And they say there aren't any heroes left...

I've talked about how much Dr. Seuss, Shel Silverstein, and Maurice Sendak have influenced me artistically when I was but a small child.  This week found a reminder of one of those artistic heroes for me in the form of Steve Colbert interviewing Maurice Sendak.  I came away with the impression that Sendak is fighting a valiant battle against mediocrity when he was talking about modern children's books. I also came away with the impression that he's really damn sharp and took Colbert's sense of humor well.

And then I found an interview on NPR that was aired late last year. This was a flip side in general attitude, as NPR is a less sarcastic outlet than Colbert. It was very thoughtful and emotional, and I have to admit I sat and had tears streaming down my cheeks as I listened to a sad, old man who misses his old friends.

Where am I going with this? I wish I could meet him and say THANK YOU. That even though the millions of strangers who love his books can't be as nearly a good substitute for the people he misses in his life, I do think all those people love what he does. His fight against mediocrity has not gone unnoticed. I've heard one shouldn't meet their heroes, but I would still like to say that to him and then skedaddle before he says something biting that would crush my soulless soul.

PS: Semi-nonsequitir...I also would say something similar to Michelle Obama if I ever got the chance to meet her. She's one hell of a poised individual who gets way more shit than she should for just doing her job!

My job here is done...

Preview of the skater artwork for Battle on the Bank V:

I dig it.



Even though I said I wasn't going to constantly talk about my diet shit on the blog, I have thoughts to share:

Writing down everything I eat is tedious. And it's keeping me from snacking. Which is good, and it's gotten me within spitting range of my goal weight. I have cheekbones again! Yay!

Yoga X is horrible.

Kenpo X is fun.

Core Synergistics makes me want to be a thousand times more flexible than I am.

I'm skating a lot less, and so the tendonitis in my knee has gotten a lot less noticeable. Damn, I really did have to retire after all!

I hope I can keep up this momentum. I'm liking the results so far.

Ch-ch-changes...

Going from an active team skater to a retired-but-still-skating skater has been interesting.

I'm still skating multiple times a week. Sometimes it's a beach skate, sometimes it's wRECk League, sometimes it's pickup scrimmages, sometimes it's visiting another league's practice. That amount of skating is good, because on the beach skates, the tendonitis in my knee starts letting me know that it's determined to take up permanent residence. Not good if I was still on a team. But for general messing around? No biggie.

The other thing I'm now doing is resetting my body. After working in a studio that has Bagel Mondays, Donut Wednesdays and lots of other bad foods around often, I gained weight and couldn't take it off. I'm one of those people that has to be vigilant about bread and starch intake because I'll bloat up like a puffer fish, and I had lapsed in that vigilance.

Throw in the holidays where I ate and drank my way to more weight gain, and things started to be stupid for me. After eating my weight in cheese and pizza the last two days of 2011, I found myself 17 pounds heavier than when I started derby eight years ago. UNACCEPTABLE.

Now, I'll admit that some of that 17 pounds isn't just fat. There's muscle in there. Especially in my legs. My quadroceps are doing just fine in particular. Once upon a time I hit an all-time high of 20 pounds over my starating-at-derby weight, and it was allllll FAT. Real fat. Fat-fat. But still...

Luckily for me I got a six week unpaid hiatus from work, and that's the perfect time to reset my eating habits, diet, and forms of exercise while I'm at home enjoying not having to be anywhere on a schedule. My parents had gotten me an Amazon gift card, and I bought the P90x exercise program with it. I started it this week, and cut out cheese, bread, pizza, and other starchy stuff from my diet. I'm trying to eat as much whole food as possible: salads galore, meat that's recognizable, etc. The one big vice I'm not giving up is my morning sugar free Red Bull. Don't bother telling me how horrible it is for me, I need something to look forward to in the mornings.

I started a food journal. It's amazing how accountable I am when I have to write everything down with a calorie count next to it. I noticed I'm not snacking nearly as much as I used to, because writing everything down is a pain in the tuchus and I'm lazy. The downside? I'm obsessed with the calorie counts, and have been eating too few calories for the amount of exercise I'm now getting this week.

That ended up biting me in the ass this morning when doing the Legs and Back P90x workout and I thought I was going to pass out. Had to stop the tape and go eat a Larabar for quick calories. It helped, and I limped through the rest of the workout. But it made me realize that I have to be better about regulating what I'm doing or else I'm going to crash and burn like I did today, or end up running to Johnnie's Pastrami in a fit of ZOMG I'M SO DAMN HUNGRY AND I NEED TO EEEEEEAAAAAT!!! mood swing and inhaling five pastrami sandwiches, then passing out in a food-induced coma, only to wake up puking my guts out.

Some people start a food blog when they do a diet, recording their daily food intake and exercise regimen. I won't bore you with daily details. I'll bore you with my goal: to get back down to the weight I was when I started derby. That's really it. The P90x program will also help with my strength and muscle tone, but to me that's a bonus. I just want the weight off.

I also hope that with the time off from work and not needing to be at the track so often, I'll be able to rekindle any kind of drawing for myself. I feel so burned out, and haven't been taking in much inspiration to get kick-started again.

Ahhh, that's better!