I did it! I made it to the gym last night! Go me!

I found this great website for women who want to get into weight lifting: Stumptuous.com. The woman who runs it looks very much like a Bay Area kinda grrl, and her writing is straightforward, funny and kind. I'm following her beginners advice, which seemed too slow and easy until I woke up this morning with my limbs feeling like lead. Wow, am I ever glad I didn't push myself last night.

To be sure I made it to the gym, I scheduled a dinner date with Susan in Berkeley immediately following it. Tim has been in the throes of finishing his novel, so I knew he wouldn't miss me too much, and it was lovely to hang out with Susan and chat. It was especially important because Tim's about had it with my wedding talk, and it's good to find more outlets for this new, wonderful obsession of mine.

Back to health. So, my new dietary restrictions have a lovely side-effect other than the lessening of the mind-numbing cramping pain. I've been dairy free (except for milk chocolate, which so far does not seem to be a problem) for two weeks now. I have not tried to diet, other than cut out dairy and cut back on citrus/ tomato stuff. In fact, I haven't denied myself anything other than those things I can no longer eat. The result? I lost five pounds in two weeks.

Whoot! Instant diet!

I tried to say to Tim, "If I'd only known it was so easy to lose weight by just cutting out dairy I would've done this a long time ago " but the fact is, that isn't true. No, only the prospect of agonizing pain has kept me from my dear, yummy cheese friends. I only hope I remember that pain well, so I'm not tempted by those saucy curds in the future . . .

Anyway, I'm very excited about the possible success of my new diet/ exercise plan. Good health seems like something I might acquire someday, and maybe even soonish, relatively speaking. Yay!

Oh, and in other happy news, there are ten shopping days left until my birthday. I will be 29 and 24 months old.

Yip!

And, finally, Tim, my wonderful, talented and driven fiance, finished his novel "Blood Engines" last night. He woke me up at 12:15 so I could pick out a font and type "The End" at the end. I'm very proud of him. It's a killer book (the half of it I've read; I can't wait to read the rest) and I think he'll have great success with it (knock on wood). Go Tim!