The Eternal Struggle

It's a battle that men and women have waged since time immemorial. A battle that, despite their best efforts, they nearly always seem to be on the losing side of. What I speak of now is one of the greatest clashes that ever existed in history. 'Tis the battle of man versus the scale.

Whether it's because of a family history of weight-related issues, because of more pressing dietary issues, or simply because you're tired of having to buy XL clothes, it never hurts to shed a few pounds. Well, it does if you have an eating disorder, but that's different, and not something to joke about. I'm talking about losing weight the good old-fashioned way: diet and exercise.

Diet, to me, means you just watch what you eat. You don't have to change to expensive diet food, or eat tiny portions that don't fill you up. I've simply cut back a little bit on how much I eat, make sure I have leftovers to take home whenever I go out, stuff like that. Getting a salad instead of a burger at a fast food place. Heck, some salads are pretty darn delicious.

Exercise. Just get up and do something. Go on walks, jogs, runs, do sit ups in the morning. Do a combination of everything I listed. Do things I didn't list. Some way to burn the calories you're ingesting is good. Just make sure and keep some sort of balance. Don't cut way back on your food and increase your activity drastically. You'll be tired all the time and not have enough energy for everything else.

Now, I don't pretend to be an exercise science guru, or anything. I'm just telling you what I've been adhering to for the last several weeks, and it's working for me. I've lost almost ten pounds already. It's not the quickest way to lose weight, but it's a great feeling, watching the numbers on the scale decrease almost daily. Find something that works for you and stick with it.

I repeat, I'm no expert on the stuff, so think of this as less of a how-to and more of an encouragement post. If I can do it, so can you!

Update: I just remembered the whole reason I wanted to talk about this, to vent my frustration, given that I'm trying to lose weight, yet my stumble keeps giving me all manner of glorious baked good recipes. Darn you, stumble.

Time

It's been a while. I wish I could say that I have all manner of new and exciting things to say right now, but I really don't. I've just been working at my summer job, taking care of kids at my church's day camp, and it's been keeping me busy. And tired. I have plenty of stories I could tell, but a lot of it might just sound like me complaining, so maybe I'll wait a while longer, until I can put these stories in the same light I see them in. The light that shows that I'm really having fun, despite what it may sound like at times.

I miss my friends. It feels like a bit of me is missing without them around. All I want is to be with them again, to hang out like we used to. But things can never be "like they used to." Even when August rolls around and I'm with them again, we'll all have grown a little bit. And I'm thankful for that growth, in me and in everyone else. And yet, if I could have one wish right now, it'd be to be sitting on the futon watching Firefly, or sledding down the hill on a futon box, or playing Dungeons and Dragons on a Saturday night, or in Kansas City with Cayde and Paul (because Micah was definitely not there).

Maybe time's getting me down. Watching a show about the last Time Lord will get you thinking about time and how it changes things (you get a prize if you can tell me what show I've been watching). I don't like the fact that I'm about halfway through college already. I look back and wonder where the last two years have gone. Seems like only yesterday I was working at Target and whining about how I couldn't wait to go to college. Two years later, I'm feeling much the same thing. As much as I love the kids, I need to get back. To see Li'l Pete, and my new roommate Micah, and my dad Cayde, and my neighbors Paul and Cory, and my female half Mallory, and everyone else. I even kind of miss my professors. If any of you are reading this right now, talk to me! Please! I'm going crazy here!

Not that being home isn't great, but it's not completely home anymore. It's as though home is a piece of fabric, and while before it was a whole piece, it's now been ripped in half. Half is here and the other half is in Nebraska, waiting for me to return to it. Don't worry fabric, I'm coming.