Random like a number

Hey everybody, no real time to post, so I'll just throw stuff at you.

1. You know you're losing weight when you wonder why your underpants feel so tight and realize you're wearing your 15-year-old daughter's.

2. I took some measurements today. The fattest part of my thigh is eight inches bigger than Scarlett O'Hara's waist. For those of you who haven't read GWTW lately, that's 25 inches. Internet, never mess with me. Or I will crush you between my giant thighs.

3. Somewhere in my desk there exists a small stash of diet journals, kept mostly to:

(Pick one)

a.  make me feel bad
b.  inspire me
c.  record various lower-calorie recipes I've devised over the years.

In one of them, I found the lowest weight I've been as an adult. It's 143 pounds.

That was 21 years ago.

4. I went to one of those clothing sales where your girlfriend fills a room with racks of clothes and you find things you like, but they're never in your size, so you try on other stuff to get a feel for how things will fit. I ordered two pairs of pants because they were a size 12.

 5. My sister is in town with my niece to visit the open house at Columbia College. There will be visiting and partying and possibly some shopping, and I'm doing my best to remember that at 95 calories, Amstel Light is my new best friend.

Happy weekend, everybody!

Japanese snacks have destroyed me, and other stories

I continue to chart my daily input and outgo of food and calories expended. I'm seeing results--down seven pounds in three weeks--but I don't feel as sleek as I usually do after three weeks of dieting and walking my legs off. (OK, walking for an hour a day.)

I blame this nagging sense that I still resemble a sea-going mammal on The Menopause, which appears to have developed a strong attachment to my midriff bulge. And I mean that literally.

(Did I say "midriff bulge?" I meant "muffin top." It sounds thinner.)

So. It's all the fault of The Menopause. Although it doesn't help to line up lovely bowls of Japanese snacks for family movie night. Just so you know, this?

Tohato caramel corn

Which I only bought because it's caramel corn that's OK for kids with braces? Is of the Devil. It's that good.

And so while I track and walk and wait for my midriff bulge  whoops muffin top to go away, I'm getting ready to order a couple of pieces to ease me through this transition. I'm thinking easy-fitting pieces that will work both now and when I've burned off the last bite of Japanese caramel corn.

Like this waterfall cardigan from Boden, currently on sale for $62.40.

Look at the easy, graceful, forgiving lines. Notice the strong, but not-too-obvious emphasis on the vertical. Note the lack of ruffles, appliqué, beading, shirring, or embroidery over the balcony--a good thing when one's balcony already calls quite enough attention to itself. And check out the description

The Waterfall Cardigan is in a lovely soft with-cashmere mix, with elegant cascading folds of fabric at the front-making it unusual, without being daft.

"Unusual, without being daft." That's so me!

Clean sweep

Hey internet! I'm back!

Sorry, that whole getting-the-kids-back-to-school completely kicked my ass. But now that the dust has settled somewhat, I'm incredibly excited and energetic--the way I am every fall.

I love summer, but fall--when the heat's not on yet, but the air conditioner is off? Is the best time of the year. And it doesn't hurt that my kids are in school and I can actually get things done.

So here are three ways I'm welcoming fall.


My Diet

I signed up for a free LiveStrong MyPlate account. This is a great site with fabulous free diet tools. As far as I'm concerned, this site leaves Weight Watchers's online tools (which ran really slowly and frequently crashed my laptop) sitting in the road.

LiveStrong offers a lot of important health information--so much that I feel sort of petty bothering them with being pudgy. I mean, hello, the first thing you see when you head to the site is a huge photograph of Lance Armstrong. Way to make me feel shallow, Lance.

But MyPlate has so many useful tools. It helped me figure out how many calories to eat every day in order to lose 1.5 pounds a week. (And mid-life ladies? Do we agree that a measly 1,375 calories a day is not very much food? I thought so.)

I track what I eat every day. I track my so-called workouts. And once or twice a week, I weigh myself and add that information, too.

I'm just geeky enough to sort of enjoy this kind of thing. This helps me tolerate a life of 1,375 calories a day. Which is good, because 1,375 calories = Not Enough Wine.

Also, I've lost six pounds. That helps, too.

My Complexion

Have any of you bought a Clarisonic? I've heard great things from a couple of friends, but I balk at spending $250 for a face scrubbing doo-hickey.

That's why I'm so delighted with the Sephora complexion brush I got in a party goodie bag.

A couple of my friends have popped for the Clarisonic, but I'm analog to their digital. I use a Sonicare on my teeth two or three times a day. At this point, I'm excited about using a tool that doesn't make an annoying high-pitched whining noise.

Believe it or not, this little $5 face brush does the job. I use it morning and night, and it helps bump up the cleansing power of my Murad cleanser. The cleanser rinses off better, too, probably because the brush distributes it more evenly.

I swear, I have a real glow, and my pores look smaller. Not bad for five dollars!

My Closet

I'm either bored with or sick of everything in my closet. On top of that, I have clothes that are size 10, 12, 14, and 16. It's time they went. I deserve to have a closet full of clothes that I like and that fit.

I am in serious purge mode.

This is way more than a change of seasons switch-up. It's like I walked into my bedroom and went all drill sergeant: Listen up, good-enough clothes. You're not. You're The Clothes Formerly Known as Good Enough. And your mama isn't here to help you out. It's time to shape up or ship out. Now drop and give me fifty!

I'm getting rid of an amazing amount of stuff.

I'm starting with the size 16 summer stuff. When I do laundry, I'm folding my summer clothes and putting them in donation bags.

By next summer, I'll be wearing significantly smaller clothes! Either that or I'll be wearing a barrel.