On the plane I read

16: Tender is the Night by F Scott Fitzgerald. I liked it a lot better than The Great Gatsby, although I found it surprisingly honest and sordid for a book written in such conservative times. Maybe it wasnt as conservative as I thought!

17: Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray. A Novel without a Hero, but with a lot of comedy and rich storyline and characters.

18: Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens. I don’t think he knew how to NOT write well! I’m a Charles Dickens Groupie, yes indeed.

Once again, I’ve hit that point in a diet where I stop losing weight and just get so discouraged.

I got to that point and then realized that although my body was burning fat, it would only lose so much until it stopped because I wasn’t living as healthily as I should have, and therefore certain things in my lifestyle needed to change in order for me to reach my optimum health. Namely, sleeping patterns and overall daily exertions and water intake, as well as meal portions.

Sleeping patterns: I either deprived myself of sleep by waking up too early/sleeping too late, which is very very bad for the health either way. The right amount of sleep does absolute wonders for health.

Daily exertions: I realized that although I exercised very well every day, the only time in the day when I actually exerted myself was during my trips to the gym, which defeats the purpose really, it’s supposed to bring my overall energy level up so I can burn more calories altogether even when I’m not in the gym!

Water intake: no need to really deliberate on that, its the golden rule in any diet, which I’ve started to neglect.

Meal portions: I’m starting to fall into the large portions fewer times a day trap rather than the small portions more times a day thing. This needs to change as well.

Although I haven’t gained any of the weight I lost – which if I’m being optimistic is much better than just gaining but not as good as at least losing slowly and steadily – I can do so much better.

No more gym for three weeks as I’m going to be going on holiday for three weeks. But in cool European countries like the places I’ll be headed to (Switzerland, Austria and Germany), I predict lots and lots of walking! Hopefully that will take care of my exercise requirements, so what I need to work on is water intake and healthy meals!!!

PS: Anyone at a loss for how to remove fast food cravings from your life, just watch Fast Food Nation. Although I read the book, it’s the movie that did it for me. Not one single craving since then. Watch this movie people!!! I’m seriously contemplating vegetarianism atm because of it!

A Widow for One Year – John Irving

I’m really starting to like this author. He has a writing style completely his own, you can pinpoint it after reading any group of sentences within the book, without looking at the front cover. He’s funny and honest, and he has amazingly three dimensional characters. Make it ten dimensional… I can’t wait to get my hands on ‘A Prayer for Owen Meany’ – which a friend told me is his best.