Mr. Flibble is very cross...

Needless to say, I am giddy and all atwitter at the news that Season VIII of Red Dwarf is coming to DVD soon. I will spring for it because I medically need it (the VHS tapes are disintegrating), but I will skip the Mr. Flibble hand puppet. If they ever come out with one that has hex vision, I will break down and make the purchase for that as well. Right now, it is available for order only on formats 2 and 4, and American DVD formats are neither. I can wait. For a while.

So, time for a confession. I'm fat. Well, I'm not fat, really, I'm just tremendously out of shape. I am absolutely at the outside of what is considered a healthy weight for my age and height. Before I started school in August of 2004, I went hiking nearly every day after work and then all weekend, every weekend. When I did the Enchantments for my birthday I barely broke a sweat. I could carry a 35 pound pack 7 miles, set up camp, and explore for a few hours. I could run up the five flights of stairs to work without getting winded. I was eating more than 3000 calories a day, and I was a size 8. At 5'10" and 36 years old, that's quite nice. (Insert big grin here.) Now? I shudder to confess, so I won't. Anyway, at some point in the very recent past, I realized that I was having some rather major issues. My clothes were... shrinking. I was skipping breakfast and lunch because of time issues, but I would go home after work and eat until I went to bed. Things were... jiggling. I saw a woman on TV who was about 5 months pregnant and I realized that we had a lot in common in the physique department. Ew. EW! Ugh. So I'm now on the Glycemic Impact diet, which is basically the Zone diet with slightly different reasoning. I'm rather amazed at the quick results. I have to eat all day long just to get it all down, but it is all healthy and it is all things that I like. (I have sneaked a few Girl Scout cookies and an apple fritter, but that's just between you and me. Shh!) Literally, for the first time in my life, I'm drinking enough water. I'm sure the daily aerobic/resistance training isn't hurting anything either.

I graduate in October, just in time to catch one or two good North Cascades hikes before the snow comes, and I intend to be back in good enough shape to tackle them right away. I have a long Memorial Day weekend, so I'm planning to do a hike then, and another over the Fourth of July weekend. I think there will probably still be snow in late May - there sure was last year, which did not prevent sunburn or high temperatures at Gem Lake, which was still frozen - so it won't be an overnighter because I'm just enough of a wuss to not want to camp in full-on snow. Not yet. Maybe next year. The July 4th trip will be an overnighter, snow or no snow, because if there is any it will be sparse. I know which hike I'm going to do (look out, mountain goats, the camera happy freak is coming back), and I know that even without a full pack it is a killer, so I definitely need to work to get myself into shape before I hit that trail. Even just as a day hike the trail is a nightmare. I broke all of my fingernails on that trail! You have to use your hands pretty liberally on that one. Bits of it are essentially a scramble. I also intend to be in good enough shape to do some snowboarding and snowshoeing next winter. Best to get started now, don't you think?