Revival and Tuesday's Tasty Tidbit

Blogging hasn't been all that interesting or easy the past few months, but with the summer coming, another year of D*Con around the corner, I am pupped up and ready to dive back into the awesomeness!

The last year has been a whirlwind of a new job and revamping a lot of what goes on in my life, physically, emotionally, and mentally.  I have made the transition from starting as a crossfitter and moving over into the world of powerlifting.  In addition, I've become more dedicated in my pursuit of roller derby. 

Roller derby has been an amazing addition to my life and helps to hold me over in the cosplay aspect ;)

I currently play for the Mid-Hudson Misfits as Death D.Lynn "Babs" and am loving the development I see within myself physically and mentally.  Derby has been a great cardio outlet given my lack of desire to be a runner overall.  Doing some of the runDisney events and other wonderful runs throughout the year is great and I love the awareness I raise for the people I run for, but on the daily basis, it isn't my cup of tea.  Playing for a WFTDA team is amazing, the goals are oriented around sisterhood and personal development as a skater and as a team.   With that being said, I've met some wonderful women that play derby across the nation, including at D*Con!  I'm actually pretty excited to have a run in with another derby girl who will be dressing up as Harley Quinn (jammer) and I'll be going as Batgilr (blocker), love it.

So yeah, not loving running... but one thing I do love, free shit... or some swag.  runDisney is amazing and I love the running events that I've been able to do with friends over the last year. 

The first round I completed this year was the runDisney Tinkerbell Weekend 10k and Half-Marathon... I like to make up for my lack of running in one fell swoop.  I spent the weekend running with my lovely friend Tink (aka. Tara).  We ran at 6am on Saturday and 5am on Sunday morning, 10k on Saturday and Half-Marathon on Sunday... talk about crazy!  There are some wonderful ladies that I met last year at D*Con who run Geek Girls Run.  I had the opportunity to catch up with them during both the Tinkerbell weekend and Princess Weekend when I went down to Disney World a month later to complete the second half of the Coast to Coast and Princess and a Pixie Challenges.  Below are 4 of my 6 medals that I earned for the 4 runs :) SEEEE check out that swag!!!!! Plus the tutu, who doesn't want to run in a tutu and be a princess for a day?

Talk about the amazing cosplay ideas that come up while watching people run... I went pretty light with these runs, it's all about comfort and dealing with running for 2 and a half hours in my case and possibly longer for others, so wig wearing... you might want to think about that one again.  Either way, there were some great outfits that I saw while I went running and that gave me some great ideas for future cosplay :)

So hey, I'm back on the scene and ready to get things going again!

In regard to the tasty tidbit this week... it's simple, keep hydrated!

Return from War of the Roses

So I'm back from a wonderful, long weekend away camping and enjoying time with friends at an SCA event.  The Society for Creative Anachronism is largely comprised of those who portray different aspects of medieval history from all over the world and varying time periods.  I'm in what is known as the East Kingdom (east coast).  One of the biggest events that we do in the north east area is the War of the Roses. It's our annual get together pre-Pennsic camping event where we meet up with friends we may only see twice a year, go to different classes, and basically have a nice relaxing weekend.

I never try to delude myself when it comes to Roses weekend.  While it is a wonderful event, it is one of those weekends where you raise the white flag of your diet and just surrender to the gods of gluttony because you really have no choice.  For me it calls to mind John Pinette's skit on healthy eating and gluten free.

Yes, just about everything there contains some form of gluten.  Lucky for me the camp that I stay with we have a number of individuals who are celiacs, so there was gluten free option most of the time.  However, this didn't take into account the fact that I usually don't even ingest potatoes or rice.  So I resigned the weekend to be an off weekend for my eating routine.  It happens, I don't get upset about it because I knew I'd be back on track come the week.

It's now Wednesday and my body is still railing back and forth between wanting more of the unhealthy deliciousness of the weekend food, but at the same time loving the healthy choice that I've been pushing into my body.  In a way I feel like the week after a weekend off is another gorge fest onto itself.  The first few days back on my typical eating patterns it seems like I eat much more than I usually would and I recognize that I probably do eat more than needed.  My body over the course of 4 days basically became use to being stuffed with products that it hasn't had in a long time... realized it remembered what they were and started to make more of a fat storage and demand more be put in my system.

