PolyStyrene

Lolita, Madame Bovary and Clockwork Orange are all amazing books. Here are the ten I would like to read before the end of the year-

The Fortunate Pilgrim- Mario Puzo (I’m just finishing it now so I shouldn’t really add it to the list)

Interpreter of Maladies- Jhumpa Lahiri

China Men- Maxine Hong Kingston (I read the first 100 pages at the beginning of the summer. I need to finish this before the end of September or i’ll have to start all over again).

The Continental Op- Dashiell Hammett (Most likely my next selection as I want to give this to a friend before his birthday next month).

Labyrinths- Jorge Luis Borges (Tried reading this when I was 18 to little avail. Hopefully seven years will have added some much needed patience).

Geek Love- Katherine Dunn (A friend got this for my birthday several years ago and it is still on my “to read” list).

Journey to the End of the Night- Louis-Ferdinand Celine (I got this for Christmas in 2003. I read about half of it and put it down. I think there may be a pattern emerging here).

The Marquis of O- Heinrich von Kleist

One Day of Life- Manlio Argueta

If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem- William Faulkner

Defy the Darkness (A Tale of Courage in the Shadow of Mengele)- Joe Rosenblum with David Kohn (My boyfriend gave this to me two years ago when we started dating. I am very interested in the subject but have just overlooked it when it comes time to read).

Okay, there we are. I’m looking forward to finally reading these before the end of the year.

Well, I seem to be down a pound to 127 from the 128 I weighed in at last week though I am still up a pound from where I was three weeks ago (126). I put on 2-3 pounds easily in a week. My comfortable weight is between 125-130 (i’m 5’6) but I want to see if, by cutting out sugar and actually exercising, I can increase my muscle mass and get rid of the fat. That might actually result in me gaining weight which is fine as long as I don’t look as flabby as I do now. What I would like to do is get down to 120 first and then start on a high protein, high intensity work-out. Like I said, I don’t care about being a twig but i’m sick of all of this stupid jiggly stuff.

Since i’ve purchased a pedometer i’ve been able to see just how many steps I take per day. Since I no longer have an automobile, i’ve been logging in a lot of steps. Even so, since I work from home there are some days where I do very little moving. I found that on average I take about 5,000 steps per day so this is definitely motivating me to increase my activity level. Haven’t been to the gym since Monday, so yesterday and Tuesday I did about six miles over the course of the day. I’ve mostly been doing two to three half hour walks per day and that seems to be a no-brain way to get the 10,000 steps in. Now if only I could lose this pesky ten pounds… ; >