Bruised, and loving it

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

As I lie here on the couch (having walked in 78°F heat, 78% humidity and light drizzle for 25 minutes -- would've been longer but for the drizzle), freshly showered and musing over the idea of hitting the hay early for once, I find myself looking at my right arm. In the past few days, I've carried a large old TV out to the car in an attempt to donate it to Goodwill (the man at the collection area just looked at it and laughed -- finally left it out back for the trash scavengers), cleaned the bedroom, carried ladders and vacuum cleaners up and down stairs, and generally been active about the house.

I also bruise easily -- got that from my mother. A friend once gave me an acupressure treatment on my back, and was horrified the next morning at the deep blue Turner seascape-esque blotches that bloomed overnight on my skin. I had to reassure her that she hadn't been torturing me, it was just the way my skin reacted to pressure. And the way my torso looked after a good fencing session can only be described as "Dalmatian."

So it shouldn't come as a surprise that after the last few days, I have three small but distinct bruises high and inside on my upper right arm from where the frame of the TV dug into the muscle, a smudgy bruise on my outer forearm from banging the ladder against it, and a small pink bruise on my inner forearm from God knows what.

And I like them. This may sound idiotic, but I kinda feel like Xena, Warrior SF Writer when I look at my mottled skin. Yeah, they ache a bit, but they remind me of the work I did to get them, and that's kind of cool.

I Anen't Dead

Sorry about that -- life got...a little complicated over the last six months or so. That being said, life has just become remarkably uncomplicated because I finished my contract last week, so I can start doing things like, oh, blogging on a regular basis again.

So, what's been happening with me? Well, health-wise I completely blew my triathlon training, not to mention going to the gym on a regular basis, and generally felt like shit for quite a few months there due to a wide variety of stressors. My crowning moment came when I went to see some friends in a play down in Orlando (which was wonderful, by the way), and couldn't fit in the theater seat. I was just too fat to sit down. Yeah, that was humiliating. I finally managed to Tetris my ass into the seat, tearing my jeans in the process, and bolted for the box office at intermission to beg for anywhere else that could handle a big woman's ass. Luckily they gave me a lovely freestanding chair next to the door, and Lyndon was even able to move with me, but there were a few moments there where all I wanted to do was burst into tears (a very nice man came up to me during intermission and told me that I had an absolutely lovely laugh -- I don't know if he was trying to make me feel better or what, but it did help).

Sometimes, however, you need a kick in the ass like that. And combined with the fact that I was about to be turfed from the Death Star, I decided it was time to make some permanent changes in my life. I'm tired of dreading plane flights because coach seats are massively uncomfortable for a woman of my size. I want to be able to sleep comfortably in a hotel bed -- or, hell, in my own bed without the aid of fifteen million pillows. I'd like to wear clothes that don't have multiple X's on the label. For that matter, I'd like to shop for clothes in a regular person's store -- I've never done that as an adult.

So, what am I doing? Well, some simple things to start out with -- I'm trying to move every day, even if it's just housework. I'm eating small meals every 3 hours, and I try to stay with lean protein and veggies whenever possible. Tomorrow is my first yoga class, Cthulhu help me. And I want to take my bike into a local bike shop and see about getting it generally tuned up, since it's been sitting in the garage for the last 10 years. There are all kinds of bike paths around here -- I'm going to look like a fat idiot on a bike, but at least I'll be out there riding.

WEIGHT: 308.2

We have met stress, and kicked it right in the 'nads

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

I was not looking forward to today at all, because I knew it was going to be frantic, hectic, and a couple of other words ending in -tic due to things involving me wearing metaphoric white armor and carrying a blaster. I also knew that getting lunch at the regular time would probably not be happening due to said activities.

Before now, this would have resulted in me pounding down enough sugar to send a rhino into a diabetic coma just to handle the day, and feeling absolutely run down and lousy as a result. So I planned ahead -- I ate my meal bar first thing in the morning, then indulged in a walnut muffin mid-morning because I was going to damn well need the carbs by 2:00 PM. Which I did, as it turned out, but as a result of said carbs I did not have a meltdown, threaten to stab anyone or grab a couple of beers from the fridge and pop the emergency exit slide, so that was all good.

