Weighting for a Moment...but that Moment Never Came

I have not published a Weight Loss update lately. It's not because of forgetfulness, but because it's just so darn depressing. I won't go into details, but I will say that the opposite of losing weight occurred.

ugh.

Last week was not a great week-I was really sluggish, tired and didn't feel like cooking. I think the cold is getting to me. So this translated into Chipotle on Thursday, NY-style pizza on Friday, Gordon Biersch on Saturday (mmm....beer), and, of course, playoff food on Sunday. Homemade 'tato skins and beer.

So come Monday, I shouldn't have been surprised.

Feeling down, I resumed going back to my regular gym schedule (last week was my "cross-training" week, so I knocked my effort back a notch and did stationary bikes instead of my usual treadmill/elliptical combo. And read Runner's World. Lotsa articles about running in that one). And yesterday, I broke the 30 minute benchmark for my 5K!

Yay, me!

Just two weeks ago, my 5K time was 31.50. Yesterday, it was 29:48 or 29:58-I honestly can't recall since I was so busy recovering that my brain ceased to function for a few minutes. But I know for sure it was under 30 minutes.

So even though I didn't lose weight this week, I think this proves that my fitness overall has improved. And maybe I can chalk up some of the weight gain to muscle gain. (I'm trying to get my arms looking great for my tattoo.)

And the best part is the mental one-I have broken than 30 minute barrier, which means when I am running and exhausted I can never, ever tell myself that I "can't do it." I did it, so I can do it again, right? Nifty, eh?

Excitedly, I bounded home to find...a distressed and saddened Michael (and those are the worst kinds of Michaels, lemme tell you). Frankly, I thought someone had died. Like a family member. Turns out it was Heath Ledger. Which is a horrible situation, don't get me wrong, but when I found out why Mike had that look on his face, I wanted to strangle him (and yes, I understand that this would have exacerbated the situation). I just thought it was much more serious, you know? So needless to say, he was less interested in and excited about "running."

But the Heath Ledger thing is pretty disturbing. One, Mike's right, he does have a 2 year old named Matilda and it is quite easy for us to understand how hard it is to explain to a 2 year old that something is gone and not coming back. (Fortunately, we have only had to do this with chocolate so far.) Two, he is too close to my age. Three, he was a damn good actor, something I didn't realize/recognize until I saw Brokeback Mountain. And I was really looking forward to seeing him in Batman. Still am, I guess.

Four, is how the media is treating this. I noticed in this CNN article that the only celebs they quote about the situation are two famous Aussies. Because, you know, only Australian actors can comment on a fellow Australian actor's death. Then there was this Time article that, by my estimate, came out a mere 3 hours after Ledger was pronounced dead, declaring him a "Star in Distress." While at the gym, I saw various talking heads on the news, claiming that they had insight into his troubled life and demons. Which is terrible, because no one knows why he died. Everything they have found so far is circumstantial. But these jerks are quick to paint a picture of a troubled soul who may have turn to drugs to ease his pain. This does a disservice to him and his family since, even if they find that he died of natural causes, his legacy will be plagued by falsehoods designed to sell advertisement on CNN.com. It's maddening, people.

But the best thing was Headline News-they only had two stories really-Heath Ledger and the drop in stock market prices. So they did a split screen of officials taking Heath Ledger's body out in a body bag and the stock market prices. Which, to someone who was watching with the sound off (like me), made it appear as though they were implying that Ledger's death had caused the stock market to crash.

Nitwits.