Friends I’ve known most of my life are the ones who really tell it like it is—especially when it’s something I don’t want to know or having my faulty reasoning crushed.

Respecting the social distancing, we sat at either end of this long bench and sipping our respective take-out cups of caffeine, I remarked glumly, “I’ve got to seriously lose some calories. Note that I didn’t order a monster cookie to go with this coffee.”

Raising an eyebrow, my coffee buddy replied, “Girf Friend–I think it’s more than a few calories. I figure it’s at least a hundred-thousand or more.”

“Where did you get that amount?” I yelped in dismay, nearly snorting the coffee up my nose.

“Well, we’ve been self-isolating for quite a few months now—only going out to do errands, getting groceries and stuff, right? And in those times, neither of us have been meeting for coffee or lunches like we use to. If our daily diet comes to 2000+ calories and we’re not physically active–you know, like river rafting or mountain climbing, we fill that gap with munchies and. . .”

“But my munchies have been very healthy. . .” I interrupted. “I’ve switched to veggie chips and high-fibre, low-salt snacks.”

“Are those the veggie chips with sprouts and kale in it?”

“Yes and they’re delicious,” I replied defensively.

“Only after you devoured a bag before reading what veggies were actually in it,” my coffee buddy laughingly pointed out.

“Well, okay. . . ” I slowly admitted, “once I read the part about sprouts and kale; it did turn me off. But the other flavour was roasted cauliflower and spinach, which is even worse!”

“And how exactly did you know that?”

“Had to eat a variety of veggies, so I tried a bag,” I mumbled.

“Uh-huh, I rest my case,” my best friend declared with a grin.

“I could still get a monster cookie and share half with you–that would only be half the calories for both of us.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s another of your illogical reasoning but for half a monster cookie, I can overlook that,” my buddy chuckled.

And that’s what we did to reduce our calories. Tomorrow, we’ll do better.