I know these days it is sort of politically incorrect to point out differences between males and females, but excuse my age, and here goes: Aside from taking 3X longer making a food choice off a dinner menu at a restaurant, 5X longer to pack for vacations, and 8X longer to choose a greeting card from the store, here is another major difference in gender behavior: The celebration of one’s birth.
For most males, the Birth DAY is celebrating on one day and one day only: The actual Birth DAY. However, for many females, this celebration of one’s entry to the earth lasts the entire Birth MONTH. While the spouse and children may make a big deal and celebrate on Mom’s actual birthday, extended family, friends, co-workers etc. will arrange gatherings, lunches, Happy Hours and other gatherings at many other times other than the actual birthday.
The result of all of these social gatherings recognizing the birthday tends to be the ingestion of LOTS of alcohol, carbs, sugars and other ingestibles that may cause a marked increase in weight during that month.
Undoing one day of “get out of dietary jail” behavior for a person’s birthday will only create a small amount of damage on the scale. However, an entire month filled with these food/drink fests will create a situation where the affected person needs to spend months trying to undo the weight-damage.
I am not telling anyone NOT to enjoy/recognize his/her/they/them/(whatever else I missed) birth DAY, birth MONTH, birth DECADE etc. However, from a weight control standpoint I recommend limiting the dietary indiscretions to that one or two special gatherings.
And here is “Happy Birthday” by Stevie Wonder
