"Does this make me look fat?"

I've been gaining weight recently. I think it's a combination of stress, overwork, and the fact that I find unhealthy foods to be really, really enjoyable.

Last night I was hanging out with Mike and lamenting my new weight gain. Now, this can be a touchy subject for most guys. When your woman says, "I'm fat!" your response can go one of two ways.

1. Denial. This may be the most intuitively appealing method of dealing with the "I'm fat," statement. She thinks she's fat, just tell her she isn't, problem solved, right? Nope. If you deny it you run the risk of having her yell at you for being unsupportive. Also, if you do it unconvincingly or while staring at her newly-acquired cellulite, the result could get ugly.

2. Affirmation. So your girl knows you love her and find her attractive, what's wrong with admitting that you've noticed her new pudge? Oh gosh. Everything can go wrong. Even if a woman knows she's put on weight, she doesn't want to hear it from someone else.

So there's really no good way to handle it. I have a friend who asked her husband if she was fat on two seperate occasions. He denied it the first time, and affirmed it the second. The poor bastard got reamed out for both. I felt bad for him.

Mike, however, is masterful at dealing with things like this. He let me ramble on for awhile, assured me that he thought I was still pretty, and when I was done he said, "Yeah, I've gained some weight too. If you want, we can start going for walks more often."

And then we took a walk through an awesome public park.

Skillful!

Take notes, boys.