Okay, it’s been awhile. I have, surprisingly, although I haven’t managed to get back down the rabbit hole recently, stuck faithfully to my *Wendi* plan, and, Tah-DAH….have lost an additional hard-won TWO pounds! Now, I say this knowing full well that if it was say, ten years ago, two pounds would’ve been miniscule to me; I would’ve expected to drop that in a day! But, alas, it is NOT ten years ago except, perhaps, in the context of my dreams, where time is very fluid and unsynchronized. It is NOW, and in the NOW, my metabolism is far less cooperative than it once was. But, I must say that *Wendi* did give it a proper shove - first, counting WW points bounced me off my three-week plateau with a one-pound loss, and then switching to *Wendi* shaved off another two last week. So, that’s a bit of progress. And isn’t it interesting how just a LITTLE positive reinforcement can do wonders for your motivation? After sitting on that damned plateau as I did for three weeks, I was feeling pretty blah and ambivalent about my diet. Trying the WW points system was, I guess you’d say, a last ditch effort at re-revving up my enthusiasm. If nothing had happened, I may have just dropped off the board, I’m afraid. BUT, I AM just a tad addicted to my blog-pals, and also my forum-buds, so I didn’t really WANT to disappear. And, the ole’ WW points saved the day! Labor Day weekend was busy - nothing extravagant, but a cook-out at our house on Sunday for DH & DD2’s combined birthdays which required that I start at 7:00 AM cleaning like a banshee to remove all traces of cat hair from the house - at least long enough for DD1’s DH to come and spend the afternoon, because he’s allergic to cats. I vacuumed every couch, chair, throw pillow, ottoman, bed, and any other piece of upholstered furniture in the house with the hand-vac while DH vacuumed all the rugs (a major undertaking for him because I’m an oriental rug freak - even have them in the bathrooms) and then I washed out every window frame/sill, all the woodwork, all the counters in kitchen and baths with a bleach solution…okay, let’s just suffice it to say that we did a MASSIVE cleaning, and then, Tah-Dah! The SIL didn’t come! If they only lived a little closer (they’re an hour and a half away) I SWEAR I would’ve gone over there and dragged him back by the hair! But, of course, living in a sparkling clean house - something that’s a tad foreign to my nature - has proven surprisingly pleasant. Might want to undertake it a little more often, even, although IN ORDER to undertake it, there really has to be some sort of special occasion - otherwise, we tend to deteriorate rapidly although with a certain degree of panache, actually. I say “panache” because half-painted canvasses propped against the sideboard or a wilting fern languishing in a rather ornate piece of pottery has a certain cachet, don’t you think? (C’mon…say yes! LOL). But that was my Sunday exercise, and I got plenty of it although I have no idea how many “exercise points” it would be worth, and can’t be bothered trying to figure it out. I’m going to just go with “enough” and let it be.

Then, on Monday, I was up and out on my bike at 8:30 AM, and pedalled myself around the neighborhood for an hour. Came back craving fresh tomatoes so DH and I jumped  (oh, alright. Maybe we didn’t exactly “jump” - we got ) into the car - his car, I mean - and drove out deep into the country in search of a farm stand where REALLY fresh tomatoes could be had - and other fresh veggies, hopefully. We found one, loaded up and then drove rather blindly about a series of rutted back roads (better his car than mine - LOL) until we started seeing signs to Mt. Wachusett, which we decided to follow and ended up on the summit enjoying a gorgeous view of the surrounding countryside. We spent another hour and a half or so hiking around the various trails, and then drove home. We got back at 12:30! What was really nice was that we STILL had the whole rest of the day to hang about and NOT be at work!

Dreams. I’ve been having some interesting ones lately. Wondering if it’s past lives seeping through or just the Benadryl I’ve been taking to stifle the leftover cough from that bout of Bronchitis that I had a couple weeks back? One had my former husband in it, but not in the husband role, so it was actually okay. I have to wonder, really, how I managed to be married to that man for as long as I was….could I EVER have been that purely stupid? I suppose so. <sigh> I HAVE dreamed, actually, about “down the rabbit hole”. I guess I really AM invested in this whole weight loss/lifestyle upgrade, etc. I amaze myself.

School is back in session - a boon, undoubtedly, for those of us who still have school-aged children, but a traffic nightmare for the rest of us, unfortunately. Oh, WELL…passages and stages and cycles and life goes on, eh?

Warm and fuzzy vibes to all of my fellow travelers on this sometimes difficult and other times rather interesting journey…

E!