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Aug. 10th, 2007 01:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tylikYay! It is immunohistochemistry day! But at the moment I'm doing a lot of "wash with this and then wait for ten minutes" so I'll do some more silly posting, amongst listening in on my coworkers singing along to their music, and arguing about "maya", and what maya might mean to them as Christians. (I really like this lab. Especially since I can then go to the other end of the lab and discuss it in both linguistic and philosophical terms with one of my Nepali lab mates.)
I'm at a place with my morning training that it's not quite doing it for me. Have to reconsider a bit this weekend -- I want more intensity out of what I'm doing, but I don't want to spend less time doing forms and I don't want to spend more time overall. And I don't want to have a less effective stretching period... Anyhow, there's room for tweaking. It might be time for me to do forms to warm up, and stretch afterwards... though my before forms stretching period is also when I work through alignment issues. (The other complicating factor is that right now I stretch in the apartment and do forms outside. Eventually the weather will mandate changing that.) But it's getting to be time to head in long before I really feel ready to stop. I'm also playing around with doing more things mid day, which certainly means I feel less dead at the end of the day. I can do crouch stance to bow stance transitions anywhere, pretty much, but I haven't found a good surface for things like iron buffaloes, and I'm still not sure about how I feel doing forms in some of the less frequented spots in the pediatrics research area. (C encourages me to, but then I think he's hoping this will make him look like less of a freak.) Going outside just takes so much longer. (There are 179 stairs between the lab and the first floor of Rainbow Babies and Children.)
I've dropped another five pounds in the last month. Which is a much more reasonable amount. It occurred to me a few days ago that I am now a weight that I'd kind of set in my head as a reference a while ago, as in "I'm pretty sure that this would be a good weight to be at*, and if I get there, I'll see what I think." And, indeed, it's a good place for my body overall. It's about twenty pounds higher than the lowest weight I've been as an adult... a weight I last was when I was twenty-two. I'm a lot more muscular now than I was then, and I'm two or three cup sizes larger. (The breasts have finally consented to subside a little -- I'm back to really being a lunaire DDD as opposed to "DDDD" would be better, but they don't make that, so I persevere. But they don't see to shrink proportionally to the rest of me.) I suspect I have a similar amount of body fat as I did when I was 22, but I also feel that proportionally, more of my fat is around my belly. Not *much* more...
Anyhow, my body is still changing, and I'm pretty pleased with the direction it's taking. I'm going to continue to track my weight along with my more general tracking and continue to train and keep to the current general diet** (though perhaps more veggies -- I'm easily getting ten combined total servings, but fruit has been kind of predominating this last bit). I'm thinking that I might drop at much as another twenty pounds. Not going to exactly aim for that (honestly, the whole weight thing still makes me pretty uncomfortable, but it seems like it's a useful tool for the moment) but it looks like it might be a reasonable idea, and kind of fun. Might start using K's scale to track composition, though I'm not sure how much I trust it. I suspect that dropping the additional weight would put me at the lowest % body fat I've ever been, though, and I'd want to keep an eye on that.
I've also been continuing to play with the idea of sugaring my legs semi-regularly. (Say, more than once or twice a year.) I don't really know how well one would have to do to manage the midwest sensibility thing -- because honestly, on the one hand, when your leg hair grows out after sugaring, it's finer and softer. But you have to let it grow out at least a little bit or you can't sugar it again properly. I expect that among people who care there are general guidelines. But... heck, I'm willing to make some kind of effort to respect local norms, but whatever. I don't think I really have the hang of it. Every time I've dressed up for some kind of program or lab function, K has said "You look nice! Mm... but still like a west coast hippy chick."
Making the sugar is challenging considering the humidity here, and I never got that great at it before (because I was so inconsistent with it). But it's coming together. Now we'll see if I can really care enough. Fully defurred legs do show off any recent scars or bruises... but they also call attention to all of the muscular definition. Neither of which are exactly traditionally feminine, but I am amused.
