I attended a breakfast meeting this morning, but passed on the ham and biscuits, having downed a Slim-Fast at the apartment before heading out. When I told someone this, I opened myself up for unsolicited diet and exercise advice.

Here is one piece of advice I received: “When you eat, put whatever you want on your plate, but then only eat half of it. And if you’re at a restaurant, do not get a to-go box.”

…..

… that “thud” sound you just heard is the Rev. Debra Snellen hitting the floor after someone (perhaps Kylene McDonald) has relayed this blog post to her.

Debra, a co-founder of LEAMIS International Ministries, the group with which I take my foreign mission trips, has lived with the Inuit for three years and has worked with people on the edge of sustenance in a number of developing world settings. Debra hates to see any amount of food wasted. It kills her. She’s much too kind to put someone, especially a stranger, on the spot about it. But if you know Debra, and you’re in a restaurant situation where someone is wasting food, you can just see the frustration in her eyes.

Debra is certainly health-conscious, and will no doubt be delighted when I get the chance to share with her that I’m enjoying my workouts and how my responsible-but-realistic attitude towards eating is working out. But she would never encourage anyone to lose weight by throwing edible food away (or causing restaurant employees to throw it away).