Glossary of Terms

Devil’s Lemonade: Originally coined to refer to wine, Devil’s Lemonade now comprises any alcoholic beverage, so named for its satanic tendency to muddle one’s critical faculties and thereby lower the resistance threshold to unbounded high-calorie snacking.

Rule of Three:  If you hit the same weight for three days in a row, you OWN it, baby!

Shiny Object: A diet/exercise regimen designed not only to promote weight loss but distract you from the misery of dieting.

TAN Number:  Short for “Take! Action! Now!” number, the weight that causes you to hit the panic button and go into diet overdrive.

Trains/train service: Our excessively coy euphemism for excretion.  We BYTers are of the opinion that staying regular—i.e., having the trains run on time—is crucial when dieting. For more information, arguably TMI, read this essay »

White Devils: Substances that started out as a variety of shades of brown, but wound up very, very white after much processing by the food industry; we’re talking white rice; the all-purpose white flour used in bread, crackers and pasta; and the sugar that goes into everything we love. With regret, we also include white potatoes on this list.  In short:  all the stuff that makes life worth living.