Yes, I’m still dieting.  Yes, I’m still hungry.

Now when Adam comes home and says, "I’m hungry," all I can think is — what else is new.

I’m down to 163 — and I’ve lost about ten percent of my body weight.  Let’s all take a pause as I wait for all the benefits of losing 19 pounds to inure to me.  Ok, not yet.  If I skirt heart disease and cancer, I’ll let you know.

I now weigh what I did 1999 when I lived in Cleveland and my weight was on the rise.

The best part about this diet so far has been losing my dependence on caffeine and sugar.  I’m sleeping better than I have in years (it may just be the new mattress), and I don’t have too many of the highs and lows of cravings and addiction that I had before.

The worst part — getting more fit.  When I first started this diet in May, I could simply walk up to Mulholland and burn 300 calories.  Now?  I have to run up and down just to burn 198.  Because I weigh less and my heart is healthier, it takes more work to burn the same amount of calories.  That adds up to more working out and more sweating — somehow I’m missing the fun.  And I do not believe in the ‘endorphin’ high people talk about.  I’m just hot, tired, and hungry.

And every time I run, a Boondocks cartoon plays in my head.  Huey and Riley are standing in the suburbs — waiting for a bus and a white guy jogs by huffing and puffing.  The punch line?  "White People."  It’s hilarious to me — except when I’m running.  Then all I can think is no self respecting black person should be huffing and puffing around Sherman Oaks.

But I’m sure I scare the neighbors.

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