Us Girls Like to EAT!

I heard somewhere that women tend to eat healthier and something like 50% less food when going out to eat with their girlfriends. ...something about not wanting to look like a cow in front of their friends... I'm not really sure who came up with that statistic, or what kind of unnaturally-sick women they were studying, but it sure as heck wasn't me and my girlfriends!

Now that I think about it, I believe I heard that little bit of info while eating lunch with my BFFs. And when I say, "eating lunch," I mean "EATING lunch." Us girls like to EAT!!! We love us some food, and we're not ashamed to admit it! Damnit, if we're going to pay $15 for a meal, it had better not be made of lettuce, and it sure as heck had better have dessert in there somewhere!!! None of that, "I'd like a bottled water and a small house salad with fat free dressing on the side" crap for us! If we get a salad, it is usually a taco salad, and any dressing "on the side" would most likely be extra dressing. The one time I ordered a salad when I was with my friends, I thought they were going to pelt me with the chips and salsa! I had to quickly redeem myself in their eyes by telling them that I got it IN ADDITION TO my real food and that I only wanted it for the croutons, cheese, meat, and salad dressing. :-)

Yep... We're real women who like to eat and don't really care who knows it. I feel safe in the knowledge that when I go out to eat with my best friends, they'll eat just as much as I will, order a dessert to go, and always say, "Heck yeah!" when the waitstaff asks if we'd like to start with an appetizer. The phrase, "Are you gonna eat that?" is not tabboo at our table. But you only hear it when we're being polite. For the most part, you snooze, you lose! I've lost out on many a last tortilla and a whole basket of fried okra for not being fast enough. Heck! The people at the table next to us at the Olive Garden the other day almost lost their dessert before it even made it to their table because one of my BFFs wanted to sample it before ordering it herself. And then those people ended up leaving part of it at the table when they left! MADNESS!!! If we had been a little faster, we would have snagged it before the table-cleaner boy came and took it away. DON'T WASTE IT FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!

Yep... My girlfriends rock! However, the "rocking" is often literal as we curl up and rock back and forth in the fetal position, asking "Why?!? Why?!? Why do we do this to ourselves?!?" after one of our lunch trips. That doesn't stop us though. Because inevitably, one of us will start the "What's for lunch?" email chain the next morning and we will go and not eat 50% less again. :-)