Thursday: Book review

Don't tell anyone, but I wore the grey Gap pants again. They're so perfect! I am getting a pair in black for sure.

This time I paired it with gold. Grey and gold, I liked it! A new purple Gap draped top (which looked horrible in every other color but this one, what is up with that?), my Babeau gold cascading cardigan, grey pants, gold BR necklace, and my Me Too platform high-heeled sandals in caramel leather. Not 100% if it all worked, but it was fun to try!



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Even though I haven't been dieting, I've been reading about dieting. (Same thing, right? No? Hmm, that explains a lot about the fit of my pants!)

First up was Jennette Fulda's Half-Assed, a long-ago recommendation of my blogger pal Splurgie. Jennette has a very popular weight-loss blog PastaQueen, and about five years ago lost over 200 pounds. The book is her journey through her weight loss, and as such, is funny, irreverent, poignant, and inspiring, but not in a cheesy Rocky way. She doesn't name the diet she is on, because it's not really the point. The point is, she decided it was time to lose weight and for the first time in her life she educated herself on proper nutrition and ate whole, healthy foods. She learned how to cook and to eat veggies, and got herself exercising one step at a time.

Of course, I recognized many moments of her journey; I went through a similar thing when I did the Core plan several years ago. Up until then -- which means my mid-30s, if you can believe it -- I had no idea how to cook anything besides Kraft macaroni and cheese, and I loathed almost all vegetables. Core forced me to change my outlook, and I am grateful for that forever. It opened up my palate and food options immeasurably, and it got me to appreciate well-seasoned fresh food instead of just convenient junk. (The downside is now I like to eat good food AND junk food. So I eat more anyway!)

I want to say Half-Assed inspired me to start dieting, but not quite. Jennette herself put it best in one of her most recent blog posts; she too is at the point of needing to lose a bit more weight and she isn't able to dig down and capture that same rush of enthusiasm and motivation that she had during the Big Loss.

She wrote, "I am much more resentful about healthy living than I was five years ago. The first time was a happy, fun adventure of self-discovery and change. This time, it’s been a drag-me-by-my-pony-tail-down the trail, begrudging return to healthy habits. I’ve haven’t been doing it because I particularly want to, but because I know I NEED to."

Yeah. I can say unequivocally I see myself in that. Except I am not dragging myself by my ponytail to do it. Yet.

Anyway, Half-Assed was well worth the read, and PastaQueen is an excellent blog to follow, particularly if you are in a hair-pulling frame of mind like I am.

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I've also read a couple more books but I will cover those next week. Thinky thoughts abound!

Have a lovely weekend, everyone! My parents are in town for Saturday, and Sunday is a trip to the farmer's market with a girlfriend, and a visit to the local no-kill cat shelter. George is not adapting well to bachelorhood; it seems almost too soon for us, but he needs a playmate.