Typical. It takes everything I have to decide to do this, and the first day, it rains. Susannah and I chatted last night and decided that as long as it was just raining (i.e., no lightning or wind) we'd go.

Well, there was nothing, no wind, no rain. It was a little chilly, but I actually took off my fleecy pullover about halfway into it, once my blood got going.

And I only fell down once. Well, hell, it was dark.

So this is good. These are baby steps.

And more baby steps to come. I watched Oprah yesterday (I know, I know, more diet tips from Oprah) but I really identified with the idea of carbohydrate addicts. Those of you on the mailing list for Gracefully a few months ago my remember my sad attempt at the Atkins program, which so many people have been successful with, but which eliminates carbs almost entirely. It made me sick and unfocused and cranky within a day and a half, and I gave up. But the program they described yesterday made a lot more sense, which is not to eliminate carbs, but having them with one meal in balance with protein and fat.

They talked about the high that people get from eating, and I know that's how it is for me. If I'm nervous or tired or stressed, I go for the pretzels or ice cream and I'm in heaven from one bite, but then I keep going. That's just not good.

One sign of carb addiction is getting hungrier in the middle of the day after eating breakfast than not, and I've been saying that for years. If I have some cereal and juice in the morning -- by all accounts (and for non-carb-addicts) a healthy breakfast, I'm much hungrier by 11:00 or 11:30 than if I hadn't eaten anything at all. They said it's because the small amount of carbs in the morning gets your system going and makes you crave them more.

Anyway, this just sounded like something I could do. If I don't have to contend with "you can't have that at all," I'm okay. Putting carbs off until my "reward meal" (I love that phrase) is something I can probably handle.

They did talk about eliminating diet soda, and I'm with the woman in the audience Oprah caught saying "I'm screwed." I'm just not ready to contend with life without Diet Coke.

Baby steps, baby steps, baby steps. Oprah's having the people in the audience who admitted to being carb addicts try the program for thirty days and then come back. I suppose I can do anything for thirty days.

I didn't intend for this to be an "Elizabeth Tries to Change Her Damn Life One More Time" entry, but I have to get this entry up this morning because I won't have any time to do it the rest of the day, and I don't want to go more than two days without an entry, so here you go. I promise I'll blather on about other stuff next time.

Postscript: This entry has been up all day, but there's no way for you to have known that since I forgot to change the index page, or even notify the notify-ees. I am so lame.

But now that I'm here, I'll blather on a bit. First of all, I am very excited about the premiere of SportsNight tonight at 9:30 on ABC. Secondly, although I do love the show, I'm taking Once and Again off the Limelight page, mostly because there's already been two episodes and I haven't even gotten one reviewed, and I have to be a little more realistic about what I have time to do there. All the other shows are "cancelled" in my book: I thought Cold Feet was dumb, Now and Again too slow, and West Wing... well, I liked West Wing. West Wing is in abeyance, if you'll forgive me. It may make an appearance later on. But unless Wasteland blows me away, Limelight will stick to the big three.