I lost 40 lbs over one month – one night while hospitalized I lost 5 lbs overnight. Of course getting this disease is difficult since there is no known cause – and it is not contagious. The main reason I don’t recommend it – it can be fatal and the recovery is long – and the damage to your kidneys will probably be permanent (mine work somewhere between 40% and 50% now). Unfortunately the big drawback – like all other diets where you lose weight quickly, the weight loss is not really permanent. (I have gained about 30 of those lbs back even though I did not want to). Of course the weight loss only happens if they cannot figure out what is wrong so don’t start the required treatment until permanent damage is done. I did not lose any weight when it flared up again 2 years ago since we knew what it was and started treatment within a month of the first symptoms. That long recovery – I am still on immune suppressants although we are gradually reducing the dosage.

Wow, seems like I got carried away today. Anyhow, I will be missing for the next week. It is the last week of February and like all years since 1973 I head back to Kirkland Lake tomorrow to do the lighting and special effects for an annual variety show opening next Thursday. Even though I will be having fun, I will miss all of you.

Have a great Friday.

Almost forgot – count me in for the cookie diet.

I think I’ll pass on your method, hendelca…but I’m glad you’re doing so well. The foot surgery has resulted in my losing between 5-7 lbs and I’m eating like there’s no tomorrow.