Yoyogurl, thank you so much! I had fun writing it this week. Unfortunately it's also the reason why I've been pretty much MIA here, the other boards I usually visit, and, um, the gym. And WW. And... yeah. I've got to work on that.

This week was a little tougher than usual, though--writing the first recap for a show is never easy, and then on very short notice I had to revise this magazine article I'd turned in last week, so I was up after midnight pretty much every night.

I'm hoping that after resting up and cleaning this weekend I can get back on track so I can hit the gym even on the nights I have to write, and maybe also I'll make my weekends a lot more gym-intensive. But right now my first priority is sleep.

Good luck to the marathoners (who, I know, have left by now). And CONGRATS on making the blog column, Erin and Heather!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woohoo!

Before I get to the blabbering, I wanted tell Wendy that her recap of High School Reunion was ridiculously hilarious. I just finished reading it and I know I burned some calories with the laughing. I especially liked . . . he's Honey Bunches of Dick cereal.

So, yesterday I went to Whole Foods and got myself some sliced fresh fruit, some grilled chicken and a very nice salad from their salad bar. Wonderful salad with all sorts of things I like. Multicolored, if you will. And this dressing! Oh, love the dressing. The fruit was wonderful, too. Fresh and sweet and just gorgeous. (I also got some Honest Tea, which I highly recommend) I am really loving the meal but all I can keep thinking is "this would be so much better with some bread. A nice French roll or something. Breeeeeeeeead. You need breeeeeeeeeeeeeead." I could not stop thinking about the bread. It almost ruined my lovely meal!

When did bread become my crack? Why is bread my crack? I was seriously frightened by the neverending bread craving.

Hey, is anyone else having problem with the comments? I wanted to leave this in the comments for Ericka's post below, but it kept crashing Explorer. Hmmm..

Anyhow - Ericka, trust me, packing for Disney is MUCH more fun than watching Suzanne Somers. And check your e-mail - I sent you my trip info. Hope to see you soon!

OK. I am sitting here, trying to psych myself up to get off my ass and get my house cleaned and my clothes packed and all of the Leaving Town Tasks on my list, and this afternoon's Lifetime movie is called "Devil's Food."

Here's TiVo's description: "When obesity stalls a journalist's career, she sells her soul to the devil to be thin."

Suzanne Somers is the lead and she just had her big "I can't take it anymore" speech. Here's a snippet: "You know what I am supposed to weigh? 116. You know what I weighed this morning? 151."

151 on Suzanne Somers is apparently obese.

She also just said, "I would like you to turn the monitors back towards me in the studio. If I have to look at myself, it's going to be the only way I am ever going to lose weight."

This gem was made in 1996.

I am just transfixed by the horror of it all.

The New Republic has a really intresting article about the validity of statistics about "being fat" the are tossed around in the media all the time: WHAT THE DIET INDUSTRY WON'T TELL YOU: Weighting Game.

It is a very long article and I am not sure how I feel about it. On the one hand, I am glad that someone is saying being overweight, at least in terms of BMI and other government scales, doesn't not necessarily correlate to being unhealthy. The idea that one can weigh more than what is considered "ideal" for his or her height and weight but not be unhealthy is difficult for some people to grasp and certainly does not fall in line with our country's attitude about round=nastybad.

On the other hand, I would hate to see people, like those women who went on Dr. Phil (which, btw, if you missed, you should go check out the show summary) and said that being 350lbs was just dandy with them and they didn't see any good reason to change, have more ammunition for excuses not to make positive lifestyle changes.

Still, extremly interesting. It is free to register with TNR but you can go to this girl's livejournal to read it. I'll warn you that it isn't formatted or anything so it makes for a more difficult read.

Add your Birthday Love comments below. Today is the anniversary of the day the fabulous ROBYN was born.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROBYN!!

Lose The Buddha and Funnymoods were named "Best of The Blogs" today at MSNBC.com.

I about shat myself when I saw the referral.

