Commenting on the comments

Marilyn may be right in her comment yesterday about hitting a plateau. But I will admit to becoming complacent about food lately, and all the exercise in the world won't make you lose weight if you eat too many of this or too much of that – the right food in the wrong quantity isn't really the right food, is it?

And Jen said "any diet plan … works, but you might as well be comfortable on the way." Ahhh, comfort is my ultimate racket. It may sound weird to pair the word "comfort" with "diet," but Jen is absolutely right: Finding what works, what helps, what supports is key. Trying to follow the Atkins approach just wasn't a good fit for me.

Jen also recommended Thin for Life, which I have and read eons ago [obviously I didn't get the gist of it at the time!]. I should pull it out for another look. Right now I'm reading the third Harry Potter book, loaned to me by my nine-year-old granddaughter. I can certainly see how her generation is enthralled with Harry and his adventures. I know there are rumors that he's killed in the seventh and final book of Rowlings' series, and I'll add my voice to the chorus pleading for his survival.

Greta mentioned books by Rick Gallop; thanks for the recommendation, as well as your other suggestions and continued support. I hope you can get back to running someday. I still surprise myself with how much I enjoy running as opposed to walking. I feel like such an athlete when I run. Every middle-aged woman ought to feel like a jock every once in a while, right?

Speaking of jocks, Denise passed along some good information about weight training. I just wish I liked it more. As you know, if you're a regular reader here, 20 minutes three times a week is excellent performance for me. I can't imagine upping that by 10 minutes per session. If I were working out in a gym it might be easier, but I only have dumbbells, a barbell and a bench. I can't think of too much more I could be doing, other than lunges and squats, to take up more time. I hope the amount of hill-walking I do makes up for the fact that I don't do lunges or squats.

I. Hate. Lunges. And. Squats.

I'd better be careful saying that, though. At one time I hated running. Heh.

The most important reason for women to lift weights, though, is not for weight loss, it's for preventing osteoporosis. If you're in your 20s and 30s, you're probably lifting children. Once you hit your 50s you need to find a substitute.

My grandmother was about 5'6" when I was a little girl. By the time I had children she'd already started losing height, and when she died at 90 I was looking down on her from my towering height of 5'2".

Sometimes getting old sucks, doesn't it? But as the old cliché goes, it's better than the alternative!

I finally set up my new music system yesterday, which consists of a 30GB iPod and a Logitech speaker system that's about as big as a loaf of party rye. Great sound, and I just love storing all my music on a gadget smaller than a deck of cards. Then this morning I opened an e-mail from my good friends at Apple to find that for only $100 more I could have had their new 80GB iPod that holds 20,000 songs instead of a measly 7,500. And you can now download full-length feature films from iTunes to watch in the palm of your hand.

Somehow that just doesn't appeal, even to a techno-geek like me. Except that Johnny Depp's icky pirate teeth wouldn't be quite so up-close-and-personal.