Tonight I made a quinoa pasta with caramelize onions and crimini and shitaki mushrooms.  It's simple and delicious and helps to provide my stomach with something that provides the bulk of a starch along with the large heaping of veggies and fungus to fuel me with some good vitamins and minerals.

It looks and tastes a lot better in person (camera phone pictures still are quite crappy). Given that I have a Spartan Race on June 2nd, this upcoming Saturday, I want to feel good both inside and out. 

In addition, I've made sure to stock up with some farm fresh strawberries... I've been eating away at them slowly. 

Hope everyone continues to fuel themselves with healthy food... I fully agree with an 80% lifestyle of eating healthy and occasionally indulging in something not in your usual plethora of daily foods.  Roses for me happens to be a long weekend off.  Now it's back on the horse and time to get ready for Spartan Race!

On a side note I picked up some amazing fabric from one of the vendors at Roses and am very excited to start making a new middle eastern dance outfit for my gypsy SCA character.  There was a wonderful choli-making class and I now know how to make a measurement for ANYONE and can make a personalized fit choli for any type of body type.  This is very exciting stuff!  I now have fabric for a new dance shirt, ghawazee vest and/or coat, and dancing skirt.  For those not familiar with the renaissance faires or SCA, a choli is a middrift top (there are also styles that cover the waist) that has ties either in the back (usually a double or triple set) or on the front (right at the middle of the chest) to adjust to fit the wearer.  A ghawazee coat can be long or short (some people actually wear ghawazee vests) and typically are meant to hug against the figure of the wearer and in most cases it puts the assets of a woman on display.  For many of the gypsy tribal women that myself  and my friends portray, beauty is not about letting all your skin show. 

Above is a nice example of a choli top.  It doesn't look like it has very much support, but the great thing about them is you can make them to give you support and they can be as tight or as loose as you like.  On the right is an example of a ghawazee coat; some of the style the women are wearing are more cabaret style, while  the style of the model above is more what I tend toward with tribal jewelry.  One of the thoughts I lead with when buying clothing and dressing for an event as my SCA character is that most women in medieval times from the middle east were thought to be more beautiful and alluring by wearing more.  As a belly dancer and character I fully embrace the art of wearing multiple layers and relish in the fact that I can walk into a party at any camp at Pennsic and receive just as much appraisal and acknowledgement if not more than women wearing skimpy leather bras and skirts.  ...and I guarantee you it has nothing to do with size.  There are some very beautiful women there who are 200lb and up who move with the grace of swans and keep themselves entirely covered from head to toe when dancing in their gypsy garb and it is one of the most beautiful sights you can see. 

But anyway, I digress.  I'm very excited to get underway with my new projects for the SCA, but better start thinking about conventions.  Otakon is coming up and I'm nowhere near ready!

Ab Season Means It's Getting Close to Cosplay Season

It's definitely ab season.  Not like Pauly D flashing your abs every single second, that's just stupid.  It's that wonderful time of year that those of us who are into cosplay and even those that are not, begin to realize, "Oh my god it's May and I haven't even begun to start working on my swimsuit body."  This realization has gradually been seeping into my conscious mind.  It was a little jarring to think about a few weeks prior, but I've been trying to remember to toss some ab routines into my daily schedule when I have the down time to do so. 

One of my outfits for this upcoming Dragon*Con in Georgia is young Sif from the comic, Thor: Son of Asgard.  She's remarked as being a woman of great prowess and one, if not the best, female warriors of Asgard.  Sort of sets the stage for a lot to work towards in terms of being physically fit wouldn't you say?  While I'm not at all shy about my body, I really didn't want to work on an outfit that a lot of other people have done before.  I've seen a lot of individuals at cons who are the later version and more memorable version of Sif, mostly because of her helmet.  I opted for her early years outfit.

It will certainly prove to be difficult in it's own way considering that the material has to be a very soft, malleable leather.  I'm going to have to sew the top (granted comics don't always take into account the reality of fabric to how it works with an individual) but in this case, a lot of points can be taken away from the picture and applied to a dress form at least I'm hoping so. 

Last year a friend of mine helped me construct the leather aspects of my Blondie outfit for a SuckerPunch photo shoot and meet and greet.  Some of the material had it's own pros and cons.  The arm covers, even though measured to be tight fitting so that they didn't slip, eventually started the sag after awhile.  Here's a picture, thanks to Jesse Noble for taking individual shots of all the characters.  You can notice, if you look at my right arm, the brace is actually suppose to be up a little higher on my bicep, but given the frequent movement and action shots that were taking place, it kept sliding down and the leather started to give over time because I kept flexing.  However, not too bad for my first real "revealing" costume at Dragon*Con 2011. 

