Looking-Glass World

Random musings, cute animals, health/fitness inspiration and progress, guilty pleasure fashion/beauty and occasional pontificating about science, politics, social justice and the like.

[belostbutclimb]

It may be a snow day but Joni Mitchell is working hard!

[female-fitnessinspiration]

Visit for more Female Fitness Inspiration

[fithealthfood]

Let’s Get Fit!

[thewhimsyturtle]

Flashback February

A Tall Tuesday flashback! At our old place, the window edges were just the right size for me to practice my ninja skills! I got so close to climbing onto the ledge—all I needed was just one or two extra millimeters to my leggies, and I wouldn’t have fallen onto my back!

[belostbutclimb]

Meet Joni (Mitchell) and Bubbles.

[fitnesstipsonly]

[paulina7147]

[bundleofthickness]

[klassyfitness-blog]

fitness&health

[living-fitness]

[healthandfitnesssoul]

Checking out all new followers :)

[bright-sunny-sky]

[run-like-a-zombie]

[belostbutclimb]

Yosemite pic throwback......view of the valley that really made me want to climb in the first place. 

Belay test done! Spent my Friday night with the boy at the climbing gym. It's wonderfully chill in there at 10 pm

[amindthing]

[with-grace-and-guts]

[living-fitness]

[belostbutclimb]

View from the top of Angel's Landing at Zion National Park, where I did a spontaneous just-after-sunrise hike on my long road trip moving from CA to DC area. Photos like this remind me why I work out, even if the scale doesn't budge, because being able to pop up to a view like this (and being asked questions in the parking lot while assembling gear and deemed a suitable hiking partner who "looks like she knows what she's doing" by a very fit-looking NYC firefighter and his marine corps friend) are worth more than any scale reading.

Also, highly recommend hiking and backpacking for anybody trying to have a healthy relationship with her (or his) body, because it's hard to hate a body that takes you to places like this.

[fitness-is-coming-blog]

[belostbutclimb]

This is so hard today. I had a little breakdown when I stepped on the scale and.......nothing. In fact, I'm 0.1 lbs heavier.  My stomach seems a little flatter, so I was really excited to step on the scale and then....MASSIVE letdown, especially because I have really been trying to do this in a more healthy way than I used to (whereby I would starve and/or purge and gain and lose the same 10-15 pounds over short periods of time but ultimately end up pretty much the same weight and more unhappy about it).  I just broke down and lost it and freaked the boy out a great deal (firstworldproblems much?) and part of me wanted to say fuck it, might as well eat some fucking gelato or something because it doesn't matter anyway, and part of me wanted to say fuck it in the other direction and go back to old, drastic, unsustainable habits. 

 But then I thought about where I want to be in March for Seattle, May for reunions, July for Italy, September for Brazil, and about the nerdy but effective old calculus metaphor my dad used to use, that you have to look at the integral and not at each infinitesimal slice. The only thing that's going to get the kind of integral I want is to keep at it the healthy way.  Also, I'm PMS-ing and just got back from a long, indulgent few days in NYC, so the fact that I haven't gained much should be a small victory given my tendency to put on (temporarily) anywhere from 2-10 lbs when I'm pms-ing or after lots of drinking.  Also, bodies don't tend to follow the nice linear pattern and regular schedule on losing weight that I try to set for mine.  If the scale still hasn't budged in a week or so, THEN I will allow myself to get upset and re-evaluate. And I will also bust out the tape measurer.

And of course, I have to remember that there are plenty of benefits to getting fit and eating clean that have nothing to do with the scale.  It's just really hard when that number is glaring back at me, big and blue and flashy and screaming FAILURE and FATASS just like it has since I was seven......

But this time I will be better. I will not be a slave to the scale. I will focus on how my body feels and what it can do, and the rest will follow from that over time.