WLF: Hello Holidays

Okay, clearly this is not Weight Loss Wednesday, since Wednesday was like two days ago, but I do have a reason!

I've been getting up before 6 a.m. to go hike every morning, and then coming back to Mom's house, eating, showering, then passing out until 11.

I figured all that would throw off my weigh in, so I decided to wait until Friday when I wouldn't be getting up before 5 a.m. my time to attempt stepping on Mom's Scale. Which apparently according to her isn't all that accurate and likely older than her. I think that's a slight exaggeration.

So, I'm a week into my vacay and I've been hiking and eating properly and all that good stuff. I had three Molson Canadian 67 beers last night, which is probably why I'm still at 220 when I was actually at 217.3 the morning I left. Plus we had Israeli takeout last night for dinner, and falafel is deep fried, but that's okay because it was yummy!

I also decided it was time for another change, so I went to my old pal D and had her cut my hair off.

Good morning, world... can I go back to bed now?

Now we're about to embark on a trip to Alberta for my cousin's wedding, where alcohol will be imbibed in great amounts, because that's how it works when I'm with my extended family.

I'm in a much better frame of mind than I was last week, so that's a good thing. Seeing old friends, the babies of old friends and not having to be at work has calmed me down some.

But I gotta go get ready now, so I'm going to leave you with this uber inspirational image I took yesterday at 6 a.m.

Because Journey makes everything better.

Happy holidays!

Ginger.

WLW: One Year Later

Well peeps, here were are.

This post is a milestone. It was one year ago that I decided I was sick and tired of being a fatass and it was past time to do something about it.

At that time, I weighed in at a hefty 235.5 pounds. Goddamn, my head was fucking wide.... I'd finally gained fat on my face. That was insane.

Putting the "belly" in bellydancer... This is actually a freakishly good angle.

I decided to cut out sugar in all it's forms to start with, go on a schedule of eating properly for 12 days then getting two days off.

This worked well for a couple months. Then I realized that have no sugar in my system was almost as bad as having too much, so I started to incorporate complex carbs back in.

I think I did alright up until Thanksgiving. After that, things seems to go to shit. Maybe because it was winter, maybe I'd lost my drive. I don't know. But I had a bitch of a time trying to lose for something like 5 months. I wanted to cry almost every day, I'm actually astounded that I didn't.

Instead, I set a different goal. Instead of the main focus being weight loss, I was going to get in shape for derby season! Yeah, that'll keep me motivated!

It did, for the most part. I worked out every morning at 6 a.m., and then went to the walking track after work. I didn't lose a pound at this point, but I was starting to tighten up. That was a good sign, I thought.

I also redid the Learn to Run 10k with my sister, with the goal of doing a 10k in April. Which I did, along with my coach and derby wife and derby twin. We finished dead last – my fault, because I'm stupid slow – but we finished.

By that point we'd moved back into the big space for derby practices and started to get things going for the upcoming bouting season. Running fell by the wayside a bit... okay, a lot.

Then, I started recording everything I eat on My Fitness Pal, which made me realize I was eating not too bad, but way too much. That's been a pretty big help in curbing what and how much I eat.

Around that time I decided I was going to take a natural approach to eating, reduce my meat intake and not eat anything that had any unpronounceable ingredients.

Yeah, then we started bouting and that went right out the window.

So that's my year in a nutshell. In all that time I'm managed to take off a whopping..... are you ready for this?

15 pounds.

That's it.

Sigh.

I mean, I lost something. It's better than not losing anything, I guess. Kind of a downer though. When I started this whole mess I figured I'd be able to take off like 40 or 50 pounds. Most people would have! Not Ginger. Nope. I originally hit the 15 pound mark back in fucking October for fuck's sake!

I suck.

...

I'm sorry, that's the PMS talking. See, I've got this nasty little problem that I can't seem to recall if I've discussed here before and upon a (very) quick perusal of all my previous entries I don't see it anywhere.

I have a condition called Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. This isn't a new development – I've known I've had it since I was 17. My doctor at the time discovered it through blood work and it's basically a hormone imbalance. While girls are supposed to have a certain amount of estrogen and testosterone, more of the former than the latter, I actually have more testosterone than I should and not enough estrogen.

Because of the weird imbalance, my body wants to weigh 300 pounds. I don't weigh 300 pounds, so I must be doing something right.

So I'm gonna hold a little pity party for the rest of the night, but when I get up tomorrow that's done. It's a brand new day, year and so on.

Question for anyone that reads this... should I continue these WLW posts? Does anyone care? Should I do something different? I don't know if it's helped beyond being an outlet for me to vent, but maybe that's enough? I don't know.

I'm gonna go crawl into bed with a book now. My holidays start in a couple days and like I said last year, going to Mom's is like going to a fat farm. Maybe it'll be the thing I need.

For now, here's my meh face for the day.

 Meh.

Reflections and Recollections,

Ginger.

WLW: Who's counting?

This week marks the end of the first portion of the Busiest Summer Of Life.

It's also the penultimate week of this whole weight loss thing I've been doing. I can't recall the exact start date, but I think it was in the latter half of June, so I'm going with it being next week.

Anyhoo, rather than talk about food and numbers, this week I'm going to focus on shape and tone.

See, this past weekend, I played in my sixth roller derby bout. It was a very hard game, very physical on both sides. Grande Prairie is a much more advanced team than we are, in terms of the game itself, so it was an... interesting experience, let's say.

