And where are we all? Out enjoying spring? I hope so! Not that I’ve exactly been outside all that much; we just had a week of rain. Not cold, mind you, but wet. Very wet. Spring clothes got a little soggy, and the feetsies (in sandals; I put away all my winter shoes & pantyhose) were starting to wrinkle from all that exposure to water, but yesterday was a tad nicer - started out gray, but the sun came out in the afternoon - and today looks perfect (It’s 7:25 AM hereabouts, and brightly sunny already). My daughters and I will be going out to lunch together for Mother’s Day. My son sent each of us a lovely bouquet yesterday - sure am looking forward to his next trip home at the end of June. OUR home, that is - I guess I’d better just get used to him living out there on the west coast, because he certainly seems to love it, and work is going well for him and all. I must admit that I think I could be happy living out there myself, but my grandchildren (including my two little new baby boy twins) all live here in the east, and how could I leave them?

Well, here we are, sliding into another summer, and as usual, my weight isn’t where I want it, and so begins my annual spring MAJOR EATING CHANGE. This year, I read an article about the “Let’s do lunch” diet. I don’t remember who the author is, although he’s written a book that I’m sure can be found via Google if anyone has the slightest bit of interest. Ho-hum, you say - yet one more diet fad promising to shave off those pounds and turn us into fitness maazine covergirls. Hah. Right. Well, my dreams of cover girldom have long since vanished, that’s for sure…or wait a minute…maybe not so sure…maybe I still harbor fantasies of being asked to pose for the brochures of one of those luxury retirement developments - you may be familiar with the typical photo of a man and woman with grayish hair whose faces and bodies look about 20 years old. Sometimes they’e posed standing next to their bicycles on some sort of wooded bike path - smiling with mouths full of brilliantly white and perfect teeth, and trying to say (without words, of course) “This could be YOU if you’ll just pay us ninety trazillion dollars to live here!” Now first of all, the old people I know who have mouthsful of blindingly bright teeth are simply the victims of dentists who fit them with mass-produced false chompers; REAL teeth (which I happen to have) don’t retain such blinding brightness for 50+ years, trust me. They’re white enough, but they don’t actually flash at you in the sun the way those cheap false ones do. Of course, you know those retirement development people (in the brochure, I mean) are either 20-year-olds with grayish wigs, or the whole image is airbrushed to the point of sheer fantasy. Okay, so let’s establish that it’s not really my goal to have a twenty-year-old body. No need. Trust me. What I DO want to do is have my size 12’s fit comfortably and look decent. NOT my size zeros, and not my size ones…and not even my size sixes or eights. No. At 5′6, I look just fine in size 12’s, feel fine, and have no desire to look any finer. But the winter took its toll this year. Winter always takes its toll, but this year’s was particularly nasty, dreary, snowy, icy and icky…and so to combat the general blah of it all, I did what has always made the most sense to me - I ate. Didn’t pay all that much attention to things getting tight - just sort of leaned towards the larger clothes at the back end of my closets, and indulging in a lot of self-talk conisting of, “I always LOVED that (stretch-waisted) skirt!!!!” or “I really LIKE that big, flowing woolen tunic - always so chic with a long (stretch-waisted)  skirt…!!” Yeah. And then spring appears out of nowhere, I start pulling out my lightweight clothes again, only to discover that a majority of them have shrunken horribly over the winter months. So, about the ”Let’s do lunch” diet. The premise is that prior to the industrial  revoution, most people worked on farms (thus getting loads more exercise than we do) and ate their main, as in “big” meal at lunch time. We, on the other hand, have jobs outside our homes that we go to daily, and started eating stuff like sandwiches for lunch and our “big meal” at night. The result? Fat folk. Anyway, this author recommends eating our big meal of the day at lunch time, and nibbling on fruit and such - having a much smaller meal, that is - at supper. So, I’ve been doing it - along with a substanial drop in caloric intake - and losing just about 2.5 pounds a week pretty steadily. Oh, and we’re back, DH & I - to walking with Leslie Sansone for a mile every morning before I leave for work. I know a mile isn’t much, but it’s consistent, and better than not walking a mile, right?

Oh, yes indeed. I was starting, over the winter months, to talk myself into thinking that my weight didn’t matter - I mean, isn’t there an age where you can just stop trying to maintain any semblance of decent looks and size? Guess not. Either that, or I just haven’t gotten there yet. Maybe later, you know?

So, anyway. That’s where I am these days.

And the young hawks are home and doing well - still much smaller that my babies ever were: one is at 6lbs 9 oz, and the other is at 6Lbs 3 oz, so the little guy is catching up, and as he does, they look more and more alike. I really wish I could figure out the process for putting pictures on these here blogs, but I can’t seem to, and I have no patience with lengthy step-by-step directions. (That’s my crabby side; why can’t they keep these things simple like they were before? I used to love popping pictues onto my blog. Oh, well.)

AND a big “HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY to all of you mothers out there, and a Happy NOT-MOTHERS-DAY to all who don’t have any offspring….there have been days in our lives when we have definitely envied you, trust me. Treat yourselves well, you hear?

Much love,

Z