I give up

Recently, I was sweating profusely in hot yoga, and while staring at my reflection, it occurred to me that I can live with this. By "this", I was referring to my body: the back fat, the birdlike chest, the soft sausage arms, the knocked knees covered in scars.
I have been skinnier in my life, but it required a level of dietary vigilance and/or physical exertion that took my attention away from enjoying the fruits of my labour. Skinny came hand-in-hand with an unrelenting obsession with food, constant monitoring of my hunger level, and loads of laundry.
It makes sense to simply accept my body as is, given that I exercise a few times a week, I eat healthy, and my body has not betrayed me with malfunction or disease in any major way. And it's a relief not to be my own worst enemy, every morning.
Of course, admitting a problem is not the end of it. I may be coaxed back into borderline anorexia by being called "fatty" or by fluorescent lighting in a swimsuit fitting room. In the meantime, I will enjoy this unfamiliar acceptance of my body, until one of my fellow Thinspiration XXL becomes enviably thin, and dissatisfaction with my body rears its ugly head.

If you gotta sit on your ass, at least make wasting time interesting

Not one to shy away from sloth at times of slothiness, a chosen victim of my own inertia I try to be at least partially mentally engaged with the process of ever-widening my waist and ass in between my infrequent workouts.

So join me on the couch, relax, and enjoy the show with these 2 short time wasters:

The 600 Years, by the macula. For the 600th Anniversary of the Astronomical Clock Tower in Prague. I dig old clocks like this, the mechanics and calculations that had gone into their construction must have been staggering. Buildings have stories to tell as do the people who built them.

I've seen projected building work before but nothing like this. "the macula" display here just totally blew me away. Make sure you have the sound on and in IE and Firefox hit F11 to max out your screen, the video is TALL.

Suggested pairing: roast pork with dumplings and sauerkraut, Czechvar or Kozel beer

Mass Effect 2's opening sequence. An opening scene sets the tone, doesn't matter if it's the opening bars to a concert or the first scene of King Lear.

Bioware has turned much of what was once considered the "non-art" of video games and made them relevant. Mass Effect 2's opening interactive cut-scene alone turned customary game intro's upside down and inside out.

This sequence left my quaking jaw on the floor when I fired it up in January on release day. Even if you don't know the story of the first game, this is a pretty epic way to get uncontrollably pulled into the ME universe in the sequel.

SPOILER: You play as Commander Shepard. And in the first 5 minutes, you die. Chew on that for a minute.

Yes that is a LEGO Normandy SR-2 built by Ben Fellowes. It even has a LEGO Kodiak shuttle and a docking bay to store it in. 1.26 metres of LEGO awesomeness.

Suggested pairing: any Big Rock beer and Alberta beef tenderloin.

I feel my ass getting bigger by the moment.

Status Update: One for the Ditch

Beer Gut of Sloth (Heavy Dwarven Armour):
Fatigue +15
Armour +1
Constitution +50
Speed -20
Dexterity -100
Strength Modifier 0.000001

At this particular moment I remain boned.

Major holes recently punched into my ability to maintain or lose weight:

Montreal is behind me and with it, my ambition to run for the time being. Calling it burnout is a bit of an understatement.

GWN dragon boat race is over. My 9th season of racing is done. Our team closed out the beer tent, being politely booted out as the staff packed up and the sun went down we were the last team standing and quite nicely pickled. Liquid calories abounded as we were celebrating a fun season and finishing off in style.

What this truly means besides the fact my liver is blue is that all that extra exercise from practices to work off my binges is now absent. My binges were rationalized before, now they are not. I am also struck with the new-found free time I don't quite know what to do with yet. If only fleeting this feeling of free time initially drops on your head like a mountain of bricks and is alarmingly disorienting.

Options? I have the usual new apartment stuff that needs attending to still, can go for a run, can maybe catch a movie ...

BUT! *there's always a but.

Halo: Reach is finally here! The prequel endgame of the Bungie era in Halo games, and it's very very fun. If anything will make me take Dragon Age out of my xbox drive and plant my ass immobile without fail it's a new Halo. This represents an incredible opportunity to expand my belly overhang in ever greater dimensions.

Free Time = Video Game Sloth

Eating out. Until very recently I have spent a very little amount of time at home due to the events I've been attending/competing in. So I have been eating humongous portions elsewhere and although yummy, seeing the sodium, sugar and fat levels in most tasty restaurant meals are something to make one's eyeballs shrivel and I'm glad those details aren't listed on the menus yet. I enjoy cooking but my fridge is empty, have to hit the veggie stands and restock the freezer.

Now it's time for me to get off my ass and re-begin my training in other forms and with a new resolve as I'm calling my grace period for recovery (translation: laziness) from the run officially OVER.