And while I'm talking about silly cosmetic stuff, I might as well mention the current hair bit. I'd been using burt's bees raspberry and brazil nut shampoo for a while, with avalon organics mango and awapuhi conditioner for the last... I dunno. Maybe a year. The latter has really good slip, the former seems to leave my hair smelling nice*** and feeling really strong and healthy. (I enjoy having soft healthy feeling hair. For this reason -- and because haircuts are work -- I don't have it all cut off.)
I'd been curious about the rasperry and brazil nut conditioner for a bit, but I hadn't bothered to do anything about it. Except that some weeks ago I picked up both conditioners instead of a shampoo and conditioner by mistake... so I figured I might as well try it.
So it's been a few weeks, and after playing around a bit I've settled into alternately between the two conditioners (and I must remember to pick up more shampoo before I completely run out). The one thing I didn't like about the mango conditioner is that sometime my hair felt a little dry -- very soft, but still dry. The raspberry completely fixes that, amd my hair feels luscious. Almost makes me wish I did more with my hair than comb it out and tie it up.
Oh, and in terms of my attempts to be able to pass as professional (I might be crashing a few med school things where they have higher standards than academic formal, which I do fairly well) I think I need to locate some kind of product for my hair. I really don't know what -- what I want is something that I can put in my hair before I put it up that will keep all the whispies from getting loose and curling around my face. Generally I don't mind the effect (certainly not enough to do anything about it) but it is insufficiently professional. I also want it to wash out, and not to damage my hair. What do I use? Huh? Anyone?
* Assuming I didn't vastly increase my muscle mass, yadda yadda.
** Nothing particularly new here. Lots of fruits an veggies lots of whole grains... aw, heck. While I'm not doing CR, it's almost a definitional thing. I'm eating very nutritionally dense calorically sparse food, and I'm just eating as much of it as I feel like. I suspect this really comes down to about the same thing, but it's a better philosophical basis for me. The whole restricting intake bit trips me out (I still firmly believe that bad mental health just can't better your physical health) but then nutritionally dense food is pretty hard to really overindulge in. And some of the more recent studies seem to show that you get comparable effects from a more moderate dietary change combined with more exercise as you do with more serious CR -- definitely the way to go for me.
*** To be serious, I will admit that the raspberry mango scent is as strong an argument for the combo as anything else to me. Hmm... and I am looking for a non petroleum hand cream... I wonder if the coop has that really luscious vanilla one? (Though I probably don't want something strongly scented.)
I'm at a place with my morning training that it's not quite doing it for me. Have to reconsider a bit this weekend -- I want more intensity out of what I'm doing, but I don't want to spend less time doing forms and I don't want to spend more time overall. And I don't want to have a less effective stretching period... Anyhow, there's room for tweaking. It might be time for me to do forms to warm up, and stretch afterwards... though my before forms stretching period is also when I work through alignment issues. (The other complicating factor is that right now I stretch in the apartment and do forms outside. Eventually the weather will mandate changing that.) But it's getting to be time to head in long before I really feel ready to stop. I'm also playing around with doing more things mid day, which certainly means I feel less dead at the end of the day. I can do crouch stance to bow stance transitions anywhere, pretty much, but I haven't found a good surface for things like iron buffaloes, and I'm still not sure about how I feel doing forms in some of the less frequented spots in the pediatrics research area. (C encourages me to, but then I think he's hoping this will make him look like less of a freak.) Going outside just takes so much longer. (There are 179 stairs between the lab and the first floor of Rainbow Babies and Children.)
I've dropped another five pounds in the last month. Which is a much more reasonable amount. It occurred to me a few days ago that I am now a weight that I'd kind of set in my head as a reference a while ago, as in "I'm pretty sure that this would be a good weight to be at*, and if I get there, I'll see what I think." And, indeed, it's a good place for my body overall. It's about twenty pounds higher than the lowest weight I've been as an adult... a weight I last was when I was twenty-two. I'm a lot more muscular now than I was then, and I'm two or three cup sizes larger. (The breasts have finally consented to subside a little -- I'm back to really being a lunaire DDD as opposed to "DDDD" would be better, but they don't make that, so I persevere. But they don't see to shrink proportionally to the rest of me.) I suspect I have a similar amount of body fat as I did when I was 22, but I also feel that proportionally, more of my fat is around my belly. Not *much* more...
