Meg had yesterday afternoon off from work (and I would say she’s lucky, except she’s working both days this weekend so I’ll keep my mouth shut) and of course indulged in a little daytime television. She taped the day’s episode of Tyra for me, as she knew I’d be intrigued by the topic.

The special guest of the day was Gwen Shamblin, who was detailing her bizarre weight loss program: Weigh Down, or, as her web site puts it, “the power of faith-based weight loss.” A number of followers - and, yes, it seemed almost cult-ish to me - went on and on about how God had shown them the way and helped them to lose weight. Ms. Shamblin herself said she prayed about everything, right down to what she was going to wear that day. “Oh Jesus,” she said in kind of a moaning tone of voice while waving her arms in the air, “in your infinite wisdom, show me what I should wear today.” Of course, if Jesus had picked out the color of her lipstick - (the scariest shade of red I’ve ever seen) - it makes me rather happy to be an agnostic.

Anyway, Ms. Shamblin gave Tyra a lesson in how to eat on the Weigh Down program, which involved eating one tortilla chip in no fewer than four bites (my mouth is too big), taking a sip of something in between every bite (that seems to be a considerable time waster), and to chew … a lot. I guess the logic behind it is true; it takes the brain twenty minutes to process feeling full, and let’s be honest, most of us tend to gobble down food in a quarter of that time. I’m not so sure about the whole, “God created sweets and junk food, but God has a special way for me to eat it and lose weight” thing. But really … who knows? If it’s working for the followers of Weigh Down, then more power to them. I’ll just stick to swimming and trying not to order take-out every night.