One of the pros of this outfit is that it hid some of my insecure spots.  I'm a hippy girl who doesn't have super defined abs.  Wearing a unitard and stockings really helps to kick up the confidence level when you don't have to show off your tummy... but I digress.

Sif isn't a character to back down and I've certainly been trying to channel that aspect of my personality with keeping on track with some exercise.  While I don't expect to have rock hard abs or the kind of definition I'd expect after a few months of cross-fit, I do expect myself to have less belly fat and a little bit more definition by the time D*Con rolls around on August 31st this year. 

I know not everyone is a fan of doing workouts and a lot of times they peter off after a week or two.  Don't worry, I've got the same kind of attention span, unfortunately.  I work pretty well wish visuals, which it's taken me a long time to realize that.  However, I have a number of planners that I carry with me for work and keep around the house.  While getting a new daily planner a month ago, I picked up a Martha Stewart Home Office decal to post up on the fridge. 

I got the one on the bottom, mostly because I really liked the measurement conversion sheet (works well with making smoothies).  I also have a housemate, so I don't really like to broadcast on the fridge what my workout of the day is going to be or my appointments, but I do like the weekly planner one on top.  I might be motivated to get that one later on and stick it on a mirror in my room that I frequent, so I have the constant reminder. 

The decals are sort of awesome, they requite a dry eraser marker and you can post whatever you like.  Personally, I like to leave myself notes in bullet point version: Do ab workout 3x a week, burpees 3x a week, try and do cardio 5x a week!

I don't like to do long and involved routines, if I can't remember them off the top of my head on my own, then I think it's all the more work for me to apply myself.  This will often lead to the "I'll do it tomorrow" or "I'll just double up the next time I do it" and eventually the workout routine becomes no more. 

I stick to a pretty simple routine that I did when I was in swimming (I currently coach it now, so I've been able to add on to my routine and change things up so I can target all the muscles groups), but this is something that you can post up on your workout board or weekly to do list if you want to get some ab work in, don't want to get a ton of equipment, and are pressed for time.  When I stretch with the older kids for swimming, the abs take 15 minutes tops to complete.  I think that is more than enough to keep your attention span and get some good body work done.  You can do this almost anywhere, if you like to do things while a commerial is on, pick one of the sets and complete it while you're waiting for your latest sci-fi show or anime to come back on the tube.  I was doing a crunches last night while waiting for Ouran Host Club to come back on Hulu ^.^

So here's the lineup:

20 standard crunches
40 bicycle rounds (20 each side)
40 side crunches (20 each side)
20 medicine ball crunches
20 side-to-side crunches
60 leg ups/arm reaches (20 at each leg height)


With the crunches I prefer hands behind my head, if you do this, you shouldn't be seeing your elbows come in front of your face, your hands are meant to support your head, not be the means to pull you up.

Bicycle rounds - feet should circle around like you are riding a bike (keeping feet flexed while you do it).  While cycling, you should come up into crunch position, alternating sides to almost touch your leg elbow to your right knee and visa-versa.  This is usually done pretty quickly with counts of 8 (so technically it's 5 rounds of 8).  On the first 4, it's standard one second = one bicycle side crunch.  The second 4 count is double time, so you move a little faster. 

Side crunches - you literally lay on your side, think loose fetal position.  Turn your torso and arms so that your upper body is facing the ceiling.  Do 20 crunches in that position, keeping legs turned to the side and at an angle (Anywhere between a 90 and 45 degree angle is good). 

Medicine ball crunches - Not everyone has a medicine ball, I actually had to buy one a few years ago because I wanted to get back into swimming.  Most sports stores will carry them.  If you are considering getting one, go with a weight that feels just right... carry it around the store for awhile and maybe see how many times you can toss it up in the air and catch it before your arms get tired.  If you're able to do 40 or more, it's way too light, if you can't to more than 10, it's not heavy enough.  I have a 10 lb. ball that I use.  If you don't have one and don't want to get one, any item that has some weight to it will work (an actual weight if you have it, I've even used my Buddha head statue when I couldn't find my medicine ball) To do the crunches (they also work your arms).  Get into crunch position, but hold the medicine ball extended above your head as if you were standing up.  When you're reading, swing your arms up with the ball and  pull your tummy in to come up into a crunch.  You should have the ball come down between your chest and knees, elbows extended out on either side of your body so you basically hug the medicine ball between your legs and chest.  Gradually let yourself back down, simultaneously lifting the medicine ball back up over your head (you'll feel it in your core if you're doing it right).

