A sock is born!

Well really this sock is so enormous I could stuff a leather bottom into it and call it a moccasin. I finally got over my fears of heel turning, gusset stitches and toe decreases and have a finished sock to show for it. This fine piece of knittery to the right here took me a few weeks to knit up. Yesterday, I decided I needed to get cracking on its buddy, and now I'm more than half-way through having completed the gusset shaping. All I've left is the foot which knits up fast. This sock is on display underneath a scarf I knit that I'm going to be replicating with some color modifications for Aganippe. I can't wait to hit my favorite scarf pattern again! Thanks, Maestro!

In other news I've taken up yoga. I went to my first class ever Saturday and afterwards experienced the state my buddy Belerophon refers to as "yoga bliss". This is ashtanga style which, I've been told, focuses on the upper body; shoulders and whatnot. I couldn't tell you how ashtanga compares to other yoga styles, though. I felt so great on Saturday I curled up into a blanket and napped for a few hours. I'm napping dysfunctional so this took me by surprise. I was still more surprised to find myself actually falling asleep that night. Go yoga! I thought of you, Persephone, when it came time to do handstands in the class. Everyone who was going for it was instructed to take our mats to the walls. You are not alone. And now that I've actually attempted a handstand, and only managed to get into position with the overwhelming efforts of my instructor, I can say that your wall free handstand style is totally bad ass and really mean it. So now I've done yoga, and I completely adore it. It really kicked my ass, too.

Grass fed dairy!

I surrender to Traders Point Creamery, located on the northwest side of Indy. Today, after my workout I had what I thought I'd never eat: cottage cheese topped with lentils. I had to put cumin and garam masala in to deal with the lentil flavor, but that worked out. The cottage cheese was made by Traders Point. Holy crap, I've never eaten cottage cheese this good before. I've decided that I'm a friend of that farm so here are my reasons why they are great.

• They make a great tasting product. If it doesn't taste good why bother? Their yogurt has won best yogurt in the nation for 05 and 06, and their cheeses have placed second in those years as well. And as I've personally testified the chocolate milk is transformational. You have not tasted chocolate milk this good before. Trust.
  
• The product is super good for you: Organically grass fed and grazed cows. Cows are supposed to eat grass and roam in a pasture, but often times dairy cows' diets are supplemented with grain and all manner of things to boost production. This reduces the amount of good stuff in the fat of the milk. The fat is where you get all the stuff that boosts your immune system. They don't homogenize their milk which means they don't pulverize the fat cells. I don't know what that means to our waistlines, but I'm thinking that anything that keeps a food closer to its natural state makes it better for us to eat. Don't even get me started on antibiotics and growth hormones.
  
• They're local. We're not the cheese state, but apparently someone around here knows how to make great cheese. That is just great for Indiana. Purchasing Traders Point products supports local business - tasty local business.
  
• The packaging is retro cool. Milk in a glass bottle! The bottle is reusable, and totally recyclable. The yogurt comes in the same packaging. Safety Tip read that label. I thought I had plain yogurt when I actually had plain milk. But I was transported to the Swiss Alps when I had a glass of that fabulous fluid.
• Stick it to the man. So this isn't the strongest reason to make this purchase, but I like to consider it when I'm eating my super yummy cottage cheese. Every dollar you spend on small ops farms with excellent production practices is a dollar diverted from a company that boosts production through bad production practices. Reducing their market share is the best argument to get them to change their practices. If it's not profitable they will adapt.
  

Yes, it's a buck or two extra and they don't have any fat free options, but this is the best dairy product you can put in your belly. So if you're walking through your grocery store's dairy aisle and you happen to see them, go ahead and try some out.

Hip Hip Hooray only light on the hips

I returned to the gym a couple months ago warming up to my current workout level. It takes me a while to ease into a new routine so I like to get a head start. Also, I was prompted by the appearance of knee flab. Seriously, I had saggy knees, and this wasn't going to stand. After years of working out and more or less modifying my eating habits I wasn't going to allow this backslide to transform into an avalanche. I mentioned how I've gained weight and I have to watch it only for people to reply that I look skinny as ever. Well, I don't just want to be small. In fact, I don't give a fig if I'm small, what size I am, or how much I weigh. These are just measurements which, true, are helpful guidelines providing objective progress reports, but my ultimate metric is to look good naked. What's the point of all the numbers?

