I read until dinnertime, then did a little shopping (found a gorgeous filmy red skirt, 60% off -- excellent) and walked home. I've been eating at home this last week, trying to be sensible and lose some weight -- yesterday was a day to treat myself, since I'd gotten back down to my pre-birthday weight. :-) So I went to Artopolis for dinner and had a frutti di mare salad -- marinated seafood piled on top of greens with feta cheese and fresh tomatoes and olive oil. Yum. With a small piece of fresh brown bread. But the salad was huge -- I only wanted half of it. It was very odd to order a salad for dinner and then only eat half of it. I had a pear for dessert, and wasn't hungry afterwards. This healthy eating stuff might become a habit after all... I've been exercising some too, back to doing my NY ballet workout tape. It's not really aerobic, but it has a killer abdominals section -- killer for someone like me, anyway, lacking in abdominal muscles. :-) Well, okay, I *have* them or, as Roshani pointed out yesterday, my liver would be spilling out and if I think I have a bulgy tummy now...okie, that's just gross. Never mind. The point is that those ab muscles are, very slowly, getting stronger. I can feel them reshaping themselves, underneath the layer of flab ("Let us out! We're trapped!) Kind of fun.
I was sort of hoping to wear a sari to the Hugo Awards -- that's only a week and a half away, so I'm not sure if it's feasible. Not sure if y'all are familiar with saris -- the key point is the your skin is bare from just below your breasts to your hips -- not really in front or in back, but on the sides. So stomach muscles are helpful. I won't wear it if it doesn't look good, or if I can't walk in it comfortably...I'm *really* not used to wearing them. But I'll try it and see, I think. If not...well, then I have an excuse to buy a new dress if I like -- from what I hear, people really dress up for the awards. And all my formal outfits are in Australia at the moment, for complicated reasons...
It's funny -- in some ways, deciding to lose weight and get fit kind of feels like deciding to be a writer. (Yes, I know that sounds goofy -- be patient, and it'll all make sense.) At least for me, I can't ever just decide to do something so big (that's going to involve actually sacrificing some things and changing the way I live) -- I have to say it aloud, make a commitment in front of other people. And once I do that, it seems more real -- real enough that part of my brain decides I'd better actually work on it -- and it's then easier to work on it, somehow. Hm...maybe I'm not actually making sense. But it feels similar to me. I wonder if other writers think about weight loss the same way? :-)
I'm not sure if it's the exercising or the weight loss or what, but I'm having more energy too. Still able to do things at the end of the day, despite having worked all day. I like it.