So I have had writer’s block(or not) I have not been on here for a bit and everyday, I say to myself, “Yetunde,you should take the free advice Mr Emeka Nobis gave,the only way to develop yourself as a writer is to write everyday or at least commit to writing consistently a certain number of times every week”. you see I have been making all sorts of excuses for not writing,I don’t have a laptop,my tablet is bad,I am too tired,I have so much work to do and so on. I am one of those kind of people that I can get an idea to write on at anytime of the day or get triggered by anything and an idea and what to write gets fully developed in my mind and as I start writing,it develops,if I don’t get to writing immediately,I usually lose the train of thought or it won’t just be as good no matter how much I try, so I have decided to save up for a good laptop,it was not high on my list of priorities but I guess because writing is something I do spontaneously and almost effortlessly,it has become imperative that I get a laptop. Let me get back to my actual topic before I started rambling.

During my lunch break yesterday,I went down to a bookstore at the next floor because I was told they had some books on sale,I decided to go and browse through,while there,it struck me how long ago it was that I read a book from start to finish,I used to invest a lot in good books as I have always loved to read but since starting our family,I have not had the time or resources to do so.I was also pondering on how expensive the books suddenly seemed to me,while pondering on that,I saw a James Patterson novel,that used to be my favourite author,I have quite a number of his books,I speak in past tense because I do not know if my taste in books will still be same, so I told myself,you need to start reading again. As I kept looking through the shelves,I saw a book on the Atkins diet and I immediately began to chuckle,you see I have a history with the Atkins diet.

When I was in 300 level at ABU,Zaria,there was this day I went out and on my way back I saw some Igbo guys who were having some sort of book fair,they had a lot of books that cost less than 400 naira,so as I searched through,I found a book on the Atkins diet,I had never heard of it so I bought the book along with other books,I got home and read it all through the night,I found it very fascinating,so I decided I was going to go on the Atkins diet.The Atkins diet is somewhat similar to the ketogenic diet I think,the idea was basically to avoid carbohydrates and eat a lot of fats and protein ,the goal was to let your body go into ketosis and begin to burn its own fat for energy as you are no longer taking the class of food that would naturally provide you with energy. I went shopping the next day using the book’s grocery list and bearing in mind the meal samples,I bought lots of eggs,butter,eggplant,meat,fish and some other things I can’t remember now.
I began and it was all good,by the third week,I had lost noticeable weight and I was happy,so I continued,there was only one little problem,I was always tired and craved yam,sweet potatoes,spaghetti and o how I missed crisp fried sweet potatoes.
I kept at it even though I was miserable,the initial high of eating all that egg and butter and so on had worn off but I was losing weight na abi. One evening,as I walked home from school to my place off campus,for those who know ABU ,Samaru campus well,I came out through north gate and crossed to the other side of the road,that was when I saw her,I picked up my pace as my heart started racing,my intention was to walk as far away from her as possible,but I found myself standing in front of her instead,this lady was scooping freshly fried sweet potatoes and yam from the hot oil,Lord!I could feel my heart pumping and the saliva welled up in my mouth,I was almost drooling.You have no idea how beautiful it looked to me.I asked her if she could leave it to get crispy the way I like it and she asked if I am buying plenty,I said give me 100 naira’s worth,on second thoughts,I asked her to make it 150 0r 200,can’t remember clearly.I planned to eat it when I got home but erm,I ate it all up before I got home,kai that was the sweetest fried yam and sweet potatoes I ever had and that was the end of my love affair with Atkins diet. Hehehehehe…by the way,I had constipation for the next two days and could not eat anything except oranges.
That is why when the ketogenic diet rave came,I just dey look all of them corner eye waka pass. Bretheren,Know thyself and learn from your experiences. That way,it is easy to be happy!
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