After the inital crisis was over, I had my usual thai chicken wrap and salad (cucumber/tomato/onion this time, and I have no idea where they get their tomatoes from but the damn things literally taste like plastic -- eurgh) for a late lunch, then came home after more work and had a couple of peanut butter sandwiches and an ounce of the yummy spicy popcorn for dinner. I may well have a protein shake as well later on, I don't know. I do know that I feel a heck of a lot better than I have after previous days like this.

That's all well and good, Mel, you point out, but don't you think you're overdoing it on the food a little in reaction to the stress? Actually, no -- having taken a look at my food intake yesterday (see, there's a REASON why I write everything down), I realized that I'd brought my calorie intake down a little too low by 600 calories or so. Yes, it's possible to bring your calorie intake down too low, especially if you're working out at the same time -- your body tends to think there's a famine going on and goes into lockdown mode. So today I stayed pretty much right around my target caloric intake, and I can feel the difference in my mood and energy level.

In fact, I was feeling so spandy, I went for a rather lovely walk, as we had something of a sprinkle here that did a nice job of cooling the temps down to reasonable levels (I mean, it's 8:30 PM and it's already down to 90 F -- that's just crazy cool). Since I could go outside without melting, I strolled around the neighborhood for a bit, checked out the local park and bike trails, then hightailed it home and set up the sprinkler in our front yard (which I have to go move in a bit).

This is a huge improvement on being curled in a fetal ball, let me tell you.

WEIGHT: 308.2

FOOD FOR THE DAY: 1 SB meal bar, a banana walnut muffin, a Thai chicken wrap, a small cucumber/tomato/onion salad, 2 peanut butter sandwiches with homemade marmalade, 1 oz. of Hotch chili con queso popcorn.

The morning after

Friday, August 13, 2010

My ass is still complaining about the bike ride last night, but my legs feel amazing. One of the cool things about regular exercise is that it sucks donkey gonads when you start doing it (and yeah, it continues to suck when you're tired, stressed or just not in the mood to get to the gym), but once you settle into a routine, you really do get this burst of endorphins that make you feel damn good about yourself. You may be dripping sweat and aching in places you never thought you'd ache directly after the exercise, but there's this sneaky little internal cheer of "Hell yeah -- go me!" that makes you grin even as you limp to the shower.

WEIGHT: 309.8

FOOD FOR THE DAY: 3/4 of a caesar salad and 3/4 of an 8" pepperoni pan pizza (team-building lunch, so I figured what the hell, and I STILL couldn't finish the damn pizza), 1 bag of light butter popcorn, 1 peanut butter sandwich, 1 oz. Hotch chili con queso popcorn, 1 Weight Watchers English toffee crunch ice cream bar.

Waking up in Vegas

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Which will happen tomorrow. In the meantime, I have had a great time wandering around the strip, and I keep swilling water because it's 107 degrees F. And the two margaritas, but we won't talk about those right now.

WEIGHT: 308.8

FOOD FOR THE DAY: one bag of cranberry nut mix, one granola bar, one small chicken Caesar salad, a slice of beef, swordfish, pork, duck, turkey, two Cali roll pieces, seaweed salad and pickled Ginger for dinner, a piece of sugar-free cheesecake, and a few bites of lime-chipotle salad with grilled steak.

A "Hee!" moment

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Many moons ago, when the world was young and Ann Coulter still roamed the plains, I learned how to juggle. It happened when I was in the chorus of "Barnum" -- the director wanted a female juggler to stand behind Charity Barnum during her big death scene and slowly juggle while she sang "The Colors of My Life". 22 measures of music, mind you. Anyway, being the attention whore that I am, I learned how to juggle for that, and have been doing it ever since.

