Human nature, no?  As soon as we feel that something is going to be ‘taken away from us,’ we go hog wild stocking up on ‘it’ one way or another.  My first experience of this type of behavior was when I slept over my best friend’s house back in the 60’s (ought oh, you’re all counting on your fingers and toes).  I think I was 7 or 8 years old.   Barbara T’s mother was a divorcee (very risque at the time), and this mother/daughter duo lived in an apartment above a store (not the norm in Blue Point).

When I arrived for the sleepover, little suitcase in hand (no wheely suitcases in those olden days), Barbara T’s mother and her best friend, Sylvie, were seated at the kitchen table, pen and pad in their respective hands, busily planning their tomorrow.  “Don’t forget the chips,” one said to the other.

When I heard chips, the neurons in my brain went afire.  My chubby inner child (and out) inquired, “What are you doing?”

They were compiling a list of foods that they were going to jam pack into the cooler to take to the beach the next day, because the day after that day they were going on a ‘diet.’   They explained that this was the equivalent of their Last Supper.  They were going to eat anything and everything that they loved, loved, loved, (if memory serves their eyeballs were circling as they drooled on their lists) because they were going on a diet of cottage cheese and jello the day after that day.

Because I was only 7 years old (more or less), an impressionable age to be sure, I took their ‘brilliance’ in on a cellular level and followed suit.   Not just that day, but for years to follow, every time (and there were hundreds, maybe thousands) I was to start a ‘diet,’ I would – the day before – eat it all!  Needless to say, this strategy failed – for them – and for me!

Whether or not you are a practicing Catholic, whether or not you are participating in Lent, heed my warning: The Last Supper approach to Lent and/or Dieting does not work!!!