So, we've decided at work to do a "Biggest Losers" work challenge for 4 weeks. It came out of a bought of silliness and I randomly suggested it to some of us and they jumped on board. So I asked around to a few more and there are 5 of us (including me) in the battle to lose the most weight in 4 weeks. $50 pot just to make it easy and add a little incentive, but it's been interesting and we haven't even completed one week! The funny thing about doing this amongst the 5 of us is we're both encouraging and trying to sabotage each other at the same time and the rest of our co-workers are trying to encourage us. So eating is sometimes hilarious or even talking about food. I'm not sure how serious the 5 of us, as a collective, are truly taking this, but I'm at least really using this to get myself motivated to eat better and lose some weight. I started losing some at the end of last year, but Christmas rolled around and traveling through me out of my routine and I was never able to get back on to it (didn't help when I started playing LotRo either, which has finally died, thanks to Defiance).
I actually started exercising and thinking of what I eat the week before we did our first (and initial) weigh in to get myself going. I'm not, per se, "dieting," but I am trying to be conscious of what I eat and eat less and healthier. I don't always hit it and I sometimes splurge (I had ice cream today...Bad me!), but I'm generally doing better and I've lost 3 lbs! Okay, so it's probably water weight, but at least it's down rather than up! (Our biggest joke is that we'll gain weight instead of lose it.)
I have decided no sugar. For me, that entails soda, candy, and cookies. Okay, ice cream kind of through that out the window for me tonight (and I had a little soda a few days ago), but it's a HUGE decrease of the amount I *was* eating/drinking. I generally don't drink a lot of soda, but I do go in waves and I was in a big uptick in soda so I cut that out. As for candy, I've always had a huge sweet tooth and I was gnawing on sugar (fruit snacks -- yummy! -- or some candy) almost nightly and not just a few, but maybe 1 or 2 packs of fruit snacks a night and maybe even 1 during lunch. It was rather bad. It was to the point where eating sugar just made my teeth feel like they hurt. So, cutting the sugar out has been another big step for me.
I am also being more aware of how much I eat and when I eat. I know you're supposed to graze throughout the day and some days I'm better than that than others, but I'm now trying to eat my biggest meal at lunch and taper off earlier at night. Before, I was probably bellcurving closer to night (after I got home) and eating less (or snacking) at work. And by bellcurving, I mean my biggest meal was at home after work and then I snacked somewhere before or after that too. I'm never a big morning eater since it's hard to shove food down my throat when I first wake up, but I have noticed with eating less at night, I'm waking up hungrier in the morning, which allows me to eat a *little* something to try and wake my metabolism up. I've felt better doing it this way too. I'm sure it has something to do with fueling myself for the day. :P
Anyway, so, the past 1.5 weeks I've been exercising almost daily (I missed two days because I passed out asleep both days; I exercise at night; and 1am is a little late to exercise...) and been eating better. The stomach is shrinking and the muscles are a little sore. I can't make it a whole day at work on my feet without my legs hurting again, but I know I'll get past that over time. Chris bought me a subscription to Fitness Mag to help encourage me and he's been better about offering me food and sugar (every time we'd go to the store he'd ask me if I wanted soda (that was a 50-50 chance) or candy (that was almost every time a yes)). So, we'll see how this goes! If anything, the 4 weeks should be interesting with my co-workers. We all keep laughing about our "healthy" lunches and what we have and haven't done. We all kid each other so much. So much, in fact, that Andrew today was trying to offer me candy he found in the breakroom. Thanks dude... :)
As for LotRo, as I mentioned earlier, we're no longer playing. Defiance came out so the boys jumped ship and started playing that. Defiance is coupled with a TV show that is on SyFy. The game came out about 2 (or 3? What week am I in? LoL) before the TV show airs. The show airs on Monday. It's the first game to come out with a simultaneous show. So there was the first part of the game you played and then you could "finish that." When the TV show airs on Monday, a new patch goes through and more game content is opened. It won't exactly parallel the show or a new patch won't be released every episode, but about a quarter of the show or so will be in the game. Amazon (someone's in trouble!) accidentally made the pilot episode available (unless "pilot previews" are now 1.5 hours long and suspiciously look an awful lot like a pilot episode) so we watched it. It was an okay show. I like the main dude, but the rest will come with time, hopefully. I haven't played the game, but Chris thought it was okay too. I did feel a *little* left out because he knew what some things and I had to go, "What?" whenever he mentioned something, but it's not like I couldn't follow the episode or get into the world. It's simply he has a little more "canon" under is belt than I do. So, it's an interesting concept and will be interesting to see how it does.
As for movies, well, I've watched a "few" in the last few weeks.