So I have a set of juggling balls on my desk, and my boss just walked by, picked them up and tried to juggle with them. He managed one juggle (that's actually the formal term for one successful pass), then handed them back to me. I started juggling, much to the surprise of my coworkers, then dropped a ball. Without even thinking about it, I dropped into a crouch and picked it up. Dropped another ball, dropped into another crouch and got that one. It wasn't until I stood up that I realized, "Oh, wait -- I just did a butt-to-heels crouch without gasping, falling over or straining to get up."

Hee!

No, I'm not dead

Monday, January 4, 2010

And yes, I know I haven't been posting anything recently, mainly because there hasn't been much change in weight -- I'm still at the 15 pound loss, which is great, but I was hoping for a bit more over two months. Then again, I also wrote 3/4 of a book in November, and December was taken up with trips, getting ready for the holidays, and then spending two weeks slammed with a king god hell killer cold (this is what happens when you spend 3.5 hours in a tubular aluminum germ culture dish. Personally, I blame Stacy and Jeffrey, but I digress).

And now it is January, 2010, and I will be getting back on the diet and exercise horse with a vengeance. I won't make this a resolution because it's far too easy to break those, plus this has got to be more of a life change than just something to do for a couple of months. Tomorrow night I'm back at the gym, and I have to figure out some kind of aerobic activity that doesn't kill my bursitis. As for the diet, got to do some work on that, but bringing little minipacks of cottage cheese to work so that I can have something in the afternoon that stops me from being hungry after work and stopping off at McDonald's or Wendy's is a good thing.

Anyway, onward!

And it continues

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Dropped another two pounds since my last post (yay!), but it should have been more by now (boo). However, I've also been slacking off on the nutrition, which explains much -- exercise is great, but you really need to eat good, healthy stuff as well if you want to make headway, and this has been one hella stressful month (the Crimson Tide didn't even make an appearance, and it's been showing up like clockwork for quite a while now). Things have finally calmed down some, so hopefully I can get back to seven hours of sleep a night and eating lots of protein, fruits and veggies.

In other news, had the toofers cleaned today -- apparently I haven't been slacking off that much on the flossing (the dentist told me to step it up, but didn't give me the Lecture(TM) I got at my last cleaning), and I'm going back in a couple of weeks to get fitted for Opalescence whitening trays. It's the first step in Project Let's Improve Mellie's Smile -- next is having the remaining three wisdom teeth yanked sometime in November, then in January I'm going in and getting Invisaligns, and if I have to finance the fuckers I will -- I'm tired of waiting to get my teeth straightened. Once everything is straight and white, I get Lumineers for the chipped front two upper teeth, and I will have my perfect smile, huzzah!

Well, I WAS going to say that downward movement has resumed

Friday, August 21, 2009

But then I had dinner. And I suspect I blew anything I achieved today due to that.

It was damn good flatiron fish sticks and chicken caesar salad from Whole Foods, though. And I still hauled my ass out to the gym and lifted a myriad of weights, so that's all good. And as soon as the dye sets and I can wash my hair, I can actually go to bed at a reasonable hour -- go me!

The Master Bath

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Hot. Dripping with sweat. Putting stuff on and away. Listening to the B-52's FUNPLEX while I clean up the minor flood we had this morning (somehow one of the sinks that was draining slowly had filled up and gently slopped onto the floor -- got it drained, then poured most of a bottle of Drano Professional Gel down there for good measure. We shall not speak of this again).

My goal -- to take a bath in the Roman tub tonight. But first, I must clean off the paint spatters and general schmutz from the remod. And I have to go lift weights with Stretch at 9. Nonetheless, it shall be done, because I'm actually in shape to DO it.

Reality Check

Friday, August 14, 2009

The downward trend on the scale has stopped dead in its tracks for the last couple of days, in part because I'm essentially allergic to being a girl and my body decides to retain water like a camel in the Sahara at both ends of my menstrual cycle, huzzah. In part, however, it's because I'm putting on muscle at the same time I'm losing fat, and muscle weighs more than fat. Intellectually I understand this, and that lack of movement on the scale isn't necessarily bad. Emotionally, though, I'm jumping up and down while calling the scale a lying motherfucker because I really want those numbers to continue dropping, dammit.

