Spring cleaning begins

I am throwing down the gauntlet and announcing that the detox/exercise regime begins today. Basically, that gives me three weeks to lose three kilos before the wedding in California I am going to in May. I admit that the wedding is just an excuse- as if my girlfriends will notice either way. The last time I saw them, I was 4 months pregnant- that lovely puffy stage. Anything is an improvement over that. But still, it gives me a definite deadline, otherwise I would probably keep putting it off for another week until if was 2011 and Ella was starting first grade.

I had sort of thought about doing a really strict diet for a week to help kick things off and to make it a bit more of a detox but I didn't think of it when we went grocery shopping on Saturday (yes, girls. For a hot date on Saturday night, my husband took me to Bercy 2 Centre Commercial. I'm a lucky lucky lady.) So the fridge is full of cheese and creamy yogurts and pork sausage and butter. All sort of things that don't really go along with dieting. Oh, and I nearly forgot about the mountain of chocolate on our buffet table. Of course, with my little chocolate allergy, its not so bad. More than three pieces and I get a giant chocolate enema.

The new Elle magazine has a few articles in that are very timely considering my dieting project. There is a blurb about green tea, something that I stocked up on during the grocery trip which seems to be good for me. The article says that the EGCGs (épigallocatéchine gallate, sorry, but I'm not even going to try and translate that) in the green tea help to reduce fat by increasing the rate at which our bodies consume calories while at rest. After Christmas when I was losing weight without putting in much effort, I realized that the one thing in my diet that had changed was the amount of green tea that I was drinking and thought maybe there was some link. Finally, it turns out that it wasn't such a crazy idea. So green tea is on the menu for the next few weeks, let's see if it does the trick a second time. I will try to do without my morning latte and substitute the tea but that seems pretty harsh. We'll maybe start with baby steps.

This afternoon I have the babysitter coming and I am off to my Bikram Yoga class. Ever since I found out that there was a new studio open in the Marais I've wanted to go and try it out, but the schedule doesn't really sync with Ella's daycare schedule. I've decided that for two weeks, I will line up the babysitter to come over so that I can go every day (or nearly). Does that sound insane? I am trying to convince myself that since it is only for 2 weeks, I can tough it out. But those classes are really exhausting physically, even though I am so relaxed at the end that I come out feeling great. I wanted to pay for two weeks unlimited classes straight away so that I couldn't back out but I don't have enough cash on me today. I mentioned to B my plan and warned him that between the diet and the classes I would probably fall into bed exhausted every night at 10 pm so his sex life might take a direct hit... I wonder if this is why he didn't give me any money this morning?' A hot wife is great, but a healthy sex has no price' is his thought, I suppose.

And as if the yoga class was not going to be enough exercise, I went out on the balcony this afternoon once Ella was asleep and scrubbed everything off. I'm ready for my nap now. Once or twice a year I like to wash off the furniture and all the railings as well as the window surrounds. Especially with Ella dragging herself over stuff and rubbing up against things, it makes sense to clean away that grimey Paris dirt. But our balcony faces a giant office building and as I worked up a sweat on my knees scrubbing I felt like I was under the microscope, a million little office workers studying my every move. I started to wonder whether they thought I was a mad woman, washing off my flower pots. I don't know if most people bother. Does that make me a little crazy? But like I said, with the baby, I almost have to, right? And plus, we planted lots of things yesterday, did some repotting, etc and so it just seemed really dusty out there. I don't know, but the minute you start wondering if you look silly, you are guaranteed to find something to feel nervous about.

In any case, being caught washing off flower pots is not nearly so embarrassing as that time I realized that my morning ritual of ironing in my underwear (you know how it does, you grab something out of the closet and decide that it needs a quick once over with the iron so you dash over to the ironing board half dressed...) had been picked up by the big fat guy directly across from my window. Oops.