WLW: Food Frenemies

Food really wasn't my friend this week.

As I said last week, I went on a little road trip to play roller derby in Quesnel and was going to try my damnedest to stick to my eating no matter what!

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

I was only gone for something like 36 hours.. you'd think I'd have been able to stick to it better. It all started as we rolled into Prince George. It was about 2 p.m. and I was in need of food, since I likely wasn't going to be able to eat before the bout.

We stopped at the mall to stretch our legs for a few minutes, and I wandered over to the food court to see if there was anything edible. Amongst the usual New York Fries, Sizzling Wok and Subway was an Opa Souvlaki. 'Wonderful' I thought, 'I can get some salad, and maybe some chicken for a protein boost! Most excellent!'

So I did. It wasn't too heavy and it was pretty damn good while I sat in the truck and tried to balance it on my knees while we proceeded on our journey.

Now, a couple hours earlier,we were approaching Chetwynd, which has a 7-11 where FSJ does not. Ruby said they don't stop at 7-11 now that a Timmy's had been built. I made some comment about not getting chicken on a stick, and Ruby made another comment about how awful she and her hubby had felt after eating the chicken on a stick.

Why is this important? Because the chicken souvlaki is on a stick.

"What did I tell you about eating chicken on a stick!?!?" - Ruby Grindstone.

I think it was a combo of the anxiety of the bout and aforementioned chicken on a stick, but I felt like tossing my cookies all over the lobby by the time we got to the hotel.

The bloat feeling stuck around right up until we started playing, and by then I was too into the game to think much about it.

After the bout, we were informed there would be a free beer for each of us in the beer garden. Who am I to say no for a free beer? The beer – combined with dehydration from sweating buckets in an incredibly hot arena for 2-3 hours – went right to my head and all I could think about was super-bad-for-you-pub-food. Upon returning to the hotel I had more beer and four (that's right FOUR!!) slices of meat lovers pizza. They just went down like, well, kind of like the aforementioned beer. I can't remember that last time I was so ravenous.

Around 1:15 a.m., I made my way back to my room and by 2 a.m. I was out cold. Unfortunately, I was wide awake around 7, because that's around when I wake up at home. Bummer indeed.

After laying in bed and vainly attempting to find something to watch on TV on a Sunday morning, I got up and made my way down to Denny's. If you only know one factoid about me, let it be this: I. Love. Breakfast. Bacon, eggs and hash browns are my end all be all of breakfast food. And I had them, oh, how I had them.

So between all that nonsense, plus the sandwich from Subway on the way home (no way in Hell was I trying Opa again after the day before), I was at 220-something. Ruby says I'm putting too much emphasis on the scale number and really ought to look at my inches again, because those have definitely gone down. Ruby is wise, oh yes she is.

This weekend I am off to Grande Prairie for the regional bellydance show, which I had hoped to have a little less belly for, but I made my bed. Now I have to dance in it.

I know I say this every week, but it's a new week... let's see if I can try not fucking it up again. Keep watching for a full post on the game itself, it was pretty epic.

Shimmy and Smash!
Ginger.

WLT: Day Late, Dollar Short

It's Weight Loss Thursday this week!

Sorry about that, I had a lot of things to write this week... a theatre festival story, my weekly column and an impromptu blog post on here, I just didn't have a chance to do my weight loss post...

Anyhoo, here it is, and it's gonna be a short one this time. Still got plenty of shit to do, and the busiest summer of my existence starts on Saturday.

Weight update is that I'm exactly where I was last week – 219.4 – but that's mainly because I fell off the wagon and had a burger at the Derby Wife's place on Sunday. It's what she was feeding her kids! I'd have felt like an ass to even suggest eating something else, and Wifey felt like an ass for only having burgers and chips to offer! We work so well together.

So that's all I got this week. I'm super lame, I know.

Here's a random photo to make this post a little less lame:

Snow right before May Long Weekend, as usual.

I'm off the play our first roller derby bout of the season in Quesnel this weekend, which is really going to put a damper on my eating plan (post derby beer, pizza, Denny's the next morning) butI will be making a conscious effort to not go completely overboard.

Wish me luck!
Ginger.

Derby Wives

There's an idea in the Roller Derby world that there's at least one person on your team that you instantly develop a bond with. Someone who, above all others on the team, becomes your lifelong partner of sorts.

That person is your Derby Wife.

The concept of a Derby Wife was invented by Kacey Bomber of the LA Derby Dolls back in 2003, who after "the world's most ill-advised drinking contest" came up with a list of criteria that makes one of your teammates into your platonic Derby soulmate.

A derby wife is quite simply this: 

1. She is the one person in this whole sport of roller derby that the very instant you looked at her, you felt like you’d known her since you were a fetus. She looked just like your best friend from fifth grade, or something she did reminded you of all the things you ever liked in anyone else.