Side-to-side crunches - Standard crunch position and alternate sides, trying to touch elbow to knee, you shouldn't come up off the ground too much for these.

Leg/Arm Reaches - Extending your legs at a 30 degree, 45 degree, and 90 degree angle to the floor.  I prefer to work my way up in intervals so I start with 20 reaches at 30, them 20 at 45, and finally 20 at 90.  Arms should start above your head (some people prefer to bring them up from their side, but starting above your head pushes you to work your arms a bit more too).  Pull yourself up into crunch position, reaching hands out towards flexed toes for a count of one and then bring yourself back down, leaving your legs up in the degree position designated for that round.

So let ab season begin.  Hope people try the ab routine, it isn't all the bad and you'll feel like you're doing a lot for yourself in 15 minutes :)

Butter Me Up Baby

I have a slight obsession with almond butter since I've gone off peanut butter.  It's been about 6 months since I've actually indulged in peanut butter on the spoon or even in a Reese's. I find that I haven't missed it all that much.  Not only that, but I feel like I'm not drawn to eating as much of the almond butter.  Switching to almond butter has been one of the healthy moves I've made over the past few months. I love peanuts and peanut butter, but the type of fat and levels I ingest from peanuts far out way those of almonds.  I could have switched over to cashew or any other nut butter, but have found that personally, almond butter is where my taste-buds prefer to roam.  There are tons of different kinds to look into, but I keep coming back to Once Again's Traditional Almond Butter. 

It is a little more textured than what you'd expect of a smooth nut butter.  But it layers on thick like peanut butter if you are looking to make a sandwich.  If you want something good to use in smoothies, this is certainly it.  I will use it in place of my protein powder if I need something to hold me over for a long period of time. 

One that I'd seen noted in Hungry Girl's daily email was Justin's Almond Butter.  Holy hell, if you want something that tastes like being pampered, this would be it.  It's a but higher up there on the price range scale, but it certainly is something that I would consider to be more for snacking than using on a daily basis. 

I make a number of smoothies during the week when I have to coach a swim team after work. My schedule basically will leave me away from the house for about 4-5 hours, thus I need something that is either ready and delicious at room temperature and doesn't need refrigerator or I need to have something that will hold me over for the long period of time.  I've lately been making a smoothie with banana, cocoa, almond milk, and almond butter and drinking it on the way to practice.  It's great! It fills me up and keeps me going for a long time.  I used my stock of Justin's a few times in this, but the chocolate flavor was sort of lost with the protein powder and other ingredients.  It ultimately ended up becoming the snack butter.  Indulge with caution... two tablespoons is really enough for anyone to have; it's very tempting to have more than that because it isn't overly sweet or as thick/heavy on the tongue as peanut butter in my option.  Seriously though, this stuff is good.  I like to keep it in the fridge just to have something to snack on every once in awhile when I know that I'm craving something sweet but really don't need anything unhealthy in my body.

One other major find that came my way via my Love of Food package this past month was Barney Almond Butter.  If you know that you want to switch over to almond butter but can't stand the idea of having something that doesn't taste or look very much like peanut butter, this is the choice for you.

I received two small sample packets, one which I used in a smoothie and the other which I sucked on like a fruit-by-the-foot to see if I liked the taste and texture in comparison to the other ones I'd tried.  I really couldn't tell much of a difference between Barney's and plain Jane Jiffy peanut butter other than the aftertaste of almond. It didn't leave me wanting either.  I was pleasantly surprised by how creamy and smooth it was.  Absolutely loved it.  However, it doesn't look like it's available in stores just yet, at least not by me, so eventually I may have to order some online. 

Thanks Dr. Oz!

I've been in a slump the last few days... this past weekend there was a cupcake festival a few towns over.  No problem... I can handle this (so says I).  However, despite my mental insistence to myself that I would be able to behave, one day turned into more like a full weekend and the week following of a cupcake extravaganza.  Mind you... I have a sweet tooth.  While I try to deny it, I'm just as bad as Hyperbole and a Half's author considering her portrayal of her child self

Yes ladies and gentleman, I have little to no control once I get a taste of the sweet stuff.  Try as I might to stuff myself with veggies and fruit and anything but the one thing that I have set my mind on, there will continue to be just enough of a hole waiting to be filled with a sweet confection until I give in.

