Editions of Me

I've been thinking about this a lot, and I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm not normal sometimes. I spend a lot of time on social media, and I see a lot of pictures and things that my friends post - vacation photos, engagement photos, pet photos, wedding photos, child photos. And don't get me wrong - I love seeing them. I love  seeing what's going on in my friends' lives, and since I'm not always comfortable just striking up a conversation, their posts make it easy for me to stay updated without, you know, the actual talking part. So please understand, I am not judging their lives. Rather, I'm judging myself. Because sometimes I look at their photos, and I know that, while I'm very happy for them, it turns out that I have zero interest in some of these things for myself. For example, while I have nothing against the idea of marriage or weddings and I'm happy for all my married friends, I have absolutely zero interest in getting married mysel...

Sports Illustrated  decided to depart from their usual cover girl type and put plus-sized model Ashley Greene on one of their three covers for their annual swimsuit issue. While this is a momentous step forward, I can't help thinking, It's 2016, you guys. Take a bigger step! I'm not here to criticize Ashley. Or any of the cover models. A little progress is better than no progress. But you know what's better than a little progress? More progress! Ashley Greene, at least, is a true "plus size." Apparently it's only in the modeling world that a size 8 or 10 is considered plus-sized; Ashley is a size 16. You go, girl!  Again, this is a big deal, and I assume that making this decision was a big deal for SI. But that's just it - it's 2016, and the discussion around body positivity and beauty has progressed leaps and bounds, but putting a plus-sized model who is otherwise conventionally beautiful, conventionally feminine (long hair, no muscle out...

Not a whole lot to report on my end, which is why I haven't updated in a while. I've started major preparation for my powerlifting meet coming up in March - I'm doing the FULL meet this time (rather than just one lift), so I've got a lot more work to do. But this time, we've got a crew! There are three of us who are actually competing, plus a few more people who just want to follow the powerlifting program rather than the regular gym programming, so it's nice to have people to commiserate with, because truly, these last two weeks have been really difficult for me. For this initial part of the program, we're lifting at high volume, and for me, it's especially grueling because I set new 1 rep max PRs right before I took time off for the holidays/being sick, so coming back after a few weeks off with brand new percentages (which translates to heavier weights) means that everything is harder than I'm used to, and I have to hit those numbers for more...