What’s Really Amazing

We tend to overlook the little things, which is unfortunate, because oftentimes it’s the little things that matter most. Whether it’s a crisp fall morning, a beautiful flower, or simply matching six tiny numbers on a lottery ticket: the small things make a difference.

Take, for example, the calorie. It’s little. In fact it’s so little, it’s very easy to overlook. I would even bet most of you don’t even realize that a real calorie is actually 1,000 times smaller than the thing we call a “calorie” in everyday use. No joke! First, a quick definition: a calorie is a unit of energy. Precisely, it’s the amount of energy need to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius. When we talk about food, however, we’re actually talking about kilocalories. That’s the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of a kilogram of water by one degree.

As Ben Stein would say, “Wow.”

So what does the tiny, overlooked calorie have to do with my Return to Onederland? Well, everything. It’s the small, slow build-up of these guys which is specifically preventing me from reaching this goal. And do you want to know where calories like to hang out most? Well, I’ll tell you.

In peanut butter.

I have a particular fondness (er, weakness) for peanut butter. I love peanut butter on sandwiches. I love peanut butter on apples. I love peanut butter on cashews. I love eating peanut butter straight out of the jar using special spoons made out of peanut butter. I’m an addict.

This would be all perfectly well and good if a single jar of peanut butter didn’t have enough energy in it to launch a small missile into sub-orbit. One breakfast a few months back, after slathering yet another apple with enough peanut butter to blanket eastern Canada, I decided to see how much I was actually eating. So the next day I weighed the jar, ate my normal apple with flavor, then weighed the jar again.

As Keanu Reeves would say, “Whoa.”

Let’s just say the peanut butter energy consumed would have been enough to raise nearly 1,800 pounds of water one degree. In more close-to-home terms, based on the human body being about 80% water, that would have been enough energy to raise me about ten degrees. That’s when I realized I had a problem.

What’s Really Amazing? I actually did something about it. I quit. Cold turkey. Just like that. And I did it without the use of vast quantities of alcohol. I’m going on about two months now without the butter (save for once or twice where it’s found its way into a normal dish). I’m sure I won’t be able to keep it up forever, but so far I’m doing okay.

As I would say, “Woot.”

Onederland Update

Down another pound from last week. (And for the third week in a row I was actually lower the day before the Sunday weigh-in.) Still, as usual, I’ll take what I can get. Here’s hoping the overall trend continues. Have a good week, all.