As soon as I posted about finally getting back below 130,I bounced back up and only saw 129.x on the scale this morning for the first time in a week. This despite eating exactly the same way all week as I have the last 5. I note that this was a busier, more stressful week at work than the last few. I'm ready to believe that circulating cortisol levels have something to do with metabolism :>)

I'm off to get a pedicure in an attempt to lower said cortisol level. This also implies a faith that sandal weather is coming soon. Happy weekend everyone.

Happy weekend Andrea

I scored a big NSV at Homesense today. I rarely brave the mall on Saturday afternoon but circumstance put me there. Got a bunch of stuff I needed but had to snake my way along in a big line up to the cashiers. There were super yummy goodies, drinks, and snacks all for sale on either side of this looong line. Mentally I craved many of them but I forced my hands to not touch them.

It helped that I didn't intend on buying such large throw pillows so my hands were really full holding on to them.

DAgmar

Sandal weather, Andrea? You have to believe, don't you? I have seen a few people in shorts but we're not really there yet.

Dagmar, good work! 'My hands were really full.' That's a good tip.

It has the makings of a nice day here. I've been travelling a fair bit recently and I'm tired. I'll do my exercises this morning but otherwise take it easy and then get in the car again late afternoon.

Re the lunch with my business contact. I think I might have the feta salad. It's the least mucked-about-with option. The thing is that I'm eating a lot of my own feta salad when I'm on the road which is undoubtedly better than any restaurant salad! The only other choice is a pastrami sandwich and bread is just dire in most restaurants. OK, I'll just bite the feta bullet.

Sunday morning, rebounding to 154, exactly, despite touching nothing on the steam tables and plates at the reception yesterday at the college.

I had an quiet night after my three hours back in the literary world, overhearing talk of acceptances and rejections, forthcoming books, readings, teaching positions, summer residencies and festivals. It didn't help that I hated my new haircut, which is too boyishly severe.

I feel that I need today to recover, which will be okay as long as I don't use food to help me through to Monday.

Another Monday, and I'm at 154.1, which is a little bit less than this past Monday, so what more can I ask for? I'll be weighed in at my doctor's today. I should be down a few pounds from my last weigh-in, which will be a relief.

Having gone to the memorial reading for that good poet, I am feeling as if I've performed an act of exorcism. Or maybe it's that I saw an alternative life to the one I'm leading, and found mine to be good and valid. But also that the other life is not completely closed-off to me.

Silverbirch, yes, believe it or not, sandal weather is just about here in Michigan. i admit it's been a little cool (about 60F) this last week, but I expect it to warm up to 70-72F by midweek. Also, what does it mean that "bread is just dire in most restaurants," and what the heck is in a feta salad (besides feta cheese)?

Dagmar, is Homesense like our Target?

Most bread in British cafes and restaurants is soft and pappy industrial stuff. It's clammy. It's flabby. It has no chew. It's made using something called the Chorleywood Process which was introduced in 1961. I avoid it.

Feta salad is lovely.

The classic 'Greek salad' of tomatoes, cucumber, green pepper, red onion, olive oil, feta, dill, mint, oregano.

Or spinach, feta, pine nuts.

Or, as I'm currently making for eating when I'm travelling or in a hurry, any salad ingredients that come to hand (good green leaves - not iceberg lettuce, raw carrot, celery etc + possible half an apple) plus some herbs plus feta and olive oil and maybe olives.

I'm on the verge of sandals. They'd probably be OK inside but definitely not outside as the wind has been cold. When it drops, the weather is warm enough.

Tuesday morning at 153.7, having gotten through a visit to the doctor yesterday. He was in an unusually cheerful mood. Not a word about my weight, just about how good my bloodwork was except for an apparent deficiency in Vitamin D.

The bad contractor was coming out of the back door of our building yesterday when I got home from work, early because of the doctor appointment. I saw him & he saw me. I told him that when I'd turned on my overhead kitchen fixture the other day, all the bulbs blew out, and it hasn't worked since, even with replaced bulbs. He said he'd take a look at it, but didn't say when.

There's birdsong and a day of work ahead in which I'll need to create a presentation on how to write introductions and a work plan for a project. But first I just need to get to the gym and get through one of the hardest workout of the week, with a multitude of different kinds of squats and 2x6 deadlifts.

Target has a wider selection of merchandise - more like a department store. Homesense is just items for use/decoration in the home. They do have snacks and drinks but only in the lead-up to the cashiers.

Dagmar

Homesense sounds like Home Goods, which in the U.S. is a division of TJ Maxx and Marshall's. Or maybe like Bed Bath & Beyond with its eternal navy-blue-edged coupons.

Homesense sounds more like our HomeGoods store.

Great job, Saef, on navigating the doctor and having a great report on your bloodwork! It seems like everyone is deficient in Vitamin D these days. I've been taking supplements for a couple of years now.

I weighed in this morning without dh's help, as I was down a pound (.6 by the time I held my phone but I'll take it). You have to weigh in "airport attire" so I weigh in a light t shirt and light shorts. I'm glad I "won" but still not thrilled with my results. Onward and upward.... or hopefully downward!

Today is my day to provide lunch for May birthdays for the staff. My group is doing a Cinco de Mayo theme and I was supposed to bring enough salsa, tomatoes and lettuce for 80+ people. I hope I brought enough!! I never eat the birthday meals and I know others don't or just get a little, but some people make a whole meal of it, so we will see.

Painters are proving frustrating. Why must contractors always be so frustrating?! They aren't answering our calls or texts so we don't know what days they're coming to lock Ellie in her crate, or not. Ugh...

Michele - we were lucky with our painters. They came last week and got the carpentry and painting done in two days. Wedged it in between rains. I hadn't realized consciously how much the paint had faded. Hope yours work out soon.

Hooray for cheerful doctors. And there appears to be an epidemic of Vitamin D deficiency in the U.S. I'm not entirely convinced the guidelines are correct, because it's hard to believe that 2/3 of the country suffers from a deficiency state of a vitamin your body makes itself via sunlight.

It depends on who's saying where the deficiency bar is, doesn't it? Or who's funding the research that underpins what's being said. And why. As Cicero said about crime, cui bono? 'Who stands to gain?' Pharmaceutical companies seem to do pretty well.

Wednesday morning, up a full pound to 154.7. I just changed my ticker to 155. That's what brings it on, apparently, the physical action of typing on that particular screen.

According to a notice in the building foyer, another one of my ailing neighbors has died. That makes four over the past five months: Three who were at least 20 years older than me, and one who was about my age.

This should motivate me to get to the gym today, if nothing else.