Accentuate the positive

I'm trying to be my own cheerleader, since obviously the honchos controlling my life don't seem to be in touch with staff happiness. (Must not provide enough hits on the company website for them).

I decided to get an early start so I can get that blasted election story done and I am reveling in the fact that I am wearing jeans in my normal size, but - GASP! - they are loose! I truly have dropped a size (to a number that I haven't seen right before my wedding, which the last time I was truly skinny). At last, all those situps and kung-fu kicks and the tai chi and yoga workouts and the healthy eating and the detox teas are paying off.

It has been a five year battle since my pregnancy to get my figure back down to what had been my normal size. I've always had the workouts and I've tried to eat well.

The breakthrough, believe it or not, was Harry Potter night. While waiting for my turn to buy The Deathly Hallows, I glanced through this book , offering a version of what some might consider the latest dieting fad.

What I found was not a fad, but something that really resonated with the tree-hugging lifestyle and beliefs I've long had - not only a preference for alternative healing, environmental causes, organic whole foods, but also a preference for cooking from scratch.

I don't like mixes, for example. I have a box of Betty Crocker's banana bread mix that has been sitting in the pantry since I started living with my husband. I think he actually brought it from before we started living together. But I never touch it because I make the real thing, mashing the bananas, adding buttermilk and eggs and all the rest. I have made dozens of loaves of banana bread through the years. Frankly, I don't know if I'll ever use that mix.

I have also been suspicious of artificial additives. I've stuck with real sugar all these years, never using the pink packets or the blue packets or the yellow packets that try to mimic sugar. It just never seemed right to use them, though I could never articulate why.

Of course, I am not perfect in this devotion. I have a few convenience foods I cling to - macaroni and cheese, for one.

This book, though, has convinced me to drop even that. The key is understanding the impacts of all these artificial additives to your body and your health and your weight loss goals. It made me a believer.

My diet is not yet perfect (I can't stop having coffee, or the occasional junk food, sorry), but the small changes have made a big difference. I guess I've made my own version of a detox diet - with some particular teas, and I've even used these foot pads.

So, detox works. My hips are living proof of that.