This week Staness of  Menopause Makeover is hosting Fashion Flash.  I love her supportive and effective advice on weight control.  Want to know  your ideal weight?  Just enter your height and gender and the  number pops up  within seconds.  I was happy to learn that  I was  less than 7 pounds away.  That’s  a number I can handle.

Menopause Makeover also  has  a great selection of easy, delicious and health recipes.   This week I made her tilapea with cherry tomatoes and black olives.  Flavored with  a bit of white wine, olive oil and garlic, it clocked in at less than 250  calories  per delicious serving.  

This week I picked up The Bag Lady Papers, a   small pink book with a big impact. Author   Alexandra Penney  had been  a well known lifestyle writer who  lost  her  entire life savings when she invested  them with Bernie Madoff.   Penney and I  shared a mentor  in Self  magazine founder Phyliss Starr Wilson and the events of  her life before and  after Madoff certainly hit home.  Her first book ” How to Make Love to a Man” was a huge  hit and she prudently saved and invested the earnings.  When she  became editor in chief  at Self, she  was the driving force behind   raising readership  and higher revenues.  While she enjoyed the perks of her  job– exotic travel,  legendary restaurants,  exciting parties and designer clothes,  she  made sure that her   savings were safe and growing.   Then one morning she woke up and everything was gone.  

Penney started a blog  that was soon turned into  a small, moving and ultimately inspiring  book.  She weaves together  the arc of her career,  her surrent struggles to keep a roof over  her  head,   and  herl ists of what is important in a post -Madoff life .  But you don’t have to be a  Madoff vistim to relate to The Bag Lady Papers. Over the  past few years , I have seen my friends, neighbors and family members lose the jobs they loved.  Every month I see another store or restaurant close, the victim of a contracting economy. But  life  is marked by more than financial and professional  sink holes. And as the years go by we all experience  painful changes– divorce, death of a parent,  serious health problems and   her  lists of what  is and is not important is worth the price of the book.