Humph. At least I can SEE that I'm putting on muscle. My clothes are fitting better, my calves are turning into lovely, well-defined things once again, my quads are getting stronger every day (seriously, you cannot imagine how happy I was when I got my butt to my heels for the first time a couple of days ago -- I couldn't have done that if you put a gun to my head two months ago), and I've moved up five pounds on a variety of exercises. I still don't see a lot of definition in my upper body, but let's be honest, I'm also carrying a hella amount of padding there. I do see the faintest of changes in my upper arms, shoulders and back, though, which is something, and my face doesn't look as bloated as it did back in June. The tummy -- yeah, well, that's usually the last to go, so I'll just live with it for now.

And I have to admit something -- my butt looks downright weird. I still have junk in the trunk, but I also have muscle back there now and it's pushing everything out and up. I'm guessing that's a self-correcting problem as I continue to work out, but I really do feel like I have a living bustle attached back there.

Thank you, Goddess of Sq’waht!

Monday, August 10, 2009

As of today, people, I did a full, honest-to-Cthulhu butt to the heels squat. Granted, I wasn't carrying any weight, and I did have to keep a couple of fingers on the kitchen countertop for balance, but compared to my sad and pathetic inability to go even to a 90 degree angle as of early July without feeling flares of agony in both knees, this is frigging marvelous.

And this, of course, is what comes of lifting 200 lb on the leg press for the last three weeks, plus adding more weight to the leg extensions and calf curls. Which I will continue to do, plus I can now add the squat into my leg routine (I may try a split squat or lunge next time, as well). Mellie is a happy iron-lifting camper, people, she truly is, because the squat is the queen of exercises -- you have to work so many muscles in order to keep proper form, you can't help but tone everything from your legs to your traps.

Huzzah!

The stamina is definitely picking up

Monday, July 20, 2009

Just had an absolutely splendid weekend in LA, saw an incomparable show, hung out with new friends, and I didn't feel lightheaded or need to lie down once. Go me!

Also, 53 laps, and some of them are now a standard crawl.

51 laps

Saturday, July 11, 2009

I'm just sayin'. Although the new goggles I picked up at Academy Sports helped a lot.

And now, I must go shower, then collapse.

Back from New Orleans

Monday, May 11, 2009

And my feet are killing me from walking all over the French Quarter, but by God I DID walk all over the French Quarter. I also drank a hella load of alcohol (between Thursday night and this morning I had 6 cuba libres, one pina colada, two Hurricanes, one Swamp Water, a six pack of Parrot Bay Pineapple Coladas (VERY tasty) and one Smirnoff's Watermelon Ice), but the amazing thing is that I wasn't hung over once, which just goes to show that one must move one's fundament if one is going to drink.

By 10:00 PM Friday night, I had:

Eaten dinner on a balcony while people-watching
Eaten beignets at Cafe du Monde
Gone on a carriage tour of the French Quarter
Had lunch at the Court of the Two Sisters
Gone shopping at the French Market
Purchased a nice sun hat, a dress and a fan
Consumed more alcohol in one night than I had in all of 2008
Determined that there's something about TOS James Kirk that makes me want him on his knees in restraints
Been hugged by a trumpet player who informed me that he liked redheads
Seen someone thrown bodily out of a package store
Started knitting a sock

The adventures continued on Saturday. Among other things, we visited Marie LeBeau's voodoo shop and bought some...ingredients, took another carriage ride so that this time I could get pictures (saw Brangelina's mansion -- doesn't look like much from the street, but most of the old houses here are built on a courtyard plan so that's where all the pretty stuff is), ate crawfish etouffe and flirted with the cutest little Cajun waiter (the Sister told him she wanted to take him home in her purse. He said, "Feed me and I'm yours"), walked past quite the number of strip joints and sex shows on Bourbon, bought a LOT of clothes (me), drank a LOT of beer (the Sister), had a nice conversation with an extremely inebriated young man in our hotel elevator who kept staring at the twins (I was wearing one of my new summer dresses, which makes them look rather perky) and complaining that his outfit was unflattering, listened to some killer music (we can hear the live band across the street from our room, and they know their shit), sat on the balcony and people-watched, and took pictures of a pirate who held up a sign explaining that he was NOT Somalian.

