A blonde woman, let’s call her Jenny, had been struggling with her weight for years. She’d tried every diet under the sun—keto, paleo, juice cleanses, even that one where you eat nothing but cabbage soup for a week (which, by the way,
she does not recommend unless you enjoy smelling like a compost heap). But no matter what she did, the scale refused to budge. Frustrated and desperate, she finally decided to visit a new doctor, hoping for a miracle.
The doctor, a no-nonsense kind of guy with a reputation for getting results, took one look at Jenny’s chart and said, “Alright, here’s what we’re going to do. For the next two weeks,
I want you to eat regularly for two days, then skip a day. Repeat that cycle, and when you come back to see me, you’ll have lost at least five pounds.”
Jenny blinked. “Skip a day? As in… not eat at all?”
Exactly,” the doctor replied, scribbling something on his clipboard. “It’s a modified fasting approach. It’ll kick your metabolism into high gear. Trust me, it works.”
Jenny wasn’t entirely convinced, but she was willing to try anything. She left the office with a mix of determination and skepticism, wondering how she was going to survive an entire day without food. Still, she followed the plan to the letter.
For two days, she ate her usual meals—nothing too extravagant, but nothing too restrictive either. Then came the dreaded third day: the skip day.That first skip day was… an experience. By noon,
Jenny was staring longingly at her fridge, imagining the contents calling out to her. By 3 p.m., she was convinced she could hear her stomach growling in Morse code.
By dinner time, she was lying on the couch, watching cooking shows and muttering, “Why are you doing this to me?” under her breath. But she powered through, reminding herself that it was all for the greater good.Two weeks later,
Jenny returned to the doctor’s office, feeling both nervous and excited. She stepped on the scale, and the numbers flashed up: she had lost nearly 20 pounds! The doctor’s jaw practically hit the floor.
“Why, that’s amazing!” he exclaimed. “Did you follow my instructions exactly?”Jenny nodded proudly. “I sure did. Two days of eating, one day of skipping, just like you said. But I’ll tell you something,
Doc—I thought I was going to drop dead that third day.”The doctor raised an eyebrow, assuming she was talking about the hunger pangs. “From hunger, you mean?” he asked.Jenny shook her head, her expression completely serious.
“No, from skipping.”The doctor paused, confused. “Skipping? What do you mean, skipping?”Jenny shrugged, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “You know, skipping. Like, hopping around. I figured if I was going to skip a day of eating, I might as well skip all day to burn extra calories. So I did. I skipped everywhere—around the house, to the mailbox, even at the grocery store. People probably thought I was nuts, but hey, it worked!”The doctor stared at her, speechless. He opened his mouth to say something,
then closed it again, unsure of how to respond. Finally, he just nodded slowly and said, “Well… I’m glad it worked out for you. But maybe next time, just… skip the food, not the actual skipping.”Jenny grinned. “Noted. But can I still skip to celebrate? I’ve got a lot of energy now that I’m 20 pounds lighter!”And with that,
she hopped out of the office, leaving the doctor to wonder if he should start including a disclaimer in his diet plans: “Please do not take the word ‘skip’ literally.”