Knee flab. I had developed a small fat fold around my knees. I hadn't gained much weight, but my body was sagging. Cellulite is a fact of life for women who are not professional athletes. That's just how it is. Most women - drop dead gorgeous too - have some cellulite. I've let go of saying goodbye to the bag of nickels nestled just above my hamstrings. However, I know the amount can be reduced and the resulting look smooths out my legs nicely. I also know that this only happens after years of healthy eating and regular exercise, and I'm now learning that slacking off for a year will bring it all back. There's some motivation for me to stay on the treadmill.

So why all the fanfare? This morning, I noticed that the knee flab was gone. I've officially hit my first fitness goal. I don't think I've lost any weight. I know I haven't gone done any pants sizes, but by jing my knees have firmed up! I started cardio only workouts sporadically since Thanksgiving, I started earnestly sweating at least three days a week around Christmas. Recently, I included weights in my routine and I'm working out four days a week. Resistance or weight training is essential to weight loss since muscle cells burn more calories than fat cells. Bottom line: pumping iron increases metabolism.

Now that I am taking my workout seriously, perhaps it's time for me to start dieting. I'm so conflicted on the diet thing. I don't want to modify my eating habits to a level that I'm not going to sustain, but I know that if I slog through for a few months then my body will naturally want to stick to the new regime. Ultimately, I will ease into restricting my diet just like I eased into increasing my workout.

Bad Robot!

This is a politics free zone today. For reactions to Hillary's win in New Hampshire you'll want to go through the list of blogs on the right. Political races don't interest me much, and I have no eye for the juicy tidbits. Democracy is perhaps the best system available, but I'm leery of any system that allows a large group of people to tell a larger group of people what to do because when separated out they make up the largest splinter. I look at all these goings on like an 18th century sailor. I'm completely powerless against the wind and the tides, and I can only predict them with the shortest of foresights. When it comes to politics I like the big e-z hold building blocks of ethics and morality. When you boil it down, I like the theory. I couldn't tell you how to get to what I think is the tao of running a nation making a neat linear progression from where we are today to whenever we get things squared away in Scrawlvania, my happy imaginary nation.

But I'm digressing into the topic I was avoiding.


Today, marks the first day since December 29 that I am free from Lost. I finished watching the third season last night, and I'm looking forward to the season premier on the 31st. Serious people have written quite a bit about the show. I am not one of these people. Last night I was drawing comparisons from Lost to The Smurfs with Benjamin playing the role of Gargamel, his people playing collectively filling the role of Azrael, Sawyer is Greedy Smurf. Sayid is Sneaky Smurf. Hurley is Clumsy Smurf. Locke is Vanity Smurf (it's a stretch, but I can see it), Jack is Papa Smurf and naturally Kate is Smurfette. Claire is Mother Nature. The list goes on. Why can't Benjamin just leave these poor people alone to have their Smurfy good time while they wait for rescue? I guess the show would devolve into a beach party shoot then. Sun and Jin would be doing the bump by the campfire. Chaos.

Oh gawd, I have the beginnings of three posts piling up so in the spirit of getting it out there I'm going to suck it up and finish this one. I've found that I actually have serious analysis of the program, and that will be the focus of my next post.

Updates

I just got back from a vendor provided lunch (shh!) at a good burger joint. Naturally, I had to have a burger regardless of the fact that I'm involved in this Biggest Loser program with the Mean Girls, and I'm so glad I did. They cooked it as "rare as you dare" just like I asked which is something that I've simply not encountered in a burger restaurant before. Red "juice" was oozing out of it. However, it was enormous and now I'm a little overfull.

I finished the second season of Lost. That's right. I watched something like 48 episodes of the same television program in five days. And I managed to see some roller derby and attend a warm gathering for New Years Eve.

In knitting news I've finished another scarf, knit 2 hats (one on straight needles one on circular) and now I'm working on a sock on double points. I've gone knitting mad.

That's it for blogging news. Aren't you glad I updated?