Are you nuts? You should be!

When I tell people I'm a big fan of almonds, I'm also reminded of a particular story.

One day at the office I had an informal meeting with my boss, the company President/Owner. We were sitting next to each other at the head of his big desk and using it as a table for paperwork and my mid-morning snack. Just before we began our meeting my boss reaches over towards my baggie of almonds and says "I'm just going to have two almonds - "

Instinct took over. He didn't even get the entire word "almonds" out before I slapped his hand and said something to the effect of "Get your hands out of there!"

Now thankfully, we're pretty close...so he took it well. The problem was he then played twenty questions about why two almonds makes such a difference. I first told him we both knew it wouldn't end up being just two almonds. He'd take more. Second of all, when you're tracking your calories every little bit counts. Sure I eat seven times a day, but my body and mind are in tune to be ready to eat each of those 7 times, and when I weigh out 1 ounce of almonds, I want to eat 1 ounce of almonds. Not .88 of an ounce. Not .95 of an ounce. I want ONE WHOLE FREAKIN' OUNCE EVERYTIME!!

Needless to say, this issue has not occurred again.

Many people don't realize how good nuts are for you and I can only assume this is because of their high fat content. The low-fat diet craze of the 80's and 90's was probably the main culprit. I remember eating fat free cookies, crackers, and chips everyday in 1995 and 1996 like they were going out of style. I was very successful at losing weight, but what I didn't realize at the time was that it's all about the calories and nothing about how much fat is in the food. But I handled things correctly by only eat two fat free chocolate cookies per meal instead of twenty two.

And that reminds me of another story told to me by a personal trainer acquaintance of mine. We were discussing nuts and the downside of him telling his clients about their nutritional value. As he was giving a training consultation at the gym, the following conversation took place:

Client: "Nuts and seeds are okay to eat, right?"

Trainer: "Yes, you definitely want to add a wide array of nuts and seeds to your diet. They've got vital nutrients and are a good source of fat."

Client: "Okay. That's good to hear because I just had some before I came here."

Trainer: "How much did you have?"

Client: "Just one can."

See what I mean?