Today our two bedroom apartment became a four person apartment. I have not yet been so motivated to get myself back to South Dakota as I was today. What’s worse, it happened at about 9 a.m. For those of you keeping score, you might observe that 9 a.m. for me is right around the time I’m nailing down my 4th hour of sleep so it’s not my favorite time to have banging about and loud conversation happening on the other side of a shockingly hear-through wall.
On the other hand the gas guy came today which means hot water can now be had by all. And most importantly by me. I don’t fancy risking hypothermia every time I shower. You may laugh and shake your head along with the others, but you don’t have to sit around and shake uncontrollably for twenty minutes after a cold shower or get frighteningly sleepy the second you start to warm up. You don’t get to criticize me for being skinny and then ignore the perils of skinniness in the same conversation.
Dehydration and vulnerability to heat stroke are on the list as well. Less body-fat means less insulation and less storage for water and fat-soluble vitamins and minerals. I live with these conditions and I don’t even expect sympathy; just don’t treat me like they aren’t real because skinniness is idolized. I wake up with a hangover when I don’t drink enough water through the night and I get sleepy and cranky if I don’t eat regularly because I don’t have any backup energy to burn.
So back off. Different body type, different issues. Not perfect, just different. If you’re going to insist that I eat more, then buy me food. It isn’t cheap and I eat more than you think. If you doubt that, pay to feed me for a week some time. I eat moderate amounts about twice as often as you do when I really have my way, which I rarely do. I like meat and dairy and eggs and alcohol and soda and I take a multivitamin because getting the proper amount of vitamins and minerals is a hassle and nearly impossible anyway.
Vegans don’t really have the time of day for me. Atkins proponents, if any have survived, would be utterly horrified by my wanton disregard for carbohydrate regulation. Though I do prefer complex carbs, so that’s something.
When I was running track in college I was eating about 8,000 calories a day including creatine and protein supplements. I managed to gain about five pounds over nine months, most of which was spent intensively lifting weights because my shins utterly failed me after the first semester. Or perhaps I failed my shins by spending so much time out of shape and then diving into it so hard again.
I don’t feel bad about trying hard. I do feel bad about putting it off and being so foolish about getting back into it. I love track. It is one of my greatest passions and I miss it terribly. If I could get a job coaching track, even one with crappy pay, it would be a dream come true. I’ll post some old notes about that in the coming days.
I’m tired and it’s a busy day tomorrow so I’ll give you the CotD and we can part ways. Today was awesome. I recommend checking out pretty much all my webcomic links because it was hard to choose. I went with Penny Arcade because the joke reminds me ever so slightly of the dynamic between me and my roommate of old and possibly again. And because the facial expressions crack me right up.
Sleep well. Don’t get into too much trouble. If you do, share the details so we can all laugh.
50 Pages of Berserk Fiction from the: 