Friday 27 May 2016

Second Blog Entry In A Series of Six

Hello again. I'm doing this once more, in an attempt to prove the first time wasn't a fluke. You can do most anything once, but the real test is when you come back to do it again and again. It's been three days since the first entry, so I took my time. But here I am.

So... things to talk about. I've been hitting the gym pretty hard the last three days, and as soon as I finish this I'll go hit it again. (I'm actually typing this on a laptop in a coffee shop close to the gym.) The goal is to go four times in a row this week. It's exhausting but fun.

Saw what looked like a C-130 fly over the house on Wednesday. It was dark coloured and definitely wasn't a water bomber like this plane. The C-130 was flying roughly west-to-east and slowly gaining altitude, lumbering through the air like it was ready fall down at any moment. No grace at all. Maybe a military flight?

Looking at traffic is kind of fun. It's constantly changing but always the same, like watching waves or flames. Visual white noise. The cars are a lot more drab than they used to be. So many whites and greys! Every once in a while a Yellow Cab goes by and it's like an exclamation point. When did car owners start to crave anonymity? Cars used to come in all colours, and the older they got the more interesting the colours became. People who owned twenty or thirty year old cars would often give them a neat custom paint job, or decal flames or stripes - and on the flipside, people who neglected their cars would end up with weird mixtures from flaking and rust, or vari-coloured replacement panels. Nothing looks neglected these days, but nothing looks exciting either. The cars all look like plastic toys.

Speaking of interesting looks, I just saw a guy go past the window in a white fur coat, pork pie hat, and black tights. There's a man who isn't afraid to make a statement. There are still people like that, who put a lot of energy into being characters. Last night I was on Whyte Avenue at about 10PM when this shirtless guy on a bicycle flies past me while playing a guitar. He was guiding the bike with his legs and strumming away. The interesting thing is that I've seen him before, in the daytime about two months ago when it was cold, and he was shirtless then as well. Apparently he spends all his time on that bike, and can be found day and night, immune to cold, riding and strumming away. He goes quite fast, too.

Writing something in  public is a bit like that. No matter how much I try to suppress it, I still feel a bit like those guys, awkwardly panhandling for attention from passers by. But if no one stands out, then what fun is that? We become a sea of anonymous white and grey people hurrying back and forth. Someone's got to make an effort.

Tuesday 24 May 2016

First Blog Entry In A Series Of Six

So I'm supposed to write six blog entries, three this week and three the next. It doesn't matter why. The important thing is I've made the commitment and have to follow through. But I've really gotten out of practice writing these things, and words aren't coming easily. It's probably more honest to say that the words have never come easily. That's because I don't like self expression. Writing is fun, but writing about anything personal is hard. Looking for attention, exposing myself to the scrutiny of others, is hard.

The thing is that it's easy to write about other things. Conversing on the Internet about some other subject that has nothing to do with me is fun and simple enough, and so is contributing to a group effort where my contribution is just part of a greater whole. But if I accidentally express too much of myself the words dry up and it hurts. The idea here is to directly tackle that resistance by writing regularly for two weeks. Six blog entries sets an achievable benchmark.

So what is there to talk about? I lost weight recently. I've been going to  a gym regularly for about eight or nine months and working pretty hard in there. My goal was to lose the extra twenty pounds I gained after Dad died, but I wasn't having much success. I think all the weight lifting helped me gain some muscle, but I didn't lose any fat. Then I went on a ketogenic diet for a month (while still going to the gym) - and BOOM, the weight melted off. I lost twenty-three pounds. I've been off the diet for about three or four weeks now, and kept most of the weight loss. I gained back about six pounds (but I'm pretty sure that's mostly muscle), so I'm still eighteen or nineteen pounds lighter than before, and that weight seems to be pretty steady. The diet really worked.

A ketogenic diet is where you eat no more than  twenty grams of carbs a day. That's it. There's  no point system or complicated diet plans. I had no bread or sugar for a month, but ate plenty of meat. Sometimes I'd get a roast chicken from the grocery store and eat the whole thing for supper. With the weight lifting and running I was burning plenty of calories, but they were all coming from protein and fat.

Maybe that's enough for Blog Entry Number One. But Ill be back soon.