DR. WALLACE: I'm a 17-year-old guy who is pretty well liked at my high school. I play sports and have a lot of friends, but I'm embarrassed to admit to you that I have not yet been out on a date!

I think what is holding me back is my fear of rejection. I'm always worried whenever I think I might want to ask a girl out on a date. I envision myself asking her and then her telling me, "No, thank you." This then keeps me from taking the chance to get going in my dating life. I do spend time with others I'd like to date in larger group settings, but I've never been out on a one-on-one date yet. Do you have any suggestions about how I can overcome my fears of rejection? — Nervous About Asking, via email

NERVOUS ABOUT ASKING: I fully encourage you to move ahead, and I commend you for writing and giving yourself an outlet to seek encouragement. My advice is to ask you to focus on the positives, not the possible negatives. Instead of worrying about rejection, consider that asking a person for a possible date will provide you with a positive outcome either way!

My logic for this is that if your offer of a date is accepted, you'll be happy and on your way toward your first one-on-one date. And if it happens to be declined, you'll still benefit because you can then be proud of yourself that you overcame your fears and actually asked for the date! Trust me, if you ask for a few dates in a sincere and earnest way, it won't be too long until you garner a positive response.

And once you do receive an affirmative reply, that will wash away all of the other times you did not receive a positive reply. You mentioned playing sports, so you know that in every sport there are moments of success and failure, but players keep competing and playing the game, seeking to improve along the way. Think of dating along these lines. You'll get better at it as you go forward, but the key is to get started.

Not every football pass is completed, not every basketball shot goes through the net and not every baseball batter gets a hit every time. Yet in all of those sports, the big successes hold much more meaning than the "failures" along the way. Use this analogy to keep your head high as you enter the dating world and I trust it won't be long before you're both successful and comfortable in this endeavor.

HE HAS CRAZY DIETARY HABITS

DR. WALLACE: My younger brother has terrible eating habits. Not only does he eat weird things, he eats at odd times of day, too. But since he's only 16, he seems to get away with this. I'm his 19-year-old sister and I already know I could not get away with the dietary habits he has.

For example, he skips breakfast almost every single day and then he has these massive lunches around 11:30 a.m. that are a sight to behold. He'll eat the equivalent of three entrees, and then he'll only graze a bit around dinnertime.

I've always thought that dinner was the most important meal of the day and that everyone benefits from a large, healthy and solid dinner. But after his massive lunches, he just eats a half a plate or less of food and then repeats his process the next day. I do notice that he drinks a lot of orange juice and pineapple juice around the clock, too — even at night. He's one strange dude. Are his wild habits going to catch up with him soon? — His Incredulous Older Sister, via email

HIS INCREDULOUS OLDER SISTER: Don't count on it! Yes, his eating habits and schedule do sound on the unusual side, but eating the bulk of his calories earlier in the day may actually be benefitting him.

Nutrition at all times of day is important for sure, but it's usually best for the human body to consume most of its calories early in the day in order to make use of those calories at a fast rate, especially for someone like an active 16-year-old boy. I will agree with you that his habit of skipping breakfast may be dubious, but he's still getting the preponderance of his daily fuel early in the day via his very large lunches.

On top of that, his juice consumption is also helping him on several health levels as well, so overall his diet is not as crazy as it sounds — or as it appears to you as you witness it in person!

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at [email protected]. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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