2. She is the first person you’d call if you ever need to get bailed out of jail. (Or in my case, ever need to have an entire legal crusade started in your name.)

3. She’s the one who will be holding back your hair when you puke after drinking too much, and she won’t let anyone take your picture while doing it.

4. She’ll ride in the ambulance with you when you lose a tooth, break your wrist, or tear your ACL.She’ll make you laugh the whole way to the hospital, try to steal your pain medication (lovingly), and sneak your favorite food and a beer into recovery.

5. She’ll make her actual husband understand that if he loves her, he’s gonna have to put up with you, too, no matter how many times you come over forcing him to revisit all the derby-related shows on his Tivo that you missed.

6. She may not even be your best friend in the league or the sport, but she’d be the one you know will be the first one to back you up, even if you’re dead wrong. She’ll just tell you you’ve lost your fucking mind later in private, possibly kick your ass a little bit, and then be the only one who could ever talk your hotheaded ass into some reason.

- Source

This idea has become so huge in the Derby World that every year at RollerCon in Las Vegas there's a massive "Wedding" where skaters can marry their derby wives, or leagues or whatever.

My wifey has the moniker of Porn Flakes, which surprised the hell out of a lot of people when she chose that name. Granted, they'd never heard her spout off a bunch of expletives after a drink or two. Now they know better.

Now, I'm very fortunate to not only have a Derby Wife, but also a Derby Twin – a term I may have to coin the way Kacey Bomber coined Derby Wife and a concept I will likely do a post on in the future – but Porny has been my bestest bestie the whole time I've been in Derby.

The two of us were about the same size, so we got paired together for a lot of drills. Eventually we just started assuming we were the other's partner for pretty much everything. We laughed, we cried, we skated. Eventually we just assumed that we were each other's Derby Wife.

We started hanging out outside of Derby, went to the movies, for coffee, bitched about our jobs – nurse for her, editor for me – her two little boys became my "fan club." When she'd tell her oldest son that I was coming over to visit, he'd ask "My Aleisha?" I went with her while she got her latest tattoo finished. She listened to my broken-hearted blubbering and offered to make "shit shellack" to throw at his house. Clearly, it was meant to be.

I swear, I will never forget the day we were playing some random tag sort of game at practice – I went through the unsafe zone and Porny had fallen to her knees and tried crawling/scrambling on all fours to try and tag me. I called her a spider monkey and she let out the biggest gut-busting laugh I'd ever heard. Honestly, I didn't think it was that funny, but she couldn't catch her breath, she was laughing so hard.

It wasn't long after that that Porny had her accident. I never saw what actually happened, as I had my back to her at the time, but it was bad. We were practicing barrel rolls and it was going pretty well... that is, until Porny took her turn. The next thing I see is her getting up and going to sit on the bench, then I turned around again and she was gone.

Turned out she's broken her collar bone and damaged her shoulder in her barrel roll attempt. I felt like the biggest ass for not being the one to help her – I still feel like an ass for it, even though she'd tell me "don't be so damn stupid." That fall pretty much ended her Derby career, as he shoulder is now held together with "screws and tinfoil" because the doctors waited too damn long to do something about it.

The even more bizarre thing is that we never actually got a chance to play in a bout together – the first bout we had last year was a mixed bag invitational that actually had us on opposing teams, or at least it would have if I hadn't injured my knee two days before and was unable to play. Then she had her shoulder injury, and that was the end of that. Another hit on that side, and she probably wouldn't be able to use her arm again.

But that didn't matter. She still came to practices, mostly as a spectator or standing in the middle of the track yelling at us while we did pack work. She makes a good bench wench.

But now, all that's done, because she and her husband and kids are move back to Onterrible – I mean Ontario – so she can go back to school and the kids can actually know their extended family. I'm told there will be space for me to come and visit, I imagine it'll be a little cupboard under the stairs like in Harry Potter.

Her goodbye party was a couple weeks ago, which I was at but didn't see much of her. She was concerned that she didn't spend enough time with me, but I knew I was going to see her at least a few more times before she actually left so I really didn't care. We're cool like that. It's nice having friends like that.

I spent a good portion of Monday at her house, shooting the shit, watching the boys and helping clean up some stuff that needed cleaning. I don't know if I'll see her before she leaves on Thursday, but we know that this isn't Goodbye, it's just Catch Ya Later.

Imma miss my Porny. She's already said I can't divorce her on grounds that she's leaving the freakin' province, so I guess I'm stuck with her. The best part is, she doesn't have Internet right now and likely won't have it for another week or so, so she won't see this post until then... mwahahahahahaha!

Ginger and Porny at Tragically Hip concert

Be thankful I didn't add a bunch of photos of you, Porny! I was tempted!

Derby Luv,
Ginger.

