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"Today I met a friend for brunch and we picked a restaurant near my apartment. But when we showed up, we discovered that the line to get in was all the way around the block. Yes, around the block! At 11am no less! Never mind that there are dozens of places to eat brunch right there. DOZENS. But none of the other restaurants had lines; in fact, most of them seemed empty. I couldn&amp;#039;t imagine that the food was so amazing it&amp;#039;s worth waiting an hour for. I mean, we&amp;#039;re talking pancakes and egg whites. Hardly gourmet. So my friend and I went to the place next door instead. The menu at this restaurant was almost identical to the one next door. I ordered an egg white omelet (I know, big surprise) and she ordered scrambled eggs with an English muffin. We were both very good! No pancakes for either of us. The restaurant was quiet and relaxing, and we stayed for an hour and a half just catching up and drinking coffee. While we sat there and chatted, I couldn&amp;#039;t help but notice the other patrons coming and going. A few big tables of families; a couple reading the newspaper; an elderly woman eating alone. They were all very different from one another, but they had two things in common: They were all pigging out and they were all having a good time. The family had plates on top of plates on their table: I could see pancakes, waffles, sides of bacon and sausage, eggs. You name it, they had it. The couple was passing two plates back and forth between each other: one with pancakes and eggs; the other with waffles a la mode, with vanilla ice cream, apples and caramel. Even the elderly woman was eating a burger and fries. But everyone seemed to be having fun. Lots of laughing and talking. When I first noticed that everyone (except for us) was pigging out, I admit I felt a little competitive: Look at what they&amp;#039;re eating and look at we&amp;#039;re eating! Ha! We didn&amp;#039;t even break out diets. I even felt a quick glimmer of disgust: Don&amp;#039;t those people know they shouldn&amp;#039;t eat like that? I mean, caramel for breakfast?! But I quickly stopped myself from that train of thought when I realized how much fun everyone was having. You couldn&amp;#039;t miss it - the whole place was alive. And it reminded me, once again, that there&amp;#039;s more to life than dieting. Relaxing and having fun with friends and family is really where the focus should be, not on who&amp;#039;s eating what and how many calories you&amp;#039;ll have to burn off. So that&amp;#039;s exactly what I did. I relaxed, and settled into our booth even further. I asked my friend to tell me more about her life, and then asked the waitress to bring a slice of pie. With ice cream. And caramel. Hey, you only live once. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/diet-nutrition/a2771/more-than-dieting/?src=shelter_footer>