![\"3284735579_eef223b590_b.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/3284735579_eef223b590_b.jpg\")
<\/p>\nI drove over the George Washington Bridge yesterday and shot the following photo which I guess I should have posted for Presidents Day but I have no sense of time right now – for example, I think today is Wednesday, and it also feels like mid-January to me. I am discombobbled. But anyway, I took the picture because I think it looks cool and it’s also fun to take photos as you are driving<\/i> over an enormous bridge.<\/p>\n
I also snapped a photo of myself while driving and I post it because it makes me believe that the South Beach diet is working and I need all the confidence I can get.<\/p>\n
So happy Presidents Day. And happy South Beach.<\/p>\n
\nGWB + FLAG = PRESIDENTS DAY<\/big><\/p>\n
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\nME LOOKING THINNER TO MY OWN EYES FROM SOUTH BEACH<\/big><\/p>\n
\n![\"3284736105_e754e6c4d2_b.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/3284736105_e754e6c4d2_b.jpg\")
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\nOne of my goals right now is to make this place as unwelcome as possible to the people who feel it necessary to write me mean emails that start with douchebag-infested sentences like, “Listen, let me tell you what men are like, since you seem to think you’re so smart …” Or “I look forward to when the whole TMI thing ends on your blog and you get back to real content.” I have written before about my contempt for those who are all freaked out by “TMI” (which, to those people, really is just … anything personal .. at all). Now – the question of why such people would continue to read MY blog says more about their psychologies than my own deficiencies. Besides, if I feel like posting a picture of Hope every day, I will. I’m not doing this for money. I’m not trying to be important or relevant. What kind of blog did they think they were reading? A blog devoted to herb gardens? To the intricacies of power politics in Washington? To taking down the liberal MSM? Where exactly do you think you are<\/i> on the Internet? And my contrary nature just loves a challenge, especially if you are a douche to me in an email. The more you bitch about TMI, the more I will post pictures of myself, and my apartment, and my cat. The more you bitch about how stupid women are, the girlier and girlier my posts will become. Because I know the truth. I know who I am. I am not looking for acceptance or love here. I already have that in my life. I have been trying to survive. That’s all. Focusing on self and home and family and photos is how I have been surviving.<\/p>\n
To those of you who go with me on whatever journey I want to go on – thank you … your beauty and openness as readers is NOT ignored by me.<\/p>\n
It also must be said that over the last month or two, I have received some of the nicest emails I have ever gotten in the history of my site. Some from total strangers – who just want to thank me, or share a little bit of themselves – some from people I already know a little bit. The mean emails do not overtake the nice ones – but boy, the mean ones have been really<\/i> mean lately. Must be pushing some buttons. Poor big tough guys being forced<\/i> to read a girlie blog! Because yeah, you know how you are FORCED to read certain blogs? I hate it when that happens.<\/p>\n
And so the fun and fizzy and “go with it” adolescent energy<\/a> of the Ben Marley posts<\/a> have really brought me through a rough week, and it’s been great. (The mania is spreading<\/a>, too, which I love.)<\/p>\n So. South Beach Diet.<\/p>\n I am still loving it. I have not had a piece of bread in almost three weeks now, and I’m not sure, but I think that has made the difference in my overall weight. That’s my guess. I miss bread, yes, but I’ve got momentum now and I’m not going back.<\/p>\n I am enjoying making oven-roasted vegetables for snacks – sprinkled with kosher salt – and I made a really good chicken-pistachio salad last week. I make yummy omelettes in the morning, with egg substitute mainly … and scallions and peppers and it’s just delish. Cooking in the morning is TOTALLY new for me. I’m a big cereal and yogurt kind of girl, but it’s really nice. I enjoy the ritual of it, and I enjoy switching it all up a bit.<\/p>\n I have not gotten on a scale, and I won’t … not yet. I need to get more into a groove, and not focus on the results so much. Just focus on health and diet and creating a routine. But I can see it in my face.<\/p>\n I have usually been so disappointed with myself when I try to diet. It’s never “stuck”. I either go totally anorexic, or do something half-assed. The South Beach diet is on my radar, it’s something I think about and consider – and for the first two weeks I really didn’t go out, which was good, because it helped me to get through that first detox, without complicating things in restaurants, etc. I hovered over my skillet at 6:30 a.m. and sometimes I found myself with tears dripping down my face.<\/p>\n It’s been a process.<\/p>\n I am unable to read right now, and while the writing is coming back a little bit (which it better be … I’ve got a lot of “book” things to do) – the reading isn’t really there yet. I decided, almost on a whim, to start South Beach. My friend David was doing it, and my sister Jean had done it, and I already had the book so one morning I just started.<\/p>\n I’m on week three now. It’s not been easy at times and there was once when I had to forcibly propel myself away from the bread aisle at the supermarket, because I felt like I would literally kill somebody for a loaf of bread. But it’s helped focus me, and given me a project, something engrossing … it’s changed my routine in an enormous way, and at the same time, it’s been gentle, and slow-going. I try not to get freaked out. I try to just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Don’t get too far ahead of myself. Don’t think about my bikini. Just think about getting more scallions, and also the ginger-orange chicken I’m going to make tonight. That’s as far ahead as I can go.<\/p>\n And if I cook and cry, then I cook and cry.<\/p>\n I love the South Beach book, too. I am eating healthier than I have in a long long time, and am finding snacks and things that really work<\/i> for me.<\/p>\n This is a revelation. I am so used to being disappointed in myself, and not being able to stick with something. But I have a lot of support – friends, my mother – and so it’s happening, it’s really happening … and I’m very grateful for it.<\/p>\n Oh, and also proud of myself.<\/p>\n I’m proud that I have done this. I’m proud that I have gotten this far.<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I drove over the George Washington Bridge yesterday and shot the following photo which I guess I should have posted for Presidents Day but I have no sense of time right now – for example, I think today is Wednesday, … Continue reading