I have a wonderful friend who graduated with a PhD in psychology, with whom I speak several times a week. Our conversations always begin with one of us saying “Hi, what’s new?” “Nothing, and you?’ is our standard reply. We will argue for several minutes over the “nothing, and you?” statement, claiming that there was more to the others’ day than “nothing.” Our conversations end with both of us laughing over something silly that happened that day.

Tonight was no different, after several “nothing and you’s,” I finally confessed that I wanted to lose a little weight. Seeing that my friend (I’ll call him Dr. K.) has had several articles published in psychological journals, I was hoping that he is brilliant enough to help me shed a few pounds and decided to pick his brain.

“The only way to lose weight is to eat everything you want,” he said in a serious voice. I started to laugh at the thought of me eating everything I want. It took a split second for me to visualize all the chocolates, cakes, and doughnuts I would be eating. “I am sure my size would triple if I were to do that” I began to say. He interrupted me and continued “Don’t worry” he said “It works, just exercise a little.” At this point I was already on a roll. I could not stop laughing. “There is no way I can lose weight if I was to eat everything I want and exercise a LITTLE.” I said. “That’s OK” he replied, “Just eat a little less.” By now we were both laughing hysterically, I managed to blurt out that there is no way this would work for me. Just than pearls of wisdom came pouring out of his mouth, “No problem,” he said “just put on a body shaper.”

You would think this is the end of the story. It’s not! We were both laughing so hard we were unable to speak for several minutes. I suddenly realized that my mediocre mood had been replaced with a state of euphoria. I was feeling great, and no longer cared about weight loss. My hysterical laughter produced endorphins, which in turn made me feel good.

There you have it, my beauty tip of the month. If eating all you want does not result in weight loss, and if adding a ‘little bit’ of exercise does not help, and if you can’t find a body shaper that fits, laugh, laugh, laugh, at least you will feel great from all those endorphins running around in your body, and as a result you will look great, too.