Fat Ticker Friday Photo-Essay, a few days late

This is going to be a super-long entry, so I'll start with my photo-essay, which is the most interesting part. :) 

1. Someone or something that inspires me: 

This is actually a new development in my life. I had never seen The Biggest Loser before this season. Well, I guess that's not true... I was aware of its existence, and had maybe seen a few minutes of an episode, but I'd never watched a full one or gotten sucked into it. (Not because I didn't like it or wasn't interested, but because I know myself, and I know how easily I get addicted to TV shows, so for the past four years, I pretty much tried to avoid watching TV, if possible.) The only thing I've watched regularly for the past four years was Law and Order, which I love. Anyway, that's all beside the point. I knew myself, and I knew that TBL might be really good for me, so I was so unbelievably excited when iTunes decided to provide this season for purchase. I bought the first episode and was totally not disappointed. I particularly like that it is teams of families. I watched it on the treadmill over two workouts, and I will admit that I definitely started getting weepy on several different occasions. I tend to be really sentimental and affected by things, so I'm not surprised, but it's also a good show. There's actually a lot of things about the show that inspire me, so here's a shortlist: 

a. Bob Harper is so hot. I didn't even know he existed until I watched it. I knew about Jillian, because she's sort of ubiquitous in the weight loss world, but Bob was such a pleasant surprise. He's really cute! And muscly and hot without being big, which is what I like. Also, tattoos. Guh. From just the one episode I like him better than Jillian, because he manages to seem super-tough without seeming mean. I like her too though. I think my favorite part of week 1 was when they had first started, and Bob said to his team: "Remember sitting on your couch eating your potato chips being like 'I could do that!'... Well, you're doing it now." It made my day. So Bob Harper's hotness and coolness inspires me to want to be a fitness freak and/or do it with him. He's probably married, huh? Don't tell me if he is, thanks. :) 

b. But actually, the yellow team inspires me more. They're the ones who made me all weepy, and they were one of my three favorite teams during the first episode (along with the green and the gray teams, heartbreak). I just love both of them. Colleen is adorable, and only a year older than me, and started, I think, at about the same weight I did at my highest. And she loves her dad so much, it's amazing. When she ran up the hill to get the immunity banner, I knew she'd be my girl. But I love Jerry too. He's so self-effacing and serious, "Yes, ma'am"ing Jillian, and when he talked about how he just doesn't want Colleen to be the butt of jokes the way he knows he is, I got all weepy again. I'm really worried that they won't last very long because of Jerry's exercise limitations, but I hope they do, because they're awesome. P.S. The green and grey teams look awesome now, and they did it mostly alone like I am, so yay. 

2. Something that you love to do:

I love teaching. Interestingly, this picture could also qualify for the "something that makes me crazy" category, but I love my kids, so it doesn't matter. I can't imagine why I'm doing that hand gesture, or what it means, but whenever I see pictures of me teaching I'm always doing something ridiculous with my hands, or face, or both. I'm a very animated teacher, if nothing else. The best part about the second picture is the manatee behind me. It's my power animal.

3. Something that makes you crazy: 

 

These two things actually work as a team to make me crazy. Dunkin Donuts, by being so irresistible, and the scale, by refusing to go down accurately reflecting what happens when you eat Dunkin Donuts every day. True, the scale sometimes drives me crazy independently of the influence of Dunkin Donuts, but its failure to move in the proper direction lately is not in the least bit surprising. 

4. Something healthy in your life: 

a. What's that, you might ask? Why, it's my bicep muscle! Hard to see, I know. Perhaps you should click on the picture and see the enlarged version. But seriously, I have muscles in the most surprising places now. My triceps are even cooler, but difficult to photograph. 

b. This is photographic evidence of a non-scale victory. I managed to lose roughly 0 pounds this month, but every one of those star stickers represents a day I worked out according to plan. That's right, I missed two days in the past 28. I'm amazing. I didn't lose any weight, because I didn't eat well, but it would have been a lot worse if I had just given up on exercising too. And I still derived the cardiovascular and strength benefits, even if calories in/calories out didn't work out to weight loss. I am made of awesome. 

c. I've also decided to start running seriously again. I was tired of it, and hated running long distances for awhile, but I've started to miss running, and especially having something to train for. That month of March Madness while I was doing C25k was my best weight loss month ever, and I didn't have to dig too deep for motivation most of the time. It was nice just to be working towards something, constantly improving. So I'm following a new training schedule that will have me running about 8 miles at a time by Christmas. I've got my eye on a 10k ASAP after I get back to America and a half-marathon before next summer. More about my amazing run yesterday later, but most importantly... forty-five is the number of minutes I ran continuously. It doesn't just beat my previous record of 35 minutes, it obliterates it. I was so proud I almost cried.

*I'm adding an additional part to the photo essay, in order to add to the overall sexiness factor of this entry.

5. Someone you wouldn't throw out of bed: 

This is T.O.P., one of the members of Big Bang, a super-popular Korean boy band, and I would not throw him out of bed. (I would not, in fact, throw any members of the band out of bed.) Hmm...  Maybe I should make "People I wouldn't throw out of bed" a weekly feature.