There is a hot new diet fad sweeping the nation, called the Facebook diet. It is great because you can eat anything you want. It doesn’t require self-discipline, or counting calories, or even fat intake.
It uses humiliation.
The concept is simple. Make a deal with a Facebook “friend” to document your daily exercise in the comments section. For example, “I worked out today.” Your friend does the same thing. Simple, right?
Not so fast, El Gordo.
If you DON’T work out, you have to type, “I was a slacker and didn’t work out,” and send it to everyone.
My buddy Andy and I are on the Facebook diet – in fact, we created it. After minutes of serious planning, we implemented the plan for its first empirical test.
On the first day, I worked out and he didn’t. I got eight comments, not one of them encouraging (“Suck it up, Ginger,” was one of them). Andy – who didn’t work out – got two “thank you” notes (not sure why), and a couple more from people who commiserated with him.
So we haven’t worked out the kinks yet.
Some might say it would be easy to cheat, but in today’s world of social media, everyone has at least one other person in the house who is also on Facebook, and in the right circumstance would be happy to turn state’s evidence against either of us. Being a slacker is far better than being a cheating slacker.
Will it work? Since we started, we both have an exercise success rate of 50 percent. Comments from “friends” have been overwhelmingly supportive.
Did I say supportive? I meant derisive.
Nevertheless, we think we have something here. And if it works, maybe we can write a book and make a million bucks.
And if not, I know I can always rely on the support and encouragement of my Facebook friends to cheer me up.