I believe this makes THREE members of the LTB to join those ranks as, if I'm not mistaken, the lovely Robyn shared this with us not too long ago. Am I right?

Whoo hoo!

Boca Burger has started a Go Meatless Contest. You write, in 100 words or less, about a change you want to make in your life and how BOCA products will help achieve that goal and fill in their form with a UPC code. The grand prize is $100,000 and a year's supply of Boca products! Woo! Since there are so many talented writers here that are also trying to eat better, I thought maybe one of you guys would be interested in winning. Of course, if you win, I get some of that money and maybe a package of roasted veggie burgers. ;)

Does anyone eat those? They kind of frighten me but I guess if they can serve them at Burger King, they can't be *that* bad. Anyone have any recommendations or comments on the Boca stuff?

(I don't work for them or anything. I just thought the contest was interesting. *g*)

Oh, and regarding posting boards, my friend uses Ikon Board on all of her sites and she really likes it. This is her latest: Boils and Blinding Torment

Oh, and what I'd originally come here to post:

I was looking through Oprah's site to see what she'd said on the show my dad had been talking about. And I saw the copy of her very lovely fitness contract.

If people are interested in that sort of thing, though, there's another more comprehensive fitness contract here. Both my online training buddy and I have used it, and if nothing else, it's worth taking a look.

Am I scared? Not really.. I will, freely and to anyone who even remotely comes close to asking, admit that I'm really, really nervous. I mean, I went from "not even planning to do this race" on October 29th to "I'm gonna finish it this time!" on November 1, and while I gave the training my very best effort, I don't know if it was enough.

Every time someone says something about me finishing this year, my eyes well up. Because I really, really want it. I don't want the sag wagon to pick me up! I want to be able to charge through the underpass at mile 9! I want the damn duck head medal around my neck!

I just have to keep focusing on the fact that no matter what happens on Sunday, I'm better off than I would have been had the marathon team never offered to send me to Disney this year.

Having said that, here are some helpful things for the newbie Disney racer: You won't be alone on the course, by any means. They have excellent course support, course patrollers on bicycle, and really friendly people at the med sheds. And it's not over until the sag wagon stops for you.

This is my marathon progress site. If anyone feels like tossing a couple of bucks at it, I would appreciate it. Or you could just tell me what you think of the site itself, too. I'd dig that, too!

God, I hope that I did this link thing correctly. I am pretty developmentally disabled in relation even the simplest of code.

I know that I haven't posted over here in a while, but I assure you it's only because I have been trying to get ready for the marathon that's this week (Adrith, are you scared?!). And I haven't even been doing that very well.

We're also moving to Illinois from Wisconsin, which despite its geographical proximity seems as if it's a million miles away. And my husband has already started his job, so it's just me and the 20-month-old Monkey Child to pack up the rest of the house and tie up all of the loose ends.

I do have two bits of news. First of all, the regional PR chick from Weight Watchers has contacted me to possibly do a success story for their web site and maybe some other media. I had called them a while back when I was feeling all cool and into the program and she just called back after she got off of maternity leave. When I have totally fallen off the wagon. I was all sheepish with questions like, "What if I haven't been to a meeting in a while. Like a couple of months?"

She assured me that things would be fine--as long as I started going to meetings again once I get settled, which I had already planned on in the first place. Plus, they are intrigued by the fact that Eric did it with me and that he lost a bunch of weight, too. And that we took the Monkey Child to all the meetings with us. Such wholesome family fun.

And, I am also going to be completely tacky and wrong and tell everyone that I am still fundraising for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for the marathon and I am several hundred dollars short of my goal of $3600. (I thought that I was closer than I really am because I am a complete math idiot. How hard is it to use a calculator, for God's sake? For me? Very hard, apparently.)

If anyone is feeling especially charitable, I can accept donations of any shape and size through my progress site. I can give you the url if you want. If Erin doesn't mind.

And I promise that I won't do this again. No more Save Erycka here. Even when my sister and I do the breast cancer 3 day walk in June. Promise.