You May Be Right. I May Be Crazy.

Sometimes I walk a very fine line between highly motivated and highly crazy.

I’ve been working out more than usual lately, partly because of the pact with Wings and Snap, and partly because I have been alone a lot.

My husband S works in the evenings, Tuesday – Saturday. I work regular ol’ daytime hours Monday – Friday. As a result, I spend four of five weeknights alone at home with the dogs. I get bored. I get restless. I get intensely interested in the contents of the refrigerator. The only way I can avoid snacking my way out of pants that fit is by distracting myself. And there’s no better distraction than exercising—it’s hard to lick an ice cream cone while doing downward facing dog.

So, I come home from the gym most evenings and cook dinner and clean up the house and then, in order to not eat Second Dinner, I hop on the treadmill and walk while watching TV, usually for an hour or two. And then sometimes, I’ll put in a yoga tape. It keeps me occupied so I don’t munch mindlessly.

However, I think this might be overdoing it. I’ve been really, really exhausted lately. I’m trying to make sure I eat enough to offset the extra exercise I’m getting, but I’m still feeling run down and tired.

But there’s also a crazy little voice in my head that says I must keep getting this much exercise. I’ve lost four pounds since increasing my activity and the crazy voice is very excited about this. For the first time in my adult life I weigh 131 and the crazy voice likes it a lot. And it’s muttering things about how cool it’d be to see 129. Or even 127.

How do you know when to stop?