Mirror, Mirror, on the wall . . .

So I am on day 9 of dieting; and anyone who tells you that dieting is not deprivation is a liar. "Lose 30 pounds without feeling hungry" Right. I think we are such a pleasure-soaked nation that we even try to convince ourselves that there is a magical way to lose weight that doesn't make us uncomfortable or limit our choices or even make us exercise. It just doesn't work that way---the only way to actually lose weight is to get hungry; if you're not hungry, then your body is getting enough fuel without tapping into your outer thighs. And I am hungry . . . so that better mean my outer thighs are whittling down to toothpick size as I write. But probably not. I'll just take 'fit into your jeans without looking like a sausage casing' at this point.

I have 4 lbs to go to get back to my happy weight. I was hoping to end the strict diet at the 2 week mark and just go on the No "S" Plan---no snacks, seconds, or sweets on days that don't start with "S" (Saturday, Sunday and special days). I think I can do that just fine. Once I get to the alleged happy weight, I want to cut my running down to 4 days a week so that I can add in a day of yoga and a good 60 minutes of weights. I am only able to squeeze in 10 minutes of weights after running each morning because Janie usually needs to take a nap at 9:30 and I don't want to leave her in the gym daycare longer that 50-60 minutes. So my strength training has taken a back burner at the moment because I figure the running is more crucial. Truth is, I don't really like running that much, but it makes me sweat (C&C Music Factory style) and it is always hard, so it must be good for me.

On another superficial note, my face is flake-o-rama because I started back on a retinoid a couple weeks ago. I used retin-a for about 8 years, but quit 6 years ago when I starting trying to get pregnant. Fast-forward to today and my skin is having to re-adjust and learn to tolerate the retinoid all over again. That means flakiness for about a month, which is not pretty under make-up. I am just living with mascara and lip gloss at the moment. Part of the issue is that I always used .05% retin-a before and when I went to fill my Rx, they would not cover it anymore now that I am over 30 yrs. Rather than shell out $100+, I decided to use some of Mark's tazorac which he got, but never used. But his taz is .1% (twice as strong)and taz is just an inherently stronger retinoid, so I am really hoping that my skin can adjust and I am not just wasting my time on too-strong of medicine. If I stay flaky, then that is exactly what I did. I'll just have to wait and see. I am only using it every other day and the tubes are 2 years old, (the med has a half-life of 3 years, so I am using the active-ingredient decay to my advantage). Maybe when these tubes are done I can justify some Rx expenditure, but for now, I am being cheap (ummm . . . resourceful???)

That's certainly not deep-end of the pool musings, but excuse me, I have a mirror to go question.