The number of hits on my blog spiked yesterday. SPIKED, really. There was a 8000+% traffic increase.
Most of it was directed to where I posted the last six pieces of my 2016 Inktober drawings. Day 28 was “burn”, a prompt that compelled me to work on a black ink reproduction of John Byrne’s Jean Grey as Phoenix.
“Definitely a forged signature” wrote John Byrne (yes, THE John Byrne!) after linking to a page of results for the “dessin” (“drawing”) tag, and instructing to scroll down a bit.
The post title in the John Byrne Forum bugs me: “Forgery or Bad Inks?”
Obviously I don’t have a future in art or as a forger (not that I want to), but “Bad inks”?! Pssh, that’s just harsh.
Then, active Byrne Robotics Members of the forum, seemingly all male (Brian, Tim, Kevin, Steve, Matt and Peter, to date) went on about whether mine was a reproduction or a “re-creation”. I have to say the nuance is lost on me.
I have not registered to join them in the forum and further shave the yak or tell them that they’ve mis-gendered me with their myriad assumptions “he”, “the guy” or even “the devil” since one of them played the devil’s advocate 🙂
I am going to turn 45 this year and I think I might be at midlife. More and more I feel it.
I can’t say it’s because of the salt and pepper in my hair because that crept up on me several years ago. It isn’t either the wrinkles on my forehead and round my eyes – those came as I was raising my toddler. No, I am referring to physical signs that started last year :
Vision (1): my left eye now scores 10/10 while the right one remains at 12/10.
Vision (2): I used to see clearly real close (15 cm) but I now see clearly a little less close (20 cm). I continue to see clear real far.
Knee: my right knee aches now and then.
Right leg: I now can barely sit cross-legged and can most definitely no longer sit in the lotus position.
Periods: I’ve had only 4 inconsistent periods last year and none this year so far. I experience the unpleasant hot flashes almost every evening and at night.
Weight gain: unfortunately, another aspect of menopausal transition was weight gain. Far from being chubby, I rapidly gained enough weight (8 kilos or 16 pounds) that I had to put away a few of my favourite pants and skirts that were a strict size 36 (FR) or 4 (US), that the inside of my thighs now nearly touch each other, and that I have “love handles” (and no one to handle them but this is all right.)
There were also some hard realizations: people no longer call me miss, I have celebrated 21 years with my current employer, I can no longer learn as well and as fast as before.
What am I doing about it?
It took me a while to put two and two together, for starters, and to work on a plan.
I have a minimal plan of action to close all of my activity rings as much as possible. My smart watch sees that I do, although I’ve had it seven months so you could say it took me a while to make a plan. Better late than never!
New Coralie exercises and tonight was the fourth day I jogged. I go with my dog who runs about four times more (and most times ends up splashing in the river along which we run). I run and walk for 20 or 30 minutes. Every evening so far I have run more than the previous day. This is encouraging! I’m keen on making steady progress.
That is all.
October 2020 update
I took this exercising plan very seriously and now it’s part of my daily routine \o/
How did it work?
I became addicted rather quickly, thankfully, because otherwise this would not have been a thing at all!
The other thing that helped was that I was also very curious and enthusiastic about my rapid and steady progress, therefore I was motivated.
And lastly, I set myself up for success: only non-ambitious goals, realistic expectations, and achievable plans. In practice for me it meant it had to be easy enough to do that I would not give up. For example, taking the dog out for a walk or run was good for me too. Or walking to the beach to eat a picnic. Or doing yoga or core training in the comfort of my living room, following a YouTube video series (yoga with Adriene, in my case).
It took me 6 months to lose that extra weight (it was in the vicinity of 10 kilos —20 pounds). some time in September I was able to put my favourite trousers again \o/
But there were other benefits that I discovered early on: more strength in the core, legs and arms, more mobility. Two concrete examples:
When I started running I needed knee braces, especially for the right knee. That knee had been giving me grief for a few years and I didn’t think it could be fixed, but gaining strength did! After less than a month, I could feel the braces were no more useful. Since then, I no longer have knee pains, ever.
My right hip gained mobility after a few months and I was able again to sit in cross-legged position without needing to lift up my leg to ease the pain. I now no longer have hip pain.
