A funny thing happened to my appetite on the fourth day of the Shangri-La Diet Plan, it subsided.

I awoke at about 9:30 a.m., but decided to update the Israeli-Lebanon conflict story on amNY.com. When I finally turned off the laptop, it was nearly 11:15. Usually, I would have been starving by now, but I wasn't so I leisurely prepared some scrambled eggs, veggies and leftover chicken salad.

After muddling around and reading Newsday, I got down to painting the trim in my kitchen. The project has taken far too long, so I was determined to finish up. I started wrapping it up at about 7:30 p.m., at which point I fired up the grill for hamburgers.

We didn't eat until about 8:45 p.m. and even still, I wasn't famished, like I usually am. And even though my boyfriend was having french fries with his burger, I opted for green beans with my turkey burger and finished up with low-carb pears.

Now maybe it was the heat, which can also sap the appetite. But I am leaning toward the diet. We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

-- Amanda Barrett, amNY.com