WLW: A Bunch of Expletives

As you read this, I am on Day 3 of my new eating plan. I decided that it would likely be better for everyone around me if I didn't do the hardcore vegan thing, because apparently you turn into a raging  psycho bitch while your body adjusts.

Instead, I'm going to all-natural-mostly-vegetarian route. I'm reading all the labels of the food I buy and make sure there's not 20 ingredients and nothing I can't pronounce. I will still eat some dairy, like cheese (there's only one kind in this town that fits the aforementioned criteria) and some yogurt, but I'll be limiting my meat consumption to once a week.

This way I'm only a slightly raging, not completely, but maybe a little psycho, bitch.

I'm already feeling cranky, and it's only been a few days! At least I'm not all jittery like I was when I cut sugar out completely like last year. I still get fruit, so I do still get some sugars, but they're natural sugars, so it's okay.

I was almost foiled in this fiendish plot by having to go to a staff lunch at the pub across the street on Monday. I had a large size version of their garden salad while everyone else had fancy-schmancy sandwiches. I bet those sandwiches tasted really good.

Sigh.

You know, I really do feel like an ass complaining about not being able to eat whatever the Hell I want when there are starving people in the world. Seriously, I feel like the biggest douchebag. Dieting is a First World Problem, and I really ought not to complain about it...

Okay, enough figurative self-flagellation. Moving on.

Right now I get fruit for breakfast, veggies, salad and hummus for lunch, and I'm supposed to have more salad and veggies and a protein (beans) for dinner. Unfortunately the last two nights have been Derby nights, and I don't ever eat on a regular schedule on Derby nights.

I'm finding I actually like all-natural peanut butter, even though I've never really eaten peanut butter unless it's wrapped up in chocolate. It doesn't have anything in it to keep the oil and peanuts from separating, so it's much runnier than the usual Skippy for find in the store. But it tastes good on apples.

Ooooh, apples with weird melty peanut butter...

Now, I spent five of the previous seven days not giving a fuck about what I was eating, since I knew I'd be starting the cleaner eating on Monday. I had hot dogs, movie theatre popcorn, a cheeseburger and poutine. I avoided Scale like the plague just because I was afraid of what the number would say after those five days.

So instead of going by what I weighed on Monday when I started, I'll just go by what I weighed last WLW, which was something like 222.6 or whatever. As of this morning I'm at 219.4 pounds.

It's probably water weight, but I'll take it.

For now, I'm going to enjoy the first meat I've had since Sunday with my dinner – a big giant salad with shrimp and cucumbers.

 Let's hope I make it through the next week... especially with it being Beer and Pickles night after Derby tomorrow...

Gin and Tonic,
Ginger.

WLW: Do I or Don't I?

So I did better with eating this week than last week. To get it said right off the hop, I took off two pounds of that seven pound gain, so it clearly wasn't just water weight.

My mother has suggested I try what my sister is currently doing – going hardcore vegan for a month just to kickstart my system. Brandy has done this on and off for the last year, and when she does stick to it, it really does work. I know, because I watched her get smaller every week. Plus Mom's concerned I'm all toxic and shit after I work up with an awful stomach ache on Saturday.

I really don't know if I could do total vegan – I'm told by the third day you're craving the crap food so bad that unless there's a copious amount of will power, you'll cave in. I'm told it's basically fruit for breakfast, veggies and beans for lunch and a gigantic salad for dinner.

I think I'm going to give it a shot for a week and see how I do. It can't really hurt, right? I won't be starting until Monday though, as I've got a goodbye party this weekend and I plan on not letting any stupid eating habits get in the way of my enjoying one of the last night's my Derby Wife is in town.

I'm going to have to investigate creative ways to cook veggies... maybe do skewers on the barbecue since I just pulled that thing out of retirement and made hot dogs on Monday. Fuck were they ever good.

The balcony barbecue corner.

Unfortunately, hot dogs aren't allowed on this vegetarian/vegan/cleansing thing. This is part of the reason I'm waiting until Monday to start this – I've got meat in the house that I don't want to throw away, but if I start and still have it in the freezer, I'm worried I'll cave and actually make the effort to cook and eat it.

In other news, we did team photos for the upcoming bout in Quesnel... I dislike how I look in them, but it's really more to do with my setting up the photo and then jumping in for the actual shot and sitting very awkwardly. I'm still a fat ass, but whatevs.

I'm the bitch in green, in case you couldn't tell.

It's a work in progress, I suppose. I just thought when i started this almost a year ago, i'd be down a hell of a lot more than I am. I haven't even hit the 20 pound mark – that's fucking pathetic.

Oh well. I'll be on day three of being a veggie-head the next time I post a Weight Loss Wednesday... be prepared for more f-bombs than usual as I attempt to cut delicious meat from my diet.

Happy herbivore-ing,

Ginger.