We have determined that when we win the Lotto and buy our flat in the French Quarter, the Sister will buy a carriage and donkey and give carriage tours, and I will brush up my trumpet skills and get a jazz band together.

And then I was at the airport ridiculously early this morning (well, the Sister had to leave this morning at 5:30 AM, poor darlin', so I didn't really have anything else to do), sipping a cuba libre made for me by an adorable Cajun drag queen in mufti, tapping away at my little hacked MSI Wind and pondering a final wander around the airport shops.

I think I really needed this trip -- just a chance to unwind, have many, many drinks with the Sister, do some sightseeing, flirt with the occasional interesting man (the things the Sister was saying about our room service waiter almost had me peeing in my pants, I was laughing so hard) and basically recharge the batteries. Oh, and I bought a killer straw hat that's kind of like the ones that British Airways flight attendants used to wear (with the brim turned up all the way around), only in raffia. The Sister looked at me with a hint of envy and said that I could wear hats. This is true, especially when I'm holding the Big Ass Beers sign from a local joint on Bourbon Street, which is a post for another day when I have access to a card reader for the memory card in my phone. But I digress.

In the meantime, I now return home with fizzing batteries, ready to get back to work on the book and Story #4 in the AYITL series, and start prepping for Podcasterpalooza in Orlando in June. Whee!

Exercise is coming along nicely

Saturday, September 20, 2008

I did my walk last night, and found out tonight while on a walk that the complex's weight room is open again in the evenings (you need to use your garage door opener to unlock the door -- this was broken, oh, seven years or so ago, and only fixed recently after someone broke in and stole the office's flatscreen TV).

Which makes Mellie very happy for two reasons. One, I know from experience that I can do all the aerobics in the world and I won't lose a frigging ounce. Add weightlifting to that, however, and the fat starts coming off (what can I say -- I'm 3/4 Eastern European. They breed women who can pull a plow after a bad winter where they had to eat the ox). Besides, I always feel better when I'm carrying serious muscle tissue around -- screw toning, I want to see bulges in all the right places.

Two, we close on the house a week from Monday, after which we have three weeks to do some serious painting and tile installation, not to mention moving over all the delicate/electronic stuff, all of which will be much easier to do with nominal muscle strength. As it is, I'm probably going to be utterly and completely wiped once we complete the move since I keep forgetting that I'm not 16 anymore. Still, I'm also not 70, so I should be able to do all this without toppling over with muscle spasms.

Thursday's total mileage: 1.25 miles. 484.05 miles to Isengard.
Friday's total mileage: 1 mile. 483.05 miles to Isengard.

I'm back

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Now that the period of Tour de France/Conestoga/Worldcon/Armadillocon is over and done with, it's back to the walking for me (and that's it for now, since the weight room at the leasing office is closed outside of office hours due to a recent robbery. Bastards).

On the upside, I haven't gained back the initial 10-pound loss, and I did a full 30 minutes last night (in a pouring rainstorm, mind you -- I came back to the apartment, dripping wet, and told Lyndon that it was a bit humid out there) without a problem. On the other hand, I haven't lost any more weight in the intervening month. So now it's time to kick the walking back into gear, and I've gotten some nice suggestions from Taffy on tasty low-carb stuff to eat for breakfast.

Update on the Achilles bursitis -- if I'm good about taking my ibuprofen and wearing my walking shoes, it seems to settle down. If I wear forget the ibu and wear dress shoes, oh dear God. This whole getting older thing sucks.

I am also seriously considering turning Jordan into a pair of black-and-white slippers. It's bad enough that I have King Hell insomnia, but him wiggling next to me, headbutting me for attenion and nipping my butt at 4:00 AM is really, REALLY not helping the situation. I don't want to take sleeping aids if I can avoid them, but Jesus, this cat is working my last nerve.

