On Friday I wore a pair of black and white "tweedy" pants and a short, chic black jacket to work. It's a spring outfit, and it was just right for a beautiful spring day of meetings. While I was sitting in one of those meetings, I looked down and noticed my tummy. I wear a size six, and I exercise and eat right. In all honesty, I've been known to gain a pound or two over the winter because I hate the short days. But I've never "noticed" my tummy before. I sat up a little straighter, but that didn't help.

It's true that Peter and I have a new habit. We discovered Trader Joe's One Pound-Plus Belgium chocolate bars ($4.59, I think) and. having learned how good dark chocolate is for our health, we've been eating two squares just about every night for months.

On Saturday morning, I dug the scale out of the closet and weighed myself. As usual after the winter, I'm about two pounds over my preferred weight, but that's no different than in past springs. So what's with this tummy thing?

Maybe I need to go down to one square of chocolate and double the number of sit-ups I do. But I have this sinking feeling in my gut that it has something to do with…

being 70-something.