Eleven months ago I played in my first ever bout. It was a short-bench, maybe 8 or 9 skaters, after an 8 hour boot camp with the fabulous Tye Die. I really didn't know what exhaustion was until that day was finally over.

Here's a photo from that first bout. I'm the chick on the very far right in black.

Wow, it's not until I look back that I can actually see how heavy I really was. It's not a wonder I was always in the back and struggling to keep up.

Fast forward to now, after nearly 12 months of attempting to eat properly, exercise more, and try to get in good enough shape that I don't always have to play catch up with the pack.

This is a photo from this past weekend. It's only from the back, but I think the difference is still pretty clear. I'm the one in black that's the farthest left.

After basically spending last season riding the inside line, I've gotten my agility up some more, not super great, but getting better; I can actually do my 25-in-5 with no real problem, and my coach is starting to Jam me.

Yes, people, my helmet in the above photo has a red spot on it. That's because, for the first time ever, I pulled on the Jammer panty in a real live game and gave it a whirl. I didn't make it through the pack, but I gave it a shot. That's more than I would have done back in that first game.

So yeah, all-in-all, I'm actually quite pleased with how I've progressed. I'm starting to get more physical and actually hit some bitches, and being an asset to my team. So I'm happy.

Next week's post will likely be some big long lamenting entry, so enjoy the upbeatness of this one!

Smashy Smashy!
Ginger. :)

Order vs. Chaos

So while I was sitting at my desk today, staring at my computer's screen, the G-chat window lights up and I see my boss over in Dawson Creek sent me a link to a very interesting article.


It was titled Chaos Theory: A Unified Theory of Muppet Types. You can read it yourself here.


The idea is that there are two types of muppets (and in reality, people) out there – the Chaos Muppet and the Order Muppet.


Chaos Muppets are those that are extremely emotional, volatile, and seemingly completely nutz. Examples of the Chaos muppet include Cookie Monster, Grover, Gonzo, Ernie and Animal. 


Order Muppets are those that are neurotic, regimented, and hate surprises. Examples of the Order Muppet include Kermit the Frog, Bert, Sam the Eagle and Scooter.


Now, after reading this article, I promptly posted the link on Facebook and Twitter and asked which one of these people thought I was – the article even says it's better to ask a friend which you are, since it can be hard to look at yourself objectively.


After posting it, Katelin came into my office and told me – without missing a beat –  I'm the sub-category of Faux Chaos Muppet. 
 
Apparently, Faux Chaos Muppets are "chaos on the outside, but with hard, rigid, inflexible caramel centers. Like Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, we sow chaos throughout the land. But like the good doctor, we do so in an effort to better organize the world." Meaning I'm actually an Order Muppet that's masquerading as a Chaos Muppet. I couldn't be a true Chaos Muppet and actually do the job I do – it's too structured and regimented, far too much routine on a daily basis. And yet I have a lot of creative energy and strange thought processes that enable me to do my job very well. So it all evens out.


I liked this theory. It made for a very fun Friday afternoon in the newsroom as we diagnosed everyone in the Editorial department, then the Composing and Front offices before moving onto local political figures, then historical figures and family members.


Apparently no one likes to be called an Order Muppet. James was adamant that he most certainly wasn't one, but after some examples that likened him as being more Bert than Ernie, including the eyebrows, he relented and embraced it. Plus the article states that a person will seek out their muppet opposite, and he said his girlfriend is definitely the Chaos one, which made it easier for him to accept his Order-ness.


Alison on the other hand, after telling her she was an Order Muppet said she demanded a recount and wanted an appeal.


Me: "That's exactly what an Order Muppet would say."


Alison: "Dammit, you're right! Logic wins again!"


Like I said, interesting afternoon.


We determined that both Katelin and Katie were Chaos – the Chaos Kates, we're now calling them. 


Our sister department in Dawson Creek has three Orders and one Chaos. 


I know it's not something to take to heart – it's difficult to lump people into one single category or another as the majority of us have traits and nuances that overlap like a Venn Diagram, but it's an interesting way to think about who we are. It has an existentialist bent that I haven't looked at too closely since my Philosophy 101 days.


I haven't been this jazzed by a subject is ages – I want to discuss and and debate it all over the place... Katelin and I even started trying to decide where other muppets fit in. The Count had us stumped for most of the afternoon; we thought Big Bird was probably Order, but Snuffleupagus was Chaos, since he's a figment of Big Bird's imagination. Snuffy is Big Bird's Chaos side coming out, perhaps? 


Now I wanna dive into where the Fraggles fall into all this.

Order or Chaos, I think there's one thing we can all agree on: Cookies are amazeballs.

Manha Manha,
Ginger.

WLW: Brain Dead

Holy crap, is today Wednesday?

Wow, I completely zoned out on it this week, I'm sorry.  I don't even really have any witty rejoinders to share....

I did take part in the regional belly dance show in Grande Prairie this past weekend, that was fun. our group chatted with the Dawson Creek group and might do a sort of collabo show in November, in which case I wanna do a solo dance.

There's another derby bout this coming weekend, this time in Grande Prairie... yay for more smashy smashy!

I didn't get on the scale this morning, mostly because I forgot. So fuck the weigh-in this week! Here's a monkey instead:

His name is Timmy. Worship him, bitches!

I managed to get some groceries this week, so I can actually make my meals and not buy them. I've been bad like that this past week. Keep on chuggin' along, I guess. It's all I can do.

Hopefully I'm in a better mindset next week and can give you a better update.

Just keep skatin'
Ginger.