2:43 a.m. This will be the last of the semi-naked ladies, I promise. But I sense a theme here, and little did I realize that it is a theme that is positively sweeping the web. The formerly demure Anna, of Lucidity, has had a naked or nearly so lady on her pages every single day this month.

I guess it's the dreaded shape-up after the holidays time of the year. First you try to diet, and that failing, you might then try to exercise. I don't think I've mentioned it before in these pages, but I hate, I positively hate hate hate exercise. What a surprise, eh?

I sort of like to play sports, however. I wouldn't actually wake up in the morning just longing to jump into togs and take to the chalk-marked field, mind you, but I've been known to enjoy tennis and basketball in my own way.

Bicycle riding might be fun if I had a bicycle.

Ok. So I'm not very athletic. Or active. Or even motile. I do roll around on my office chair ...

So then we come to exercise. Nothing on this earth could be more boring. What do you think about as you do it? That's my question. I once had a treadmill, but I couldn't rig up a reading apparatus to it that didn't jiggle and it was nowhere near the TV, so I fell off that particular piece of equipment pretty quickly.

And literally, too. More than once. It's just too tempting to let it roll you back and see if you can catch yourself in time. Trust me. You can't.

I have a Richard Simmons exercise dance video, and I've watched it once or twice, but I prefer freeform dancing all over the place, as the music moves me. I gotta be me. I'm scared of Jane Fonda and her predilection for pain, so although I bought one, I've never watched it.

Well actually, that's not true. I did start it, but I remember being supremely irritated by the raucous folk in the background clapping and yipping in the cavernous echoing mirrored studio. Too much self-love for me.

Then there's yoga, my personal favorite. I have a tape in which a marvelous looking woman stands in front of a sand dune and goes through the most amazing, smooth contortions without looking up or breaking a sweat or checking the directions on the box. Like a greased-joint robotic doll, but fascinating.

It brought back lots of memories. I've tried yoga in the past and I've tried not to get bored. I know you're supposed to take the time and not worry about what else you could be doing ... but it drives me crazy. My mind races on the gerbil wheel. It's the only muscle that's getting any action. A healthy mind in a healthy body. Or is it the other way round?