Single Girl in the Energetic City

So here I am, living up in Northern B.C. in a town that allegedly has a men to women ratio of 4:1.

I really don't know that I believe that.

Granted, that's not factoring in that many of those guys are married, or gay, or whatever. There's just a lot of dudes here because many of them work out in the oil patch.

And being a single career women, it's not easy for me to meet all these alleged eligible bachelors. I mean, where the hell are they, if not in the patch or at the bar!? I don't really do the bar scene anymore – last time I went out with the girls some guy asked all my friends to dance before finally one of them said he should dance with me because I'm not married. He didn't seem that enthused and begrudgingly accepted.

Way to make a chick feel special, asshole. Such is my life. Nobody likes me.

Anyhooooo, I've been relegated to online dating, since I can't seem to find a decent guy in the real world. Not that I'm really finding anyone online either, but it's at least a little more interesting.

For instance, Plenty of Fish has a feature that allows you to see who has viewed your profile. This is a bonus for a couple reasons – one, I can see that guys are in fact looking at my profile, that I did exist in these guys' matches; and two, I can see if the guys I've messaged have looked at my profile and decided to move on.

Sometime in the last week, some guy looked at my profile, and his picture was a George Costanza type pose on a bear skin rug. Intrigued, I checked out his profile and saw that he seemed like an interesting fellow, despite living somewhere in the Lower Mainland, and had requested in his profile to be creative with any messages you send him. Just saying "Hi" would not cut it with this guy, he needed interesting messages!

Happy to oblige, dude.

Since the bearskin rug photo was the first one I saw, I created a little backstory as to how the bear came to be a rug, suggesting that Buddy was involved in an epic Man Vs. Nature battle that he obviously won. Thus, the bear earned it's place of honour in front of a fire, where sexy times obviously commenced, because what else would you do with a bearskin rug in front of a fire?

The next day, his profile was gone. My message was gone because he, as a user, no longer existed.

Honestly dude? Don't ask for creative messages if you don't seriously want them!

For now, I shall continue slogging through the suggested matches who live no where near me, and see if I can't land myself a good catch.

Random Fishing Metaphor,
Ginger.

Project 365: Dead in the Water?

So I managed to last 15 weeks doing Project 365. I had every intention to carrying it out, but It's been three weeks since I took a photo every day, so i think it's safe to say that I've pretty much failed that particular project.

But hey, I lasted longer than some people I know that have attempted it. Maybe next year I'll try again.

For now, I will continue to post random photos under the Random Photo(s) header. There won't be a specific day I post them, just whenever I take awesome shots.

So, let's get started!

The rare and elusive Pink Bunny... they lay blue eggs, it would seem.

A pair of local thespians in the alleged rom-com, Hockey Mom, Hockey Dad.

Another pair of local thespians, in the not-at-all-alleged drama, Death and the Maiden.

Nearly full moon, one day out from the 2012 Super Moon.

So there ya go. Random photos at random times. I have far too many deadlines as it is, adding another one just wasn't feasible.

Keep Shutterbuggin',
Ginger.

WLW: WTF?

This has been the longest week of my life – the calendar week, not the Weight Loss Wednesday week – and it's only half way done!

I finally managed to go grocery shopping on Sunday after not really going for something like two weeks. As much as I hate eating out every meal, the convenience of grabbing something quick for lunch or on the way home for dinner trumped anything else. Including cost, which gets pretty pretty friggin' high.

I've had days this weight loss week where I only ate once during the whole day, but what I did eat wasn't particularly healthy. I don't think I ate anything too terrible... except that one day...

Oh yeah, this is bad. And so fucking delicious....

Add to that the second cupcake of the week that I got yesterday while I was in Dawson Creek for a meeting... I deserved it after spending over half my day not doing my own work and having to do my own work when we got back! So there!

Although I don't know how all that accounted for a six pound gain when I stepped on Scale on Sunday just to do a mid-week check. And that number hasn't moved since then. Rawr!

This has happened before, a seemingly unrealistic and utterly ridiculous rise in the scale number that usually corrects itself when my body catches up to itself... usually on Thursday after the official weigh in. Murphy's Law and all that shit.

Granted, I did kind of ignore My Fitness Pal this week and just figured I was eating all right. We all remember what happened when I was doing that before, don't we? No weight was lost. At all.

But today is a new day! And this is a new week! I got up, made my strawberries and yogurt, brewed my own coffee and will be bringing my soup and wrap for lunch, and I even remembered to take out some pork chops for dinner! I am winning today already!

I am also going to have to start running my ass around the block or something, cuz my exercise routine has fallen by the wayside of late. Derby and dance are still being done, but all the extra running and whatnot have taken a backseat to work and other shit recently.

Forget all that! New day muthafuckas!!!!

Now I'm gonna go to work and slog through that mess for a while.

Cups and Cakes,
Ginger.