Fallacies about gaining weight

I was just watching The View. I should be working but I'm finding lots of ways to seduce myself away from work. One of the pitfalls of working at home. There's laundry to do--something I have no desire to do but pit laundry against working and I'll choose laundry. Anyway....I was watching The View. Barbara Walters said it had taken her one year to lose fifteen pounds and that she gained back three this past weekend by eating one box of popcorn. (Cue laughs from the audience.) So a wisp of a woman is lamenting the gain of three pounds. And lamenting how "easy" it is to gain weight when it's so hard to lose.
I've lamented the same issue over and over but then it occurred to me while I was unloading the dishwasher (yes, another ploy to keep me from working) that it isn't easy to gain weight. We have to work at it and work hard. You don't gain three pounds from one box of popcorn unless it's the huge box and you've poured on lots of fake butter and lots of salt. Then maybe...just maybe...if you also spend the weekend in bed or plopped on the couch not expending any calories, you might...might...see some weight gain (more probably from water retention from salt!).
No, it isn't any easier to gain than it is to lose. It's just that when we go off our "diets" we tend to go way off, eat lots of calories, exercise less. Then after one week of indulgence when we notice a weight gain, we're convinced that it was just one itty bitty box of popcorn that did it.
I spent two days in LA eating large quantities of food. Then I went to NYC where I ate not large quantities but lots of foods that are high in calories. Thankfully, I walked a lot and went to the gym to offset the calories somewhat. But still I gained two pounds. I'm not shocked. I ate for those two pounds. I ate dessert. I drank some Pepsi. I ate bread. French fries. Burgers. Pastrami. Bagels. Bialys. Cream cheese. Chinese food. Etc.
In other words, I earned those pounds. I worked hard for them. As hard as I work to lose weight.
No, Barbara, it isn't easier to gain than it is to lose. It's just oh so much more fun and mindless to gain.