Tuesday's total mileage: 1.25 miles. 486.55 miles to Isengard.

Holy Achilles bursa, Batman!

Friday, June 27, 2008

Okay, so last Saturday I used my Google-fu and found Run On!, a good running shoe store in Richardson with people who will evaluate your stride, measure your feet, fit proper shoes to you, et al. I headed over there and was somewhat surprised at the crowd gathered around the cash registers and the fitting area -- they actually had a sign-up sheet so that you'd get fitted in the order you arrived. Then again, the fact that they were slammed did seem to indicate that they knew what they were doing. So I signed in and got a nice woman named Joanna who studied my stride, decided that I was a moderate pronator with low arches, and brought out three pairs of walking shoes -- New Balance, Saucony, and Nike -- with arch support and side stabilizers.

After trying them all on and walking up and down the store, I decided that the Nike Air Structure Triax pair were the best fit -- they provided arch support without it becoming annoying, and the toe box was nice and roomy. After I picked them, she informed me with a grin that they were on sale for $50 -- "I usually don't tell folks what the shoes cost until after they pick a pair, because I don't want the price to affect their judgement, but you really lucked out here!" she said.

So I bought them, took them home, went for a walk and HOLY SHIT. No bursitis pain. WHATSOEVER. My calves ached a bit from suddenly being expected to work again, but it didn't feel like I was walking on ground glass anymore. Woohoo! I then got slammed with work this week so I haven't been as good as I should've been, but I just went out for a half hour walk and I feel fabulous! It's amazing how not being in pain will help with regards to exercise.

And I have to admit, rather shyly and in a very small voice, that tonight...I was tempted to run. Just for a short stretch. I didn't, partially because I didn't want to scare the locals and partially because I'd like to make sure that the bursitis is completely healed before I start putting that sort of strain on my Achilles tendon, but still -- me, running. Whoda thunk it?

Oh, I also had a pleasant little egoboo burst while trying on shoes -- after Joanna said that I had low arches, I explained that I was flatfooted as a child, and in fact wore orthopedic shoes as a toddler until I got fed up with them and started tossing them in the toilet (after the third toss, Mom decided that I could live with plain old gymshoes). Joanna laughed and said that it seemed like everyone was wearing orthopedic shoes in the 1970s.

Of course, I was wearing mine in the 1960's. Hee, hee, hee...

Saturday's total mileage: .94 miles. 489.99 miles to Isengard.
Tuesday's total mileage: .94 miles. 489.05 miles to Isengard.
Thursday's total mileage: 1.25 miles. 487.80 miles to Isengard.

Ha. You thought I was gone, didn't you?

Friday, June 20, 2008

No, I just had a rather severe problem with achilles bursitis that I needed to work on. According to my doctor, I'm supposed to ice it, take ibuprofen religiously, and go get a decent pair of walking shoes from somewhere where I can be fit properly.

I'm picking up the shoes this weekend, but last night I couldn't stand it anymore and went out for a walk. Only managed 22.5 minutes before I was limping again, dammit, but at least I was out there.

I've also added SAM-e as a supplement, not so much for weight loss as to offset the fact that I felt exhausted, depressed and my knees sound like popcorn. I'm now six days into the course and I have to say that I do see an improvement -- I'm not getting crackles in my knees and neck as badly, and I was able to get through a VERY stressful week without crashing. Now if I can just get my ankle working properly again, I'll be a happy camper.

Thursday's total mileage: .94 miles. 490.93 miles to Isengard.

Sweating to the Scrubbies

Monday, May 12, 2008

Not bad - it's just barely 10:00 PM and I've already got my workout done. I also got a chance to watch much of Season 6 of SCRUBS in the process; on the one hand, it makes walking a heck of a lot more entertaining. On the other hand, cracking up at the recap episode while doing 2.1 MPH leaves you somewhat dizzy and breathless.

Monday's total mileage: 1.36 miles. 495.02 miles to Isengard.