Rise of the Guardians - Funny thing about this is I watched it 2 or 3 days before Easter, which part of the movie takes place about 2 or 3 days before Easter! (I forget exactly how many days.) I thought it was cute. I liked what each "Guardian" is supposed to be guarding (Santa Claus - Wonder; Easter Bunny - Hope; Tooth Fairy - Memories; Sandman - Dreams; Jack Frost - Fun). The Boogeyman is scary and it was scary how he "invaded" the world, but it was interesting too. It was basically about making kids lose hope or making their dreams scary, etc. I can't say it's to the caliber of Wreck-It Ralph, but I liked it and it's another solid DreamWorks film. Grade: B/B-
Killing Them Softly (Brad Pitt) - Definitely neo-noir and it's okay. It's not horrible, but it's not really my cup of tea either. I also felt like the cast was not used well. The beginning story and why the whole film happened was just stupid (really, those guys weren't bright, but that was kind of the point too!). Pitt's character wasn't bad, but the film is a neo-noir and that's not usually my thing. Grade: C/C-
Life of Pi (Suraj Sharma) - Okay, so it is a little stylized and not a whole lot happens for a great deal of the film and there are some stupid moments from Pi, but I liked it. It is a theological film and I can't really compare it to the book (I read 1/3 of the book), but I liked the film. I found it interesting and the ending really made you think too. It made you first think if the entire story was made up or not, but if you delved into it, it also made you wonder about God. I mean, in the beginning, he does say that he's going to tell you a story to make you believe in God. It's, in the end, a story about rationality vs faith. Can you believe in the unbelievable or do you need to rationalize it to something that makes sense? With that said, I thought the journey of being on the boat was interesting on its own. I liked the style of the film and, yeah, it got a little "dreamy" and "other worldly" at points, but it sort of fit in with the whole story. I really liked it, at any rate. It won't be for everyone and not every animal on the boat survive in the beginning (nothing graphic, but it still upset me none-the-less), but I really liked it. One of those films I'm really glad I watched (great directing, good acting, etc), but it's unlikely I'll ever watch it again (e.g., War Horse). Grade: A
Straight A's (Anna Paquin, Ryan Phillippe, Luke Wilson) - What...? This was my first response when the movie ended. What...? Definitely not what I thought. I thought it was going to end differently. I didn't think it was a rom-com, but I didn't think it'd be such a drama film either. And there's "drama" and then there is DRAMA and this trio definitely have the drama in their relationship. I still don't even quite get the end or the meaning of the title? I don't know. The acting wasn't bad, but it was just baffling to me... Grade: C-/D+
Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis) - I knew this film would happen to his assassination, but I didn't realize how political the film was going to be. Not that it was a bad thing, I just didn't expect it. Daniel Day-Lewis did an amazing acting job, though. Liam Neeson was originally cast for the role and I don't think he could have done as good of a job as Day-Lewis (and I like Neeson a lot). It's a good, solid cast and it was interesting to see the political maneuvering to get the 13th Amendment passed. I've read that people say it's not historically accurate on how "critical" or "important" certain events were played to be, but it's a movie...You need some suspense and questioning on whether it was going to come about or not or how close it'd be. It is a rather long film, though. I wouldn't say it's *too* long, but it is just long. Grade: B
Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren) - Sometimes trailers lead you astray on how a film would be, but this trailer was exactly what it was and I just didn't believe it. Not the best of films and I didn't exactly like the feel of the film. Not that the feel was bad, but it just felt kind of weird that it's a docudrama and filmed in a way to make you feel all movie. I think I would have enjoyed this more if it was just a docudrama instead of the stylization to make you feel like it was one of his films. With that said, I did enjoy the story of Hitchcock and his wife. It seemed like that they really did love each other and did really collaborate quite a lot, but they both had their "issues" to work through in their partnership. I liked Hopkins make-up too, but sometimes it didn't feel real. Grade: C/C+ (C+ if it didn't have that weird feel to it)
With that, I've watched all but 1 (Amour) of the Best Picture nominated films. I have to say, I wish Life of Pi won. Don't get me wrong, Argo was a good film and Lincoln was too, but Life of Pi was more to me. I felt like Life of Pi hit me more emotionally/spiritually, where Argo was more drama-suspense, Lincoln drama-politics, and Silver Linings Playbook drama-comedy. Django Unchained, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Les Miserables, and Zero Dark Thirty just never really seemed like they had a chance to win to me. All good films too. I don't doubt their excellency to be nominated (they are all quality films), but I just felt like Life of Pi is a little more what the Academy likes (in feel), but it is a little more "spiritual" and Argo is more movies-help-save-lives. I'm not so surprised Lincoln didn't win either after seeing it. It's an excellent film, but it's not a film like King's Speech. It misses something just by a hair to make it Best Picture winner. Course, I like Life of Pi more than Argo, so who's to say I know the majority of the Academy at all! ;)
Anyway, with that, time to go to bed!
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