Day 5

Day 5 of South Beach and it's amazing how easy this is. I mean, it's more labor-intensive since I'm cooking a lot more and then lugging a whole variety of tiny containers to work with my breakfast, lunch and snacks in it, but I have found it really easy to slip back into eating this way. I feel good, I'm down a couple of pounds, it's going well.

I did not swim this morning as planned. Last night after work I did one of my pilates DVDs and today I am sore. So I decided to give my muscles a break so I can actually swim for that whole hour on Saturday.

That round of pilates was really depressing. As of just 6 months ago I could do all of the segments and feel good and strong. Yesterday I cheated on some moves and just felt generally weak. But that's why I'm doing the pilates, right? To get stronger.

The cat was THRILLED that I was back on the floor with him. He loves to run under my arms and legs and plop down on my yoga mat while I'm doing moves. It's not very helpful, but it's kind of adorable as he purrs and rolls around and is just generally ecstatic that I'm down on his level.

I am determined that this year of weight loss and exercise will be different. This fall I will not give myself a million excuses to indulge myself, which will undo all the good I'm doing right now and will continue in the summer. That has been my pattern the last couple of years and I'm tired of it. I can have a treat on special days, but none of this weeks- and months-long birthday-Halloween-Thanksgiving-Christmas extravaganza. It's just not worth it to find myself on January 1 right back where I started LAST January 1.