I was good on Saturday... I ate two cupcakes while attending the event and that was it for the day!  Yeah, go me! 

However, not only did the cupcake festival happen to be on Saturday, there happened to be a birthday party, also.  Fine, says I, I can handle this as well! Nope... not a chance in hell. Once I arrived there, fueled by only sugar, my defenses apparently were knocked the hell down and I happily ate a hamburger, a piece of cake, multiple wedges of cheese and crackers, and some kind of cheesy-chicken sausage.  "I'll be fine," I thought to myself when I left, "I'll hop right back on the bandwagon tomorrow and get back into the swing of things."  Typically this is the case... if I fall off on the weekends from time to time, I am able to kick my behind right back into diet and healthy food mode during the week. 

Cupcakes, however, are tempting treats to keep lying around in the house... even in the freezer.  Nothing will deter the wrath of my sugar cravings.  Not even freezer burn. 

I have frequently been making the mistake of not drinking enough water during the week and found on all three days this week that I am starving when I get home.  Yet, I've had enough to eat throughout the morning.  Instead of stopping to actually wonder if I've had enough to drink during the day, I instead have scanned the contents of the pantry and fridge, found it all to be insufficient despite being bought just a few days prior, until I hear the rumble of my tummy seemingly calling out the desire for a cupcake. 

As it is now Wednesday I confess that I've had a grand total of 8 cupcakes this week.  Hello all time low for my sugar binge since I've gotten on my health kick.  I tried to be good and shove the cupcakes all away with the rationale that I was going to share the cool and exotic ones with my boyfriend this upcoming weekend.  Sorry sweetie... looks like ego doesn't give a fig about sharing when it comes to cupcakes.

To make matters worse, I'm not much of a starch eater.  I  don't eat much gluten heavy foods, starches, super sugary foods, or red meat.  I at least avoided one of those things this week :D

I've consistently made myself smoothies, which is good.  I've been getting in my veggie and fruit content that I like and at least have not abandoned all hope for the week thus far to the notion of 'Oh well I cheated so I might as well continue to cheat the rest of the week and get back on track next week' ... I have done that way too often in the past.  I've packed myself my quinoa bars to snack on and protein and veggie packed lunches with some kale chips to try and hold me over until I get home.  However, I'm slacked in the prepping food department this week and the cupcake monster that took over my body took full advantage of that. 

I'm Thanking Dr. Oz because one of the smoothies that I'm having today is for dinner (not a typical thing for me) after going to the gym. 

It's got a mix of:
1 cup cherry juice
1/2 a banana
1/2 cup soy milk (I prefer almond milk)
5 ice cubes
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

The smoothie turned out pretty good.  I don't think it's my favorite, but the sweet helps to take the edge off of all the sugar I've been pumping myself with so far this week.  We won't mention that I bought doughnuts for kids I was working with this week and partook of those, as well. 

While I'm not super happy with myself and how I've overindulged this week, I'm glad to know that I am keeping consistent with some things, like still packing myself a healthy lunch and making sure that I eat a healthy dinner and don't start scavenging the menus in the apartment for some kind of pizza or Chinese food to order. 

Tomorrow will be better.  I'm planning on going to the gym with my day off and being fully back on track my next week.  Taking it a day at a time, woohoo!

It Begins...

I've been cosplaying for longer than I care to remember.  I'm not an expert my any means.  I do it all for fun and I love meeting new people and creating connections. 

In 2009, after years of college and work, I noticed that while I still looked pretty good, I wasn't as svelte as I was a few years back.  I started Weight Watchers and now in 2012, while I've left Weight Watchers behind, I've lost almost 50 lb. and feel a lot better about myself.

But in today's day and age, cosplay has become the IT thing to do.  There seems to be a lot of pressure about looking good, it isn't all about feeling good and being proud of yourself.

I decided that I needed a place to talk about some of my own personal goals, as a cosplayer and as an individual working towards certain health goals. 

If you decide to follow my journey, I hope you enjoy reading and I look forward to any feedback people have or suggestions.

If you are working on your own self-image and cosplay goals, I hope I can support you in some way and we can reach our goals together :)