Anyhow, my body is still changing, and I'm pretty pleased with the direction it's taking. I'm going to continue to track my weight along with my more general tracking and continue to train and keep to the current general diet** (though perhaps more veggies -- I'm easily getting ten combined total servings, but fruit has been kind of predominating this last bit). I'm thinking that I might drop at much as another twenty pounds. Not going to exactly aim for that (honestly, the whole weight thing still makes me pretty uncomfortable, but it seems like it's a useful tool for the moment) but it looks like it might be a reasonable idea, and kind of fun. Might start using K's scale to track composition, though I'm not sure how much I trust it. I suspect that dropping the additional weight would put me at the lowest % body fat I've ever been, though, and I'd want to keep an eye on that.
I've also been continuing to play with the idea of sugaring my legs semi-regularly. (Say, more than once or twice a year.) I don't really know how well one would have to do to manage the midwest sensibility thing -- because honestly, on the one hand, when your leg hair grows out after sugaring, it's finer and softer. But you have to let it grow out at least a little bit or you can't sugar it again properly. I expect that among people who care there are general guidelines. But... heck, I'm willing to make some kind of effort to respect local norms, but whatever. I don't think I really have the hang of it. Every time I've dressed up for some kind of program or lab function, K has said "You look nice! Mm... but still like a west coast hippy chick."
Making the sugar is challenging considering the humidity here, and I never got that great at it before (because I was so inconsistent with it). But it's coming together. Now we'll see if I can really care enough. Fully defurred legs do show off any recent scars or bruises... but they also call attention to all of the muscular definition. Neither of which are exactly traditionally feminine, but I am amused.
And while I'm talking about silly cosmetic stuff, I might as well mention the current hair bit. I'd been using burt's bees raspberry and brazil nut shampoo for a while, with avalon organics mango and awapuhi conditioner for the last... I dunno. Maybe a year. The latter has really good slip, the former seems to leave my hair smelling nice*** and feeling really strong and healthy. (I enjoy having soft healthy feeling hair. For this reason -- and because haircuts are work -- I don't have it all cut off.)
I'd been curious about the rasperry and brazil nut conditioner for a bit, but I hadn't bothered to do anything about it. Except that some weeks ago I picked up both conditioners instead of a shampoo and conditioner by mistake... so I figured I might as well try it.
So it's been a few weeks, and after playing around a bit I've settled into alternately between the two conditioners (and I must remember to pick up more shampoo before I completely run out). The one thing I didn't like about the mango conditioner is that sometime my hair felt a little dry -- very soft, but still dry. The raspberry completely fixes that, amd my hair feels luscious. Almost makes me wish I did more with my hair than comb it out and tie it up.
Oh, and in terms of my attempts to be able to pass as professional (I might be crashing a few med school things where they have higher standards than academic formal, which I do fairly well) I think I need to locate some kind of product for my hair. I really don't know what -- what I want is something that I can put in my hair before I put it up that will keep all the whispies from getting loose and curling around my face. Generally I don't mind the effect (certainly not enough to do anything about it) but it is insufficiently professional. I also want it to wash out, and not to damage my hair. What do I use? Huh? Anyone?
* Assuming I didn't vastly increase my muscle mass, yadda yadda.
** Nothing particularly new here. Lots of fruits an veggies lots of whole grains... aw, heck. While I'm not doing CR, it's almost a definitional thing. I'm eating very nutritionally dense calorically sparse food, and I'm just eating as much of it as I feel like. I suspect this really comes down to about the same thing, but it's a better philosophical basis for me. The whole restricting intake bit trips me out (I still firmly believe that bad mental health just can't better your physical health) but then nutritionally dense food is pretty hard to really overindulge in. And some of the more recent studies seem to show that you get comparable effects from a more moderate dietary change combined with more exercise as you do with more serious CR -- definitely the way to go for me.
*** To be serious, I will admit that the raspberry mango scent is as strong an argument for the combo as anything else to me. Hmm... and I am looking for a non petroleum hand cream... I wonder if the coop has that really luscious vanilla one? (Though I probably don't want something strongly scented.)
